I would like to thank Councilman Morgan and Mayor Hsueh for addressing my questions in the July 22 issue. Based on the responses from both Morgan and Hsueh, and from their previous posts, I have reached the following conclusions:
1. Mr. Morgan’s issues are not with the mayor, but with council. (“I will drop all litigation if council amends the West Windsor ordinance by requiring that the mayor provide information in writing to council members upon request so that they can perform their fiduciary duty to make informed votes on behalf of the community.”) On the surface, his request seems reasonable. Why then is he having such difficulty pursuading the other council members? One reason may be that he has made criminal accusations involving one. Another may be that it is just too burdensome to have the mayor sign off on every request made to his office. Maybe the mayor needs some deniability when it comes to internal affairs between himself and council. “…responses often contain material misrepresentations of fact.”
2. The mayor calls the request for his signature alone “an absurd construction of the law…” He says that requests to his office are either answered in writing by the Business Administrator or at Council meetings and that none of these issues mattered to Morgan until Morgan ran for and was defeated by Hsueh in the last mayoral election. In other words, sour grapes.
If at all possible, I’d like to hear from the council members. Are they content with the process as it now exists? Can improvements be made? Why are they not in favor of an ordinance requiring the mayor to sign off on any request made by them?
Mitch Brodsky
West Windsor
