Former West Windsor Councilman Charles Morgan has taken up a new crusade in the township after leaving his post of 12 years last December. Although Morgan’s permanent address is now in Florida he retains a home at the Elements, where he recently went door-to-door to tell registered voters and his former neighbors about a petition — one that aims at avenging the lawsuits against Mayor Hsueh that Morgan lost in court over the past year.
The petition would endorse an amendment to the township code requiring the mayor to provide “a direct and timely written response when a council member requests a report about a township matter.” This stems from Morgan’s two unsuccessful lawsuits against Mayor Hsueh for failure to provide him with responses when he requested information. The petition outlines proposed change as follows:
“The mayor shall respond to such request within a reasonable period of time, not to exceed thirty (30) days without the written permission of the requesting Council member, by providing a written report to such Council member with copies to the Township Clerk and the other Council members. The Mayor’s written report shall restate the request made by such Council member and shall be limited to answering the specific requests made by the Council member. Nothing contained herein shall prohibit the Mayor from delegating to staff and/or appropriate professionals the research and preparation of answers for the Mayor to include in the Mayor’s report to the Council member. ‘Written’ includes electronic communications such as email and attachments to email,” the petition states.
But Township Attorney Michael W. Herbert says this proposed amendment may be pre-empted by state law.
“Once the petition has the required number of signatures to appear on the ballot in the fall, the potential for a legal challenge, in principle, exists. A judge would have to determine whether or not the proposed change (to township code) is copasetic,” Herbert said.
Herbert, who Morgan recently targeted in letters and in public comments during Council meetings, says the mayor’s duties are clearly outlined and abided by, and all of Council’s questions are addressed by the administration.
“This amendment asks for a procedure that’s already being followed — Council members have questions and the administration answers those questions. If not the council can bring the issue forward and say their questions had not been answered. But we haven’t heard council members saying their questions haven’t been answered,” he said.
Herbert added that the lawsuits against Hsueh that Morgan lost should not be a basis for the amendment. “The courts have already found that, Mr. Morgan, you got your answers,” he said.
However Morgan isn’t alone in this endeavor. The petition lists five West Windsor residents who are responsible for its circulation and filing: Nitin Shah, Paul Murphy, Andrew Hersh, James Solloway, and Deborah Hepler. Solloway and Hepler have each made their presence known at council meetings in the last six months, speaking up about West Windsor’s government and apparent shortcomings that they see.
Morgan and the group will file the petition with Township Clerk Sharon Young. Her office then needs to verify that the petition shows approval from 10 percent of the voter turnout at the last election, calling for at least 456 signatures.
Morgan says once that happens the question of “whether the mayor can continue to be allowed to ignore council” will go on the ballot.
“After one week we obtained more than 300 signatures. Very few people have refused to sign the petition — perhaps one person in 25. A lot of people were reluctant to sign the petition, but they still wanted to know what it was about. All of those people, without exception, ended up signing it,” Morgan wrote in an E-mail.
Besides the Elements and other West Windsor neighborhoods, Morgan collected signatures from residents by standing outside the West Windsor municipal complex on Thursday, May 24, during and after the special town hall held to discuss the proposed solar field at Mercer County Community College. In the process of soliciting signatures, Morgan took a renewed interest in hearing from residents in general. He says people are surprised to learn that it is illegal for council members to talk to the township staff without the permission of the mayor.
“Council members do not have any staff of their own working on things like the budget or the amount of taxes to raise in a budget. Residents are surprised to learn that council members must go through the mayor or the administrator for information, and they’re also surprised to hear that the mayor and/or the administrator will refuse to provide answers to questions posed by council members,” said Morgan.
Morgan also notes that people in West Windsor are surprised to learn that, in 1999, Mayor Hsueh voted to subpoena records from Mayor Carole Carson “because he was not getting information from the mayor that he felt he needed as council president.” Morgan contends that the real problem has nothing to do with the particular person who is mayor or the people who are on council.
“If a council member cannot get the information he needs to make an informed vote, then something is seriously wrong,” he says. Morgan is confident that voters would pass the amendment.
“The subpoena in 1999 from Hsueh to Carson shows that this is not about me and Hsueh, it’s about fixing a problem that has existed for more than a decade and will be a problem with the next mayor, whoever that might be. When the voters approve the change, history will no longer repeat itself in the future — and we should have a lot less controversy,” Morgan writes.
Mayor Hsueh has a different take on the past. In an interview, he clarified that Morgan’s assessment of what happened in 1999 is not accurate. Council was deliberating on an open space purchase, and at the time Mayor Carson did not provide all the necessary information to council. As council president, Hsueh followed up with Carson the day after council met.
“Morgan’s interpretation was totally incorrect. At that 1999 meeting I supported the efforts of another councilmember because there was a total absence of background information. I got all the information for Council members to review, and we moved on it right away. At the time and ever since, I never wanted to create any legal issues in that regard,” Hsueh said.
The mayor feels that Morgan’s current involvement in the community is all about getting back at him. Hsueh says people are not supposed to set up outside the municipal building to solicit for any reason. Hsueh also said Morgan is no longer a legitimate voter in New Jersey, and should not be lobbying to get items on West Windsor’s ballot.
