The long-time issue involving illegal signs around West Windsor has now triggered a debate over what constitutes appropriate presentations at township meetings.##M:[more]##
During the October 1 Township Council meeting, resident Peter Weale placed about 50 signs he plucked from lawns around the township and placed them around council chambers to show his frustration over a lack of action by township officials in enforcing an ordinance prohibiting those signs.
Upon seeing the signs around chambers, Councilman Charles Morgan said he felt the signs should be removed, or else he was leaving. When Weale did not remove the signs, Morgan did leave, causing a lack of quorum. The meeting was halted until Councilwoman Linda Geevers was able to get there to make a quorum.
Weale and Mike Ranallo, whose family owns property in West Windsor, have since said they believe Morgan’s conduct was unbecoming of a public official (see letter, page 6).
Ranallo said he doesn’t have an issue with Morgan but rather with his actions. “Leaving a council meeting as he did, and stalling a meeting (while all of the professionals in attendance are getting paid for doing nothing) is inexcusable,” Ranallo said.
Morgan has said he believes the council chambers were turned into a circus by Weale’s actions.
“I felt I needed to make a statement,” Morgan said. “Council needs to control its meetings. We need to have an atmosphere where good government can be conducted. We don’t need a circus atmosphere.”
Morgan further said that he regretted that a few residents were inconvenienced for a while waiting for a quorum, but “somebody’s got to draw attention to written guidelines for appropriate behavior.”
In response to the incident, Council President Will Anklowitz said that “council chambers should be a solemn and dignified place.”
“It is the one time in our government where the public has a right to address their government and address their grievances,” he said. “It’s an extremely important thing to have. It’s a matter of balance between the two.”
Anklowitz noted that Weale brought the signs in, gave his public comment without disrupting the meeting, and removed the signs immediately as he left. But he declined to say whether he felt Morgan’s actions were unbecoming of a public official, saying that “I’ll debate the issues and support solemnity, but that’s as far as I’ll go with it.”
Anklowitz added that the township ordinance prohibiting illegal signs is hard to enforce in court unless the township can prove it gave notice of the ordinance to an organization that puts up an illegal sign.
He said he feels a solution to the problem is to having the township’s zoning officer and public works department remove the signs, which he says, they have been doing. The reason the signs continue to be a problem, he said, is because there is a never-ending tide of organizations that are putting signs up, he added.
