28 April 2008 - Regular Meeting

28 April 2008 - Regular Meeting

Agenda at Meeting

(click here for the Agenda e-mailed to Council members - 10:18 am 25 April 2008)

(Mark's Comments / Annotations are in Red)

AGENDA:

1. CALL TO ORDER - PUBLIC MEETING STATEMENT (7:32 pm)

2. PLEDGE - SILENT PRAYER

3. ROLL CALL (Mayor North, Councillors Alloway, Fields, Waldron, Volkert, Brunton, Perno all present)

4. PUBLIC

Ms. Gail Ford.

1. Asked about teachers on Council [Ms. Fields, Mr. Waldron] voting on school budget

Mayor North stated teachers will vote, and he will assign working committees to review defeated school budget

Solicitor Higgins explained that the teachers are allowed to vote per opinion from State of NJ Division of Community Affairs

Ms. Ford stated that the teacher's contract ends in June, and it may have an effect on the vote. She believes their voting would be unethical, and they should recuse themselves. She asked where the conflict is with Mayor North.

Mayor North explained that the conflict is because of business he conducts with the school.

See further discussion below to understand Mr. Brunton's position on this matter.

5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES October 15, 2007 (Approved 4-0, with Mr. Perno and Mr. Brunton abstaining, as they were not on Council at that time)

6. NEW BUSINESS

A. RESOLUTION R08-50 - Renew the Shared Service for School Fields Maintenance (Passed 5-1, Mr. Brunton dissenting. Reason for Mr. Brunton's "NO" vote - Mr. Brunton did not receive a copy of this resolution before the meeting, so had no time to review it. Mr. Brunton will not vote to implement any item he has not had time to review and consider.)

B. RESOLUTION R08-51 - Approve Application for Parks & Recreation Grant to Camden County (Approved unanimously)

C. RESOLUTION R08-49 - Endorse State Police Surcharges in Lieu of Property Tax Increases (Approved unanimously)

D. RESOLUTION R08-53 - Amend Redevelopment Plan for Town Center East (Approved 5-1, Mr. Brunton dissenting. Reasons for Mr. Brunton's "NO" vote - 1. This resolution was not included in the e-mailed or posted agendas - no notice of it was given to Council OR the public, in violation of the spirit and intent, if not the letter, of the NJ Sunshine Law. Mr. Fry received the resolution from Mr. Higgins the afternoon of the April 28, 2008 - the afternoon of the council meeting - and it was placed in the Council packets and distributed at about 7:00 pm - half an hour before the Council meeting. Council members were given no time to properly consider the matter, and the public had no notification of this item at all - it first appeared on the agenda provided in Council chambers about 7:00 pm. Mr. Brunton will not support even the appearance of "slipping it past the public." Mayor North gave no indication that this resolution was time-sensitive in any way, and must be considered this night. 2. This resolution addresses only the height of the TCE buildings. Mr. Brunton suggested that other areas also need to be considered. A lengthy discussion ensued, with Mr. North taking the position that the borough doesn't want to "limit the developers' options." Some Council members agreed. Mr. Brunton's position is that the Redevelopment Plan should provide specifications and requirements to the developers, to ensure that we do not wind up with another untenable project. He further pointed out that height was not the only issue with AST's plan for Town Center East to which the public objected. 3. Mr. Higgins stated that Planning Board is not allowed to consider anything regarding the TCE Redevelopment Plan than what Council tells them to consider, in this and any future resolutions. In other words, this resolution would tie the hands of the Planning Board.) Commentary by Mr. Brunton: It's ironic that, almost 25 months to the day after the 27 March 2006 Council meeting wherein an irate public packed the meeting room, the outer hall and even spilled down the stairs to loudly voice their displeasure at the lack of available information on TCE to that point, that current elected officials, including some of the same ones as before, appear to be hiding it from the public all over again.

E. DISCUSSION - Council Outreach to Public (Mr. North requested that reports back from the citizen's budget committees each Council member has initiated be provided at the second meeting in May, due to the school budget - the budget was defeated in the public vote, and Council must now make recommendations for changes to the school board, and provide the school board with a new budget total)

F. SCHOOL BUDGET - added due to the defeat on April 15 of the Merchantville school budget. There was significant discussion and planning, including approach to consider the budget and elected representatives unable to participate due to Conflict of Interest.

Council recommendation must be in by May 12.

Mayor North assigned working committees to review and recommended revisions to the defeated school budget. Council committee assignments were:

Ms. Fields to Buildings & Grounds

Mr. Brunton & Mr. Waldron to Curriculum & Technology

Mr. Alloway and Mr. Volkert to Staffing

Mr. North stated that he wanted to be notified of all meetings. He also directed Council members not to work outside their assigned committee areas. Mr. Brunton pointed out that Mr. North was prohibited from participating due to his business conflict of interest, at which point Mr. North removed himself completely from any further school budget work.

Mr. Perno is prohibited from participating due to his wife being a member of the school board.

Mr. Brunton wanted to further discuss the teachers' participation. Mr. Higgins once again said that the teachers are allowed to vote per opinion from State of NJ Division of Community Affairs. Cited cases in that opinion referred specifically to tenured and/or long-term employees of the school systems in which the individuals participated. Mr.Brunton pointed this out, and Mr. Perno responded that if it applies to one teacher, it applies to all, regardless of specific circumstances.

Mr. Brunton's position: The specific circumstances of the teachers on the Council were not discussed with the Division of Community Affairs - only the fact that we have two teachers on the Council was disclosed. I believe the cases cited were too broadly interpreted by Mr. Higgins, but I seem to be alone in that belief. Since the personal circumstances are so widely different, they must be considered as part of the overall question. That they were not indicates to me that the only thing considered was the legal question, not the ethical one. The fact that it is not illegal to act with such a gross conflict of interest in place at the same time is not an indication that it is either moral or ethical to act. If I were in the position that our two teacher-Councilors were, I would have recused myself without a second thought. It would not have occurred to me to do otherwise. But ethics are a very personal issue, and the fact that Mr. Waldron and Ms. Fields chose not to recuse themselves is strictly their business. I make no comment as to whether it was ethically right or wrong of them to take the course they did.

7. PAYMENT OF PETTY CASH BILLS - R08-52 (Adopted Unanimously)

8. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Special Court Session will be held for DWI cases on the following Thursdays: 16, 22 and 22 May and 2 June

The borough auditors (Bowman) notified the borough that a new auditor, Bob Mahila, has been assigned to Merchantville

9. PRIVATE SESSION (Not needed)

10. ADJOURNMENT (8:40 pm)

AGENDA MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

ONE WEST MAPLE AVENUE, MERCHANTVILLE, NJ 08109

(856) 662-2474