Where are they?
The township committee hasn’t been seen since early 2020.
At first, the committee’s invisibility could be explained by Covid. When Governor Murphy declared a public health emergency and a State of Emergency on March 9, 2020, everything was a scramble. Indoor gatherings were limited, schools were shut down.
By March 16, 2020, through the issuance of Executive Order 107, New Jersey was officially encouraging all public entities to conduct public meetings remotely using communications equipment. State, county and local governments learned how to meet remotely through Zoom and similar programs. Remote meetings became commonplace everywhere as the way to see, talk and work with others while remaining isolated.
But our township committee learned that remote meetings were a way to hide from the public. They have Zoom meetings with audio only. You can hear them; but you can’t see them.
These audio-only meetings are like phone service in rural America in the 1920’s. People talked through phones into a shared “party line.” All the neighbors could be on the line at the same time and a central operator could patch an outside call into the party line.
Tabernacle’s committee meetings are very similar. Clerk Mary Alice Brown patches the caller in by ‘unmuting’ them, which allows the resident to be heard by everyone else in the meeting. The only major difference between the committee’s Zoom meetings and last century’s party telephone line is that our clerk’s computer doesn’t have a hand crank, like the old phones did.
The Land Development Board has been meeting visually
Tabernacle’s Land Development Board has remote Zoom public meetings with audio and video. At LDB Zoom meetings, you can see all of their members and staff. You can see and hear the people who appear before them. When someone speaks, they show up on the full screen while others remain visible in the background.
The LDB has more members than the committee; it has more interactive testimony than the committee and it displays more exhibits than the committee. Yet its remote ZOOM meetings are excellent, informative and make full use of modern technology.
As of November 2, 2022, the LDB will meet in person at the Tabernacle Emergency Services Building. Unfortunately, the LDB will no longer be meeting by Zoom. So residents will not have both options available. This is because the township terminated its subscription to Zoom, which provides both audio and video, and replaced it with a platform that can only handle telephone conference calls.
Why does the committee hold audio-only meetings?
Obviously, the committee can have remote meetings with audio and video just like the LDB. They just choose not to. In fact, the committee took Clerk Mary Alice Brown’s recommendation to eliminate the Zoom program that has audio and visual capabilities and switch to a platform that only offers conference calling. This is using 2022 technology to perform like a 1922 telephone.
The township committee, chaired by Mayor Sammy Moore, doesn’t want public involvement. Under his ‘leadership’, Mayor Sammy Moore reduced the time allowed for public comment from six minutes to two minutes per person. He also put public comment at the beginning of the meeting so you can’t comment on anything that happens at the meeting.
Unlike the township committee, the LDB, which is chaired by Noble McNaughton, recognizes that its work is public business and should be done in public. Public involvement is an important part of the process.
One reason why committee meetings aren’t visible could be that committee members have something to hide. Because the committee isn’t visible, there’s no way to see what they’re doing. Based on comments that they’ve made at meetings, its likely that committee members are privately texting among themselves. The public would never know. Private texting among committee members at a public meeting violates the state Open Public Meetings Act.
Also, because the committee isn’t visible, there’s no way to see if they’re even listening. The committee rarely ever responds to public questions or comments.
Tabernacle committee could meet in person
The only committee person to call for live meetings is Nancy McGinnis (who has now resigned from committee effective November 1). Robert Sunbury said he’d like to discuss in-person meetings in the fall. That hasn’t happened yet. Clerk Mary Alice Brown recently said that the committee has no plans to return to in-person meetings and would continue audio-only meetings for the foreseeable future.
New Jersey isn’t in lock down anymore. Public gatherings aren’t prohibited. New Jersey schools have been live since January 2022. Other local municipalities meet live. The Tabernacle School District meets live. The Tabernacle LDB will meet in person starting November 2, 2022.
Both the LDB and the committee could use basic technology to hold in-person meetings and simultaneously live-stream them. This would give residents the option to attend in person or virtually.
Why won’t the committee meet in person?
Convenience
They’d loose the convenience of staying home. When Mayor Sammy Moore changed the meeting time from 7:30pm to 6:30pm, he reason was that it was more convenient for him. It was the only factor he mentioned and the committee went along with the time change. No committee member voiced any concerns about how the change would affect the public such as parents with school age children. The meeting time change was only for the benefit of the mayor and committee.
Hiding at home
If they met in person, committee members wouldn’t be able to hide whatever it is that they’re now doing at home while the video is off.
One last thought
If the Committee wants to have remote audio-only meetings, as if it is using a 1922 telephone system, the committee should take their new pay raise as if it was 1922. That $2,500 raise they gave themselves at the September 2022 meeting was worth about $155 in 1922. That’s a little bit higher than the committee’s fair value. But in the spirit of cooperation, I might support it.
