I really think all the members of the Atlantic Highlands Council are great, nice people, friendly, devoted to their town, generous with all the time and energy they put into doing what they think is right and good. I applaud and appreciate all of that.
But when it comes to transparency at meetings, I can’t help but wonder………
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. When the Governor ordered ZOOM meetings, by god, they happened immediately, they worked fine, and people could hear, see and be heard at every council meeting.
That all stopped when the Governor said it wasn’t mandated anymore. That was well over a year ago.
Then council, saying they wanted people to know what’s going on their meetings, decided to spend a bunch of your hard earned money to get a newer, bigger, better system.
The $17,000 cost included lessons on how to operate it, so they’d be no problems. Well, none of that has happened yet. Next month hopefully.
Last night’s meeting did not start until 22 minutes after 7 because they couldn’t get ZOOM to work right. That makes me wonder about a lot of things. Don’t they check it out or test it first?
Didn’t all those lessons that are included in that $17,000 teach anybody how to make it work?… Oh, that’s right … that system has yet to be used
There was a lot of commotion, walking around, council members looking like they were all trying all kinds of different things to get it all to work. Isn’t anybody trained on that?
There was so much feedback everything was garbled, usually a sign that there’s interference from other electronic equipment. Did they check to be sure council members didn’t have their phones on? Or recording? Or other electronics that would be interfering? Again, don’t they test this before 7 p.m. just to see if it’s working right?
Then the insult of the night, in my opinion, was suggested. Not sure by whom, possibly the administrator which would surprise me since he is really doing a superb job in conducting all the business of the town, or it could have been the attorney, not sure. Sometimes it’s difficult to identify voices on ZOOM.
But someone suggested, once they put off opening the public hearing on the cannabis ordinance, that rather than talk about cannabis at the regular public portion at the end of the meeting, folks should wait until the next meeting so their comments “are fresh in the minds of Council when they vote.”
That’s rather insulting.
Don’t council members remember suggestions or comments from one meeting to another?
Don’t they take notes or listen to recordings to refresh their minds on what the people have to say?
Shouldn’t they hear comments and maybe investigate the possibility some of them may have merit they had not thought of?
From my own point of view, it would seem they should have opened that public hearing on cannabis, let the folks who were there say whatever they wanted, and continue it at the August meeting in case others wanted to be heard then.
To ask residents to come back again and again smacks of stalling. It was advertised for last night, people made plans, and it was never advertised they planned on putting it off. That would have been courteous and appreciative of people’s personal time.
Nobody explained that if the planning board makes any recommendations on the cannabis questions and council agrees to then, than the present potential ordinance gets junked, and a new one has to be introduced followed by yet, you’re right, another public hearing the next month or so.
Is anyone using this time to investigate some of the questions that have been brought up? It’s been clear the new businesses will bring a bunch of money to town. But do we know whether the town will have to hire more police officers?
Or traffic directors?
Or people to direct parking?
Or public works employees?
Are there already laws in place on whether police officers can use cannabis off duty?
Or for how many hours before going on duty?
Are they going to have to be any, or many, new ordinances introduced and passed for other things that might arise because of opening a new business we apparently don’t know enough about yet?
Do we know the costs of introducing and advertising these new ordinances?
Do we know if all the state laws protect the citizens of this borough as they want to be protected?
Aren’t these questions that could be asked and answered now in the interest of saving time and money?
Whether it is an entry drug or not, cannabis is definitely a drug and for some people, like any habit or drug or many other things, can be addictive and for some abusive. So it was rather ironic that while the borough is considering whether to let two cannabis businesses into town it is also, at the same meeting, praising and supporting International Drug Overdose Awareness Day in a proclamation.
Loved the comments from the gentleman who complained that it’s difficult to hear the right side of the council table at meetings; it’s worse on ZOOM so hopefully that can be corrected as well. Though Councilman Dougherty comes out loud and clear.
