This is long, involved, convoluted, and shameful.
Grab a cup of coffee, sit back, scratch your head, and see what apparently the leaders of Atlantic Highlands are doing to people who are truly interested in knowing what’s going on in town.
They are making a mockery of keeping the public informed and involved. They are doling out one more very difficult blow to people with disabilities who cannot attend night meetings.
It’s all about last night’s reorganization meeting of the Atlantic Highlands Planning Board.
Was there an official meeting?
Among other reasons this makes me wonder because it was made clear even before the onset, that the general public did not have any idea where or how it was being held.
One also has to wonder whether all those five residents who had applications for approval on the agenda had attorneys they were paying to be present to represent them and whether the borough will pay those bills for them …
Even if there are no added costs and they simply postponed action on any of those things…is that any way to treat a new business in town or a taxpaying residents?
And one truly has to wonder whether no one from the planning board was present, heard, or understand what happened at the Jan. 1 reorganization meeting of the governing body. That’s the meeting when the public was told that ALL meetings that the public is entitled to attend would be held virtually, at least through Jan. 13, the next council meeting. Yes, even the physically disabled were led to believe Jan. 1, five days ago, that all municipal meetings would be virtual until Jan. 13 at least.
In fact the virtual meeting idea was discussed, questioned, and then yep, the Mayor said it again. All meetings that the folks have the right to attend, not only council meetings, would be held via zoom at least through Jan. 13. A couple of Council members questioned it out loud, just to be sure they, and everyone else understood, ALL meetings would be virtual.
That all happened Jan. 1. We’re in a state of Covid or Omicron or some other kind of health emergency. Making the decision five days ago to have ALL meetings be virtual gave the governing body plenty of time to get the word out to people, in the daily paper, on their website, on Facebook, any number of ways.
But that didn’t happen.
No matter how much I searched, I simply could not find the Planning Board meeting anywhere on line. Borough Council changed their own meeting to make it virtual at the last minute. Couldn’t they do the same with the Planning Board in five days?
To say actions in Atlantic Highlands have been disappointing at best, possibly improper or illegal at worst, is rather an understatement.
Either way, it’s downright scary.
OK, as a refresher, because this is getting a little difficult to follow. At the reorganization meeting of the Mayor and Council… you remember the one, the one where the public could not speak, were told there would be no public comment, yet an Assemblywoman who had no active part in the proceeding was indeed allowed to speak…yeah, that one….. the public was told that ALL municipal meetings to which the public had the right to attend, would be held virtually until at least Jan. 13 when the idea would be revisited.
Don’t know what happened at the Harbor Commission reorganization meeting Wednesday night through my own fault. That was presented on ZOOM. Thanks, Harbor Commissioners!
But Thursday’s planning board meeting had the agenda on line for all to view. It included agendas for the reorganization meeting at 7, a workshop meeting immediately following, which included a public comment period for items not on the agenda, and a regular meeting immediately after that ostensibly with the newly organized planning board members acting on minutes approval, paying the attorney for his November work, and no fewer than five applications for variances, or site plan approval.
But therein lie a FEW PROBLEMS. The agenda says the meeting would be as duly advertised by law and posted, etc. and gave the regulations on speaking out at a meeting. But neither the agenda nor the official website ever showed where the meeting would be…would it be the one advertised in the papers as part of the annual notice last year, or the one announced at the borough’s reorg that said all meetings would be available on ZOOM? Just wondering. Because there was no way the governing body or the planning board let anybody know.
So for those who believed the meeting would be ZOOM, just like the Mayor and Council said all the meetings would be, the only zoom connection on the website was for a Mayor and Council meeting. Could the planning Board use the same Zoom connection? Probably. Did they? Absolutely not. Or if they did, they did not let the public in on it.
So herein lies another dilemma. The Agenda says “as advertised…in the annual notice…” so that would make the meeting live and at borough hall. But the state is in a state of Omicron emergency. And the Mayor said five days ago ALL meetings would be virtual for safety and health sake. So in five days the governing body had the means, ability, and obligation to let the people know either they couldn’t act quickly in the face of an emergency…which they had done for their own meeting….or the meeting would indeed be virtual so all of us who cannot make night meetings could watch and be involved at home.
But in the end, there was No ZOOM capability at all. Not sure, but I think there was a meeting. At Borough Hall. In accordance, perhaps, with a notice sent out a year ago. But with no correction or advertisement to inform the public of the governing body’s decision five days ago.
Well, IF the planning board meeting was really held, IF they followed the agenda, IF the majority voted the way everybody apparently was sure they would, then these are some of the things that happened at a meeting that was held live, without ZOOM, and in contrast to what was said five days before:. Martin Hawley was recognized as the Mayor’s Class II appointee, newly elected Councilman Brian Dougherty the Mayor’s Class III appointee, Thomas Josko the Mayor’s Class IV appointee, and David Krupinski, Chris Kurdes and Katrina Majewski were named alternates 2, 3 and 4 respectively. In addition, presumably the board attorney, engineers, planner when needed, secretary, official newspapers, meeting minutes and calendar for the year were all approved.
What apparently DID NOT take place, since I’m pretty sure the public would have to be heard first, were approvals of the Little Chicken Kids on First Avenue, Starbucks on Rout 36, and a few more applications on South Avenue, Memorial Parkway and Ocean Blvd. Don’t know exactly when they’re going to be acted on.
Nor do I feel confident the Planning Board will let the residents, even the interested disabled persons, ever know.
It begs the question … Who’s the Boss? The Mayor & Council or the Planning Board?
