Questions?

So there I was. A journalist who has won a few awards for in depth reporting, uncovering more than a few  areas of plans and programs elected officials would rather have kept quiet.  A journalist with a few questions.

There I was, a resident of a borough where in the last few months officials  have earned a  reputation for not disclosing lots of things about numerous major projects going on for a little town all at one time.  A resident with a few questions.

Planning changes on the very ground the local church has on the market, one of the biggest pieces of property in town, regionalization of schools that could mean millions in savings over time,  lawsuits that are not yet resolved, major parking problems only looking to get worse as more construction is approved, yet doing away with its parking committee…the list goes on.  A concerned citizen with a few questions.

There I was, a journalist, a resident, a concerned citizen who has covered governing bodies, planning and zoning boards, the harbor commission, boards of education and more for the best part of seven decades and has always been able to interact with all those who headed these councils, boards and committees. I’m a journalist who can remember when the press was not only welcomed at every meeting, but even had a table up front directly in front of the action, just to be sure we heard every word.

When this borough had the likes of Dick Stryker, Mike Harmon, Helen Marchetti, Bob Schoeffling, Randy LeGrice, Pete Donoghue, Ev Curry, Fred Rast and more at the helm…I covered them all…not only did we reporters sit  right smack in front of them, but they even accompanied us all back to the Shore Casino or another popular watering hole to rehash the meeting and answer any more questions…if we still had any.

But now, things are certainly different. The Mayor sits quietly by, the council members mumble nary a word, and the new to Atlantic Highlands borough attorney calmly and politely tells me I haven’t  got the right to ask a question of the very people who are elected to spend the money the taxpayers raise for them.

Haven’t got the right to ask a question? What about precedent? How come what has worked for nearly  three quarters of a century  that I know about personally is now taboo? Sure, the attorney told me, I can ask questions of the paid employees, but not now, either. She specified the days and times they were available, just in case I didn’t know.

Does she think I and everyone else should ask the paid employees rather than the elected officials because the elected officials really don not know the answers and do not want to admit it?

It’s one thing for the paid attorney to say I can’t talk, but downright shameful that every member of council appears to be so frightened by my questions, or of the attorney, that they didn’t raise a single eyebrow, dare to challenge the opinion, or even apologize for a resident who explained she’s spent her life asking questions and it’s the only way she knows to get answers and learn more.

Mark Fisher is another frequent and intent listener at every meeting. He can’t ask questions either, so it’s nice to know I’m in good company. He’s more clever, though, and can word things that manage to eke out a little more information than I can get.

But sometimes you can ask questions, the attorney then ruled. For instance, when the regionalization attorney appeared via zoom for the longest period of time the taxpayers have ever been able to see him in action, it was okay to ask him questions. Not that only one or two members of council even did that. But we the public could ask him lots of questions and learned first hand he really does not know, like he said, a lot about financing, what with labor being his specialty in law.

Were it not for questioning from former Mayor and financial wizard Mike Harmon, we might never have known that all the statistics, all the research, all the compilations he made himself out of interest in the borough and presented at the last meeting of the governing body, didn’t even get so be passed on to the attorney handling the regionalization for Atlantic Highlands. He didn’t know or think about Mayor Harmon’s figures, so he apparently didn’t even listen to that meeting’s recording. But we wouldn’t have known that, had it not been for some questions from the public.

We would not have known, were it not for Mr. Harmon’s questions, that two weeks before the mediation that is costing both towns money and excluding Sea Bright as too insignificant to be a part of it, that they don’t even know what figures they’re talking about…or if both towns are even talking about the same set of figures.

These are the things that questions bring out.

It was refreshing to see Mike Ciano, a man I met for the first time after that meeting, stand up and read a prepared statement referring to that ruling on not asking any questions. Mr. Ciano simply told the borough council he is going to continue asking them, he has the right to know, and he believes they have the right to give him answers. He even read the words of the law that says what has to take place at every meeting, and further quoted Webster’s definition of  discussion, meaning “a back and forth,” which involves an ask and response in case anyone did not know.

Our third President, the one who wrote the Declaration of Independence spelling out so many rights,  said it so many times in so many ways. His firm belief,  right up there with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, is the necessity for people having the right to know. Many times you don’t get the answers unless you ask the questions.

Thomas Jefferson over the years said:

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government;… whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”   Or;

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government;… whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”  Or;

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories.  Or;

“The information of the people at large can alone make them the safe as they are the sole depositary of our political and religious freedom.” Or;

“Though [the people] may acquiesce, they cannot approve what they do not understand.” or;

Then of course there is Jefferson’s most famous quote about an informed press and what are its results.

 “If I had to make a choice between government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”

 There are fewer and fewer newspapers around, but more Facebook, TikTok, blogs, on line media and so many areas that  reach so many people if questions could be asked and answered at the Atlantic Highlands meetings. My own blog, VeniVidiScripto, reaches tens of thousands of people, both in and out of the town, county, state, nation and continent. Through this, letters, e-mail, telephone and in person, people ask me to tell them what I know which they have not been able to find out through questioning.

The people know they have the right to know. Why doesn’t the paid attorney or the elected leaders who listen to them with nary a question of their own?