It could have been Thomas Jefferson applauding and cheering the decision, but in the end, the people who attend Atlantic Highlands council meetings learned that they can now enjoy the rights guaranteed to all Americans under the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights…they’re allowed to speak and ask QUESTIONS at a council meeting.
The decision of the Mayor and Council was not made by resolution. Nor was there a vote taken. It was simply the borough attorney, Peg Schaffer, reading a statement following an executive session saying that’s what the governing body told her to say.
Still, it did not end with Ms. Schaffer’s reading of her prepared statement, one presumably readied even before that executive session. Mayor Loretta Gluckstein said she didn’t want to beat a dead horse. But she did anyway.
The mayor wanted to repeat what the attorney said the governing body agreed to, again, though no vote was ever taken, that the public does have the right to ask questions at a meeting.
That wasn’t enough for the mayor to say. She wanted to add an unnecessary definition of what the lengthy statement from the attorney said., “That does not mean that if you don’t like the answer you get, you are allowed to badger ME or any member of the council,” she said. Hopefully the word “Badger” doesn’t become overly subjective …
No other member from council spoke, though on the official recording of the meeting you can hear one councilman saying, “it’s all downhill now.” That makes me wonder about the adage “there’s a grain of truth in every joke.”
Schaeffer’s statement included a reminder to the public that the council does not restrict the length of time a resident might take at the podium during a public meeting. But she did not also remind residents that that right only came about after an earlier request and earlier repetitious requests from the public years ago before it was actually approved by a vote and formal resolution.
In her prepared statement, Schaffer cautioned the public that anyone who “fails to keep to the subject” or is “repetitious” will still be halted from continuing. She read that disruption of meetings “is a substantive evil.”
There do not seem to be any instances under this or the previous administration when police, who are present for every meeting, have ever removed anyone for being disruptive
The attorney concluded her statement with “the bottom line is, we will answer questions,” including herself in the statement.
Later, during the first few minutes of the public portion of meeting, there was one instance when Councilwoman Lori Hohenleitner, possibly observing something in the back of the room, called out “Scott! Scott!” referring to the Police Chief. That was followed by someone else also yelling “Scott.” Someone said “Boracchia,” a former councilman who had just made a statement about regionalization during the meeting, followed by someone in the back of the room saying he “should leave.” There was no interruption of the meeting other than Ms. Hohenleitner yelling out, and the public continued with the public portion.
