The Atlantic Highlands Mayor may have termed a non-binding question on a ballot as frivolous, but it took a Superior Court Judge less than 24 hours to issue an opinion that indeed the desire of Highlands and Sea Bright to ask their voters what they think about school regionalization is certainly not a frivolous matter.`
That is one of the results of a Show Cause Order lawsuit filed by not one, but two different attorneys from not one, but two different school districts who asked the Superior Court to cite why the towns of Highlands and Sea Bright should not be able to voice their opinion on a question on their ballot in the November election.
The irony of it is that the taxpayers in Sea Bright, Monmouth Beach, Oceanport and West Long Branch, along with Highlands and even Atlantic Highlands, whether they want to or not, like all towns, now have to pay the Monmouth County share of costs from what certainly appears to be a frivolous action on the part of Oceanport and Shore Regional boards of education.
That is because the lawyers for the Oceanport and Shore Regional schools districts chose to include the Monmouth County Clerk of Elections Christine Hanlon in their lawsuit. Now that is sheer frivolity.
What would ever let two towns that have no connection with Highlands think they have the right to tell Highlands taxpayers they cannot give their opinion on anything they want?
More irony as well. Atlantic Highlands Mayor and Council did not want to be involved in any litigation at all. Let Sea Bright fight it out and win their departure from the Oceanport and Shore Regional districts before we plunk down a penny to help them, they said.
Atlantic Highlands Mayor and Council also said let Sea Bright achieve its own legal victory without our help, to come into the newly formed Henry Hudson Regional School district… even if having them part of the district would help both Atlantic Highlands and Highlands have lower taxes for schools.
But then it was the very quick thinking, fast acting, and incredibly fast argument scripter Jason Sena of the Archer and Grenier law firm of Red Bank who wrote the arguments that quickly convinced the Judge that indeed Highlands and Sea Bright, and Atlantic Highlands (had they chosen to join the matter), did have the right to put any question they want on their own ballot.
Here’s more irony again. Mr. Sena, who is a councilman in Shrewsbury, used to be the borough attorney for Atlantic Highlands.
It is he who represented Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon when Oceanport and Shore Regional chose to bring her into a mess that could have been cleared up more than a year ago when Atlantic Highlands said it would have no part. It was only weeks ago that Atlantic Highlands Mayor Lori Hohenleitner said putting a non-binding question about regionalization on a ballot was ‘frivolous.”
All this action stems from action filed by the Machado Law group representing the Oceanport, and Capehard & Searchard law group of Mount Laurel, attorneys for Shore Regional Board of Education.
Their joint action, filed September 17, asked the Superior Court to restrain Sea Bright and Highlands from ever having a question on their ballot asking the public’s opinion whether they wanted Sea Bright to be included in the Henry Hudson district.
Can you imagine?
Two different school boards from two different towns paid for two different attorneys to go to court, involve a very precise and dedicated county clerk which then called for the taxpayers to have to pay for yet another attorney, for her defense, all for the purpose of trying to tell two other towns, Sea Bright and Highlands, what they could do in their own towns on their own voting ballots.
Perhaps some of us should not have been too surprised by the action of at least one of the firms representing the outside towns. That firm had an attorney at a borough council meeting many months ago who failed to identify herself as an attorney, even when trying to get information from a journalist who also attended.
Professionals do not do undercover things like that.
God Bless America, it is true, even frivolous lawsuits can be filed so long as you have someone willing to pay all the costs.
Oceanport and Shore Regional filed an application for a show case, meaning they asked the Judge to find a reason to stop Sea Bright and Highlands from asking their public’s opinion.
The suit was filed against Christine Giordano Hanlon, the Monmouth County Clerk of the Board of Elections for Sea Bright and Highlands and every other town in Monmouth County.
Judge Owen C. McCarthy lost no time, less than 48 hours, to consider the matter, read all the information Mr. Sena had researched for Clerk Hanlon that had been requested by Superior Court Judge Nitta, and make a ruling.
It took Judge McCarthy only a few hours and two lines to tell the attorneys what he was doing with their Order to Show Cause.
In a September 18 opinion, Judge McCarthy wrote that “the plaintiffs application for the Order to Show Cause is hereby denied for the reasons set forth on the record…”
Of course Highlands and Sea Bright have the right to boldly ask their residents’ opinions on important matters that affect their future in their home towns.
No frivolity there.
Read the Oceanport/Shore Regional Verified Complaint, Attorney Sena’s Response, and the Court Order from Judge Owens
Sena Response
Judge Owens Order
