Week It’s difficult to tell whether the Atlantic Highlands Council simply doesn’t want its residents to attend meetings, make suggestions and ask questions, or whether it doesn’t bother to check anything before making year-long decisions, or whether officials simply doesn’t communicate with anybody. But it is their action that has resulted in tomorrow night’s fiasco……it is the regular meeting for Highlands and Atlantic Highlands borough councils, AND the Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education. Week
With such a vital issue as “the second step” of regionalization….should Sea Bright come into the school district and bring in its $2 million split the cost of education three ways instead of two, wouldn’t you think the council would want to be involved?
Why is it Atlantic Highlands the one at fault? Because they changed their regular meeting night at their January reorganization. Instead of making it two nights a month on a regular basis, they unanimously adopted a schedule where those two nights a month they say they set aside for municipal business only happen five months out of the year.
Then there are the two first Mondays of the month, what they say are their regular meeting nights, that fall on holidays. So they change those two meetings to, not another Monday, but another day during the week. Like the same Wednesday as the Henry Hudson Board meeting.
The other five months of the year, if you’re counting the borough council schedule, ,they only have one meeting a month. Just to be clear, their regular meeting nights of the first and third Mondays of the month only occur five months of the year. Some planning, huh?
Tomorrow night is also the regular meeting night for Highlands Borough Council. It’s been that way in the past and was not changed at its reorganization. Council members have openly lamented the fact that the Hudson Board that no longer exists also selected the third Wednesday since that prevents the borough’s council representative from attending the meeting of the board that controls the highest part of the tax dollar.
The Henry Hudson board meeting was set at the reorganization meeting of a board of education that no longer exists yet the new board of education, the first elected board for this brand-new regional district, has not changed it yet.
Hence, tomorrow night there are three meetings of the three different boards that control the tax dollars for Highlands and Atlantic Highlands taxpayers.
If officials at the highest levels of local government cannot even get together to explore meeting dates that would also enable the public to attend both meetings, how can they be expected to truly be watching out for their residents?
Whether it is a lack of communication or a downright desire to prevent people, elected or not, from attending meetings that impact their lives so much isn’t the question. The question is how is a public supposed to be informed, ask questions and get answers if all major bodies governing the tax dollar meet the same night in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands?
