You Have a RIGHT to Know … But They Don’t Want You To
The OPRA-killing bills just passed by legislators from both parties in both the Senate and Assembly which will most likely be signed into law by Governor Murphy is one more example of how those elected to government office really don’t want the public to know everything that’s going on. RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT
Locally, if passed, it means all requests have to be made on a specific document, the excuse being that making the OPRA regulations more stringent will save time for busy county, borough and township employees.
There’s a lot more to that law as well , but adding it to the lack of transparency residents have to face now makes it an issue that every local citizen should be aware of and pay attention to.
Rights are being taken away slowly, so they are not being noticed until it’s too late. It’s time for residents, taxpayers, the elderly, and very citizen to start paying attention, asking questions, and advocating for change.
Look at transparency at school board meetings and municipal meetings. Highlands borough, in spite of its upwards of 12 million dollar building and wonderful facilities, does not offer their meetings virtually, meaning everyone interested in being heard at a meeting either has to come down from further up the hill or come up the hill and cross the highway to attend a meeting.
Few do right now. Is it because they are not interested, think council is doing a terrific job, or simply don’t know or care what’s going on? Nor are the meetings recorded, though they are on some other site.
Atlantic Highlands does offer some municipal meetings virtually, though their microphone system is set up so there is sometimes so much background noise it’s difficult to catch every word; the mics aren’t even close enough to capture the words of residents who speak during the meetings. The Planning Board has testimony presented at its meetings, often difficult to hear or understand completely, either in person or virtually.
School boards are the biggest offenders in the Bayshore and worse, they don’t even seem to care about it. None of their meetings, be it elementary, high school, or the new transitional board are offered virtually. Not many people are able to walk all the way up to Henry Hudson particularly on a dark rainy night. But that’s the only way to hear most of their meetings.
Even present at a meeting at Hudson is a challenge; the room, so often complained about, is so large, the mics so few, and the distance between the board set-up and the audience is widespread, so hearing everything is difficult even for those not hearing impaired. The board never seems to care, in spite of numerous complaints at every meeting.
Highlands held an important meeting of a proposed flood plan for the entire borough at Henry Hudson to ensure everyone who wanted to hear could be present. The fact is, it would have been easy and so much more accommodating if they offered it virtually. But even the Army Corps of Engineers present at the meeting had to fiddle around a while to get the mics in a position to be heard, at least part of the time.
It certainly appeared that the borough clerk, as efficient and capable as she is, was struggling to hear the names of residents speaking, let alone hear everything they said. Yet minutes would be taken of that meeting since it was an official meeting of the council.
Henry Hudson prides itself, as well it should, on the excellence of their play presentations. One wonders how acoustics can be just fine for that but not for a meeting when the board is voting to approve tens of thousands of dollars. The superintendent has said at a public meeting their emphasis is on education, which is correct. But a few tax dollars could be spent so the taxpayers can hear what kind of education their kids are getting.
Hearing, attending, speaking, and being kept informed of both municipal and school business is difficult even for those with perfect hearing and vision. Aside from that, how public entities get away with not accommodating the disabled is still a mystery.
Even with complaints filed, the state offices designed to protect the disabled, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, don’t give much of a darn either; cases languish between state offices for years before IF they are actually ever resolved. But that is after the issues at hand that are so important to be heard are long since decided with the disabled never having an opportunity to have their voice or opinion heard.
The people do have the right to know. And it’s up to the people to make their voice heard when they are being shut down or kept out.
