I’m back

After a rash of Cultural & Heritage Committee resignations, Middlesex Borough Council members awaited an absent colleague’s explanation during meetings stretching over roughly six weeks.

That colleague – Councilman Jeremiah Carnes – has been liaison to the C&H committee dating back to its formation in 2020. During two meetings in October and November, the council accepted five resignations from the group. Carnes was absent from both sessions, as well as a brief phone-in special meeting on Dec. 8.

Carnes was back when the council met on Tuesday, Dec. 19. But his take on the resignations remains a mystery.

In a Republican Party sidestep, council members who had said they awaited Carnes’ explanation, failed to publicly ask for it while he was in the room.

And he didn’t offer.

One reason that the potentially confrontational conversation might have been avoided on Dec. 19 was other business before the governing body that night. The session was the last one presided over by Mayor John Madden, and much of the night was spent with thank yous to the departing leader and his remembrances.

If there is to be a public explanation for the resignations, it will fall on Mayor-to-be Jack Mikolajczyk to seek it. Mikolajczyk will be sworn in as the borough’s next mayor on Jan. 2.

It was Mikolajczyk who spotlighted the C&H departures at the October and November meetings.

“It’s not often that we get three (resignations) at once,” Mikolajczyk told colleagues at the Tuesday, Oct. 24 meeting. “Did we get an exit interview?”

On Nov. 21 two more resignations were received. Referring to the three accepted the prior month, Mikolajczyk asked, “Did we ever find out what happened?”

On Dec. 19, with Carnes sitting nearby, Mikolajczyk didn’t inquire and neither did other council members.

Contacted by Inside – Middlesex via Facebook messenger on Dec. 21, Carnes deferred extensive comment. “I really don’t have anything to say until the whole story comes out at once,” Carnes wrote, adding “there is a deepness to this.”

Carnes’ recent meeting attendance – or lack of it – had become a side issue to the C&H resignations. Had he missed the Dec. 19 session, that would have meant eight consecutive weeks without attending a meeting. Had that occurred, it appears that state law would have required him to vacate his council seat.

While Carnes did not explain the resignations at the Dec. 19 meeting, he joined others in offering kudos to Madden.

Carnes’ comment seemed to suggest that if anyone is upset with him, then perhaps they should talk to Madden. Carnes noted that Madden had a hand in him pursuing a council seat.

Carnes was first elected in 2019, running on the same GOP ticket as Madden when he won the mayoralty. Carnes was re-elected in 2022.

“If it wasn’t for you,” Carnes told Madden, “I wouldn’t even be in this seat.”

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