More sun

Old habits can die hard, particularly for public officials. It might be easier to move the proverbial mountain than get politicos to vary from the way business has been done for years.

Choosing to discuss sensitive or controversial topics privately is one such tendency of Central Jersey municipal officials. Flimsy reasons are sometimes found to circumvent the spirit of the state’s Sunshine Law.

Bucking that sometimes-preference to keep things under wraps, Mayor Jack Mikołajczyk, the Middlesex Borough Council and municipal professionals instead took two steps to promote transparency on Feb. 27.

That evening, the mayor and council began including the check register in each meeting’s agenda packet. The register is pretty much a list of the bills up for payment. The bills have always been public record, but in the past it required a constituent to file an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request and wait up to seven business days to receive them.

Posting the bill list online was suggested and borough officials responded. Taxpayers fork over thousands of dollars quarterly in property tax payments and have the right to easily see where their money goes.

It was good to find that Middlesex officials agree with that sentiment.

The same evening, the controversial, proposed dissolution of the Cultural & Heritage Committee was again discussed. The ordinance that would authorize the move was introduced. Over two meetings, it’s generated pointed conversation, both pro and con.

There was a brief question of whether the topic qualified as a personnel item for executive session. The borough’s attorney did not see that the justification existed. The discussion went on in public.

An uncomfortable open conversation followed for council members, as the actions of one of their own and the mayor came under question. But constituents – both those present and others who might watch the meeting video – deserved to hear it. Just as they merit easy access to the bill list.

Coincidentally, the Feb. 27 meeting came shortly before March 10, the kickoff of Sunshine Week. Each year in March, news organizations across the country use that week to highlight the importance of governmental transparency. It coincides with the March 16 birthday of James Madison, fourth president of the United States, a framer of the Bill of Rights and protector of freedom of the press. 

Hopefully, the sunshine is out for good in Middlesex. There have been some notable runs to the shadows in the past.

While some in the Middlesex Borough Republican Organization still justify it, the cannabis “caucus” held a few years ago behind closed doors should have taken place at a council meeting. Other towns have had similar discussions in public. Middlesex taxpayers had the right to know which cannabis reps were making a pitch to allow the industry into the borough.

A more egregious and consequential shadow incident occurred a few years earlier. During the mayoralty of Ron DiMura, a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) award to a Lincoln Boulevard redeveloper was discussed at a council meeting.

The then-borough attorney got up from the dais without public explanation and sat in the audience. A second attorney provided legal counsel to the governing body. Later, the recusing attorney explained that “another member of my firm has done work for the redeveloper in the past.”

That was a high-calorie, sugar-coating of the true situation. That “member” was State Sen. Bob Smith, who had filed the paperwork with the state Department of the Treasury for one of the redeveloper’s LLC’s. Smith had also represented the redeveloper at a prior public meeting in Middlesex.

Had the public received a more thorough explanation for that borough attorney’s recusal, perhaps alarm bells would have sounded that the fix was in for one redeveloper.

There are always exceptions, things that officials can’t discuss in public and shouldn’t. Those matters include litigation, contract bargaining and true personnel issues. They should be just that – exceptions.

Operating in the “sunshine” might not always be comfortable for public officials. It might occasionally lead to difficult questions and public circulation of unflattering information. But it’s the way government is supposed to work.

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