Library parking: Public deserves full explanation

PACKET EDITORIAL, Feb. 23

   When word came in January that Princeton Township and Princeton Borough had fallen out of their agreement to subsidize two hours of free parking for patrons of the Princeton Public Library, both municipalities adopted the "we-remain-friends" pose common to celebrity divorce announcements.
   As reported in The Packet on Jan. 12, both said the end of the agreement did not reflect any increased tension between them. That claim, scarcely credible at the time, seems positively disingenuous after Tuesday night’s exchange between Princeton’s two mayors during a meeting of the Princeton Public Library’s board of trustees.
   When a township resident appealed for restoration of the free library parking at the Spring Street Garage, township Mayor Phyllis Marchand complained that the township’s 66 percent share of the cost had been a financial boon to the borough. She added: "You have got to remember that the garage belongs to the borough."
   Princeton Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman replied: "Phyllis, you do not want to go there."
   They may as well have said, "Let’s not argue in front of the children." But taxpaying adults are entitled to candor and full disclosure, especially when failed negotiations between local governments deprive them of a public benefit. It is not acceptable to withhold the details of the dispute, as officials of both municipalities have insisted on doing since January.
   Phone calls to township Mayor Marchand regarding this issue have gone unanswered since Wednesday. Borough Mayor Trotman, meanwhile, called The Packet Thursday to say that she will not discuss details of the dispute unless Mayor Marchand joins her in doing so. Apparently, Princeton’s two mayors can’t even agree on whether to discuss their disagreement. Artful dodges aside, the public is still left with a refusal by both to explain exactly how and why their parking subsidy agreement collapsed.
   So the mayors have only themselves to blame if people read between the lines and formulate their own theories.
   Did the township decide to play chicken with the borough in hopes of reducing or eliminating its own share of the subsidy?
   Or was the borough trying to wriggle out of a commitment that was instrumental in the decision to build the new library within its borders?
   Whatever the game was, Princeton library patrons are the losers. If this is the best these two municipalities can do while claiming there is no increased tension between them, we shudder to think what will happen if they ever get into a real snit.