PACKET EDITORIAL, July 6
According to the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, an "olive branch" is "a symbol of peace, an offering of good will, as in They feuded for years, but finally the Hatfields came over bearing an olive branch."
We were forced to revisit our understanding of the phrase this week after its use during a West Windsor Township Council left us wondering whether "olive branch" might actually be another term for Louisville Slugger.
At least, that is how it sounded as it tripped off the tongue of councilman Charles Morgan as a description of a proposed "compromise" with Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh. Mr. Morgan and his cohorts on the newly-elected council had generously offered to forgo their attempt to have Township Attorney Michael Herbert fired in May and instead proposed to have him fired in August.
The magnanimity attributed to this gesture by Mr. Morgan must have eluded the mayor, who rejected it and now plans to file a lawsuit against the council.
Mr. Morgan, with support from council members Will Anklowitz and George Borek, succeeded in defeating Mr. Herbert’s personal services agreement with the township. "We have not fired Mr. Herbert, but simply denied him the right to compensation," Mr. Morgan explained.
Mr. Herbert’s offense, according to the new council majority, is that his legal advice tends to serve the views of the mayor, who favors a redevelopment plan for West Windsor which Messrs. Morgan, Anklowitz and Borek seem determined to derail.
It strikes us as unremarkable that Mr. Herbert might defer to the official who, under state law, appoints him. And we have heard no evidence to suggest that he has been offering flawed legal advice simply to humor the mayor.
On the contrary, it is Mr. Morgan and company who are running the risk of making any township attorney they propose appear more panderer than lawyer.
In fairness, Mr. Morgan professes to have a different view of the situationone in which the proposed reprieve for Mr. Herbert could have ended with mayor and council harmoniously agreeing on a replacement for the township attorney.
"I held an olive branch. . . a compromise where we could take the time to select an attorney everyone was happy with," Mr. Morgan said.
Having heard that view dismissed by the mayor as disingenuous, he then appeared to embrace the characterization by saying, "They have decided to play hardball, and that means we win and we pick the attorney."
To give them the benefit of the doubt, we suppose it is possible that Mr. Morgan and his colleagues actually believe that it is the mayor who was playing "hardball" and that their plan for the disposal of Mr. Herbert was merely an offering of good will.
If that is the case, let us hope that the township council’s new majority learns to distinguish between an "olive branch" and a baseball bat while it is still possible to distinguish between West Windsor and a banana republic.