Two commissioners walk out of meeting
By:Paul Szaniawski
The Charter Study Commission entertained its largest audience of residents in months who came armed with comments, questions — and some with boxing gloves.
At the third and final public hearing, special charters, things Hillsborough needs, evidence to support a change of government and the charter study’s written recommendation report were some issues the commission discussed with residents and amongst themselves in front of nearly 20 people during a lengthy meeting Wednesday that ended with two commission members walking off the municipal courtroom dais.
In response to a guest column published in The Hillsborough Beacon on May 31, Township Committeeman Carl Suraci questioned the charter study and their argument to change Hillsborough’s government.
He said the column, written by the commission, had subjective claims pinpointing the current government for "not getting the job done."
Mr. Suraci said all the evidence backing up this claim was subjective.
Commissioner Bill Page replied that 2003 saw four new committee members get elected, ending all continuity in the township government.
The response wasn’t enough for Mr. Suraci, who had control of the microphone at the busy public hearing for nearly 25 minutes. He continued saying that the commission had no concrete evidence to back up their claim that Hillsborough residents wanted a change in government.
The committeeman said he wasn’t for a change now nor when he voted on an ordinance to create a charter study commission in 2004.
"I personally never stated any preference for a directly-elected mayor," Mr. Suraci said. "It doesn’t hurt to do a review, though."
When he revisited the 2004 meeting it struck a cord with commission member George Ostergren, who had a different recollection of the encounter. Mr. Ostergren began to call Mr. Suraci a "liar" and a shouting match began.
Commission Chairman Chris Jensen called for a short recess — the first of three recesses throughout the evening.
Mayor Anthony Ferrera said he felt it was possible for Hillsborough residents to have their "cake and eat it, too."
He said that residents could "elect their own mayor without disruption" by changing the government to a special charter modeled off the current township committee form with an added elected mayor.
"Let’s keep it simple," Mr. Ferrera said. "Let’s take the good of these different forms and make a special charter."
Whatever the end result of the commission’s recommendation turns out to be, a report explaining its decision is required. Less than a month ago Chad Ehrenkrantz, a second-year law student at the University of Miami interning with the commission’s attorney, was hired to begin drafting a report based on commission members’ input.
"I am very disappointed with this report," said Mr. Ostergren. "I don’t think this report represents the commission. It’s embarrassing. How you can take a second-year law student in Miami to write this is bizarre. It’s all baloney. I think (Commissioner Glenn van Lier) could have done this."
Though only a fraction of the report was written because no conclusion had been reached yet, Mr. van Lier felt the report’s format was too wordy and predicted it would end up being three times as long as any other charter study’s. He was also displeased that his recent attempts to give the report’s author some input weren’t accepted.
Mr. Ostergren then moved the commission let Mr. van Lier take over writing the document. Mr. Page suggested moving ahead on two fronts and let two authors work on it.
But when Mr. Ostergren amended his motion to let Mr. van Lier and MR. Ehrenkrantz write separate versions, Mr. van Lier put his hand up and motioned his colleague to stop.
"George, you don’t even need the motion," he said. "I am writing this report if the commission approves of it or not."
Perhaps it was the war of words earlier in the evening, fatigue after four hours of deliberations, or just a hostile atmosphere that pushed some members of the commission to tolerate no more.
While Mr. Jensen and Mr. van Lier discussed in detail their likes and dislikes of the recommendation’s format written thus far, Mr. Ostergren refused to listen to what he called "wasting time" and promptly walked out of the meeting.
After the remaining members made it clear they weren’t going to support Mr. van Lier’s request to relieve Mr. Ehrenkrantz of his duties, the commission vice chairman followed Mr. Ostergren out of the room — less than 10 minutes later.

