By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
Princeton Borough Council tabled a resolution under which the borough and developer Nassau HKT Urban Renewal Associates LLC would have retained former Superior Court Judge Neil H. Shuster to serve as mediator of a dispute between the parties over a number of aspects of the downtown redevelopment project.
The resolution was tabled until Borough Council obtained greater clarity on its ability to discuss and disclose mediation results publicly.
Among other points of contention to be mediated, the borough and NHKT disagree on payments related to the Spring Street parking garage, and what date payment of $16,000 in monthly ground rent to the borough should commence for the surface parking site off Tulane Street where NHKT is to construct the long-delayed “Building C” of the redevelopment project.
At the council’s meeting on Wednesday evening, Councilman David Goldfarb called attention to a portion of the mediation agreement which governed public statements. The section reads: “The parties, their counsel, and the mediator will not make any public statements about the mediation proceeding or the outcome, except as may be authorized by the parties.”
The public statements section mandating confidentiality allows the parties to agree on a public statement after resolution of their dispute through mediation, said Borough Attorney Karen Cayci. Mediation talks are normally conducted with the expectation of confidentiality, Ms. Cayci said. “The point of mediation is to allow the parties to speak freely, that is the purpose of the process,” she said.
But, Mr. Goldfarb and other council members, noted that the language appeared more appropriate to two private parties engaged in mediation, not a public entity such as the borough.
Councilman Roger Martindell said the public statement section appeared as if it could prohibit a minority of members of Borough Council from expressing their disagreement publicly after a majority of council had approved mediation terms.
Mr. Goldfarb said keeping the mediation confidential unless a successful outcome was arrived at was understood, and by definition a successful mediation was one where the parties disclosed the outcome to the public. But Mr. Goldfarb said he was wary of language which might preclude council members from presenting any details of the mediation to the public until they had approved it confidentially, in closed session, effectively presenting it to the public only as a done deal without any public hearing.
”This does not work in the context of a mediation with a governing body or any public body. I would strike it,” said Councilman Andrew Koontz of the public statement section language. Borough Council members will not be present at the mediation talks, and “at some point, whatever the outcome is, it has to be communicated to this body in public session,” Mr. Koontz said.
Ms. Cayci said she would go back to Mr. Shuster and NHKT’s legal counsel with the council’s concerns to see if language could be arrived at which accommodated the borough’s standing as a public body.
As presiding chancery judge on the Superior Court, Mr. Shuster presided over a long-running legal dispute between Princeton University and the Robertson family over a Robertson endowment to the Woodrow Wilson School, before turning over the ongoing case at his retirement. He is now of counsel with the Plainsboro law firm Dennigan Cahill, P.C.

