By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — A council member who walked out of a meeting Thursday night has accused the council president of violating the Open Public Meetings Act by continuing a meeting alone.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers, in a statement released Sunday, charged council President Charlie Morgan with violating the act by calling Thursday night’s council meeting to order and then not immediately adjourning it until there was a quorum.
When the meeting was called to order at 5 p.m., the only council members present were Mr. Morgan and Ms. Geevers. Councilman George Borek was delayed, and arrived 25 minutes later.
Ms. Geevers protested that the meeting must be adjourned until a later time, when a quorum of council members would be present, she said. When Mr. Morgan decided to go forward with the meeting, she walked out.
In the statement, she called the decision to continue with the meeting a “grave breach of public trust.”
”This dismissive and dictatorial attitude by Mr. Morgan caused an illegal meeting to occur… Our residents expect that their elected officials will conduct themselves consistent with the highest ethical standards and in accordance with state laws governing their conduct,” she said.
Township Attorney Mike Herbert, who did not attend the meeting, said that under law if there is not a quorum of council members present, then a meeting technically cannot be held. Therefore, public business cannot be conducted, he said.
”The issue is, can a discussion be held in the absence of a quorum? The answer is yes,” he said.
He said that in his opinion, there was no violation of the Open Public Meetings Act.
”This is a classic case of nobody being wrong,” he said.
In an interview Monday, Mr. Morgan said he decided to go forward with the meeting, which lasted until about 11 p.m., in order to get through a long agenda, pointing out that as chairman it is his duty to schedule the meetings.
He said he received calls only minutes before the meeting started from Ms. Geevers and Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman that they were not going to be there.
Though the two councilwomen had asked that the meeting begin the meeting later, he said, he decided after consulting staff to hold the meeting as scheduled.
”I found it a bit amazing that two council members would try to strong-arm the chair and ignore the convenience of the staff by doing that, all because they were unhappy with my choice based on feedback from everyone,” he said.
Ms. Kleinman said she repeatedly asked Mr. Morgan over two weeks to change the meeting time because she could not make it.
”For 14 days, he kept saying that everybody wanted to keep it the same,” she said. “He persisted on saying that everybody wanted to keep it at five o’clock. I never found that.”
She said that newly appointed Councilwoman Diane Ciccone could not make it until later that evening, and it was important for her to attend and participate in the discussion.
”The budget is one of the most important things that we do all year,” she said.
In the 25-minute period before Mr. Borek arrived, followed shortly by Ms. Geevers and Ms. Kleinman, the engineering budget was presented, Mr. Morgan said.
”These people can listen to the tapes and hear what was missed,” Mr. Morgan said.
Mr. Morgan pointed to a meeting last month where he and Mr. Borek were the only council members present for a discussion of a vacancy on council. Ms. Geevers arrived late to the meeting.
”If this was a real issue, she would have raised it then,” he said.
Mr. Herbert, who was present at that meeting, said that this was also acceptable.
”There was no business transacted, so it wasn’t technically a meeting,” he said.

