I attended the Jan. 4 Jackson Township Council reorganization meeting and once again was agitated by the actions of Councilman Mike Kafton and Councilwoman Bobbie Rivere.
Councilman Kafton wasted no time as he went after the council president over a (Dec. 28) canceled meeting that was never officially canceled.
Councilwoman Rivere was the one who canceled the meeting, but tried to make her way out the back door by saying that she only advised the webmaster to cancel the meeting. What? Repeat that please.
Council meeting dates and times, like every other board and commission dates, are announced through local newspapers. It is important to understand that these dates are voted on and approved by the council.
Once this has been done, they are submitted to the news publications by the clerk’s office as the “official” township notifications for the public’s edification. These publications can only be notified by the township clerk’s office and that can only happen with the council president’s authority.
In researching the matter of this alleged canceled council meeting I have also come to find out that the council does not have the authority to commandeer the township website or make any changes to it without the consent of the mayor or the business administrator.
So what ensued after Councilman Kafton’s opening comments was a joke and the recipients of this ringmaster’s performance paid dearly by wasting our time listening to his baseless rant of closed and immoral government.
Now here are the facts so you decide,
Clearly and without the permission of the mayor, council president or vice president, Councilwoman Rivere contacted the township’s webmaster and had him place a cancellation on the Dec. 28 meeting. Councilwoman Rivere canceled this meeting without contacting the mayor for permission to use the website, (and) never informed the council president or vice president.
However, she did find it necessary to call only Councilman Kafton. Interestingly enough, she posted on her homeowner community website that the council meeting was canceled in the a.m., then re-posted later on in the day stating that the meeting was on.
If that’s the case, why then would Councilman Kafton go on the record stating that he wished he knew the meeting was back on?
My final question is how come Councilwoman Rivere did not call back the webmaster to say that the meeting was on after she felt compelled to contact her community and Councilman Kafton?
Councilwoman Rivere illegally canceled a regularly scheduled public meeting, completely circumventing all township protocols and procedures. She contacted a select few and left the rest to Councilman Kafton to create controversy.
Facts are facts; if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. What council members Rivere and Kafton did was to purposely mislead the public for their own self-centered purposes.
For whatever their reasons, Rivere and Kafton have become one. It is obvious that one lies and the other swears to it. I wonder if this is the start of an early campaign strategy as they get ready to run again for their council seats.
Oh yeah, and the one part that sickens me the most, this comes from a man who should not be in politics, considering his less than admirable behavior as a public official and record with breaking the law.
Barry Calogero
Jackson