You’ve got to wonder why Freehold Borough Mayor Michael Wilson and the municipal attorney are so determined to keep the results of a review of the police department that was paid for with public funds such a secret.
In October 2010, in anticipation of Police Chief Mitch Roth’s retirement, the borough hired Jersey Professional Management (JPM), of Cranford, to review staffing, operations and other issues at the police department.
At that time, Councilman Kevin Kane said, “We asked JPM to come in and do the study,” adding that the consultant would assess “where the department is now, what we need, and where we want to go.” He did not answer when asked if the report would look at the possibility of having a civil director of public safety instead of a sworn police chief.
That report was delivered as requested, but when it became apparent nobody was going to share anything it said, Greater Media’s News Transcript filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request to obtain a copy. That request was denied, because officials said the report was “a management and personnel document, which contains strategies and policies regarding public safety and crime prevention. Thus, Freehold Borough is not obligated to release it to the public.”
There’s a gray area in the state’s revamped OPRAthat allows public bodies to withhold information about certain things like management and personnel. But instead of offering to release a copy of the report with the protected information redacted, the borough simply denied the request out of hand. That’s the pattern of behavior in Freehold Borough.
In 2008, for example, the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey (Monmouth Chapter) was outraged after allegations were made that Freehold police engaged in brutality when stopping a mother and her 15-year-old son for a traffic violation. The officer accused of going over the line was vindicated by an internal investigation by the police department and another by the county prosecutor. No public statement was ever made by either the county or the department about the specifics of the prosecutor’s investigation, or an internal investigation by the department.
The News Transcript filed an OPRA request for the internal investigation report in that case, and was turned down because Freehold Borough police Lt. Mark Wodell claimed it was a “personnel record and thus listed as confidential.” That explanation flummoxed everyone, including News Transcript Managing Editor Mark Rosman, who wrote in an editorial that he failed to see how an internal investigation could be called a personnel matter, and bemoaned the fact that common sense had deserted nearly everyone in authority in the borough.
His reasoned arguments, and the arguments of others, fell on deaf ears. No information was ever made public.
Fast-forward to this year, when the Latino Coalition of Monmouth County filed an OPRA request for the 2010 review of the police department by JPM — the same report the borough refused to make public when the News Transcript asked it to do so.
It came as no surprise when the borough denied the request on the grounds that, as Borough Attorney Kerry Higgins said, “the report contains reviews and discussions of public safety strategy and personnel and manpower issues. It is advisory, consultative and deliberative in nature.”
Itwas the old “personnel records” obfuscation, only with more words and excuses. And again, it angered members of the media and leaders in the Latino community.
“We have seen a pattern of secrecy by Mayor Michael Wilson with regard to management of the police department,” Frank Argote Freyre, director of the Latino Coalition, told the News Transcript. “The public has a right to know what evaluation was made of the department by a private consulting firm. The Wilson administration is being overly broad in terms of the sweep of information it wishes to keep from the public.”
I absolutely agree. Even if Wilson and others are correct that portions of the various investigations and reviews are protected under OPRA, there’s nothing stopping them from releasing the portions that aren’t, or at least talking about them. That they haven’t come forward, that they’ve taken the position that the public — the same people who elected them, who pays their salaries and paid for the JPM review — can’t be trusted with any of the information, is insulting and incomprehensible. Unless, of course, they’ve got something to hide .
Considering the long history of corruption and malfeasance in elected leadership and law enforcement in N,J., it seems to me that’s a suspicion they ought to put to rest. They should approve the various OPRArequests, or release as much information as possible, immediately.
I think I struck a chord among lots of readers with last week’s column about the sad state of country music, and my statement that there’s no longer a radio station that plays country music in this area. While most of them agreed withme about there being no-country in Country — including Carol, who thinks so much like me I swear we’re sharing a brain — several wrote to tell me we can still hear decent country music on the radio if we look hard enough.
According to some of them, Thunder 106 (106.3 and 106.5 FM) plays more traditional country, as does WXTU out of Philly at 92.5 FM. Others said the Rutgers University station, WRSU(88.7 FM), has country programs early on Saturday and Sunday mornings, where Lynn said they “play some real old stuff from the 60s and 70s.”
There was some disagreement among readers about the hours of those programs. Some said they ran from6 a.m. until 10 a.m., and others said they start around 7 a.m. It doesn’t really matter to me though, if last Sunday was an indication. I set my radio alarm so I could wake up to the program, but slept through the whole shebang. Maybe next week.
Gregory Bean is the former executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at gbean@gmnews.com.