’Flagrant violation of the OPMA?’

Marylou Ferrara
Hopewell Township
    At the May 16 Planning Board meeting, the board confirmed that in the past year and a half it has neither approved nor published any minutes of their meetings.
   The Planning Board operates under the NJ Open Public Meetings Act, or “Sunshine Law,” which requires that the board “keep reasonably comprehensible minutes of all its meetings,” “which shall be promptly available to the public.”
   The explanation offered for this flagrant violation of the OPMA? The township has insufficient clerical workers to manage to keep up with its legally mandated responsibilities.
   Yet, this same week, with the notable exception of Jim Burd, a majority of the Township Committee (whose own minutes have not been updated since Feb. 11), voted to appropriate $580,000 for the purchase of a property adjacent to Pennytown. The mayor explained that while this acquisition was not necessary to accomplish the 70-unit affordable housing scheme, the additional parcel would make a “better plan.”
   An even better plan would be for the township to appropriate money to fund its legal obligation to promptly provide clear and coherent minutes of the meetings of all public bodies.