HOBOKEN — At Wednesday night’s council meeting, the council postponed a vote on a controversial resolution that would have limited public comments, in order to make meetings shorter. Now, the measure will be reviewed in a committee.
More than a dozen members of the public came out to speak about the resolution. Many noted that while meetings should definitely be shorter, perhaps there are other ways to restructure them than cutting off the public.
Several speakers said that the council members themselves seemed to speak a lot in order to look good for the cameras, when some of those comments and the longer conversations — for instance, complex questions for directors about very intricate items of little interest to the public — could be asked in a private conversation at any time during the month, when the cameras weren’t on.
Others pointed out that it’s the council’s job to be there at the meetings two times a month, no matter how long the meetings take. The council members are paid more than $20,000 per year with benefits for the part-time job.
The porposed resolution would have limited speakers to commenting on one ordinance or resolution per meeting, and might allow the meeting to end without hearing from the public at the end if a meeting ran past 11 p.m.
The council is hoping to stop meetings from running until 1 or 2 a.m., as they have done lately.
However, in the past, the council used to have a caucus meeting on Mondays so they could discuss and understand what would be on the agenda for Wednesday. Those meetings were open to the public but did not allow public speaking. It was the Wednesday meetings at which the public would speak and the council would vote.
The Monday meetings were eliminated during the administration of Mayor Anthony Russo in the 1990s.
In some towns, the council meets in caucus just before the regular meeting. Others, like Jersey City, have kept their Monday caucuses separate from Wednesday.
Wednesday night, more than a dozen members of the public came to the meeting to talk about the ordinance — with their comments extending long after 11 p.m.
Members of the public are already limited to 5 minutes each time they speak.
Resident Perry Belfiore reminded the council members that they work for the public, not the other way around. He also said that perhaps the “public portion” of the meeting — the part at the end where members of the public can comment — could be moved to the beginning of the meeting rather than at the very end.
He also commented on certain council members’ propensity to talk a lot.
He said that at a previous meeting, he was sitting next to resident Cheryl Fallick, who went to go eat a slice of pizza and a soda. He said she left the meeting while Councilman Michael Lenz was talking, and when she came back from eating, she was shocked to find that Lenz was still talking about the same point.
“I said, ‘You could have had a five-course meal,’ ” Belfiore said.
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