'And The One Word I Hate More Than All Of Them'
Anyone who knows me personally, knows I have a few, shall we say 'lovable quirks' sprinkled with just a touch of crazy. Well, one of these 'quirks' is an aversion to certain words in the English language. Now, I'm sure you've seen and read an article or two on people who throw up in their mouth a little (like myself) when they hear the words moist, dungarees, blouse, or coins, but there is another word that I find so overwhelmingly overused, misused and annoyingly politicized that the mere whisper of it can send shivers of disdain down my spine and immediately inspire distrust in my mind towards anyone who dares to utter it's four syllables. TRANS-PAR-EN-CY
Blech...Admit it. Isn't it just the worst? It inspires thoughts of politics and politicians and secrets and boredom and all the things we should care about and don't and then feel guilty about because we don't really feel guilty that we don't care. Well, I'm told we should face our fears to grow and become better people or some such nonsense like that, so today, I'd like to talk about...ugh...transparency...buckle up kids, I promise I'll try to keep it fairly light.
In Middletown, we have two main local bodies of government that are funded through our hard-earned tax dollars. One being the Board of Education and the other the Township Committee. Five years ago, one of these two bodies developed a Strategic Plan complete with community input and ultimately decided to make transparency a priority. The other, has been petitioned for over 10 years for more transparency, and repeatedly ignored and/or minimized the interest shown by the public. Wanna take a guess which is which?
The BOE's Strategic Planning Committee had a sub-committee called 'Community and Public Relations' (on which I served before becoming a BOE member) which was tasked with making meetings more accessible and to be blunt, curb the behavior of some of the BOE members. Some of you may remember, this was a real issue at the time. BOE meetings had a much closer resemblance to a Real Housewives episode than a functioning government body, complete with name-calling, hurt feelings and ethics charges. Amazingly though, some terrific work still managed to get done. For the sake of transparency and with the theory that people behave better when the camera is watching, the committee recommended video taping meetings and posting them to the district website. I am proud to say the recommendation was adopted by the board. The meetings are posted within 48 hours and the feedback from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. So much so, that recently, the BOE, has gone a step further and begun to live stream meetings as well. And that, my friends, is transparency. You may miss something here and there, but if you so choose, the information, the meetings, are always available at your convenience. The taxpayer is welcome to view not only the process of their tax dollars at work but the attitude and manner in which their elected officials treat the public.
Our Township Committee, on the other hand, has made the avoidance of transparency a fine art form. Their ability to do the bare minimum when it comes to including the public in decion-making and inclusion of meetings is unmatched. And their treatment of the public, complete with snickers, eye rolls and downright condescension can be shameful at times. You may be saying to yourself here..'But wait, I'm pretty sure I've seen a video of a TC Meeting before...' Well, this is where it gets interesting...
Enter Don Watson. Whenever you need background on all things Middletown Township related, Don Watson is your go-to guy. He has a plethora of historic information, is a keeper of documentation, and a founder of Middletown for Open Government (MOG), a self-funded, bi-partisan group dedicated to televising TC Meetings. He has been advocating for the Township Committee to record and post meeting videos for transparency for over 10 years. Just take a look at this gem (pictured below) he dug up from 2010. Over the years, the common theme for not taping the meetings seemed to be that it was not affordable...and if you are buying these numbers, you'd agree whole-heartedly. Now when you're done laughing at the 2010 $102,000 price tag that could be 'substantially more,' keep in mind that other than finance, no real reason has been given as to why the 2019 Township Committee won't allow the public video access or live streaming of meetings. In fairness to the TC however, in 2010, Myspace was still a kind of a thing and I was in Toy R Us trying to find Zhu Zhu Pets, so estimates have changed since, but all that said, $102,000 was excessive even then.
After years of pushback and excuses, Middletown for Open Government set out to prove it could video the meetings for significantly less than the $102,000 our TC claimed and guess what? They did. And they even gave copies to the TC to upload, which (shockingly) they did not do. They would claim later it was due to potential viruses.
Fast forward to 2019. I think we can all agree that price can no longer be the impediment to transparency. And yes, we certainly could continue to rely on Mr. Watson, a private citizen, to record these meetings and upload them to his YouTube channel (www.youtube/user/MiddletownOG). But let's be honest here. First, it's not his responsibility to in any way to do so and more importantly, much of the public doesn't even know these videos are available to them, whereas, if they were on the Township website listed with agendas and meeting dates, residents would find them easily accessible. That's called TRANS-PAR-EN-CY.
Most of us don't care about every ordinance that's passed or every appointment to every board or how many clam bakes Kevin Settembrino attended this month, but there are major decisions that are happening or even minor ones that affect us that we would like to keep up to date on. And with job and family commitments, attending Committee Meetings just aren't always an option for so many of us. We have a significant senior population which may have their own challenges attending meetings and having spent time listening to their concerns, I can tell you, they would welcome a viable option to remain engaged, especially after the Stevenson Park fiasco.
We have a Public Information Officer ($61,000) and an assistant ($32,500) who (among other responsibilities) are paid to follow our Township Committee around as they kiss babies and shake hands at parades and car shows to publish them in the Middletown Matters Newsletter aka 'Hey Middletown, Everything is Awesome!' We also have Management Information Systems ($121,278), Assistant ($78,604) and Specialist ($58,000), one of which is at the TC Meeting to ensure the sound systems are working. One of these people could surely flip a switch and record and/or live stream a meeting, I am quite sure.
So the question then becomes, why not? Why hasn't the TC joined the modern age? Why did the TC refuse to have video taped debates during the election? Why does the TC continue to refuse to post videos and/or live stream meetings for the public? Why do they refuse to post public notices in the most read newspaper in Middletown (The APP)? What are they hiding? I may have an aversion to the word transparency, but I know I don't want it stolen from me, especially when my hard-earned tax dollars are paying for the government tasked with providing it.
I can't answer those questions. Only the Township Committee can and this is the painful part, for you that is. You have to decide if you care. There are some major issues on the horizon in Middletown...Village 35 Development, the sale and potential rezoning of Middletown Sports Complex, the New Town Hall Deal, Preservation of Stevenson Park, Traffic Issues, New Housing developments, Flooding, Bayshore revitalization, and so much more. Do you care enough to want these decisions made transparently, where you can access the information that affects you when you need it? If you do, please consider writing an email to our Committee members and let them know you would like them to commit to Keeping Middletown Informed! Emails are as follow....
Mayor Tony Perry TPerry@MiddletownNJ.org
Deputy Mayor Tony Fiore TFiore@MiddletownNJ.org
Rick Hibell RHibell@MiddletownNJ.org
Kevin Settembrino KSettembrino@MiddletownNJ.org
Patricia Snell PSnell@MiddletownNJ.org
Please Share and Help Keep Middletown Informed!
Anyone who knows me personally, knows I have a few, shall we say 'lovable quirks' sprinkled with just a touch of crazy. Well, one of these 'quirks' is an aversion to certain words in the English language. Now, I'm sure you've seen and read an article or two on people who throw up in their mouth a little (like myself) when they hear the words moist, dungarees, blouse, or coins, but there is another word that I find so overwhelmingly overused, misused and annoyingly politicized that the mere whisper of it can send shivers of disdain down my spine and immediately inspire distrust in my mind towards anyone who dares to utter it's four syllables. TRANS-PAR-EN-CY
Blech...Admit it. Isn't it just the worst? It inspires thoughts of politics and politicians and secrets and boredom and all the things we should care about and don't and then feel guilty about because we don't really feel guilty that we don't care. Well, I'm told we should face our fears to grow and become better people or some such nonsense like that, so today, I'd like to talk about...ugh...transparency...buckle up kids, I promise I'll try to keep it fairly light.
In Middletown, we have two main local bodies of government that are funded through our hard-earned tax dollars. One being the Board of Education and the other the Township Committee. Five years ago, one of these two bodies developed a Strategic Plan complete with community input and ultimately decided to make transparency a priority. The other, has been petitioned for over 10 years for more transparency, and repeatedly ignored and/or minimized the interest shown by the public. Wanna take a guess which is which?
The BOE's Strategic Planning Committee had a sub-committee called 'Community and Public Relations' (on which I served before becoming a BOE member) which was tasked with making meetings more accessible and to be blunt, curb the behavior of some of the BOE members. Some of you may remember, this was a real issue at the time. BOE meetings had a much closer resemblance to a Real Housewives episode than a functioning government body, complete with name-calling, hurt feelings and ethics charges. Amazingly though, some terrific work still managed to get done. For the sake of transparency and with the theory that people behave better when the camera is watching, the committee recommended video taping meetings and posting them to the district website. I am proud to say the recommendation was adopted by the board. The meetings are posted within 48 hours and the feedback from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. So much so, that recently, the BOE, has gone a step further and begun to live stream meetings as well. And that, my friends, is transparency. You may miss something here and there, but if you so choose, the information, the meetings, are always available at your convenience. The taxpayer is welcome to view not only the process of their tax dollars at work but the attitude and manner in which their elected officials treat the public.
Our Township Committee, on the other hand, has made the avoidance of transparency a fine art form. Their ability to do the bare minimum when it comes to including the public in decion-making and inclusion of meetings is unmatched. And their treatment of the public, complete with snickers, eye rolls and downright condescension can be shameful at times. You may be saying to yourself here..'But wait, I'm pretty sure I've seen a video of a TC Meeting before...' Well, this is where it gets interesting...
Enter Don Watson. Whenever you need background on all things Middletown Township related, Don Watson is your go-to guy. He has a plethora of historic information, is a keeper of documentation, and a founder of Middletown for Open Government (MOG), a self-funded, bi-partisan group dedicated to televising TC Meetings. He has been advocating for the Township Committee to record and post meeting videos for transparency for over 10 years. Just take a look at this gem (pictured below) he dug up from 2010. Over the years, the common theme for not taping the meetings seemed to be that it was not affordable...and if you are buying these numbers, you'd agree whole-heartedly. Now when you're done laughing at the 2010 $102,000 price tag that could be 'substantially more,' keep in mind that other than finance, no real reason has been given as to why the 2019 Township Committee won't allow the public video access or live streaming of meetings. In fairness to the TC however, in 2010, Myspace was still a kind of a thing and I was in Toy R Us trying to find Zhu Zhu Pets, so estimates have changed since, but all that said, $102,000 was excessive even then.
After years of pushback and excuses, Middletown for Open Government set out to prove it could video the meetings for significantly less than the $102,000 our TC claimed and guess what? They did. And they even gave copies to the TC to upload, which (shockingly) they did not do. They would claim later it was due to potential viruses.
Fast forward to 2019. I think we can all agree that price can no longer be the impediment to transparency. And yes, we certainly could continue to rely on Mr. Watson, a private citizen, to record these meetings and upload them to his YouTube channel (www.youtube/user/MiddletownOG). But let's be honest here. First, it's not his responsibility to in any way to do so and more importantly, much of the public doesn't even know these videos are available to them, whereas, if they were on the Township website listed with agendas and meeting dates, residents would find them easily accessible. That's called TRANS-PAR-EN-CY.
Most of us don't care about every ordinance that's passed or every appointment to every board or how many clam bakes Kevin Settembrino attended this month, but there are major decisions that are happening or even minor ones that affect us that we would like to keep up to date on. And with job and family commitments, attending Committee Meetings just aren't always an option for so many of us. We have a significant senior population which may have their own challenges attending meetings and having spent time listening to their concerns, I can tell you, they would welcome a viable option to remain engaged, especially after the Stevenson Park fiasco.
We have a Public Information Officer ($61,000) and an assistant ($32,500) who (among other responsibilities) are paid to follow our Township Committee around as they kiss babies and shake hands at parades and car shows to publish them in the Middletown Matters Newsletter aka 'Hey Middletown, Everything is Awesome!' We also have Management Information Systems ($121,278), Assistant ($78,604) and Specialist ($58,000), one of which is at the TC Meeting to ensure the sound systems are working. One of these people could surely flip a switch and record and/or live stream a meeting, I am quite sure.
So the question then becomes, why not? Why hasn't the TC joined the modern age? Why did the TC refuse to have video taped debates during the election? Why does the TC continue to refuse to post videos and/or live stream meetings for the public? Why do they refuse to post public notices in the most read newspaper in Middletown (The APP)? What are they hiding? I may have an aversion to the word transparency, but I know I don't want it stolen from me, especially when my hard-earned tax dollars are paying for the government tasked with providing it.
I can't answer those questions. Only the Township Committee can and this is the painful part, for you that is. You have to decide if you care. There are some major issues on the horizon in Middletown...Village 35 Development, the sale and potential rezoning of Middletown Sports Complex, the New Town Hall Deal, Preservation of Stevenson Park, Traffic Issues, New Housing developments, Flooding, Bayshore revitalization, and so much more. Do you care enough to want these decisions made transparently, where you can access the information that affects you when you need it? If you do, please consider writing an email to our Committee members and let them know you would like them to commit to Keeping Middletown Informed! Emails are as follow....
Mayor Tony Perry TPerry@MiddletownNJ.org
Deputy Mayor Tony Fiore TFiore@MiddletownNJ.org
Rick Hibell RHibell@MiddletownNJ.org
Kevin Settembrino KSettembrino@MiddletownNJ.org
Patricia Snell PSnell@MiddletownNJ.org
Please Share and Help Keep Middletown Informed!
Unfortunately the TC will ALWAYS find a way to not publicly make available un-edited recordings of the meeting. Look what happened at the candidates forum in Lincroft. The current members of the TC did not want the forum to be recorded, so it wasn't recorded. The technology is already in place, the TC just needs to turn it on.
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