Letter to the Editor: Stop Dodging the Public

To the Editor:

Newsflash to the Kuchinski-Blake Administration and their Hopewell Township Committee majority – you cannot listen to the public when you are ducking the public.

For each of the past four (4) months from July through October, 2018, the Kuchinski-Blake Administration and their township committee majority has either cancelled outright a regularly-scheduled township committee meeting or rescheduled a regularly-scheduled township committee meeting to an inconvenient time for most members of the public.

During July, August and September, they reduced the number of township committee meetings from the previously-scheduled two meetings per month to only one meeting per month.  In other words, they cut in half the public’s access to the township committee during the run-up as Deputy Mayor Blake was running for re-election.

The month of October was especially troubling. On October 9, at the regularly-scheduled township committee meeting, the order of items on the agenda was changed to prevent the public from speaking early in the meeting. By the time it was the public’s turn to speak, Deputy Mayor Blake had left the meeting. The next regularly-scheduled meeting of Monday, October 22, at 7:00 PM was rescheduled to Wednesday, Halloween day, October 31, at 9:00 AM.  At that meeting, the two opportunities for the public to speak were reduced to only one opportunity.  By the way, Deputy Mayor Blake did not attend that meeting.

By dodging the right of residents to speak publicly to the township committee, the Kuchinski-Blake Administration and their majority have failed in their most basic obligation as public servants – to show up for work at scheduled hours, to work for an entire shift, and to listen to what your employer, the public, has to say.

Harvey Lester,

Titusville, NJ