To The Editor:
I am writing in response to a Letter to the Editor by L. Helena Bouchez, which was entitled “Affordable Housing is a Mandate. Let’s Work Toward a Solution.”
We, as a community, would like to work towards a solution, but Hopewell Township’s Kuchinski-Blake administration, which has proven to be the least transparent administration in many years, repeatedly, and, in my opinion, intentionally, goes out of its way to prevent public involvement.
Their hostility to transparent government includes, to name a few:
– Hiding and concluding secret negotiations with Affordable Housing builders without a single work session to allow the public to suggest ideas;
– Hiding behind a self-imposed 3 minute time limit for individual public comment;
– Hiding from the public by holding closed meetings during public meeting times;
– Hiding meeting minutes from the public in violation of state law.
While Ms. Bouchez accurately recalls the transparent 2015 Township Committee administration of Mayor Harvey Lester and Deputy Mayor Todd Brant, she has not been paying attention to the constant shenanigans of the Kuchinski-Blake administration or, worse, she consciously chooses to ignore administration road-blocks to public participation as well as disregards the many letters to the editor, including my own, which show that the Kuchinski-Blake administration refuses to be accountable to the public.
Then again, the Kuchinski-Blake administration seems to count on their political supporters to excuse, distort, and misrepresent their record of public hostility. Exactly what Ms. Bouchez is doing in her letter.
Harvey Lester,
Titusville, N.J. 08560
NOTE: Letters to the Editor of MercerMe are published at the discretion of the editor. The submission of any letter does not guarantee publication, and the editor reserves the right to not publish any submission.
