A Key Moment During the 12/19/2023 Berkeley Heights Town Council Meeting

Dec 21, 2023

The annoying and potentially dangerous “don’t get in the way of progress argument” reveals itself yet again.

The clip below is, in my opinion, one of the more important exchanges during the 12/19/2023 Town Council Meeting. Town Council Member-Elect Margaret Illis asked the Council whether the Council considered recommendations by the Planning Board.

This is a question she asked the Council, yet the question was immediately deferred to the Township Planner, whose response boiled down to a cliche that alluded to not allowing “perfect to get in the way of progress”. This implies that the concerns residents and the planning board had are trivial or- at the very least – not important enough to get in the way of the ordinance getting passed before the year ends. The whole “don’t get in the way of progress by asking questions or slowing things down so we can think about them” also has a kind of “Brave New World” feel to it. I could be off but it really rubbed me the wrong way.

The conversation from there involved council member Jeanne Kingsley providing another confusing response to the basic question of did the Council review the changes by the Planning Board?

What followed again was an emphasis on ensuring the Ordinance passed that night with another deferment to the township attorney and planner.

Residents did not elect the Township Attorney (although I think he does a good job in general) or the Township Planner- they are not the ones voting on this Ordinance and I really wanted to hear a clear direct answer to Margaret’s question – it was a good question.

As Dr. Foregger stated in his comment, introducing this Ordinance next year would be fine and could be accomplished by the end of January. Why was it so crucial for this to pass on the 19th?

However, the Planning Board also appears to have bought into this “we have to pass this now” mantra – as Ms. Akiri wrote yesterday:

Please NOTE the planning board had 35 DAYS after a referral from the township council to provide feedback. It remains unclear as to why this Ordinance was voted on unanimously if there were concerns.

To be clear, I have a couple of problems with the overall Ordinance, but my firm objection resides more with how this was passed. As for the sign portion of the ordinance I have no intention of abiding by it- in fact I cannot wait to violate it repeatedly in the next election. It was more about the process. From my perspective, it seemed more important to give outgoing council members a “win” than the residents an ordinance they felt fully knowledgeable of and had influence over.

With two new members on the Council next year I have some hope this practice of timing important ordinances and information to political convenience ends. This is the second time in recent history that I can think of, off the top of my head, that important information landed in time periods that either benefitted an election outcome or where the least amount of attention would be anticipated.