Public Attendance Down

At First Monday Caucus

PERTH AMBOY — Suppose they scheduled a meeting and nobody came?

That almost happened on Monday, Oct. 25, the City Council’s first Monday

Caucus session at 4:30 p.m.

Besides Department heads and other city officials, and newspaper reporters,

the only “member of the public” in the audience was resident Alan Silber,

a frequent attendee at Council and Board of Education meetings, who asked,

“What makes this a public meeting? Where’s the public?”

Silber complained that the meeting-agenda for the Council’s first Monday

Caucus session was not posted on the City of Perth Amboy Website until Friday,

but City Clerk Elaine Jasko disagreed.

“The agenda was posted on Thursday, not Friday,” she said.

However, Silber took-note of the fact that new items which were not on the

posted agenda were added by Council members at the Monday session.

“There’s no cut-off, that’s my point,” he said.

“Having a public meeting at 4:30 isn’t encouraging the public to attend,”

Silber declared, pointing out that he is retired and able to make-it to the

meetings, but far-more residents are working and most of them get-off their

jobs at 5 p.m. or later.

“What part of the public’s going to come?” he asked.

“We’re trying something different,” Council President Kenneth Balut said.

“If it doesn’t work, we can always try something-else.”

Interim Business Administrator Gregory Fehrenbach listed “potential

Resolutions for consideration” on the meeting-agenda under the heading of “Topics

For Discussion,” which was formerly used to list in-depth policy matters.

Fehrenbach also outlined a proposed format for “placing items on the agenda

for discussion,” in which he would encourage “more details by the

Department heads.”

He announced that the long-awaited completion of the Public

Safety/Municipal Court/Community Center Complex, New Brunswick Avenue, which started-out at

$30 million and ballooned to almost $90 million, is expected “during the

month of April” in 2011.

Fehrenbach had no new figures on the actual cost of the Complex at this

point, adding that there is “a need for better accounting of his (consultant

Joseph Nigro’s) time.

“We need somebody to inspect and see that it’s completed, and I’m

recommending that we continue with Mr. Nigro,” he said.

Balut began citing some of the problems he found with the workmanship at

the Complex, but the Business Administrator stopped him.

“Please write them out for us,” Fehrenbach told Balut. “No two people have

the same sensitivity.”

“We’re trying to keep cost-control here,” City Law Director Mark Blunda s

aid. “We’ve paid for things we didn’t expect to pay for.”