MONTCLAIR, NJ — The Montclair Town Council voted in favor of a resolution on Tuesday that tweaks to the way public comments will be handled at their future meetings.
Deputy Mayor Susan Shin Andersen offered some background about the resolution prior to the council’s vote. According to the councilwoman:
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“The reason why we’re bringing this resolution forward is because the prior council, as it turns out, passed two resolutions pertaining to public comment back in December of 2023, which were R-23-311 and R-23-312, and in those resolutions they set two public comment sessions: one for agenda items only before actions on the agenda, and then the second for general comment after agenda items. They also limited the comments to two minutes each for agenda items and three for general comments.”
“Hopefully this will just help make things more consistent and transparent for the public,” Shin Andersen said.
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The measure didn’t pass without some debate, however.
An amendment to the resolution excluded a phrase that members of the public are allowed to comment on any item which is “on the agenda or any governmental issue that they want to address.”
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Councilor-at-large Carmel Loughman said the phrase might open the flood gates to contentious arguments and personal attacks that aren’t related to official town business.
“We have had several times during our recent council meetings where people have come up and I believe they’ve used our public comment section as a means for them to air political stuff – let’s just call it that,” Loughman said, arguing that they should be cut off if they’re not discussing local governmental issues affecting Montclair.
“We here are trying to do the business of the government,” Loughman said. “We cannot arbitrate people’s opinions about this, that or the other, and I believe it’s leading to kind of a lot of friction in the room and contentious discussions and personal attacks. And I really feel we need to limit what people say to just governmental things that [have] to do with the business of running Montclair.”
Third Ward Councilor Rahum Williams then asked what would happen if a resident wants to speak about something “cheerful” that happened in their neighborhood or a community event.
Loughman responded that the council is a “business organization” that is not responsible for “boosting Montclair,” adding that there are many local organizations that “do a great job of doing that.”
“That’s why we’re having meetings that go seven hours long, because we spend too long on things that have nothing to do with running this government,” Loughman said.
Fourth Ward Councilor Aminah Toler disagreed.
“I feel that the community should be able to come up here and have their say,” Toler countered. “They elected us here. We should be able to hear from them. Sometimes we don’t want to hear everything they have to say. But where else will they have this opportunity? Yes, other civic organizations do wonderful jobs of sharing cheerful information, but I would recommend that we really think about this and ensure that any and every resident that wants to come forward and have a comment should be able to have a comment.”
“Who are we to quiet people?” Toler questioned.
Montclair interim town attorney Paul Burr said the state’s Open Public Meetings Act requires the council to permit a public comment session during its meeting, where the public can come and speak on any matter that they want to discuss.
“So we couldn’t limit it just to the agenda items,” Burr explained. “Now you can do it in two separate public comments – which is one of the reasons why the [previous] council decided to do that.”
The amended resolution reads:
“Be it resolved by the Council of the Township of Montclair, in the County of Essex, that there shall be one public comment session for public comments that will take place before the action items on the agenda during regular and conference meetings unless otherwise agreed to by a majority vote of the council or the discretion of the mayor. A member of the public may comment on any item that they want to address to the Council of the Township of Montclair; and further be it resolved that the time allotted for each person to comment during said public comment session shall not exceed three minutes unless otherwise agreed to by a majority vote of the council.”
Watch footage from the Sept. 24 meeting below (video is cued to the discussion and vote).
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