School Board Cuts Down Residents' Time To Comment In Basking Ridge

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — In an effort to get through agenda items and conduct business quicker the Bernards Township Board of Education voted at its latest meeting to shorten the first public comment section, yet leave the second portion with unlimited time.

The overall lengths of time for the first and second public comment sections were discussed at the latest policy meeting.

Policy Chairperson Robin McKeon said some members wanted to reduce the first comment section from 45 minutes to 30 minutes. Some also suggested limiting the second comment section from unlimited time to 45 minutes. Others disagreed on any limit.

"I personally think that 30 minutes on the first public comment on agenda items is sufficient," said board member Kirsten Light.

Vice President Nimish Amin also agreed with cutting the first section down to 30 minutes since the Board already meets more than other districts in the state.

"We meet twice a month, a lot of school districts don't provide that plus we have a second public comment opportunity limiting that to 45 minutes. It allows everybody to get through their items, everybody can still email the board, contact the board, and have a discussion with us," said Amin.

"For me, the main idea is to not necessarily have repetitive comments but to give ideas and we're more than open to listening. There is different avenues of doing that and having two opportunities per month plus two sessions each meeting to have 30 and 45-minutes seems likea good balance," said Amin.

President Keith Molinari noted that the Board's recent policy change to publish the committee meeting minutes sooner should help the public.

"I think what we are trying to do with the minutes by publishing the minutes is I hope better inform the first public comment section. So the public will be prepared about what the discussion items will be and 30 minutes should be sufficient with that," said Molinari.

Board member Jennifer White was not in favor of limiting either portion of public comment.

She said that when there are "major hot topics on the agenda" and people want to speak about it, the Board should want to hear from as many residents as possible.

She is also in favor of not limiting the second public comment.

"I very strongly feel that if you’ve come and you’ve sat in the audience and you sit through however long our meeting should be, to then be told 'Sorry we are cutting it off.' To me that's not open and transparent and asking for community input," said White.

Timothy Salmon also was also not in favor of limiting time on either public comment portion.

"What's the benefit of going from 45 minutes to 30 minutes for the first public comment on agenda items? I would think that we would want to get as much questions out there … they are on agenda items, we are reading reports, it's somethingwe are voting on. If people have questions on that at least we can discuss it during Board forum," said Salmon.

Salmon added that he didn't think it was right for a resident to wait 44 minutes then be told there isn't enough time for them to say their peace.

"You sat through 44 minutes of other people's comments - even if its repetitive or even if it's not a question, even it's just a comment or a complaint or a praise or whatever - I don't think we should be limiting that aspect of the meeting really at all. Because if someone is coming here and taking their time to come here and listen to us and to other folks in the community we shouldn't cut them off for any reason," said Salmon.

Board member Larence Rascio agreed with Salmon on not limiting the second public portion but was in favor of limiting the first portion to 30 minutes.

"...It allows us to get to other business. When you are sitting up here for an hour and you start to - even we start to lose focus- so limiting that to 30 minutes and then keeping the second one open ended," said Rascio.

Overall the Board compromised and agreed to limit the first public comment section on agenda items only to 30 minutes while keeping the second public comment portion on anything unlimited.

During the second public comment section, resident Cody Smith disagreed with limiting the comments.

"If there is some issue in some meetings and efficiancy, I don't buy that. I think we should have as much public comment as we need and like some of the comments were made and if people come here and they wait in line and they are going to comment, they should be able to comment," said Smith.

Smih also suggested that if there is an overall concern about too much public comment, for the Board to cap the meeting at a ceratin time of the night like other township committees.

"To limit public comment on agenda items or non-agenda items, I think, is misguided," said Smith.

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