Five Things You Need to Know About Tuesday's Council Meeting

1.     Councilman Jim Gorman requested an investigation into council concerning information leaked from closed session minutes to the media.

“I believe information has been leaked out that only council and the solicitor has access to,” Gorman said Tuesday night. He said he believed only one council member was involved, but didn’t name who it was.

This is not related to another investigation, in which a committee has been formed to grant Solicitor Michael Blee the power to investigate subpoenas. That committee is made up of Gorman, Deputy Mayor Don Purdy and Councilwoman Whitney Ullman. Gorman’s suggestion was to be discussed in executive session.

2.     Other matters for executive discussion included pending litigation in the matter of Lisa Tilton vs. Galloway Township and state court tax appeals.

3.     Deputy Mayor Don Purdy clarified at Tuesday night’s meeting that the 9/11 event at Patriot Lake was a last second decision, and that it was not the township’s intention to mislead residents.

“It was done on short notice,” Purdy said. “We had a wreath that was donated by Pocket Full of Posies. Two young gentlemen from the Galloway Township Middle School presented it. We thought it would be a nice, small thing to do. … Galloway had a big role at the county ceremony. We had a great presence there. I want to apologize for not (announcing the Patriot Lake) event. We didn’t do it on purpose.”

He said the township tried to push Patriot Lake as a site for the countywide event, but that the county ultimately decided on the Anthony “Tony” Canale Training Center to host the county-wide event. The township event was held Sunday morning, prior to the county ceremony.

4.     Galloway Township scored a 45 out of 50 on the Governor’s Checklist this year, good enough to guarantee the municipality will receive 100 percent of its state aid, Chief Financial Officer Jill Gougher said Tuesday night. Five percent of the aid was in jeopardy. At question were health measures and health benefits to full-time employees only, excluding council members and part-time workers.

The only dilemma where benefits were concerned dealt with the number of hours, as the municipality follows the 32-hour guideline for employees to be considered full-time officially set by the state, rather than the 35-hour guideline mentioned in the checklist. “As far as I’m concerned, we are compliant,” Gougher said.

A lack of a joint public meeting involving the municipality and the school district was also at issue, one that Gougher called “an easy one to fix.”

5.     Councilman Dennis Kleiner will be at the Go Green Galloway meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in the Historic Room at the municipal complex to discuss bringing a “good destination for mountain bikers” to a piece of land just north of the Seaview. His presentation will be made in conjunction with the non-profit bike group, Jersey Off Road Bicycle Association. The plan would be to bring a 2.5-mile loop to the area that would be able to be used by bikers. The township experiences problems with bikers using the skate park for their bikes at this time.