JCPL PR Consultants Attend Hazlet Township Meeting on Power Line Proposal

Hazlet, NJ - JCP&L has enlisted the help of one of New Jersey's most powerful PR firms, MWW PR, to help sell its deeply-hated power line proposal to Monmouth County.

And, as many residents and elected officials suspected, MWW representatives did indeed attend a Hazlet Township Committee public meeting Monday night, where they were seen furiously taking notes.

"We did have a consultant from MWW in attendance at the Hazlet meeting; it might have been two," JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano told Patch. "JCP&L employees and consultants attend municipal and other government meetings on a regular basis. It is part of our normal business practice."

JCP&L is a client of MWW, a public relations firm based in East Rutherford, NJ.

"We never got any confirmation as to who the two men were, but they never announced themselves and they left pretty quietly once they started getting noticed," said Hazlet's Deputy Mayor Sue Kiley, who was at the Monday night meeting. As a Township Committee member, Kiley was part of the unanimous vote to express Hazlet's opposition to the project.

"They got spooked and left early," said Middletown resident Bernice Curto, who was also there. "It was a public forum, so can I say they shouldn't have been there? No," she added.

But another resident argues the men should have identified themselves as being there on behalf of the electric company.

"I was standing against the wall and noticed two gentlemen who were taking lots of notes and didn’t seem to fit in. I immediately told my wife I have no proof, but I’m sure they are from JCP&L," said Hazlet homeowner Robert Spinelli. "I at one point asked the town council if anyone from JCP&L was at the meeting and basically directed it at them, to see if they would speak up. They didn’t."

"Why is JCP&L sending spies into a community meeting and when called out to identify themselves, they run away?" he asked.

Both Spinelli and Curto said the men left behind trash when they ducked out. Two plastic iced coffee cups sitting on the floor, pictured above.

"JCP&L would rather put profit over our health and can't be trusted to pick up their trash at a meeting, but we're supposed to trust them not to ruin the environment?," said Spinelli.

Morano said he was not at the meeting himself, so he couldn't speak to the trash. "Is that really relevant for the story?" he asked.

A request for comment from MWW was not immediately returned.

Residents want Middletown, Holmdel to follow Hazlet's lead and take a stronger stance against JCP&L

Both the Hazlet Township Committee and the Hazlet Board of Education, two elected bodies, passed unanimous resolutions Monday night against JCP&L's proposal.

Residents say they are waiting for Holmdel and Middletown to do the same.

"We need Middletown and Holmdel to file a similar resolution and they need to come up with some money for legal representation," said Curto. "They need to fight this fight with us."

"People are very angry (as they should be) about the proposal and were very upset when the two gentlemen at the Hazlet meeting didn’t identify themselves," Spinelli said. "JCP&L should have been (there) instead of sending two people to spy on a community meeting."

Photo provided by Robert Spinelli