Moorestown Resident Fires Back At Republican Candidates' Flyer

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Moorestown resident Roberta Scott voiced her criticism of the latest flyer from the Moorestown Republican Party in a Letter to the Editor, which can be found below.

To the Editor:

The recent ad distributed by the Republican candidates running for town council is rather misleading and troublesome. Truth still does matter, so I think it’s important to address these statements:

70% of Council meetings had closed door sessions –Council did hold closed sessions that were done to discuss ongoing litigation in relation to affordable housing fairness and compliance hearings. This is one of the only 10 circumstances under which council is permitted to hold closed sessions, according to NJ's Open Public Meetings Act ("Sunshine Laws"). It is important to note that no council members (Republican or Democrat) were excluded from these sessions. Discussing these matters in public would have significantly weakened our position in litigation. Therefore the implication that council holding closed sessions is somehow bad governance is at best misleading, at worst suggests a troubling lack of knowledge of New Jersey's Sunshine Laws.

Postings of video recordings stopped — Beginning in April 2020, council meetings have been livestreamed, and the recordings are available almost immediately at https://www.moorestown.nj.us/129/Agendas-Minutes, at the bottom of the page.

Millions awarded in no-bid contracts — The law in NJ is extremely clear on when contracts can be awarded without a bid, and the Democratic led council has never violated that. The current council brought more transparency to appointing township professionals — which is approximately 20% of our non-salary budget — than has existed for many years. Council issued a request for proposal for all professional services in 2019. Vendors were interviewed, references were obtained, and township staff (the people working closely with contractors) were asked for feedback on to ensure the selection progress reflected expertise and input from the end users. Five of those professionals were rebid in 2020. One contract that was awarded without a bid was the Lenola Streetscape project. The council had applied for and received a Design Assistance Grant and in order to get those funds, they had to choose a federally approved contractor, which they did (that entire contract will be reimbursed by the grant).

Additionally, the candidates propose they will do exactly what the Democratic led council is currently doing, namely opening the bidding process, timely posting of council meetings (see above about meeting livestream and recording) and listening sessions (the Mayor & Deputy Mayor started these sessions every month starting 3/19 until COVID-19 shut them down). Claiming they will start doing things that the Democrat majority have already done doesn’t seem like a “fresh start” but rather a continuation of good policy that was already in place by the Democrats.

We are a small town and should not be falling prey to the national bi-partisan rhetoric that strives to divide and scare us for political gain rather than bring us together to create positive change. What ever happened to our Quaker roots?

And it is for that reason, I support Dave Zipin, Sue Mammarella and Jake Van Dyken for Town Council as they will work to bring Moorestown together, not tear us apart.

Roberta A. Scott