Packed Agendas, Glossed-Over Details: 01/21/2025 Town Council Meeting

Township and prior BOE meetings often feature packed agendas and lengthy presentations, leaving residents overwhelmed and details overlooked. By the time critical items are finally discussed, these meetings often feel like staged performances or exercises in futility. The 01/21/2025 Town Council Meeting was yet another example of this, highlighting how Devanney’s Town Council has adopted the same strategy as the Reinstein-Penna BOE and Woodruff Town Council: overloading meetings to sideline essential scrutiny.

Let’s start with the positives:

• The meeting recording was uploaded promptly—a rarity compared to the usual delays.
• Remote participation was allowed, though it’s unclear if this is a new policy or an exception for a task force stacked with the Mayor’s political allies. I’ve reached out to the Mayor to clarify whether this benefit will be extended to all residents, as no formal announcement was made.

Now, on to the concerns.

Over 20 Ordinances, Zero Debate

The meeting saw over 20 ordinances passed with little discussion. These included:

• Multiple affordable housing ordinances.
• Extensions on deadlines for filing financial statements and the budget.
• New contracts for structural work on the municipal building.
• Sewer department contracts.

The lack of debate is astonishing, especially regarding the second item. The township has faced persistent issues with its financial operations. Consider this:

The last CFO resigned under circumstances resembling whistleblowing, raising concerns about financial mismanagement. The Mayor’s response? Anger over the leak rather than addressing the CFO’s concerns.

Following this, the Town Council appointed the Township Administrator as interim CFO—a highly unusual move. Only one council member, Paul Donnelly, objected. His reward? A public reprimand and an attack on his spouse.

The township then hired a part-time CFO through a questionable shared services agreement, despite ongoing financial challenges. Residents’ questions about this arrangement remain unanswered.

Yet, when extending financial and budget deadlines, the council—so vocal on BOE matters to seize control of the $63 million school budget—offered no discussion. Imagine this level of dysfunction infiltrating our education system.

The Local Ethics Board: Dissolved

Perhaps the most troubling moment of the evening was the dissolution of the Local Ethics Board, justified by the Mayor with this logic: “Neighbors shouldn’t evaluate neighbors. The state should handle this, and besides, we haven’t filled these seats in years!” (One might ask why.)
This reasoning raises serious concerns. Should all local committees be outsourced to the state? Who better to evaluate ethical behavior than those familiar with the community and its processes?
The dissolution follows a string of ethical lapses:

• The Mayor using her official title in campaign materials during the 2023 election.
• No-bid contracts awarded to political allies acting as consultants who were also hired by the Mayor’s Husbands BOE Campaign.
• Campaign donations from a township vendor to the Mayor’s husband’s BOE campaign.
• Township funds spent on a police training program that promoted unconstitutional and discriminatory practices.
• A questionable shared services agreement implicating the Mayor and Council in connection to another OSC Investigation/###a>
• Council members personally determining what documents to release in response to OPRA requests.
• Money flooding local campaigns fromquestionable sources###a>

###a>Instead of dissolving the Ethics Board, the Mayor should have argued for its restoration and strengthening. Residents deserve transparency and accountability, not a convenient erasure of oversight.

By the way, here is a clear example of how the mayor and council treat their neighbors. One can understand why they would not want people from the community to evaluate their actions.

This leads to three questions:
Is there a legitimate Republican opposition party in Berkeley Heights?
Are there legitimate “reform and repair” Democrats in Berkeley Heights?
Do you miss Paul Donnelly yet?

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