Resident Pursues Fight Against Township

Frances Holland said she just wanted to give her opinion on a steep slope ordinance at a West Orange Open Space and Recreation Committee meeting in March. The 71-year-old township resident, though, didn't get the opportunity.

Instead, she said, the door was closed on her and one committee member said he'd wave to her on his way out. That's the wording of a pending American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed against West Orange.

The suit, filed in April, now will enter the discovery phase next month before going to court. A request for dismissal by the township was denied in August.

"This was obviously a scheduled meeting that was advertised and pursuant to the township's ordinance ... and I was prevented from entering," said Holland, a retired attorney and 20-year West Orange resident. "I was told to wait in the hall by a town official and they would say goodbye to me on the way out."

Jessica Glicker, West Orange's public information officer, would not remark on the case, saying the township cannot comment on current litigation.

Bobby Conner, an open government attorney with the ACLU in Newark, said "it's obvious the committee has violated" the Open Public Meetings Act.

"West Orange is of the opinion that this body (West Orange Open Space and Recreation Committee) is not covered by the act and that it is not a 'public body' and we disagree with that," he said. "It is a public body that affects people's rights."

The lawsuit states, "Holland was refused entry to the meeting by a township official, who is also a committee member, who claimed there was a lack of a quorum of committee members present."

It said that when another township resident tried to enter to the committee meeting, she was told by William Sullivan, a committee member, "This is exactly what we don't need here. (The tree ordinance) took 10 month and we don't have 10 months."

Holland also says in the lawsuit that committee member Leonard Lepore told her to "sit in the hallway" and that the members would say "good-bye" when they left.

Conner said there were a majority of committee member's present for a quorum. The ACLU lawsuit names eight people who allegedly were present, including Abraham Bunis, Lepore, Daniel Jonas, Roslyn Brown, Joe McCartney, Sullivan, Susan McCartney and then-member Robert Parisi. Parisi attended the meeting via phone. There are 10 members total.

The lawsuit also alleges that West Orange denied an Open Public Records Act request for the meeting's minutes, stating that "no records existed."

According to the lawsuit, Bunis, the committee's chairman, wrote that he was told four members would be absent from the meeting and, thus, there was not enough for a quorum or to create minutes.

Conner said, though, despite what Bunis "felt," there was a majority present and, therefore, the committee is required to take minutes and open the meeting to the public.

"It seemed that when people showed up to participate in the process is when they shut it down," he said. "Going forward, we want the court to declare that meeting complies with the law."

Conner said the meeting was publicized in the local newspaper and on local billboards.

"It's alarming to us that this committee has been working with the Open Public Meetings Act by filing postings and then when we brought (the lack of minutes) to the attention of West Orange, instead of saying, 'Yeah, you're right,' they said, 'This meeting doesn't apply,' " said Conner. "We had thought after the motion to dismiss that this case would settle and what we wanted was very simple."

Conner said the ACLU is asking the township to produce minutes from the March meeting and apologize to Holland. He said depositions likely will begin in early January.

"I anticipate that we're going to depose the current mayor, other members and all the meeting minutes of this committee," he said. "We will see who showed up and really the practice of this meeting."

Holland said the meeting's procedure didn't follow the law and she wants the township to accept that responsibility.

"It's important that citizens be allowed to participate in government," she said. "After all, that's where they get their power from."