What’s Important to Know About Berkeley Heights This Week….

This week’s newsletter starts in Trenton, picking up where we left off last week on the battle over OPRA with additional coverage on the Affordable Housing bill. We begin with a fierce battle on 3/11 that saw a packed room at the hearings and OPRA advocates throughout the state tear the proposed legislation apart, exposing Sarlo’s ignorance of the current law and the lies and misrepresentation of the law from the NJ School Board Association and NJ League of Municipalities, which advocated for less transparency.

We saw our community unite as our Mayor, Town Council, and four Berkeley Heights BOE Members (Foregger, Khanna, Akiri, and Joly) joined people and organizations state-wide to pressure legislators to pull the bill. We also provide coverage of municipal representatives pushing back on state efforts to increase affordable housing.

We move on to the agenda for the 03/18/2024 presentation, which includes substantial items such as the budget, transportation, and new business items that may finally see our attorneys put to a vote.

From there, we demonstrate how delays by BOE members in providing information to community members and admissions to Violating OPMA were part of an overall strategy of admitting to breaking one law to avoid ethics sanctions —made effective by the continued unwillingness of the OAL and Union County Prosecutors office to hold government officials accountable.

It is NJ, after all.

As always, we end with important news from around the state and weekly notes.

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