Community Voices: What Our Children Deserve From Local Government

Last night we had another round of “this is for the children” and “she’s a community volunteer” as a response to reasonable questions about the Recreation Commission’s handling of the turf field. These lines have a long tradition in Berkeley Heights and remain one of the cringiest tactics government bodies fall back on when policy goes south.

I’d like to evaluate this line by line:

The Recreation Chair’s use of private email for official business.

It’s disappointing to see the Superintendent (publicly) and the new Business Administrator (in emails to NJ21st) act as if what the Recreation Chair does in her official capacity is some kind of state secret, defended only by the argument that “she’s a community volunteer.”

Yes, she is — and we’re all grateful for her work. I know my family has personally benefited from all the great work that she does in her role and the programming the department has built for our community.

But that’s not a blank check. The chair has placed herself at the center of this issue involving public dollars and public land, in her official capacity, for years. The Recreation Department already has a director and an administrative assistant who, by virtue of their titles, should be handling this communication. And when you consider that the Chair also serves as a Tax Collector in another municipality and sits on the County Board of Elections, the narrative of “she’s just a volunteer” starts to fall apart. All of this raises the question: why is the least accountable position in government — a volunteer — using a private email account, not subject to IT inspection or OPRA requests, to manage decisions involving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars?

Board of Education members are also community volunteers, yet they have official email accounts. Township officials, the Superintendent, and the Business Administrator don’t refer to BOE members by their initials or treat their involvement in decisions as sacred texts hidden from public view. Most if not all non-profits in our community have dedicated emails for official business — and they are not even government agencies. Using official channels builds public confidence.

The Recreation Department is not a private nonprofit.

This becomes even more bizarre when you consider that the “save the children” narrative is being thrown out to distract from very reasonable requests:

1. That the Recreation Chair attend a meeting and answer questions.
2. That she provide documents connected to her decisions.
3. That she use an official email account when communicating in an official capacity
4. That the Council simply do things the right way — pass it as an ordinance and bring it back to the BOE properly.

None of this “hurts the children.”  None of these are offensive or outrageous requests.  These very basic asks should not lead to screaming and yelling.

Why hasn’t the BOE Attorney shared his position on the resolution? The fact is the resolution wasn’t passed properly — why can’t he say that? Is the fear that it will sound too much like the Township Attorney’s word salad: “a judge might rule it’s illegal, but using my crystal ball, he’ll look at everything else we did and be okay with robbing the public of the rights an ordinance would afford them”?

You know what would really help our children more than another field?

A local government that stops using them as props to justify questionable decisions.

You know what would help community volunteers?

A clear protocol for communication and decision-making, so the public has confidence their rights are protected and that decisions involving precious resources are open to scrutiny.

None of these things would prevent the field from being completed- quite the opposite actually. And it would do something far more important: ensure the dollars their families put into our community are held accountable, that the very best decisions are made on their behalf, and that they inherit a local government that preserves their rights as residents.

They can inherit not only a field, but something far more important – a cohesive government.

So let’s do this the right way….for the children.

John Migueis,
Also a Community Volunteer with an organizational email

Submitted directly by the author; content reflects their own views.

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