Category: State Matters

What Berkeley Heights Residents Should Know About “the Line”

What is “the Line”? The Line refers to an inherent Ballot design structure unique to NJ that lists candidates according to an endorsed slate versus according to the office they seek. A typical primary ballot design in other states lists candidates according to the office they are seeking, for example, Nevada and Delaware: This is what a NJ Primary Ballot...
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Berkeley Heights BOEBerkeley Heights Town CouncilBerkeley Heights Town GovernmentState Matters

Easier Way for BH to Reach Out to Representatives

We are happy to announce that Berkeley Heights Residents have an easier way to contact their Government Representatives. We are publishing our Town Council, BOE, and State Representative forms. These forms allow you to contact every member of each body at once and allows BHCW to create an inventory of issues residents are communicating to government representatives about. We created...
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Note From AdminsState Matters

What’s Important to Know About NJ This Week – 03/16/2024

OPRA Safe (for now), Momentum for Abolishing the Line grows, Pre-Schools Get More Support, ADU’s Get a Boost, A Different Perspective on the Affordable Housing bill The Public Successfully Fights Back Legislators on OPRA Overhaul New Jersey Monitor A hotly debated bill to overhaul the state’s public records law was pulled from consideration Thursday after days of fiery complaints from...
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State Matters

New Jersey Fights Back an Era of Darkness

For now…. The Bill that threatened OPRA was pulled from the agenda by Assembly Speaker Coughlin, who followed up with a post on Twitter: More than a few people have suggested that the victory is temporary, as the Governor did not want his decision to sign or veto the Bill to complicate his wife’s bid for the Senate. One source...
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State Matters

Elected Representatives in NJ Need to Stop Hiding Behind “Leagues” And “Associations”

Before getting started on this, I want to acknowledge our Mayor, every single member of our Town Council, and the four BOE Members who publicly conveyed their opposition to NJ legislation that seeks to destroy the Open Public Records Act, which would be catastrophic for NJ residents. With one day left, I hope Ms. Bradford, Ms. Stanley, and Ms. Penna do the...
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State Matters

Sarlo’s Terrible OPRA Bill Passes Committee – Up for a Vote on the 18th

Scutari, Sarlo, and Danielsen passed their “let’s hide all the shady things we do” bill through the committee today. As we reported earlier, Scutari threw out independent voters off the committee and installed puppets. The most incredible thing witnessed was the complete ignorance and outright lies about OPRA that were used as justification for the bill. For example: As CJ...
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State Matters

Update on The Battle to Save OPRA – 12:00pm

BHCW submitted its testimony on the OPRA bill to the Senate and Assembly last night with an update today as the petition continues to add signatures.  We also joined the WFP, ACLU, LWV, and 120 other organizations throughout the state in signing a letter opposing Sarlo and Danielsen’s bills to destroy Opra. Berkeley Heights BOE Representative Sai Akiri and Town Council-member Margaret Illis are...
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State Matters