The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to [email protected].
Question:
Hi thanks for everything you do for the town.
Township meetings are a important part of how the government works. It also gives the residents opportunities to speak directly to the committeemen. The township has been holding them virtually which obviously makes it less conducive for people to participate.
In the interest of transparency it’s the right thing to return to in person meetings. There isn’t any COVID excuse as the zoning and planning board are all in person.
Thanks
Response from Mayor Coles:
Good afternoon,
I appreciate the kind words & your question, but I don’t fully agree with your conclusion.
During the time we have held virtual meetings, participation from the public has grown to much higher levels than it was when we were in person. People have the option to send an email early in the day, to email questions during the meeting or attend the virtual meeting and participate in real time. They can do all this from the comfort of their homes and not to go out at night in the cold or bad weather.
Additionally, the entire township committee is very easy to communicate with. I get numerous phone calls and emails from residents almost every day, including these “Ask The Mayor” Questions. I rarely make it through a trip to Lowes or Home Depot (and I am at one of them several times a week!), without someone giving me the “Don’t I know you look?” and I always stop to have a personal conversation. Many times it is just a hello, but more often than not there is a question or problem they ask for help with.
I know the rest of the committee have similar interactions on a daily basis, because many times they contact me to get something looked into or to be studied for a future meeting.
The staff at town hall constantly field questions and come to the committee for help in resolving these situations for our residents
At the end of the day it is about making it easy for our residents to contact their representatives and make government work for them. There is no reason for someone to wait a whole month to ask us a question, when we can hopefully answer it and solve problems as they arise.
Thanks for reaching out
Ray
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Still haven’t answered why you can’t do both, respond to emails and hold in person meetings. Stop Dodging The Question. Lakewood is the only township that does not have in person meetings.
The mayor’s reply does not answer the question. It’s very nice that the members of the committee are available to the residents of Lakewood. That does not answer the question of why the meetings are still being held virtually. They can have in person meetings and still get emails from residents all day, to which they can reply in person at the meeting or by sending and email reply. The residents of Lakewood still have a right to be present at in person meetings and there is absolutely no reason to continue virtual meetings where some committee members don’t even turn on their cameras so that they can be seen. This situation is ridiculous. Mr. Mayor, if you can go to Lowe’s and Home Depot several times a week and meet people, you can have an in person committee meeting. (If you wear a mask in those stores, you can put on a mask at the meetings too).
So why can’t they have both?
Have in person meetings with a zoom hook up, and read people E-mail’s while at the meetings?
If this is to make it better for the residents why can’t they do both?
I think the questioners point was kind of circumvented here.
The question was regarding those who don’thave online access.
Additionally, the response that allowing online participation has expanded civic interaction is also a bit disingenuous. Going back to in person meetings does not preclude allowing emails in advance or an online component (both allowing the public to watch online and to participate online) while still going back to having the actual meeting in person.
i have sent in a questions in the middle of township meetings a number of times and they have bounced back. They do NOT accept emails they dont want to read in the middle of meetings. The committee is not transparent at all, and is doing everything they can to dodge accountability in a public setting. They dont represent the average citizen of Lakewood.
In all honesty I’ve been to planning board meetings that got canceled bec of no quorum. I deff see an advantage of being virtual.
If you are on the board it is your duty and responsibility to show up at meetings. There should never be “no quorum”. If you can’t attend meetings give up your position.
My husband has called the Mayors office on numerous occasions about a problem always get the secretary she always tells him i will tell him but he never gets back with an answer no one does so much for caring about us citizens this is just a social club called the township committee .