The Lakewood Township Committee Virtual meeting last week was plagued with technical issues. Committee members had technical trouble hearing each other and at some point voted by giving a thumbs up on the screen and had to abstain on another vote after not being able to hear the reading. Despite all that the Mayor deflected criticism from the public who sent in emails demanding a return to in person meetings. A point was made that the public is very restricted to speak up on the zoom calls vs in person meetings where there's a give and take and can speqk with passion without the mayor shutting down the allotted time to speak as is done online or speed reading the submitted emails. Why can't they have a hybrid system by returning to in person meetings and allow the public to submit emails if covid is a concern.
The mayor responded that in person meetings are to be the way of the dinosaur by saying " the days of going down to a township meeting are long over as there are more ways to reach out and communicate to the committee. He said their jobs are 24/7 as the members are constantly approached by individuals.
The virtual meeting was held with only 4 members as Mike Delia was not present.
Several emails were sent opposing the salary increase for committee members asking them why they keep taking money from the cookie jar instead of giving back to the tax payers and lowering taxes. Others asked why are they again increasing salaries for them selves as they don't work so hard only log in to the meetings for justv20 minutes a month.
Here too the mayor responded that the salary raise and increase is across the board for all township employees since they have to compete with the private sector as they were loosing talented good skilled workers. Despite the committee taking another raise they said they are not doing it for the money, but they love their job ro help the Lakewood Community.
If the raises are to be competitive, why are the elected officials (township committee) geting a raise too? There are many township job that have been held by the same people for years, why did those positions get a raise? Look at the salaries they are far ahead of the private sector.
ReplyDelete"we on the committee work 24/7" "we can't go anywhere without someone asking us about township blah blah."
ReplyDeleteIf they had normal office working hours people wouldn't need to chase them down at chasunas to talk to them. The fact is they are on offhours all day. And yes of course they might get a call about an emergency at 2am, that doesn't excuse them not having normal working hours. Let them show us daily working schedules, they won't because they can't.
Anyone know why the deputy mayor gets paid more than the others on the committee? what extra work does the deputy mayor do?
ReplyDeleteThe corruption in front of our eyes is mindboggling. It is no wonder that Jackson
ReplyDeleteresidents don't want Lakewood style development.
Every single govt body in the country is returning or has returned to in person meetings because they understand their position and show respect to the people who elected them in Lakewood the govt spits you in the face with their daily corruption pilfering from the taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteThey are cowards who are petrified to face the public face to face and cannot take any criticism in a public setting when they can be confronted.
The Lakewood vaad is responsible for all this as they are the puppeteers who control the puppets and can put a stop to all this madness in an instant.
The complacent media is also at fault while showing to be all macho and journalists when it is about Jackson doing the work for developers, for lakewood they cover it up and ignore the severe quality of life issues and corruption
I think things will be back in person at the latest following the June primary. Ray knows, with this salary increase, it's worth keeping his job on the Township a little bit longer. If opposition candidates all call for meetings to resume in person, Ray will be in a tough position to insist it must continue remotely. We just need to get the right candidates in there, but it can be done. We're tired of being taken for fools.
DeleteEven if they return to in person meetings it won't help as they did everything to inconvenience the public from attending. They have the meetings at 530 in the afternoon when no one can come it used to be 730. They limited the speaking time for comments to 4 minutes and they cut you off.
ReplyDeleteIf they are uncomfortable with their jobs and can't take the heat let them all resign
The 4th largest city in NJ deserves better
Not to mention, meetings were twice a month and now it's reduced to once a month.
DeleteOcean county board of freeholders needs to disband the township committee, and replace it with a modern day governing system similar to jackson and toms river. Look at the election turnout township committee does not represent Lakewood, tiny portions of the population actually voted for them. They don't represent anyone, not the old nor the new Lakewood.
DeleteRay Coles and Mike D'Elia are the reasons the times were changed. They both happen to be up for reelection this year. If we vote them out and replace them with two younger individuals, everything will revert back to normal.
DeleteLol sweet dreams.
DeleteLike fools we will vote them back in after the big planned ribbon cutting for Vine Street and Vermont the lapdog media will have breaking exclusive photo ops it will be marketed as the biggest event solving all of Lakewoods traffic
ReplyDeleteThey are too busy to show up in person once a month for a half hour public meeting. If they are too busy to show for a meeting, they are too busy and preoccupied to work for us. They might be on call 7 days a week, but they are certainly too busy to properly do their township jobs. They should all immediately just resign in disgrace. The reason Delia gets away with not working at all, is because the other four don't work that much either.
ReplyDeleteExactly, it's hard to tell D'Elia isn't there if no one shows tgeir faces anyway. Do the committeemen even get dressed for this job?
DeleteI stay in my boxers. No need to get all dressed up.
DeleteIf that's so, I'll give you a huge thank you for making the effort to respect us by putting on your boxers. We've been so disrespected recently by the committee that it wouldn't be a surprise if you weren't wearing boxers either.
DeleteAt least that, goodness. Imagine if the cameras accidentally got turned on!
DeleteThis meeting Delia was a no show. Last meeting his responses were unintelligible. The meeting before he got disconnected after 15 minutes, and that was after joining late.
ReplyDeleteAckerman missed the first few motions of the meeting due to technical difficulties, the others couldn't bother to wait for Ackerman's issue to get fixed. Some items in consent agenda were voted on by just two members as miller abstained. Is that acceptable 2 of 4 present members voting on items?
Corruption before our collective eyes and we have no mechanism to say "boo" other than to vote these people out of office, which we must do NOW.
DeleteCan't vote them out of office if there's nobody competing against them in the primaries,and the local gop and dnc are both an old boys club.
DeleteThere's only one way this corruption will end immediately . Only if the secular press does an expose on this.
ReplyDeleteThere's nobody that benefits from the meetings being remote only, except for the 5 members of the township committee. That's all you need to know.
ReplyDeleteAnd the puppeteers.
DeleteStop complaining and start a recall petition.
ReplyDeleteThere's no recall ability in the Lakewood township government, and they refuse to make an ordinance to allow it
DeleteWell then this will be a process. Remember whom to not vote for when their time is up.
DeleteTheir time is up this year. Flip the two seats up for election and we'll have a majority of normal people.
Deleteif theyre so into serving the lakewood community let them retire and give some others a chance to serve the puvlic since "they arent in it for the money"
ReplyDeleteive always said their should be TERM LIMITS for the township committee men its certainly no different then any elected position and if they they really mean to serve the public and get nothing out of it let them prove it by stepping down and retiring!
Normal people don’t run
ReplyDelete“I’ve always said…” since you’re anonymous we have no way of verifying that.
ReplyDeleteTrust but verify, indeed.
Delete