Lakewood Mayor & Committee Defiant will Keep Meetings on Zoom

Lakewood Mayor and committee defiant  vow to keep meetings online and hide from public.

At the recent virtual township meeting, the excuses kept on coming from all the committee members why they should continue the covid era practice of having meetings on zoom, at the end of the day it was pretty clear they are scared to face the Lakewood residents up front and personal and will do all they can to avoid it.

Many residents  submitted emails asking if they will resume to in person meetings beginningin 2025, a reporter for APP got on the call and asked why can't they have a hybrid option, both in person with a live stream component and residents can email or call in.

 

The mayor repeated the same excuses that in today's day and age with everyone working and traveling it is easier to have online meetings and more people can participate. Actualy gor most monthly meetings it's the same few residents who submit emails, and most people are not watching the stream at the inconvenient time of 5:30pm.

 Committeeman Akerman said that he is not opposed to resuming in person meetings but says it works better on zoom to have a quorum in case one of the committee members is not feeling well and can't come. Interestingly there is a total of 12 meetings a year average of 10 minutes each.

The committee members went to the old excuse of how they are so approachable and meet residents every day at weddings ,the grocery and in shul etc.. and therefore they are not really ignoring the residents. Well That's a nice thing to have, but there's no accountability in chit chat  while choosing bananas in the supermarket, as opposed to an official public meeting where residents have a chance to speak directly to the elected body with a face to face conversation.

Another resident mentioned that a large part of Lakewood doesn't have internet access and seniors are not tech savvy in logging into the meetings. The mayor did not respond. A petition recently circulated among lakewood residents calling for resumption of in person meetings.

citing the need for transparency, accountability, and increased community engagement. 

 The committee members raised their salaries last year alone by $20,000 and won't even bother showing up to town hall to conduct  a public meeting.

Almost all towns in New Jersey have resumed to public meetings, neighboring towns Jackson, Howell Brick Manchester all have in person meetings where officials dress up out of respect for the office and the citizens they serve.

Lakewood the 4th largest city in New Jersey deserves better from their elected officials who keep hiding from the public scared of criticism, dodging the public, and don't like to be called out by residents for what's been done to the town.