… Otherwise known as the Bronx Cheer. That’s what I have this morning for Mayor Mack and his refusal to attend and speak at tonight’s special City Council meeting convened to speak about the raises he granted and then rescinded to a few of his staffers. The Mayor apparently believes that the subject matter of the meeting involves personnel matters amounting to an invasion of the personal privacy of the employees who first received the raises and then had them taken back, both actions by the Mayor in case you have forgotten. The Mayor claims that in order to discuss this kind of matter in open, as opposed to public session, the individuals would have to asked to waive their right to privacy before the meeting, per the requirements of the State Open Public Meetings Acts (OPMA), otherwise known as one of the Sunshine Laws.
According to the account in the Trentonian this morning, Councilman George Muschal reports that the Mayor is the only person holding this interpretation of the Sunshine Law. Both City Clerk Leona Baylor and Acting City Law Director Nakia White believe that the meeting this evening is properly a public one not requiring individuals to be so asked to waive their privacy with what is known as a “Rice letter,” according to Mr. Muschal. The Mayor is standing by his interpretation, and will boycott the meeting this evening.
I am not a lawyer, but neither is the Mayor. He has stated his interpretation of OPMA. Let’s look at the law and try ours, shall we?
The statute in question is N.J.S.A. 10:4-12, Section 7.b. (3) (note: this link may not take you to the right subsection; use the arrow button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen to scroll to the correct page):
A public body may exclude the public only from that portion of a meeting at which the public body discusses: …I have given emphasis to the section that says the individual has to waive his privacy right in writing.
That’s some pretty dense language, so let’s parse this out and see whether we think the Mayor’s position is appropriate. I will list the circumstances that require either an executive session or a personal waiver, and see if any of them apply to this evening’s session. Here we go!
- Educational? – No
- Training? – No
- Social Service? – No
- Medical? – No
- Health? – No
- Custodial? – No
- Child Protection? – No
- Rehabilitation? – No
- Legal Defense? – Hmmmmm. I don’t THINK so, but I’ll say No. (Hey. don’t prove me wrong about this, guys!)
- Welfare? – No
- Housing? – No
- Relocation? – No
- Insurance? – No
- Similar program or institution operated by a public body pertaining to any specific individual admitted to or served by such institution or program, including but not limited to information relative to the individual’s personal and family circumstances? – No
- Material pertaining to admission, discharge, treatment, progress or condition of any individual? – No
These are the matters which, by law, may not be discussed in public open session, unless the individual in question responds to a “Rice letter” and waives privacy.
None of these apply.
The Council meeting tonight will not discuss any individual performance questions, or discuss discipline, or any other personal matters as discussed in the statute.
The Council meeting tonight will discuss the manner in which the Mayor granted raises in compensation of 14%, 23% and 33% in their salaries or hourly rates to employees with less than six months of service during a time of layoffs, demotions and salary reductions elsewhere in the city’s workforce.
This meeting tonight will discuss what should be appropriate levels of compensation for city department heads and other officers of city government during this time of fiscal emergency. Action to address this question via Council resolution may also be discussed and voted upon.
These matters are quintessentially public matters. Not one single item is personal in nature, nor invasive of anyone’s privacy. The subject matter is the public’s business.
If you read the law above as I do, you will see that the Mayor’s decision not to appear at Council tonight to defend his boneheaded and tone-deaf move last week is yet another decision to avoid taking public responsibility for his poor choices in office.
And that’s why I am giving Raspberries to the Mayor’s decision not to show up tonight.