CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect last name for the CapeGOP chairman. The chairman is Michael Donohue.
CREST HAVEN – The county commissioners have declined to consider a resident’s request to stream their meetings live on social media, but took a step toward more transparency, unanimously approving a resolution that calls for release of the audio of their meetings within 72 hours.
Previously, audio was authorized to be released concurrent with the release of the meeting’s written minutes after the minutes’ approval at the following meeting. Meetings are usually scheduled two weeks apart.
Commissioner Will Morey, who did not attend the Jan. 2 reorganization meeting at which the change was made, had been asking for increased transparency from the board for some time and suggested in November that the commissioners take steps including the audio as soon as possible.
Morey also suggested the commissioners hold meetings outside of daytime working hours — the meetings are now held mid-afternoons — but that proposal did not come up.
At the board’s Nov. 26 meeting, commissioners essentially said the board was very transparent and did not see the need for change.
At the reorganization meeting, when resident Peter Jesperson asked why 72 hours as opposed to within 24 hours, County Counsel Jeff Lindsay said the administration asked its staff how much time they required to post the audio, and they said they needed 72 hours.
The Herald has been posting the audio of the commissioners meetings on the same day as the meeting, and they are available to the public free on its website, cmcherald.com.
Jesperson asked if the resolutions on the agenda were made public before the meeting. Lindsay said they are available via an Open Public Records Act request after the meeting, when the resolutions have been adopted.
Jesperson also asked if there was a possibility of the commissioners’ using Zoom to broadcast their meetings live on social media. Lindsay said that was not a proposal before the board. Jesperson said he was asking the board if it would consider his suggestion.
“I would not,” Commission Director Leonard Desiderio said.
At the reorganization meeting Desiderio was sworn in for another full term as commissioner and again as director. He said he has now run for election 28 times since 1993.
“Just to let you know, I’m 28 and 0,” he said.
Desiderio was including municipal elections. He serves as mayor of Sea Isle City, which he likes to call “the capital of Cape May County.”
Former Superior Court judge and current CapeGOP Chairman Michael Donohue, who swore Desiderio in, noted that the reorganization meeting was the first time Desiderio’s father, Leonard, who died in 2022, had not been present to hold the Bible for his son’s swearing-in.
Desiderio was effusively praised for his leadership of county government by his colleagues on the board, in particular Commission Vice Director Andrew Bulakowski and Commissioner Bobby Barr. Barr said one of Desiderio’s traits is that “he puts talented people in place and let’s them do their job.”
At the meeting, Desiderio was designated as director of administration, emergency management and public works. Commissioner Melanie Collette was designated director of public safety and consumer affairs, Morey as director of human services and information technology, Barr as director of health, planning, economic development, the sheriff’s department and veterans affairs, and Bulakowski as director of transportation, facilities and services, and parks and recreation, including the zoo.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
