Council’s Goal: Transparency

STONE HARBOR – In September 2016, Stone Harbor began to experiment with a full council public work session before each regular business meeting. The goal was to bring greater transparency to deliberations by conducting more of them in a public setting rather than in closed standing committee.
When the experiment began, council’s six standing committees were meeting once a month. The state’s Sunshine Law prohibited more than three council members to sit on any one standing committee.
At the July 3 work session, borough council began the process of formalizing the structure of work sessions and committees which it hopes to vote on later this month.
Standing committees will meet four times a year, once each quarter. There is an option for the committee to meet more often if circumstances require, but the aim of the new structure is to bring most issues before the full council at work sessions, which are public and held twice a month.
Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour discussed the benefits of the new structure including reduction of standing committee meeting time, greater overall efficiency, more transparency and an opportunity for all members of council to hear and engage in discussion of issues in a way that meets Sunshine Law requirements.
Whether planned or serendipitous, the formalization of a new structure that aids public transparency took place at the first work session that was video recorded.
The borough is joining other municipalities that provide a video record of council meetings for the public to view at any point.
Other municipalities engaged in this type of practice have seen many residents, unable to attend meetings, respond favorably to the opportunity to see their governing body by streaming videos of meetings.
Davies-Dunhour said that the recording would be made available via YouTube but gave no details. Presumably, recordings of council meetings will be uploaded following the meeting for general public access.
The fact that this meeting was held the day before a major holiday may account for why the video was not available the day after the meeting.
Cape May City streams its meeting live and then posts the video for future access. Most other municipalities that have gone to using video technology for recording meetings do so as Stone Harbor is by posting videos after the event.
Atlantic City Electric
When Atlantic City Electric (ACE) completed its recent upgrade of electric service to Seven Mile Island, there was a great deal of resistance to the steel poles that are part of the utility’s new standard for transmission lines.
The issue had been a heated one at council meetings and played a part in the 2016 municipal elections.
With the work completed, the issue had not been discussed at council meetings for several months.
During council discussions at the work session, the issue of the overhead wires and steel poles came up.
Administrator Jill Gougher confirmed that ACE had given the borough a cost estimate of $36 million to bury the transmission system and remove the overhead transmission lines and poles. Davies-Dunhour replied to a comment from Raymond Parzych by noting that the borough may put funds in next year’s budget to hire a consultant.
The task of the consultant would be to verify the cost estimates from ACE.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.