Our intern Jake went to the Montclair Town Council meeting last night so you wouldn’t have to. This, you may recall, was supposed to be the big meeting where the council would decide whether to declare the Marlboro Inn a historic landmark.
When the meeting started, Jake said, the room was packed.
First, however, there was other business to attend to, like the town’s affordable housing policy. (What, you don’t think $500,000 for a three-bedroom Cape is affordable?) Then the council went into executive session to deal with the problem with all those hussies at the Montclair Women’s Club throwing their loud parties and keeping all the neighbors up at night.
Four hours later, the moment for the Marlboro Inn had finally arrived. The council came out of executive session and said they couldn’t read the actual ordinance about the Marlboro Inn. They did read the title of the ordinance, which, by the way, was on the agenda at 7:30 pm when the meeting started.
Oh yeah, no public comment, either. There will be a public hearing, however, on June 30.
The Barista has tickets for the Yankees-Red Sox game that night, so, uh, Jake? You available? It’ll be exciting. We promise.
Does anybody know what really went on behind the closed doors? If so, leave a comment below.
Any ordinance that will be voted on and made law must be posted or made available to the public. That is why on first reading of a new ordinance, someone must make a motion that the ordinance “be introduced and advertised as required by law for a hearing on…” such and such a date.
Public comment is required at the second reading (before they vote on it).
Thus endeth the (civics) lesson.
It’s “The (Montclair) Woman’s Club”, singular. When I see a mistake in a (newspaper) article I have to suspect any “facts” included.