Lawsuit Slams Brakes on West Deptford-Coastal/El Paso Talks

A about the ongoing property tax dispute with Coastal/El Paso, former owners of the , never got off the ground Tuesday night, after the West Deptford township committee abruptly canceled the meeting as soon as they took the dais, citing as the reason for nixing the session.

The last-minute move came after township solicitor Anthony Ogozalek Jr., who wasn’t present for the minute-long meeting, advised the committee late in the afternoon to hold off any action pending the outcome of a court date in a week and a half, Mayor Ray Chintall said.

“We just got word a couple of hours ago,” he said. “We can’t do anything.”

The call from counsel came after the township got on Monday—two days after it was forwarded to members of the media—in the lawsuit filed by Gary Kuehnapfel, who has claimed the township committee violated the Open Public Meetings Act in earlier this year.

That court order, filed with Superior Court Judge Eugene McCaffrey Jr. on March 26, requires the township committee to produce minutes, transcripts, recordings and any other records from two closed-session meetings that led to the Sunoco settlement, which will be reviewed out of the public’s eye in court during a proceeding on April 12.

It’s possible township officials will be at that court proceeding, though township administrator Eric Campo said it’s more likely the attorneys for both sides will handle the matter alone.

If Kuehnapfel wins his suit, it was void the settlement with Sunoco, which before getting approved after a closed-session meeting on March 1.

Kuehnapfel’s attorney, John Trimble Jr., said previously the suit boils down to a lack of transparency in how the settlement was handled.

“I don't understand why they're trying to hide the terms of the settlement,” Trimble said in March. “It flies in the face of what the Open Public Meetings Act is all about.”

There have also been questions raised about the presence of Sunoco officials at the January closed-session meeting, which , as well.

This meeting on the Coastal/El Paso property tax dispute wouldn’t have included any representatives from the oil company, however, Campo said.

The sudden cancellation of Tuesday night’s meeeting set off an outraged outburst from a few people in the sparse crowd, which turned into a brief argument among the public, before West Deptford police stepped in to quash the shouting before things got out of hand.

It also took the two Democrats on township committee by surprise.

“We did not know until we walked in,” committeewoman Donna Szymborski said.