Residents Mulling Legal Options After Last-Minute Weekend Committee Meeting

A group of concerned citizens is considering legal action following a last-minute meeting of the West Deptford township committee Saturday morning.

The group, including Sam Cianfarini, one of the organizers of the website wdtruth.org, and Joann Priga, both of who spoke during a marathon public session Thursday night, said they were concerned the meeting wasn’t properly advertised and violated the state’s sunshine law.

“It sure looks like a problem here to us,” Cianfarini said. “It does a real disservice to the community.”

At the meeting, township administrator Eric Campo said notice had been sent out Wednesday evening, in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act.

“The obligation is to send the notice to the paper, the obligation is not to get it printed,” he said.

The meeting was not on the original schedule sent out by the township at the beginning of the year, and the Open Public Meetings Act requires 48-hour written notice of any special or unscheduled meetings, which the Wednesday night notice met.

A search of legal advertisements in the Courier-Post and Gloucester County Times, the two official newspapers for the township, showed no published notice of the meeting, but as Campo pointed out, publication isn't a requirement.

Cianfarini, who stopped by the municipal building Thursday to get a copy of that meeting’s agenda, said he didn’t see notice of the meeting anywhere on the township bulletin board, nor did he see any notice anywhere else.

There was mention of the meeting in a two-sentence post on the Gloucester County Times breaking news blog at 4:46 p.m. Friday, which referenced the meeting as a budget workshop session.

Acting township clerk Amy Leso also said on the record that notice had been provided on Thursday for Saturday’s meeting.

However, the fact that one of the agenda items was a resolution to establish rules for the public portion of committee meetings raised questions with Cianfarini, given the marathon public session that wrapped up at 8:45 p.m. Thursday, less than 36 hours before the special Saturday meeting.

The committee passed that resolution, which limits members of the public to five minutes at the microphone and establishes Robert’s Rules of Order for the public session.

“This is not the first time this has happened,” Cianfarini said about what he called the "clandestine" nature of the meeting. “Our taxes are going through the roof, and these types of shenanigans can’t continue.”