Public can review meetings of TTF but not of subcommittees

Kearns explained that OPMA, a state law that requires that public meetings be open to any citizen, only applies to the entire TTF because that is what is considered the governing body. The subcommittees, he explained, “are not the majority of the governing body” and are therefore not reviewable by the public.

Township Mayor Chad Goerner, however, encouraged transparency regardless of whether the OPMA applied to some, but not all, of the TTF’s meetings.

“We should be using open public session as much as possible,” he explained.

Mark Freda, who chairs the entire TTF, added that the TTF has asked the subcommittees to the follow OPMA as much as possible.

The TTF also concluded that the new merged government would decide which government employees would be required for operations after consolidation in January on a case-by-case basis. Kearns further clarified that if the current governing bodies ask an employee to stay until a certain date in 2013, then the severance package would be at the discretion of the new governing body.

“The sooner we can tell people, the better,” Freda added.

Freda, also chair of the TTF Public Safety Subcommittee, said the subcommittee’s primary aim at the moment is to come to a recommendation on the future staffing in the new consolidated police department. Legal details as to the exact division of tasks between the new Princeton police and the University’s Department of Public Safety have not yet been clarified.

“There was a hope that the Department of Public Safety could be utilized in matters of significant policing, that they could be a backup agency to the police department,” Freda said. “[But] they don’t carry guns ... so you can’t put non-armed people in harm’s way,” he explained. Public Safety includes sworn officers with full power of arrest who wear bulletproof vests. But they only carry pepper spray and batons despite a public campaign by the Public Safety union to allow arming.

Earlier at the meeting, the TTF discussed whether to institute a conflict-of-interest policy in the new government. The Township has voted to pass the policy; the Borough, however, had discussed but not voted on a new policy.

“The Borough felt strongly that it will be up to the new government to choose who to hire and who not to hire,” Borough Councilwoman Jo Butler said. As a result, the Borough felt that it was not necessary to vote on it now.

The subcommittees are still making internal arrangements. The Joint Finance Subcommittee, for example, is working on reviewing and combining budgets, including estimating the transition cost and savings. The TTF Personnel Subcommittee is working on a memo outlining consolidation benefits and will have recommendations for the TTF for May 16, when the next meeting will take place. At this next meeting, the TTF will have recommendations from multiple subcommittees. At the suggestion of Goerner, a couple of discussions were put on hold until the TTF receives these recommendations.