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3/05/07
Mendham:
Town Stuff:
The Next Council Meeting:
3/05/07
     By 07. 07. 07. on Monday, March 05, 2007 - 7:24 am: |
"Public comment" Questions to be asked of the Borough Council at the March 5th meeting:
Although I have seething contempt for the secretive, deceptive, and too often plainly illegal--and Un-American--policy enacted by this council, I have consistently shown you the respect of submitting politely phrased, and concisely unimposing, albeit sometimes rhetorical, public questions. Your response to that courtesy, has been misscharacterization, evasion, and a petty refusal to give the questions the honest answers they deserve.
No doubt you feel yourselves burdened and aggrieved to have to extend me the accommodation of receiving my "public comment" in writing, in advance, and without immediate in-person opportunity for follow-up interrogation. Perhaps, through that delusionary, and contrived, sense of imposition you justify the unresponsive, disrespectful, and overtly discriminatory attention you give to the questions I ask. I would argue, that with accepting power come some fundamental responsibilities, and in classically understood America, one of those responsibilities is to never destroy a free-speech "message" (equitable provision of a service), because you don't like, or personally respect, the "messenger".
In this context I reiterate the questions ignored, or dismissed with mischaracterization of the facts, at the last meeting.
1) Through what rationale does the council-justify charging what the law describes as the "not to exceed maximum" per page copying fee, when even the town's own lawyers charge 15 times less for the same service?
[Pause for answers from council members, if they provide no answer look at them intently and exclaim "well, I guess you're saying the obvious explanation can be assumed"]
2) I would inquire what it cost per-copy to have the master plan professionally printed? ...how many copies were produced? ...and has a copy been provided to the public library?
[Pause for answers]
3) I would inquire if the council has any concern regarding the Regional Board of Education's refusal to ever publicly disclose what capital projects were canceled, (as promised) to fund the voter approved $2 million transfer of funds?
[Pause for an honest answer... beyond contrived evasion]
4) New inquiry: The council has approved preposterously inflated document copy fees... that assess the same "not to exceed maximum" price, for a digital document scan--that requires no ink, toner, or paper-- and the same price for black-and-white copies as for color copies. How does the council justify this policy as fair, openness efficient, or environmentally rational?
[Pause for an honest answer... beyond contrived evasion] |
| By 07. 2....... on Wednesday, March 07, 2007 - 9:01 pm: |
Questions read by Attorney FRED SEMRAU.
[SEMRAU] 1) Through what rationale does the council-justify charging what the law describes as the "not to exceed maximum" per page copying fee, when even the town's own lawyers charge 15 times less for the same service?
[SEMRAU] Council president I would answer that... if I could.. there is a state statute... we do charge what is permitted pursuant to the state statute... and that at any time a municipality ... we've already discussed this with the administration... we can always look at our costs and see if they mirror what we are charging, we're looking into that with respect to this, and as well scanning, which is a process very similar to copying.
[my reply: Having an inarticulate attorney provide non responsive answers to the questions isn't much of an improvement... I suppose I will ask the attorney next time what he thinks his clients would think of him if his office charged 75¢ a page for black-and-white copies.]
[Council President David Murphy] ok
[SEMRAU]2) I would inquire what it cost per-copy to have the master plan professionally printed? ...how many copies were produced? ...and has a copy been provided to the public library?
[David Murphy] 2. I'll answer that because I was on the committee, It costs $60 a copy for the hard copy...a .. that may seem high to some people... but there were a lot of maps that were made from G.I.S a lot of other GIS maps... and am and a.. descriptive literature in their the was a little expensive... so $60 a copy... the public can buy it at $50 which is $10 less than cost. There was 60 copies made, and a copy had been provided to the public library, it was delivered on February 13th.
[my reply: "digital images" (gis) and "descriptive literature" (ie. text) are not something you get charged extra for. Obviously, for $60 this hundred page book (which few will read cover to cover) was printed in a foolishly extravagant manner. As for the $10 differential I'm sure the often fax quality, crooked photocopies, the town produces justifies more than a $10 differential.]
[SEMRAU]3) I would inquire if the council has any concern regarding the Regional Board of Education's refusal to ever publicly disclose what capital projects were canceled, (as promised) to fund the voter approved $2 million transfer of funds?
[David Murphy] 3. (interrupting the question) this was answered before. The Regional Board of education acts independently of the council and makes its own decisions. and that answer has been given before.
[my reply: It is the legal opinion of the attorney, that the council has legal authority to scrutinize the conduct of the school board... the question was whether council members had any concern... the apparent answer to the taxpayers paying $2 million in debt servicing a year is: that the council, like the school board, endorses lying to the public, and effectively thieving their money]
[SEMRAU][question completed]... and that's the answer
[SEMRAU]4) New inquiry: The council has approved preposterously inflated document copy fees... that assess the same "not to exceed maximum" price, for a digital document scan--that requires no ink, toner, or paper-- and the same price for black-and-white copies as for color copies. How does the council justify this policy as fair, openness efficient, or environmentally rational?
[SEMRAU]4. again on that we've looked into that, I've had some conversations with Maureen, the scanning process is very similar to that of copying, but for the paper, what I understand is the process takes the same amount of effort to scan something, but none the less it's a cost that the government records council hasn't weighed in on, so at this point we have to look internally at our own cost and see where it comes out if it is a fair cost that's being charged.
[my reply: they have been looking into it for six years... and the conclusion is always the same... lets charge as much as a judge who voted for us will allow... so we can secrete public information from convenient access. The law describes the intention that actual cost charged... and defines actual cost as the cost exempting labor. In typical lying lawyer style, the borough attorney slanders the rational intent of law to justify the criminal conduct of his clients.]
[David Murphy]thank-you, any further comment. |
| By 07. 1... on Thursday, April 07, 2016 - 9:17 pm: |
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