NJ News & Views

[Editor's Note: At 8:30 p.m. on November 25, 2010, this story was edited for style, content and accuracy.]

There is a new voice on the Lakewood Township Committee in favor of updating the Open Public Meetings Act.

Signed into law in 1975, the legislation does not require municipal government to electronically record all public meetings.

Last year, Mayor Robert Singer, a state Senator that also represents Lakewood in the 30th Legislative District, held several township committee meetings without recording them.

On December 31, Singer will conclude three decades of public service on the Lakewood Township Committee, but will continue to represent Lakewood as state senator of the 30th Legislative District.

Singer has told NJ News & Views he does not support amending the Open Public Meetings Act to require that all meetings be recorded electronically.

All Lakewood committeemen do not share the same opinion.

At the November 18 committee meeting, Mayor Steven Langert stated he would only respond to public questions that were electronically recorded.

Langert made the statement after a reporter for NJ News & Views publicly said that Langert did not respond to e-mail requests for comment.

As spokesperson for the township committee, Langert, who is self-employed, receives an annual salary of $23,583, which includes a stipend of $1,500 for the position of part-time mayor. Langert and his family also receive health benefits costing $26,748.

Total cost to Lakewood taxpayers: $50,331 per year in 2010.

Langert justified his failure to respond to all media requests for comment by referencing an April 19, 2010 posting on NJ News & Views. The posting reported a comment Langert made at Republican Party campaign headquarters on Election Day 2009, which was recorded electronically with his knowledge.

At that time, Langert, 2009 Deputy Mayor of Lakewood, had a message for some of his constituents after hearing how they had voted in the general election.

"They'd better not show up at any (township) committee meetings next year," Langert said in a videotape posted on YouTube and The Lakewood Scoop, an Internet blog.

Langert became mayor of Lakewood on January 1, 2010.

Langert's comments were directed at residents of The Enclave, an adult community on Massachusetts Avenue. On Election Day 2009, a majority of voters registered in The Enclave rejected Democrat Meir Lichtenstein and Republican Menashe Miller, incumbent candidates for township committee, and instead voted for Independent Party candidates Charles Cunliffe and Lynn Celli.

Cunliffe is a former member of the township committee. He declined to seek the Democratic Party nomination in 2008, the year Langert won his first term on the township committee in the general election.

After a reporter for NJ News & Views left Langert a voicemail request for comment upon hearing an audio recording of his remark, the Scoop took down the video, which provided incriminating evidence against Langert.

State statute NJSA 2C:12-3 addresses the crime of making what is referred to as a terroristic threat.

"A person is guilty of a crime of the third degree if he threatens to commit any crime of violence with the purpose to terrorize another or to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience," according to New Jersey criminal law.

In 1981, and 2002, the law was further amended to include terroristic threats that led the victim to believe their life was in imminent danger.

"A person is guilty of a crime of the third degree if he threatens to kill another with the purpose to put him in imminent fear of death under circumstances reasonably causing the victim to believe the immediacy of the threat and the likelihood that it will be carried out," criminal law also states.

While the United States and New Jersey Constitutions protect freedom of speech, they do not protect all speech - including threats by individuals with the intent or authority to carry them out.

Langert is not the only Lakewood official that supports electronic records.

On May 4, a reporter for NJ News & Views made an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request with Lakewood district Business Administrator/Board Secretary Robert Finger.

"Would you kindly email the job description for the position of district IT manager, including education and experience required; the date the current IT manager was hired; his successor; and the reason the position became vacant pending appointment of the current IT manager?" the reporter asked in the e-mail.

Finger responded by informing the reporter that the information would be available for inspection at district offices on May 7.

The reporter asked that it be e-mailed instead.

"It will be copied and ready for you to pay for and pick up by Friday," he responded in a May 4 e-mail.

The district does not receive a fee for documents that are sent electronically for inspection under OPRA.

At that time, the district received 75 cents per page for the first 10 pages of documents copied under OPRA.

The reporter suggested a less expensive alternative.

"If you prefer, I can call Mr. Rosenberg himself and ask for the same information, Mr. Finger; his number was on my caller ID two days after my telephone line was cut in two on April 16," the reporter told Finger. "In his voicemail message, Mr. Rosenberg said he would be right over to repair my line, even though I never called him to ask for his services."

Finger did not respond to the reporter's e-mail.

The reporter sent Finger another e-mail, this time sending a copy of the communication to board attorney Michael Inzelbuch, board member Abraham Ostreicher and district Superintendent of Schools Lydia Silva.

"Since the district IT manager has assumed liability for the vandalism to my telephone line on April 16 by offering to repair it, kindly remit payment in the amount of $64.19 for the replacement external modem I had to purchase from Staples," the reporter told the officials. "While I have insurance on my telephone line, the external dial-up modem that connected my netbook to the Internet at the time the line was cut was irreparably damaged and had to be replaced. Thank you for your prompt response to this matter."

Board and district officials did not respond to the reporter's e-mail.

They did respond promptly to the reporter's disclosure of Rosenberg's unsolicited offer of assistance.

At the board's May 11 meeting, members voted not renew the contract of Computer Manager Benson Rosenberg, which expired on June 30.

The board's only explanation for the action on the meeting agenda was "non-renewal."

Finger did not respond to a reporter's request for comment after the board meeting adjourned.

The reporter sought to ask Finger if the district was conducting court-ordered surveillance of a member of the media.

Under the New Jersey Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, the state Attorney General or a county prosecutor may seek an ex-parte order from a designated state Superior Court "wiretap" judge. The order is granted for the purpose of intercepting a wire, electronic or oral communication to obtain evidence of crimes that include murder, kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child, gambling, robbery, certain drug offenses and violations of the Casino Control Act.

Other grounds for issuing the order include bribery, racketeering and making terroristic threats.

Six years ago, government officials not only threatened terroristic action against their constituents, they and others were charged in legal papers with taking it.

Their victims' only crime was holding government officials accountable for their actions.

Less than a decade ago, 12 retail tenants of Seagull Square shopping center, located on Route 9 south near the Lakewood border with Toms River, filed a class action lawsuit against owners and managers of the shopping center for fraud and misrepresentation.

Investors in the shopping center included a member of the Lakewood Board of Education and a member of the Lakewood Township Committee.

After filing the lawsuit, crimes against the retailers and their customers increased at the shopping center.

In 2004, ice cream retailer Lynn Celli reported to police she was threatened and raped as she emptied trash behind her store after closing for the night.

Several months later, another woman visiting the shopping center while many businesses were open was abducted and raped as well.

That same year, owners of a Chinese takeout restaurant in Seagull Square reported that thieves broke into the store after closing and made off with an undisclosed amount of money.

During a meeting of the Lakewood Township Committee, Township Attorney Steven Secare publicly stated that nothing could be done to stop residents of a Toms River group home from terrorizing Seagull Square retailers.

Secare did not disclose that he represented the Lakewood owners of the group home.

Celli closed her business in Seagull Square on August 31, 2004. She told a reporter she had no other choice; she was liable for the safety of her employees and she could not even ensure her own.

Retail tenants alleged that shopping center owners and managers did nothing to protect them, even though they paid a maintenance fee for lighting and security.

Committeemen continued to tell retailers they could do nothing about the problems because the shopping center was private property.

The terror escalated in 2004 and continued the following year.

Seagull Square management informed retail tenants in writing that their stores could contain asbestos, including a free-standing fast food restaurant not built by shopping center developers.

Management told the retailers they were responsible for removal of the asbestos in the leased storefronts, but reversed that position after retail tenants provided government documents that proved there was no asbestos used in the construction of shopping center buildings.

Shopping center management also contacted utility companies that serviced some retail tenants. Management asked that the retail business accounts instead be put in the shopping center's name. Retail tenants told reporters they became aware of the deception after they no longer received their monthly utility bills.

Management, which did not pay the bills, claimed its actions were "a mistake."

Utility companies did not explain why they did as the shopping center management requested without the permission or knowledge of retail tenants affected by the action.

When Celli and other tenants of Seagull Square charged their landlord with failing to protect them, local media covered the news.

By 2006, only NJ News & Views, an independent online source of investigative journalism and editorial commentary, reported a state Superior Court ruling on the matter.

The media has continued to ignore a personal injury claim still being litigated by Celli, even though defendants in her suit include the same current and former Lakewood public officials.

When government officials legally or illegally intercept the media's communications with sources, those sources are less inclined to talk to reporters. The result is a chilling effect on the public's right to know, despite Federal and state Constitutional protections of a free press.

When government officials summarize business conducted at public meetings, instead of electronically recording it verbatim, the electorate is even less informed before entering voting booths to cast their ballot.

More than two centuries ago, a revolution was ignited with only pen and paper and word of mouth.

Less than half-a-century ago, the Information Revolution was ignited with more sophisticated technology that continues to evolve and develop.

Public access to government information needs to keep pace with the tools available to disseminate it.

The consequences facing any government that fails to fully disclose the people's business is the same in the 21st Century that it has been for millennia - anywhere in the world.

Last year, the leader of the most powerful nation in the Western hemisphere discussed government censorship with the leader of the most populous nation in the Eastern hemisphere in a town-hall-style forum.

During the Shanghai event, United States President Barak Obama called for the Chinese communist regime to ease censorship controls.

His words were not heard by most Chinese people. Chinese government censors decided at the last minute not to broadcast the event on nationwide television.

In a brief summary of the forum, the online edition of the Chinese newspaper, People's Daily, made no mention of the American president's comments about censorship.

The event was streamed online on two Chinese Internet portals, but the quality was reportedly choppy and hard to hear.

That did not deter Zhang Ziaozhe, 24, a Beijing communications student, from attempting to see it.

In a November 17, 2009 report, USA Today journalist Calum MacLeod reported that Zhang rushed to a friend's house between classes to watch Obama's first visit to her country.

"When the communications student in Beijing started flipping through TV channels to see live coverage of Obama's town-hall-style forum Monday with Chinese youth, she found nothing," MacLeod reported.

The young woman believed she would still be able to view uncensored coverage of the Shanghai forum on the Internet, according to MacLeod.

She was wrong.

Zhang could read only the official Chinese version of the event online.

"I am disappointed," she told MacLeod.