Mike Castro on Joint Meetings of Borough Governing Bodies

By Mike Castro, Member, Zoning Board of Adjustment

I would like to suggest that both mayoral candidates, and the council candidates, commit themselves to re-instituting regular, joint meetings of the Mayor, Council, Planning Board, Board of Adjustment, and Board of Education.

When I joined the Board of Adjustment in 1994, such meetings were routinely held three times a year; over the past few years, they have been held less frequently, or not at all.

As a member of the Board of Adjustment, I found these thrice-yearly meetings quite valuable: they gave me a chance to meet and interact with people involved in different aspects of borough governance, and helped me stay abreast of issues affecting North Plainfield.

Although not a public forum in the fullest sense of the word (residents did not have the right to directly participate in the discussions, but sometimes did address the meeting), these meetings could also be valuable to residents at large — seeing who’s there representing the various boards, what they have to say, which issues get raised, which don’t, etc.

And, meeting people from the different boards can make it easier to know whom to contact when concerns arise, or make it easier to speak with these individuals when you see them around town.

At the least, these joint meetings seem to be a small step toward making more information available to the public (including the members of the various boards), and toward maintaining an open governing process.