Pinelands Commission chose smaller space for overwhelmed pipeline meeting

The Pinelands Commission's handling of an overflow crowd at last week's public meeting about a contentious pipeline proposal has become a controversy of its own.

At least 100 people — and possibly much more, depending on who you ask — traveled to Pemberton on the morning of January 24 to give their opinion on the South Jersey Gas pipeline, but were shut out of a public meeting.

Instead of getting to speak face-to-face with the commission's 15 members, these people were met with a closed front door and barred entry by a New Jersey State Police trooper. The second floor of the Parish Centre in St. Ann's Catholic Church had met its 260-person limit, per the fire marshal's order, before the commission's monthly meeting was even called to order at 9:30 a.m.

Three weeks before the meeting, the commission announced that they would move the meeting to St. Ann's to address a need for "additional time and a larger meeting space."

What's puzzling about that rationale is that the original location, the Ocean Acres Community Center in Manahawkin, has space for 593 seats, according to a spokeswoman for the Stafford Township Recreation. The community center, as a rule, does not allow large public meetings while the neighboring Ocean Acres Elementary School is in session..

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Multiple messages made by the Press to the commission seeking comment were not returned.

New Jersey's Open Public Meetings Act has one guiding principle: "All meetings of public bodies shall be open to the public at all times."

However, a few government transparency experts surveyed by the Asbury Park Press say they don't believe the commission necessarily violated the letter of the law, even if they should have been more accommodating.

As the meeting began inside — which featured a marathon of public comments about the pipeline proposal — frustration overtook some of the 100 or so people waiting outside.

"We want a larger space! This meeting is a disgrace!" chanted Lena Smith, an organizer with Food and Water Watch, an opponent of the pipeline plan.

Smith later gained access — if someone exited the meeting, their spot was given to the next person in line — but was quickly ejected for leading a chorus of "Shut it down! Shut it down!" in solidarity with the individuals in the rain and cold outside who were not able to participate.

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Those stuck waiting to get in eventually assembled on the side of the building, visible to the commissioners upstairs through a bank of windows. Their shouts of "Let us in! Let us in!" could be heard, muffled through the glass.

Contrast that meeting with a public hearing the next day on a proposed transmission line in Monmouth County.

Hundreds were shut out of that meeting too, but in addition to the 780-person auditorium at Middletown High School North, another 500 people were seated in the school's cafeteria where the meeting was being streamed live on a projection screen.

Near the conclusion of that event, the presiding judge indicated a second hearing might be scheduled to give an opportunity to the dozens of people on the list to speak who had not been called on before time ran out.

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In both instances, people were given the option to submit their comments in writing, an alternative that Walter Luers, a lawyer who specializes in New Jersey's Sunshine Law and the Open Public Records Act, said a court would likely see as providing equal opportunity to be heard.

“If they were intentionally trying to crowd people out or make sure people didn’t have a chance to speak, then that would be a problem," he said. "If you have the right to submit comments in writing, then I think that’s what a court would say you should do. Courts don’t want to get into micromanaging how these public agencies run their meetings.”

John Paff, a state Libertarian Party leader who runs a website chronicling transparency issues in the state, said he'd never seen a lawsuit where a governing body was challenged on public access for having too small of a meeting place.

The Pinelands Preservation Alliance, a leading voice in the debate, sent the commission an email on January 19. In that message, the Alliance's assistant executive director Jaclyn Rhoads, who shared the email with the Press, warned that the church space appeared to be too small based on the level of interest.

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Rhoads attached a news story about the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection postponing a permit hearing on a separate pipeline infrastructure matter when a meeting space in Bordentown was overwhelmed by a larger-than-expected turnout.

The experts contacted by the Press independently mentioned that regardless of what was required by law, the best course of action may have been to follow the state DEP's lead.

"In any event, whether required by (the Open Public Meetings Act) or not, the better practice by far — particularly given the controversy surrounding the pipeline — would have been to reschedule or move the meeting to accommodate the larger crowd," said Frank Corrado, a First Amendment lawyer based in Wildwood.

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Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com