    
mayhewdrive
Citizen
Username: Mayhewdrive
Post Number: 231
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 2:22 pm: | 
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Just saw this posted on the forum on nj.com and thought people here would find it interesting. Sure, the dialog on nj.com tends to be much less civilized (believe it or not) than it is here. However, I thought this post was particularly relevant, since I honestly thought the exact same thing while watching the meeting last night on TV: (p.s...no, I am not the original poster of this message, nor do I know who he/she is...I am just cross posting it here for convenience)
It's amazing to me how rude our Board of Trustees is.
At Monday's meeting (4/29), a resident who wants to be involved with the redevelopment effort in town got up and asked why there hadn't been a meeting of the redevelopment task force since the board accepted the task force's findings on Feb. 10. Pres. Calabrese said it's because they weren't able to scedule a date when everybody could meet. The resident said he spoke to Pam Kaiser, the head of the task force, and she had been trying to get a meeting scheduled. At which point Pres. Calabrese told the resident something to the effect that he wasn't listening well to Ms. Kaiser.
At another point in the meeting, Elaine Harris of the Chamber of Commerce complained about some remarks that Trustee Steglitz had made about her in a previous meeting. I wasn't at the previous meeting, but it sounded like Steglitz had made a joke that maybe was unnecessary. Fine. So Steglitz's response to Harris is, "Fine. We're even now."
Who taught these men manners? In both cases, why not give the resident the benefit of the doubt and just say something like, well we have a difference of opinion, or, I'm sorry if I offended you? I don't understand this attitude that I feel at these meetings where if you get up and criticize the Board, a group that is supposed to be answering to us citizens, you feel you will be treated like garbage. I wanted to say something at the meeting, but didn't do it after seeing the way these residents were treated.
This isn't an issue about competence; it's common courtesy. And too many Board of Trustees members are lacking common courtesy.
There was then a follow-up note by the same person:
I should point out that before the meeting, Trustee Rosner came up to me, said hello and asked how I was. I didn't realize he knew my name. Anyway, that was a polite gesture and I wanted to point it out after my negative rant on manners.
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