North Bergen, NJ, -  The North Bergen Concerned Citizens Group says the town clerk and commissioners are routinely violating the Open Public Meetings Act and withholding information from the public. The organization is calling upon  Mayor Sacco and the town commission to provide more information to the public about town meetings and  to support legislation sponsored by State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D- Bergen) that would strengthen the public’s right to know how local governments operate.

  The NBCCG co-chair  Marissa Suarez, says the residents are being denied the right to  how local government spends taxpayer money and what decisions are being made by the town’s governing body. She zeroed in on the town commissions meeting agenda’s which lack any detail about matters that will be addressed by the commission.

“To be a good citizen, you need to be informed about what your government is doing. Unfortunately in North Bergen, the governing body does everything within its power to withhold information from the public,” said Suarez.

Mario Blanch, the attorney for the NBCCG, said the commission purposely refuses to produce an itemized agenda for each commission meeting, detailing what matters will be discussed or voted on. He also noted that the commission refuses to provide an itemized bills list on the agenda. 

 “Mayor Sacco and the commission are  violating the spirit and the intent of the Open Public Meetings Act by producing agendas that are worthless to any citizen who has an interest in the actions of the commissioners,” said Blanch. "Each month the commission routinely pays bills amounting to tens of thousands of dollars without informing the public who is being paid and how much taxpayer money is being spent.”

The attorney also noted that the commission schedules meetings at a time of day – 11 a.m. – when most people are working and cannot attend.

“Mayor Sacco and the commissioners are doing everything in their power to hide what their actions from the public,” added  Blanch. “No other municipality in the area schedules public meetings of its governing body at 11 a.m. on a weekday. I know, I checked.”

NBCCG  co-chair Michael Kruetzer, said the organization is forming a petition to demand that the commissioners provide detailed agenda’s 72 hours in advance of their meetings and move the meetings to the evening so more people can attend. He said the agenda’s should be available online to any resident who wants to view them. 

“I don’t think our demand is unreasonable,” said Kreutzer. “Residents deserve the opportunity to review the actions under consideration by the commission and they have a right to know how the commission is spending their money. That is not possible now with the way the commission and town clerk operate.”

Blanch said that he is challenging Mayor Sacco, who also serves as a state senator, to support Sen. Weinberg’s legislation  S-1451, that would update and modernize Open Public Meetings Act,” commonly known as the “Sunshine Law,” in order to address changes to the operating procedure of public meetings since the enactment of the law in the 1970s. The bill would include quasi-governmental organizations – as well as independent authorities, redevelopment entities and improvement authorities – under the provisions of the law, and would require a public body to provide electronic notice of a meeting on its Internet site, as well as access to meeting minutes, agendas, resolutions and ordinances, if it maintains an Internet site.

“North  Bergen would be a better place if Mayor Sacco stops putting barriers in the way of people who have a right to government information. He needs to stop presiding over a government that operates in the shadows and create a government that, as the law says, operates in the sunshine for all to see,”  said Blanch.