By TONY MARQUIS | The Moorestown Sun
Though the trial period of Council Connect is over, some residents, who found the informal meetings helpful, would like to see them reinstated.
The program, introduced in September, let residents address Council and township officials with questions or concerns, from noon to 1 p.m. every Friday in the conference room of the Moorestown Public Library. At their Jan. 4 meeting, Council members called the program successful, but also said it was a drain on time and resources.
While Council is welcoming ideas about how to continue running the program, there are no meetings scheduled — and no guarantee they’ll return.
“It’s tough for all of us — everyone on Council has a full-time job, so it was tough for us to make the commitment to be there every Friday,” mayor Dan Roccato said.
An average of four residents showed up to each meeting, according to Roccato.
“We had a pretty good turnout, it was a little hit-or-miss — we didn’t know what to expect,” Roccato said.
Moorestown resident Margo Foster, 71, said she went to a few of the Council Connect meetings.
“I had some things I didn’t understand and I wanted to ask them without feeling uncomfortable in front of the whole Town Council and everybody,” she said.
Foster, a member of Save the Environment of Moorestown, attends regular Council meetings, but she found the township officials more “at ease” during the Council Connect meetings.
“You feel a little more personal, rather than intimidated,” said Foster, who went to the meetings to ask questions about the town’s heavily debated third-round plan for affordable housing.
No policy changes came from the meetings, but the township did ask police to step up enforcement to improve bicycle safety on Main Street after a resident brought up the issue, according to Township Manager Christopher Schultz.
“We had some really good feedback,” Roccato said. “We had some good ideas about bike safety we had a lot of input about COAH.”
The idea for the program came from nearby Haddonfield, where mayor Tish Colombi has been holding meetings similar to Council Connect for the last few years.
The meetings also helped satisfy a pledge made last year of increased communication, according to Roccato.
Along with Council Connect, the township held six budget workshops and worked to improve its quarterly newsletter.
Now, Roccato said Council is working on finding a way to “re-engineer this thing to make it still available to folks, but perhaps less taxing.”
At its Jan. 4 meeting, deputy mayor John Button suggested holding the meetings once per month and extending them to an hour and a half. Roccato said it’s possible the Council Connect meetings could be held before the new separate, monthly executive sessions.
Whatever Council decides, the meetings earned it a little goodwill from at least one Moorestown resident.
“It made me feel good,” Foster said. “I don’t have any concerns right now, but if I do, I would go back.”
