Communication is a two-way street.
My name is Donald Brauckmann and I have been a Cinnaminson Township Committeeman since 2010, I was mayor in 2012, and have been the township committee liaison to parks and recreation and its advisory committee since 2011. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee is established by township code and its primary purpose is to advise the township on recreation policy and to assist the township in allocating field and court usage. The advisory board’s composition states: The board shall have seven members, each appointed by the township committee. At least one member shall be a member of the township committee. At least two members of the Recreation Advisory Board, serving in staggered terms, shall be appointed from officers of organized sports groups in the township to the greatest extent possible.
During the township committee meeting on Monday, Feb. 27, there was an appointment being made to this advisory board which led to a discussion and disagreement between me and other members of township committee. I was opposed to this appointment because, as the liaison to parks and recreation for the past six years, one of my nominations to this advisory board was pulled off the agenda on the day of our reorganization meeting held on Jan. 2 by the mayor elect. My nomination was for a member of a Cinnaminson Recognized Sports Organization, or CRSO, board. Furthermore, our advisory committee has always, for the past six years that I have been its liaison, been comprised of at least two members of our sports boards in accordance with township code. My nomination would have put us in compliance with our own code.
The fact patterns supporting my assertions are as follows. On Dec. 30, at least two committee members learned of their committee liaison assignments for the first time when a draft township agenda of the reorganization meeting was emailed to committee members. Immediately preceding this email, I received another email from our township clerk that stated the deputy mayor elect was asking who I wanted to nominate to the vacancies on our Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. Over the weekend and after checking with two residents who previously expressed interest directly to me and receiving confirmation that they would accept, I submitted these two names to the township clerk on Jan. 2 at 1:56 p.m. At 4:26 p.m., I was advised via email from the mayor elect that one of my appointments was okay, but one was being pulled off by him pending “further vetting”. I was never called, consulted, or advised there was an additional name submitted at this time and as a result, only one person was nominated, leaving one vacancy.
Over the next five weeks, I was never consulted on my nomination, asked if there were any additional nominations I would like to make or told that there was another person nominated by another committee member. On Feb. 6, during a township meeting, the candidate I nominated asked our mayor about the position and was told that unfortunately, the position had been offered to someone else but that he was waiting on that person’s response. On Feb. 8, in response to another nomination request from me, I received a reply from our mayor stating that, “We’ve been waiting for a response from a candidate who had already been offered the position. That candidate contacted me yesterday and accepted the invitation so the vacancy has been filled.” This was five weeks after my initial nomination was pulled by the mayor. At this time, the mayor still did not even give me the courtesy of telling me who he offered this positon to.
During the discussion at our township meeting on Feb. 27, the mayor correctly pointed out that there was a political caucus discussion that occurred on Dec. 8, where certain appointments were discussed, primarily who will be mayor and deputy mayor for the upcoming year. He also correctly stated that I did leave this meeting early. This does not, however, explain why I was never contacted via email, phone, or in person over the preceding four weeks leading up to the reorganization meeting by our mayor elect — the person primarily responsible for coordinating the assignments of our boards, committees and professional appointments.
Note: Many of our appointments are not filled during a caucus meeting as these individuals still need to be contacted to see if they will accept the position being offered. Further confirmation of this fact is that there were at least two committee members that did not learn of their committee liaison assignments until the afternoon of Dec. 30 — just three days prior to our reorganization meeting. This also doesn’t answer why I was asked to provide names of my appointments by the township clerk via the deputy mayor on the Friday before the meeting on Jan. 2 after I learned I would be the liaison to parks and recreation. After receiving this notification and request, I quickly acted and communicated accordingly.
The entire premise of the new park ordinance that we just adopted was to give precedence to our CRSOs and the nomination of a non-CRSO board member runs directly contrary to the new ordinance that our mayor was instrumental in recommending. Our township code’s language is very specific that at least two members of the advisory board “shall” be appointed from officers of organized sports groups in the Township to the greatest extent possible. The word “shall” means generally imperative or mandatory so this is not discretionary. The “to the greatest extent possible” is non-applicable as there were two CRSO Board Members who previously asked to be considered for future vacancies prior to this nomination of a non-CSRO board member — a fact that would have been easily presented had someone simply asked. This was the reason for my voting “no” on the appointment and contradicts the quote made by our mayor in the Cinnaminson Sun article that “there was no communication between Brauckmann and the rest of committee.” Communication is, in fact, a two-way street and as shown above, the failure to communicate was not on my part in this regard.
Respectfully,
Donald Brauckmann
Cinnaminson Township Committeeman
Liaison to Parks and Recreation
