Morgan and Weinberg should resign

The proceedings of the Highland Park Municipal Democratic Committee’s meeting of October 11, 2009 should be voided because the committee had no quorum yet made an important decision of selecting three names to fill a current vacancy on the Highland Park Borough Council.
Notice of the Sunday night meeting was sent via email on Friday, October 9 at 5 PM, but a number of committee members never received this message at all. I have been the 11th district committeeman for four years and cannot help noticing that every time there is an important meeting, such as one to interview potential candidates, my email address somehow ends up misspelled in the group message, and I therefore do not receive the message in time to attend.

Since the same thing has happened to other committee members who are independent of the committee’s inner circle, I cannot help wondering if the members informed of these meetings are hand-selected to prevent any opposition and keep a clique of select individuals in power. This is nothing less than a failure of the democratic process.

If I as a committeeman was not properly notified about the screening, how can I feel comfortable that Highland Park residents who may have been interested in screening were properly notified? No publicity was done announcing the meeting, which was held only an hour after the end of a Jewish holiday. Orthodox Jews who do not use computers on holidays would not have had sufficient time to find out about the screening even if a public notice was put on the Internet, which was not done.

Furthermore, the October 11 meeting, at which three names were selected for recommendation to the Borough Council to fill the seat of recently-resigned Councilman Lou Pichinson, did not have a quorum, as apparently only 12 out of 26 members were present. A quorum requires a minimum of 14 members. For this reason alone, the three names should be withdrawn, proceedings of the meeting voided, and a new meeting held with sufficient advance notice to all members.

In the past, committee chair Bruce Morgan conducted party votes about candidate selection over the phone, without even bothering to hold a meeting. I was never called for any of these decisions. The Highland Park Democratic Committee should be ashamed of its leadership, which has shown nothing but contempt for our bylaws, acting more like the national Republican Party in a closed, undemocratic manner.

That is why, in addition to calling for a new screening, I ask for the resignation of party chair Bruce Morgan and vice chair Diane Weinberg, and for the immediate resignation of Mayor Frank, who announced her intention to resign back in February. Residents of the 11th district, which I represent, are tired of the stonewalling by Frank and her supporters.

As committee members, we were elected by the residents of our districts to represent them, not to cater to a small group seeking to hold onto power.

George J. Valenta is a Democratic committeeman in Highland Park.