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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Freeholders apologize tonight for 1st Amendment abuse




Plainfielders can witness something unheard of at Thursday's Freeholders meeting: a public apology for violating Union County residents' First Amendment rights.

The spectacle, which is to be filmed by the New Jersey chapter of ACLU, is the result of a negotiated agreement between the Freeholders and ACLU after the New Jersey chapter threatened to sue.

The behavior which prompted the furor is documented on the CountyWatchers blog (see here), which also includes links to the letter from the Freeholders agreeing to the public apology (see here [PDF]).

Video of the meeting which sparked the issue is online (see here), with the Freeholder Director saying he 'won't tolerate' questions and comments on nepotism. The CountyWatchers story includes a link to the video and time markers for the relevant events, which include a uniformed officer removing CountyWatchers blogger Pat Quattrocchi from the meeting room.

I don't know if other counties are as rife with nepotism as Union County is (it still amazes this hayseed that officials have the chutzpah to game the system so openly), but the way it goes down here boggles the imagination. A detailed probe into Union County nepotism is online (see here).

Nice to see the Elizabeth Roughriders being overridden.



Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders Meeting

7 PM | Thursday, August 20


Union County Administration Building
10 Elizabethtown Plaza, Elizabeth
Directions available here.


-- Dan Damon

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan, I think it's Tina being removed from meeting.

Dan said...

I think you're right. My bad.