Mr. Checchia, don't forget to ask about the secret budget meetings.

Way to go Phil. That was a dumb thing that they did. It was amateur hour at its best.

Wow a city council and city that governs together...like the old days in the uS all over again.The city council meetings used to be filled with listeners...all the way out the doors and into the street...in a small town of 6 thousand people too...in Tennessee.Everything got heard then...and that's the way it should be today. Not like the ones in Washington DC wished.

Shedding light on these bloodsuckers is like aiming searchlights at a cave full of vampire bats.

Good for you Mr. Checchia. Unlike the other arm chair candidates, you have the guts to actually do something.

Mr. Cirulli, resaon is open and transparent government.You stated that you called the meeting on the Monday before , 48 hours befroe and could have did advertising for such an important tale.A meeting is a meeting with 5 of you present with just the meer discussion of township tales.No wher ecoes it say a press conference of 5 committee members is excused.
Did you ever apply for the sidewalk grants that would have reimbursed the people for the sidewalks?

Mr Checchia,

You complain about high taxes.
Did you give any thought to all the legal fees the town would incur before you started this claim?
Are you in position to reimburse the town for all legal fees should your claim be unsubstantiated?

It is Amazing that someone could say something like "Did you give any thought to all the legal fees the town would incur before you started this claim?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME! So when a resident believes that Township officials violated a law that is in place to protect us, they should not seek protection under that law because of "legal fees". A more uneducated attack on Mr. Checchia could not be made, short of calling him names. Walter also misses another point, the "press conference" was also a political attack on our BOE with absolutely no merit. The fact that the Committee could not back up their false charges and would not show up in public at the BOE meeting they were invited to, makes it clear that they were in the wrong. On top of that, the Mayor has forbid his followers from speaking about the false "fleecing" charges.

The courts are filled with FRIVOLOUS lawsuits..If the person responsible for the claim had to pay court costs and lawyer fees I am sure they would think twice.
If Mr.Checchia is so sure of his claim, he should have no problem reimbursing the taxpayers of Barnegat should he be proven wrong, AGAIN!

Phil, my guess is that Mr. Dasti sends his thanks.

nn

Walter the Schill,thank you for letting me about a lawsuit that according to the Superior Court of NJ in Ocean County and all the other 20 counties doesn't exist.
I did however, file a complaint for a possible violation of the "Open Public Meetings Act" of the State of New Jersey.
You have lied again and proven that you are a schill for the Rpublican Club and firm believer of closed door committee meetings.
A complaint is what is needed to see if the 'OPMA" was violated and has no lawsuit attached.
Get the facts and stop being a fool of fools plus a fake ,phoney fraud to boot.

The "OPMA clearly states that "a public meeting" is one held by a public body at any level government state county or local.with the intent to discuss or act as a body on public business.A meeting may in person ,by telephone conference call or by other means of electronic communication.
It also says:
It is not necessary that a meeting result in some action: mere discussion of public business matters is enough to make it a public meeting.

If they are fined they pay it all themselves. It is not at the taxpayers expense.

Phil,

The fact is that Mr. Dasti is billing the people of Barnegat hour after hour.
You have chosen a strange way to get back on Mr. Dasti's Christmas card list at the expense of the good people of Barnegat.

All I am asking that you step up and put into writing that if you are proven wrong AGAIN that you repay the good people of our town for wasted time and effort.

I am sure you did your homework and KNOW that you are right so you should have no problem putting it in writing now.
Time to step up Phil.

Your an idiot

Where are you at the township meetings?I guess evertihing they do is hunky dory as you are a repubik rhino who believes in an open and bottomless pit of tax money.
The right to redress the government is pretty clear in the constitution.

I don't believe in Christmas cards just the "Reason for the Season".

Phil,
Walter makes a good point.
I would also like you to step up and show the taxpayers that you are just not wasting our money on this issue.
Put it in writing.

Another statement from an idiot or are you a member of the repubix club or just another schill for the RHINOS who are disappointed that they have no more say in the BOE budjet
You have no clue what this is all about.

Mr.Dasti's firm has been paid over 6 figures in recent years, money by the good taxpayers of Barnegat.He gave the advice and they took it to the press. His advice was to proceed.At the last BT meeting on Monday evening he said that it was a press conference.
I'll take his word and opinion but I have no say.
Did you know that the council has the state investigating the open space tax fund. Do your research and ask that agency who made the complaint and what Dasti is getting to look into that matter.
How about the 10's of thousands we are spending trying to get the taxpayers almost $2 million back on the Mirage litigation.We have conflict attorneys on that one Guess who is authorized to spend the 10's ofthousands the same guys who maybe violated the OPMA.
Now we a reassessment that went sour i believe that was $1.4 million who spent that money and paid it then increased our taxes and lost appeal after aappeal.The sam guys who maybe violated theOPMA.

Phil
This is not complicated, if you are sure that you are not wasting our money,all you have to do is agree to pay us back if you are wrong. The longer you make excuses and try to spin the more creditabilty you lose with us.
Not sure what you are afraid of, just show us all that you will put your money where your mouth is.

I don't need your approval for anything whatsoever. Afraid of you no way or anyone else.
Spin, you have no idea what spin is.

Joe Wood , Do you know what the OPMA is?

When the state accuses a citizen of a crime the citizen has to go hire a lawyer. If the citizen is then acquitted is he reimbursed by the state because they were wrong? No. How is this different?

Mr. Checchia has a valid complaint. All members of the committee were together and took action. They set accusations of wrongdoing and such. This was not a ceremonial function where there is no type of business action. Mr. Cirulli even said they felt they "had to take action on behalf of their constituents" - that is conviction and proof in his own words. They violated the sunshine law. Mr. Checchia was right to file the complaint. They don't believe they are accountable to the taxpayers other than the seniors. They need to be publicly exposed.

Mr. Checchia is right on mark. He shows that he is a real Republican and a strong candidate for the Republican primary. Everyone should know that walter is the same person that came on the Patch and said that no tax dollars were spent on the Mirage softball field. He also is the one that said the Barnegat GOP is passing around a petition to divide Barnegat and form "West Barnegat". Thank you Mr. Checchia for having the guts to stand up to these discredited "RHINOS". You are a breath of fresh air.

This complaint is frivolous and Phil C. should reimburse the $1000s it will cost for a response. If Phil can't afford the full amount, he should at least agree to pay the first $100 (that's not asking too much, is it Phil?), and the rest of us will have to pay the rest. It does seems rather hypocritical to complain about high legal fees and then file frivolous complaints at the same time, increasing those fees even more. There is no violation. Neither the letter nor the spirit of the law was violated. As the article mentioned, it was not a meeting but a press conference which is about as open as you can get. No township business was discussed and no decisions were made, period. I don't agree with what the Committee members did, or what they said, but they had every right under our first amendment to provide what they believed was relevant information to the press (and the public) about the school budget.

All this means is that the staff at the Ocean County Prosecutor's office will enjoy a few chuckles, Dasti will increase his bank account a few $1000 more, and the rest of us will pay for Phil's rather expensive ego trip.

BTW, citizens falsely accused can file suit for false arrest, imprisonment, and prosecutorial misconduct. I'm not sure about citizens being sued for filing frivolous complaints, but I would imagine there are limits to which a person can file frivolous complaint after complaint without some accountability for the costs.

Another idiot from the woodwork who doesn't understand the OPMA and has no clue that he is entitiled to his own opinion but not to his own facts.
What is the cost of this? Open and transparent government. Follow wally so we now can 2 fools without the facts.

Frivolous complaints are not entertained by the OC DA.

I have said enough. I thank all the people who want open and transparent government at all times.
Good night and have a good day tommorrow.

Have to say I agree with Phil on this. There's a reason these meetings are supposed to be open to the public. I'm not a fan of either the Dems or Repubs in this town but definitely feel an open and honest government is sorely needed in Barnegat.

If anyone is costing the taxpayers money in legal fees or should be chastised for their actions regarding this debacle, it’s our township committee for not erring on the side of caution and complying with the “sunshine law”. Of course, doing the right thing would have ruined their ambush on the board of education. The folks at Rutgers put together a leaflet regarding the “sunshine law” (http://hpcpsdi.rutgers.edu/NJHPG/downloads/Sunshine%20Laws.pdf). In part the leaflet provides this information: “It is not necessary that a meeting result in some action; mere discussion of public matters is enough to make it a meeting public.” Go to the link and read the material. Read the article in the Asbury Park Press(http://www.app.com/article/20120212/NJNEWS/302120075/Law-violation-suspected) and see what Bernard W. Bell, a professor at Rutgers-Newark Law School has to say on the subject. Mr. Checchia is not the villian here.

PHIL,I am not just talking about your case here.
This is my thought..... If a citizen goes after the taxpayers in any form and is proven wrong, the town should be able to go after that citizen for all legal fees both defending against the citizen's claim and the legal fees prosecuting the citizen for damages.
Wondering what you think?

Yes you are. Wally

Nice to hear.Keep that thought

The press conference that took place discussed public matters with 5 committeemen present.Mr. Dasti states that no action or discussion of public matters took place.That's his opinion. What is his opinion on the topics discussed?
Clearly, they spoke on public matters involving public money and had township employees do their research according to the OPRA'd documents.If it wasn't, then what was it they spoke about ?Do have any idea? ? Was it baseball, new cars, football or just good old jibber jabber to pass time in a township office .
If you go up to and read the comments you will see where the OPMA clearly states "the mere discussion of public matters " with the 5 of them or a quorum present is a meeting It's in the OPMA,read it.
This was a political ploy by RHINOS who lost the ability to have their machine work to defeat school budjets.
Have a great day and come November the town's people will kick them out of office with republican, democrat and indies providing them with the greatest loss they ever have had. The party is over.
The questions were from Melchiondo that is Committeeman Melchiondo.All of them including the press received copies took questions.

I have no problem with your claim, just hope you step up and do what is right if you are wrong.

sounds fair Ken

People may think twice before trying to impress their friends at taxpayers expense.

Do you folks know the difference between a complaint and a lawsuit?

Mr. Checchia filed a complaint with the county Prosecutor's office. If the prosecutor finds there is any merit to the complaint, then a lawsuit could ensue.
If the procecutor's office finds that nothing was done wrong, the issue ends right there.

You can't totally fault the GOP or the Dems.

Fault the 72% of the voters in Barnegat who don't even bother to vote.

BOB,
Our township committee serves at the pleasure of the electorate. If most of the electorate choose not to select those who represent them we are all at the mercy of the few who do vote.

As for whom you should have casted( CASTED)? your vote for, I can only say that you should have voted for the people that YOU felt would best serve the residents of Barnegat.

As for whom you should vote for this November, I couldn't tell you since there are no confirmed candidates at this time.

My, my. Put up or shut up? Such belligerent words.

Since YOU seem to think the wrong people are in office, why don’t you tell us who we should have voted for? Did you get out and campaign for your choices? Did you encourage your friends and neighbors to go out and vote?
Did you attend any of the debates before the election?

The word "frivolous" means silly and unimportant.This is what some people think of the OPMA/OPRA and a governing committee who actually believe what they do is open and transparent.
They will never do it again!!!!

Once again the taxpayers will never have a problem if anyone files a claim, if that claim turns out to be frivolous, who should pay the lawyers fees. Your failure to step up to those fees should you prove wrong has us questioning your motives.
An example should be set here.
Are you 100% sure of you claim,if so are you willing to step up?

Bob Wise,
It has been a whole week and you haven't answered my questions.
Remember them?
Why don’t you tell us who we should have voted for?
Did you get out and campaign for your choices?
Did you encourage your friends and neighbors to go out and vote?
Did you attend any of the debates before the election?

If you can't answer a direct question then please don't waste my time.
Is it possible that you can't answer a direct question?

Rick, why don't you re-read. YOU did not answer. Give me the two names of who we should have voted for in the last Twp. Committee election, like I asked you. Then I would be more than happy to inform you. You could not directly answer because you are dishonest. You are a total waste of time. You add nothing and do not address the issues. Why don't you go and talk on a Whitney Houston story and look for a fight elsewhere. Again......Bye Bye!

If in fact my answer wasn't direct enough for you, why don't you show how to answer questions directly?
OR are you that dishonest?