Council wednesday night voted to allow Republicans, Democrats, and Hammonton First political parties to stage a debate in Town Hall. It won’t be without dramatic theater, as Council invalidated at least two agreed-upon rules of the debate and its staging.
So, as I was a part of the negotiations for this, I was very upset by the vote of Council to overrule our debate standards agreement. Here’s what the Press said:
A written agreement between the parties called for 25 seats to be saved for each, with the remainder of the attendance open to people who would clip relevant vouchers from the Hammonton News. However, Councilman Jerry Barberio made a motion to approve the use of the room only if there would be no restrictions on attendance. Two of Barberio’s colleagues in Hammonton First’s controlling majority, Mayor John DiDonato and Councilman Ed Wuillermin, agreed they’d prefer that approach. None are up for election this year.
But Vitalo is, and he objected to the rule change. What if his rivals’ supporters flooded the room well in advance, leaving his family nowhere to sit?
“They could watch it on TV, I guess,” Wuillermin replied, to which Vitalo said, “No way.”
Vitalo’s protest spurred Baldwin to say something the Republicans interpreted as sarcastic.
“Could we rope off a couple rows for Councilman Vitalo’s family?” Baldwin said.
“That’s not appropriate,” Penza replied.
It sems to me that the HF Council candidates used their seats to trump a negotiated agreement the three parties agreed on. I, representing the Republicans, and Sam Mento, representing the Democrats, fought to have the room filled with a fairly equal representation of audience members. That was mainly to accomadate family members and party loyalists, along with at least half the room available for the public through a random drawing of tickets by The Hammonton News. Hammonton First agreed, but their Councilpeople forced a vote to eliminate that caveat.
I should remind our readers, this will be broadcast live, if held at Town Hall, so the entire viewing public of Hammonton would have access as good, if not better, than those in the room. So the idea that the debate would not be open to the public is plain wrong.
As of today, the debate is still on. Another meeting is set for next week, where we’ll hammer out all the details of how the debate will run. I hope we’re able to get past that point and get this debate on air.
