The vast majority of Longport taxpayers are seasonal, non-voting residents.
So, why do Longport commissioners block homeowners from public comment via online conferencing?
Ventnor allows homeowners to comment via ZOOM online. So does Atlantic County.
Why not Longport?
Legal, public notices are getting harder to notice.
The decline of newspaper circulation affects large portion of Downbeach taxpayers. Most not aware of how elected officials make decisions.
Too bad if you missed important Longport legal notices in The Ocean City Sentinel, The Press of Atlantic City, the Star Ledger and the Courier Post.
Let that sink in. Longport, and most other shore towns, have to use newspapers in other towns.
In addition to following outdated Open Public Meetings Law, towns like Longport, Margate and Ventnor could send out legal notices via email subscriptions. Unfortunately, they have yet to offer taxpayers that cheap and easy solution.
BOROUGH OF LONGPORT COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING
June 21, 2023 4:00 pm
This meeting was called pursuant to the provisions of the Open Public Meetings Law. Notices of this meeting were emailed to The Ocean City Sentinel, The Press of Atlantic City, the Star Ledger and the Courier Post on June 16, 2023. In addition, copies of notices were posted on the bulletin board in the Municipal Building and filed in the office of the Municipal Clerk. Notices on the bulletin board have remained continuously posted.
Members of the public will have the option to listen to meeting audio only. Remote public participation is not permitted. The public can access meeting audio by calling:
Typical for small towns as they usually do what they do.
In this day and age, especially post Corvid, video meetings are the norm.
The full time residents keep reelecting the same folks for over 10 years. There is no incentive to allow for public discourse.
Disrespecting non-voting, Longport 2nd homeowners who take up very few city resources. Shame on Mayor Russo.
These beach towns love second home owners as they pay a large amount of taxes (and get to raise these taxes) and they are only down there for a few months out of the year which does not require year round use of resources.
They can not vote and their kids don’t go to school there.
Then the beach town populations (ever decreasing) via elected officials and/or local networks, etc. get to hold onto their authority which for some translates into those nice paying town jobs, etc., etc.
Do a flow chart of town jobs just about anywhere and I am sure you will find much of that family and friend networks going on.
The Longport Commissioners block public participation because they can, No one else wants the job. Too much aggravation. That is why no one ran against them in the last municipal election. Thus they do it because they can.
Longport still possesses the “good ole boy” mentality and processes of passing ordinance changes. Dogs on the beach is a prime example.
Other towns reinforce their rules, Longport expands theirs to benefit a few local residents.
Securely fastened to a leash and under the control of a person…yeah sure.
Just walk out on the beach and take a look for yourself and you’ll see that many owners COMPLETELY ignore this.
The dog comment is interesting.
A few summers ago, I was walking my leached small dog on one of these beach town beaches in the early morning hours.
There were many people around me with dogs, small and big, leashed and unleashed, and one off the local cops (I assume he was maybe 20 years old) came up to me politely and issued a verbal warning.
He was polite as I told him I was unaware of any dog ordinance and left the beach as many people continued to walk with their dogs, small and big, leashed and unleashed.
When I left the beach, I looked for signage at the beach stairway entrance in reference to that dog ordinance and there was none at that time.
In addition, although I imagine that there are other pressing matters in this beach town, there must not be that many pressing matters when a local cop is on the beach hours before the lifeguards come on duty to monitor people walking their dogs?
The signs saying no animals on the beach May 1 to Oct 1 were at EVERY beach entrance in the town. This didn’t stop people as many have the ” rules don’t apply to me” attitude. Obviously there was a need for police interaction. The better question is , why do so many feel entitled?
You do not know which beach town I was referring to or when?
True, but generally speaking towns don’t have rules or ordinances pertaining to public spaces, without posting them for the general public to read. More specifically, yesterday in LP, immediately after 6pm, jogger on the beach with an unleashed dog running freely. Again, why do so many feel entitled?
Longport and Margate transparency stinks. Margate uses Zoom, but audio is muffled. Ken Mosca doesn’t seem to care about seasonal residents.
Longport and Margate. Both are guilty of keeping 2nd homeowners in the dark. Shame on Mayor Russo and Mayor Collins.
If you were the “insider” you claim to be, you would have spoken to 2 mayors and gotten some answers instead of just complaining. Just sayin’…