Councilman Roger Martindell

Councilman Calls Records Request By University Lawyers “Outrageous”

A request for copies of more than six years of records by lawyers representing Princeton University in lawsuits related to the Dinky has angered at least one member of Borough Council. At the governing body’s meeting last week, Councilman Roger Martindell called Drinker Biddle & Reath’s request “outrageous,” and said that he, for one, did not intend to comply.

“This request is overly broad and burdensome, and it violates a first amendment right to communicate with constituents,” he said, to applause from some members of the audience. “Every single person, mayor and employee would have to spend hundreds of hours going through material going back to January 2006. It is totally outrageous.”

The law firm has asked for copies of all records of correspondence between the mayor, members of Council and Borough staff, consultants, and members of the citizen group Save the Dinky between January 2006 and the present. “Copies of any communications, including but not limited to meetings, discussions, conversations, telephone calls, faxes, electronic mail, instant messaging, memoranda, letters, notes, telecopies, telexes, conferences, etc.” are mentioned in the filing.

“They want all communications that were ever made in writing in any form whatsoever, between the mayor, and then-Council people and Borough employees and any representative of Save the Dinky, Inc. from January 2006 to now,” Mr. Martindell said this week. “This would take literally hundreds of hours of people going through their emails and files, to comply with that request. It is going to paralyze municipal government. And it is overly broad, because it doesn’t even identify who the representatives of Save the Dinky are. It names a few people, but for all I know Save the Dinky has hundreds of members. And who is representing them? Am I supposed to guess?”

Named in the request are “any member or representative of Save the Dinky, including but not limited to Kip Cherry, Anita Garoniak, Anne Waldron Neumann, Peter Marks, Rodney Fisk, Walter Neumann, Christopher Hedges, Zafina Hosein, Rachel Koehn, and or Dorothy Koehn.”

At the Council meeting, Councilman Kevin Wilkes agreed with Mr. Martindell that the request was too broad. “Do we have a list of their memberships?” he asked, regarding Save the Dinky. Councilwoman Jo Butler said that it would be impossible to meet the request for records within the seven days granted under the state law. Bob Bruschi, the Borough Administrator, said the Borough would need at least 30 days to provide the documents required.

There are two lawsuits currently pending related to the move of the Dinky station from its current location opposite McCarter Theatre to a site 460 feet south. One of the suits has to do with the zoning ordinance approved by Borough Council, which allows the project to move forward. The other has to do with the contract between Princeton University and NJ Transit related to the relocation.

Mr. Martindell said he will not comply with the request for records “absent a written memo saying we must.” He also suggested that Borough police not comply either. “Because until we get some specific guidance on the issues, we could spend hundreds of hours on this,” he said. “We shouldn’t be just jumping to disclose information that takes so much time to get. From my point of view, until we get guidance from our attorney, we shouldn’t be doing anything.”

Borough Names Four Representatives to Consolidation Transition Task Force

At a special meeting on January 17, Princeton Borough Council named four representatives to serve on the joint consolidation transition task force. Mark Freda, Hendricks Davis, and Brad Middlekauff were approved in a 5-1 vote by the governing body, with Jim Levine as an alternate.

Mr. Freda, former head of Princeton’s emergency services department, is director of site operations for Pfizer, Inc. in New York. Mr. Davis is the former executive director of the Princeton-Blairstown Center and Habitat for Humanity/Newark. Mr. Middlekauff is a lawyer, chief legal officer, general counsel, and secretary at Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Levine is director of compensation and benefits for Church & Dwight Co., Inc.

Councilwoman Barbara Trelstad, who served on the selection committee, said they tried to balance their choices with the representatives appointed by the Township earlier this month. She also suggested that all of the resumes be forwarded to the task force for future participation in subcommittees that will be formed.

“The Borough of Princeton is a really lucky place,” she said. “We had a superb pool of applicants.”

Councilman Roger Martindell was the one member to vote against the slate of candidates because he felt there were others who should have been considered. “I agree we have a superb pool of candidates, all 28 of them,” he said, also commending the committee who made the selection. “But I’m voting against it — not because any of these individuals are not good candidates. They are all good candidates. I’m voting against the motion.”

Mr. Martindell was particularly disturbed that candidates employed by Princeton University were disqualified from the process. “We didn’t interview anyone employed by the University and I think that was a mistake,” he said. “It shows a degree of arbitrariness, capriciousness, and unreasonableness that doesn’t really say much for the process …. If the process included a larger group than the original seven chosen in closed session, I would be much more enthusiastic.” He concluded, “I think we’re doing an expeditious job of moving forward. But as a whole, the process was deficient.”

Councilwoman Jenny Crumiller countered that Mr. Martindell had not made his position or preferences clear when the process was first discussed. She also faulted him for not complaining until after a decision had been made.

Councilwoman Heather Howard spoke in favor of the process. “The folks who were chosen represent the best of Princeton Borough,” she said. “We should be very proud of who we are nominating.”