Montclair Town Council Cancels Retreat

The brouhaha over whether it's legal for the Montclair Township Council to hold a closed-door meeting as part of a goal-setting retreat came to a quiet end on Wednesday.

Mayor Jerry Fried told Patch that the Town Council had decided to cancel the retreat, which had been scheduled for Wednesday evening after the public portion of the council meeting.

Fried said that the council will instead aim to schedule a full-day retreat in September, all part of an effort to become a 'more effective leadership team."

A Montclair resident, Michael Byrne, had contacted the press and the council earlier in the week, charging that the council should be devoting time to adopting a budget rather than to a goal-setting retreat.

"A discussion of council goals in secret two years into the term is silly," Byrne said. "The goal is to keep Montclair affordable for everybody."

But Fried said that meeting in private creates an atmosphere in which council members can be more open and honest.

According to the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, people have a right to attend meetings where a governing body discusses or acts on public business.

But Fried said the retreat's goal was to become a more successful governing team.