Our View
Manager battle brewing

It was certainly a surprise this week when South Brunswick Councilman Ted Van Hessen said that he wanted Township Manager Barbara Sacks fired.

The allegation that Sacks held back information from one of the council members is disturbing.

Sacks said this week that this is just a "smear campaign" against her, and that the requests made by the councilman go beyond the scope of simply gathering information; rather, she says he is directing her to perform work.

That would violate the Faulkner Act on which the township’s council/manager form of government is now based. Under the act, no single council member has that authority.

It seems that Sacks objects to taking a direction or request from Van Hessen, but she apparently had no problem helping another council member get the information he required — even if it meant directing a department head to collect and prepare the information.

A Jan. 28 e-mail from Sacks to Van Hessen told him that he is violating the law by directing the manager to perform certain tasks. In a second e-mail to Councilman Edmund Luciano two weeks later, Sacks seems to offer her help in gathering similar information.

Throughout the discussions on this issue, this second e-mail to Luciano is the most troubling.

We think this issue is important enough for the parties involved to sit down and talk things over very carefully.

If one member of the council is being denied information or items, why isn’t each council member?

This question needs to be addressed.