EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — At the Aug. 24 Township Council meeting, the council president read out a range of resolution numbers, asked whether anyone wanted anything taken out, heard nothing, and called for a vote. Four council members said yes. Thirty-four seconds after it began, on the meeting video, it was over.
In those thirty-four seconds the council approved eleven separate items, including a year-long lease of 121 township parking spaces to a car dealership, a $60,420 emergency contract awarded without competitive bidding, and a bill list totalling $2,940,472.24.
None of the eleven was discussed at the meeting. That is not unusual, and it is not a secret — but it does mean that a resident watching would have learned essentially nothing about what had just been decided.
What the council approved
Resolutions 26-264 through 26-274, in plain English:
- A liquor licence extension for Jersey Wings Unlimited Inc., which traded as Arooga’s Grill House & Sports Bar and is now in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, passing the licence to the trustee.
- A transfer of that licence to A9 Family LLC, which will trade as 18 East Kitchen & Bar.
- A transfer of a second licence, from East Brunswick GRP Inc., which traded as Sunny Palace, to Route 18 Holdings LLC.
- Liens on two properties — 8 Barrie Road and 4 Amanda Court — after the township had the lawns cut and the owners did not respond to notices. The liens are $580 and $1,160, the cost of the work plus a $20 administrative fee.
- Permission for the Lunar Faire Night Market at the Middlesex County Fairgrounds on Sept. 12, from 5 to 10 p.m.
- About a dozen tax and utility refunds, most of them duplicate third-quarter tax payments made at a house closing, individually ranging from roughly $290 to $5,900.
- A refund of $8,280.06 to Pro Cap 8, LLC, which had bought a tax lien at the December sale and was repaid after the owner redeemed it.
- A $60,420 emergency contract with NJ Air Pros to replace two HVAC units at the Community Arts Center on Cranbury Road, which failed on Aug. 3. State law lets a town skip bidding in an emergency; the business administrator declared one, and this vote ratified it.
- A lease of 121 parking spaces on the fourth floor of the Transportation and Commerce Center to Space Auto Group LLC of Route 18, for $6,000 a month from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31 next year. The company will use them to park vehicle inventory.
- Permission for Fire District No. 2 to buy gasoline through the township’s fuel resale system at cost plus an administrative fee.
- The bill list — $2,940,472.24 in payments.
How a consent agenda works
Grouping routine business into a single vote is standard practice in New Jersey municipal government, and East Brunswick uses it at nearly every meeting. The Aug. 10 meeting handled nine resolutions the same way.
The agenda itself explains the rule, in print: the items “are considered routine and non-controversial items by the Township Council and will be enacted upon by one motion,” and “there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Council Member so requests,” in which case the item is pulled out and voted on separately. The agenda even carries a standing section headed “Resolution[s] Removed From The Consent Agenda For Discussion And Vote.”
On Aug. 24 that section was empty. Council President Dana Zimbicki asked directly — “Does anybody need anything separated from the agenda?” — and no one did.
The paperwork was public beforehand. The full 66-page agenda packet, including the lease agreement, the emergency certification and a roughly 21-page itemised bill list showing every vendor and purchase order, was posted on the township website and filed with the clerk. The bill list is dated Aug. 18, six days before the meeting.
Two of the eleven items describe the same lawn. Resolution 26-267 records that the township had the grass cut at 4 Amanda Court after a July 31 notice, at a cost of $1,140, and places a lien of $1,160 on the property — the work plus a $20 administrative fee. The itemised bill list in the same packet shows that $1,140 going out the door: a payment to Broehl’s Lawn Maintenance, Inc., purchase order 26004339, described as “4 Amanda Court Property Mainte.” The records show the township paid the contractor and is seeking to recover the cost through the lien.
It is also worth saying plainly what cannot be known from the video: what council members read, what they asked staff, or what they discussed before the meeting. The public record shows what happened in public. It does not show what preparation went into it.
Why it is worth watching anyway
The council does debate things. Minutes after the consent vote, the same four members spent roughly three minutes on an ordinance adding time-limit parking to four streets — Burnham Place, High Point Road, Madeline Avenue and Oliver Court — with two of them explaining that it came from a resident’s complaint two weeks earlier.
Councilman Behal was absent on Aug. 24. Councilmen McEvoy and Wendell, Councilwoman Winston and Council President Zimbicki all voted yes.
The difference is not effort. It is visibility. An item that goes in the consent agenda gets no explanation at the meeting, so the only way to know what it does is to open the packet.
The next council meeting is Sept. 14, when the parking ordinance gets its public hearing. The agenda packet goes up on the township website before the meeting — and the consent agenda is usually the longest part of it.
