West Windsor LEO Union Calls for Critics' Silence, April 1, 2019

[Beginning at 13:05 into the video]

ALISON MILLER:

Thank you everybody. And next comes public comment.

CLERK:

I have Melissa Nagy signed up.

MELISSA NAGY:

Good evening Mayor, Madam President and Council Members.

My name is Melissa Nagy, and I'm the president of the West Windsor Police Benevolent Association Local 271.

I'm here this evening to address an issue that should concern every member of our community. On Monday, March 18th, eight members of the West Windsor PBA, including Chief Garofalo, attended Township Council meeting, all officers attending the meeting on their personal time and in casual attire. Respectfully, we sat and stood in the back of the room during the meeting, and intently listened to each resident and Township representative speak.

At the conclusion of the meeting, we entered the lobby and exchanged greetings with residents, Chief Garofalo, Mayor Marathe and other Township representatives. Later that evening, I learned that Councilwoman Ayesha Hamilton stated she was intimidated by the off-duty officer presence at the meeting, and chose to remain seated in the Council room until all West Windsor PBA union members left. Councilwoman Hamilton went on to state she was afraid to walk to her vehicle while the off-duty police officers remained in the building.

To my knowledge, Councilwoman Hamilton has never met or spoken with any of the officers that she accused of making her fearful. Within the eight PBA members who attended the Council meeting, there are 117 years of combined law enforcement experience, and an exhaustive list of combinations. We are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. We are just like the families we serve and protect. Three of the members proudly served in our country's military, two having received Purple Hearts as combat-wounded veterans.

None of the officers have ever had any confrontation, verbal or otherwise, with Councilwoman Hamilton. The officers who attended the meeting and I were grossly disappointed in the actions and chosen words of Councilwoman Hamilton. Her words are a direct attack on the professionalism and personal character of each officer she referred to, and undermine the valuable relationships we have built with the members of our community.

Councilwoman Hamilton shares responsibility for enacting local ordinances as a member of a legislative body of municipal government. These are the very same laws and ordinances that we, as law enforcement, are obligated to enforce. Councilwoman Ayesha Hamilton's actions perpetuate a prejudice that our West Windsor community cannot allow to go unquestioned. This biased, divisive rhetoric fuels mistrust and fear of law enforcement, and is a serious detriment to public safety. Our community deserves better than this hateful intolerance. We continue to make great strides unifying our community, and cannot allow unfair negative stereotypes, and misleading narrow-minded preconceptions to go unchecked. These prejudices must be acknowledged and quelled. On behalf of West Windsor PBA Local 271, I'm requesting Ms. Ayesha Hamilton's public apology and immediate resignation, based on her obvious bias against law enforcement members, and her blatant disregard for the impacts of slanderous statements perpetrated against the great law enforcement officers of our community. Thank you, and God bless America.

AYESHA HAMILTON:

Alison, can I address that?

ALISON MILLER:

I think that under Robert's Rules of Order, point of personal privilege, you have the privilege of addressing that.

AYESHA HAMILTON:

So I spoke last—when was it, March 18th meeting—with our counsel, Mike Herbert and our Business Administrator, Marlena Schmid, questioning why these officers were in the room. I had been given to understand earlier in the meeting that they were in the room to make sure that I voted in f— or I didn't question—police expenses as I had at the prior meeting, and in fact requested that one of those police expenses be pulled off the agenda. Prior to that, during the budgeting sessions, which are all open and public, and I encourage everybody to view those, I had questioned several other police expenses that did not provide adequate backup, that didn't seem to relate to a thought— a plan that had been thought out, and—yeah—I'm absolutely concerned that now it's the West Windsor Police Department versus me. That is upsetting.

Thank you for making your views known. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be apologizing for, because I won't apologize for doing my job. I won't apologize for questioning the expenses where there was lack of information, where there was lack of thought. You know, I'm sort of at a loss. But I guess we'll leave it at that. I'm certainly not resigning. Though this is certainly concerning.

To address the other issue, about me waiting here and feeling fearful. I actually never said that to anybody. So if that's part of the hyperbole, that's fine, you guys can run with it. Mike and Marlena can verify that I did not say that.

MICHAEL HERBERT:

Yeah, I can verify that you never said anything like that to me.

AYESHA HAMILTON:

So I don't know where you got it from, but I will say that it's actually not relevant. In fact I did walk out right after the meeting. So ... But, you know, thanks for raising your issues. Thanks for coming and speaking. But that doesn't give me a whole lot of comfort here. But thank you.

ALISON MILLER:

Thank you.

[The dialog concludes at 18:59 into the video]