Middletown’s Disappearing Boards

By Linda Baum

What do the Finance Committee, Board of Ethics, and Human Rights Commission all have in common? They are all important, and they are disappearing.

The Middletown Human Rights Commission (MHRC) is the oldest human rights commission in the state of New Jersey. Its primary mission, under state law, is to foster good will and cooperation among our diverse community groups. An 11-member board which currently has only 4 members, the MHRC is dying by attrition as terms expire and no appointments are made by the Township Committee.

Provisions for a Board of Ethics and a Finance Committee (once called “Finance and Accounting”) were originally included in the administrative code that set forth the day-to-day operations for the 1971 Middletown Special Charter, which established our form of government. However, these provisions no longer exist, eliminated in one of several updates to the code, or modernizations as they are sometimes called.

Fortunately, the administrative code can be easily amended. Appointments can be made and all of these boards can be formed or re-constituted. Our Township Committee simply needs to choose to do so. As a member of that Committee, I would insist on it.