MONTCLAIR, NJ – Montclair Second Ward Councilor Eileen Birmingham held not only her first community meeting on September 12 but held the first community meeting for a Second Ward councilor in recent memory. Her predecessor, Robin Schlager, had not held any community meetings in the latter three of her four terms (her first term was separated from her subsequent terms by a four-year gap). Councilor Birmingham held her maiden community meeting in the fieldhouse at Edgemont Park, and her choice of venue was a sharp contrast to the public spaces in which other ward councilors have held community meetings. The fieldhouse is small with low ceilings, and its size and décor – light sea-green walls adorned with frameless photos of Edgemont Park – offered an intimate, more neighborly setting. And in a departure from more recent community meetings, refreshments were served.
The setting provided for a more relaxed meeting, and Councilor Birmingham disarmingly described her background, having been a practicing physician but having since worked as a medical researcher. She explained her role as a ward councilor, saying that she receives issues and concerns from her constituents and relays them to Interim Township Manager Michael Lapolla as required under the Faulkner Act. She added that council business is always done in public per the Open Public Meetings Act apart from executive sessions where legal and contract issues are discussed. Issues the public are allowed to be privy to cannot be discussed among more than three council members, including the mayor, but can be discussed within three-person committees before being brought before the council in public meetings. Councilor Birmingham, as a member of the Finance Committee, said that her primary focus so far has been on budgetary issues and decisions vis-à-vis taxes.