Rinker resigns as EC chairwoman

VERNON — Sally Rinker, chairwoman of the Vernon Township Environmental Commission, submitted a letter of resignation to Mayor Harry Shortway on Thursday night.
In her letter, Rinker says she canceled the October and November meetings of the commission. According to information Rinker received from Vernons Township Attorney John Ursin, in letters she provided to The Advertiser News, “the practice in Vernon Township has generally been to allow the chairperson to have the discretion to cancel meetings where necessary or appropriate.”
Despite her cancellation, the Nov. 15 Environmental Commission meeting happened, Rinker says. According to the letter from Ursin, this is a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act.
“I am very disappointed that your actions not only allowed the Nov. 15 meeting to take place while my cancellation was in full force and posted at the municipal building, but played a part in permitting an Open Public Meetings Act Violation,” Rinker wrote in her resignation letter.
“The public, who saw my cancellation notice affixed to the door, Friday through Monday, lost the benefit of knowing the meeting was going to take place Tuesday. I remain perplexed as to why you gave assistance for an illegal meeting to take place and did not respect my opinion or decision.”
In an emailed statement to The Advertiser News, Mayor Harry Shortway said, "I have accepted Ms. Rinker's letter of resignation and thanked her for her service. I stand by my decision to allow the Environmental Commission to meet."
Sally Rinker's letter of resignation: http://strausnews.com/pdfs/Rinkerletter.pdf
Letter 1 from John Ursin: http://strausnews.com/pdfs/VernonTwpEC.pdf
Letter 2 from John Ursin: http://strausnews.com/pdfs/VernonTwpEC2.pdf
Rinker said she canceled the meetings because the only definitive agenda requests for the October and November Environmental Commission meetings were to have “Executive Session-Potential Litigation” on the agendas. She said she had reason to believe the Environmental Commission wanted to sue the township, and that Rinker, a former Vernon mayor herself, warned Shortway about this.
According to Ursin's letters, “Potential litigation is not an appropriate subject for the Environmental Commission to discuss in Closed Session.”
“I am very disappointed that you went against my judgment to cancel a meeting whereby the Commission wanted the opportunity to act as a body to vote to sue Vernon Township,” Rinker wrote in her resignation letter. “I explained to you my rationale and reasoning, as someone who has stood for good government for many years here in Vernon, I could not and would not chair a meeting where I knowingly would allow the commission to vote to sue Vernon.”
Rinker says that she spoke to Commissioner Mike Furrey, who reported to her that indeed a closed session took place and a subsequent vote to sue Vernon for several issues also took place.
When asked why the Environmental Commission wants to sue Vernon Township, she said she is told that they want to go to court to get a decision about their terms, which are all ending in 2016.

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