John Doring, head of Brigantine Dept of Public Works, taking heat for another ZOOM ‘glitch’ at City Council.
On Thursday Sept 7, seems like Doring didn’t turn on the camera for this major Brigantine meeting about short-term rentals.
Record breaking. 4 hours long. A packed house. Yet remote viewers, many being 2nd homeowners, couldn’t watch it. Camera and audio were not turned on. There’s no archive video record (YouTube) of this critical meeting.
Listen to Don Williams, WOND Radio, discuss the issue. Sept. 8, 2023.
No live Brigantine Council video stream for the 377 that were watching online. (2nd homeowners)
WOND’s Don Williams said he would be suspicious. ‘Hope we don’t have any monkey business going on. Hope they’re not playing games’.
Doring could be replaced in that IT role. This is not his first major error in streaming council meetings.
Brigantine City Manager Tiger Platt has been MIA, missing in action. Platt has yet to take control of these rental issues.
Platt lives in Absecon and is a former Brigantine Fire Chief. Platt was recently hired with a $100k annual salary. Weeks later, City Council voted to give Platt a $50k raise, for a total of $150K. That’s 50% more than previous city manager Jim Bennett was paid.
Why does City Manager Platt remain silent during meetings?
Residents want Platt to step up and take charge of Brigantine’s short-term rental chaos. Some says it’s a dereliction of duty.
Join the group: Brigantine Short Term Rental Reform.
Mayor Sera afraid of lawsuits from absentee STR landlords? Sera should be afraid of a class-action lawsuit from residential neighborhoods in Brigantine. Mayor Sera and City Manager Platt ignoring clear violation of established Brigantine zoning law.
Tiger Platt
Qualified Brigantine City Manager?
The Brigantine Fire Official is Jack Murray. That position is in charge of rental inspections. Murray should attend council meetings. Especially now.
Brigantine Councilman Mike Riordan is a local Realtor. Residents asking Riordan to speak up and share his expertise.
Council members always remain quiet. Only Mayor Sera speaks. Why is that?
Brigantine taxpayers concerned that their town is changing faster than ever. And not for the better.
Mayor Sera and City Manager Platt are changing Brigantine from a family community to a summer-only party town.
Join the group: Brigantine Short Term Rental Reform.
Support Brigantine Taxpayers Association.
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Someone was video-taping the meeting. He had his lap top on the table moving the camera around as each counsel person spoke etc.
If facing the council, he was on left side right in front of the microphone where people come up to speak. It is odd that the glitch happened during one of the most important meetings.
And yes the new city manager appears checked out. Job is probably too much for him. Perhaps he is overwhelmed with all the problems with STRs.
Not a fan of the mayor due to his inaction over this long standing STR problem but I have a feeling he may actually step up to the plate this time. He was given a lot of “evidence/information” from various people at the meeting that he can’t ignore.
Mayor Sera needs to begin enforcing the laws on the books once and for all. And stop using lack of people excuse.
As one person said at the meeting, reallocate staff during the season to do enforcement work. It’s not rocket science to reallocate or reassign duties.
Next meeting they need to test the zoom in advance and yes consider reassigning or replacing the IT guy.
Vince Sera makes me embarrassed to be of Italian descent
Weak
Ineffective
Cowardly
Simple. Enforce the law. Or change the law. Sera and Platt are potentially liable for dereliction of duty.
Yup. Been feeling for awhile dereliction of duty aka duty of care and he (SERA) admits it. Mayor continues to say he can’t enforce the law with lame excuse “we don’t have the resources”.
It’s a shame as he seems to have the capability to execute solutions like those suggested by residents, that is, reallocation of resources but something seems to hold him back.
Mayor Sera also is adverse to taking advantage of pro bono support in areas of HR and other professional support. Instead, he prefers thousands of dollars to pay consultants. Makes no sense.
All city councils accept professional advisers pro bono. There is process that one needs to follow in order to do but it’s easy peasy.
Take a look at Atlantic City, Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia is that what you want for Brigantine?
You need to take a look at the whole picture before making comments like that. I’m sure you have heard the saying “Be careful what you wish for”.
Keep voting Republican Brigantine. If you want “new blood” vote them OUT.
Yes. Unfortunately they need to be voted out. New blood and diversity is essential. Doesn’t look very good in today’s world.
City ordinance: running motel business in residential neighborhood is illegal. Class Action lawsuit needed. Investigate Sera and Platt
Astatewide organization that has advocated for open government for more than two decades is pushing for a model ordinance for transparency in New Jersey’s public institutions.
The ordinance would go further than the state’s Open Public Meetings Act by calling for records to be posted online, meetings to be held both in person and remotely, and adjustments to be made to agenda requirements.
The New Jersey Foundation for Open Government plans to distribute the proposed law soon in the hopes that all municipalities in the state would adopt it, thereby improving transparency.
Air BnB and illegal short-term rentals siphon off housing that could otherwise be used as long-term rentals, or sold to homebuyers. Mayor Sera and City Manager Platt should face class action lawsuit. Both ignore city ordinance.