Nice to see the Press of Atlantic City shine some light on the lack of municipal transparency in many towns. Especially in Brigantine.
The Press article hits close to home for 75% of Brigantine homeowners. They pay most of the bills, can’t vote, and are blocked from watching how their tax dollars are being spent.
Brigantine goes the extra mile in keeping 2nd homeowners in the dark. City Hall just cancelled their public meeting live-streams.
Based on the video above, Brigantine officials might be hiding a private, ‘personal page’ that provides limited, online access to these meetings.
Brigantine politicians don’t want you to see how the sausage is made.
Brigantine Taxpayer
Not pretty watching tax dollars supporting 6 figure salaries, boat checks, longevity pay and fat pensions.
Mayor Sera places most focus on what he calls… ‘priority homeowners’…. full-time residents. The ones that vote.
One of the least transparent shore towns? Brigantine is up there. Former Mayor Phil Guenther, and current Mayor Vince Sera, for years have thwarted efforts to provide better taxpayer access to meetings.
Make sure people have access to meetings, to know what’s going on. Not just for priority homeowners here. There’s a lot of secondary homeowners that said only way to see us is through online. Mayor Sera
Why? Brigantine removed archived public meeting videos from their city YouTube page. Good thing hyper-local websites like BrigantineNOW made copies of that stuff. See videos below.
Brigantine Police Chief Disrupts City Council Video On-Demand
According to the Press of AC, residents insisted that if council meetings were broadcast online, more people would participate and know what was going on in their community.
To be sure, there was a silver lining to the pandemic. Jersey shore taxpayers loved the easy, online access to meetings like Council / Commissioner and the Planning & Zoning Board.
Most towns don’t stream or archive school board meetings. Parents are increasingly irate about this.
The Brigantine School District makes up a large portion of the city budget.
Why hide the Brigantine School Board meetings? Don’t wanna let parents know about new curriculum?
Elected officials in Brigantine are reducing, restricting, or shutting down access to their public meetings. This problem has plagued Brigantine for close to 10 years.
See Full Article in Press of Atlantic City.
Brigantine Council Meeting Videos Deleted. Info Blackouts.
Harmful Business Busting Goes Digital on Brigantine Beach
Subscribe BrigantineNOW
Brigantine City Manager is behind all the secrecy.
He constantly makes excuses as to why the audio is bad, why it can’t be live streamed, or even archived for later viewing.
He doesn’t want the public to see how he, and others on the city payroll have it so cushy compared to others who work hard and struggle.
It’s a joke. This is the only platform to speak to any of them as they don’t answer emails, take calls or agree to schedule a meeting.
I’m very frustrated with this.
I own a 900 Sq/ft condo and pay more tax than Jim who owns a 1,800 sq/ft stand alone home.
Please explain how that makes any sense.
I have emailed all them on council
Nobody responds at all
Just terrible
I’m a second homeowner in Brigantine. I’ve been trying for months now to speak to the township about my taxes.
I have been grossly over charged in comparison to all the Councilmembers, Mayor and City manager.
I’ve asked to speak to the tax assessor. I have a chain of email with either no response or an assistant to the Mayor answering.
I would love to add to this article with what I’ve been through and provide more contexts on the misdoings of our mayor and council member.
These politicians are all criminals! We ALL pay taxes, so we should all be equal
In knowing what is being done with our tax dollars.
If you have nothing to hide, everyone should be privy to information.
I’ve been in Brigantine since 1998. When I was moving in, my future neighbor advised me to read “Greenhead Politics.” I didn’t heed his advice until about two months later. Wish I would’ve read it before I unloaded the truck.
I only stayed here to find out how they got away with all the corruption. I realized that the only people allowed to vote here are the chosen few. It’s a shame stupidity isn’t painful.
It’s shameful because this island could really be loved for life.
The Brigantine City Manager has fake Facebook accounts
Uses them to attack individuals who criticize anything in Brigatine
Well after living in Brigantine from 1967 and moved in 1977, as we had been going with our families as kids, We got to know the politics and the favoritism on this Island very well!
We moved to South Florida and have been here ever since
The politics in Brigantine have always been shady.
So Nothing has changed