The Hopewell Township Committee has unanimously approved 12 people to serve as regular members and alternates on the recently established Citizens’ Equity Advisory Committee (CEAC).
Committee members officially appointed nine regular members and three alternates through two approved resolutions at a township committee meeting on Sept. 8.
Regular members are Peter Baktis, Shannon Kelly, Kareen Bar-Akiva, Katherine Nunnally, David Berez, Madeline Mansier, Allen Cannon, Nancy Lee and Bonnie Williams. Alternates to the committee are BC Preston, Angela Jacobs and Dan Opdyke.
Terms for the members of the committee will expire on Dec. 31, 2021, according to resolution documents.
“You may recall a couple of months ago we introduced the Citizens’ Equity Advisory Committee for community members. The way we had this set up is that we did not want to have more than nine members of the public join the committee,” Deputy Mayor Michael Ruger said. “It turned out that 12 very qualified and enthusiastic people signed up and after talking with other township committee members, we decided the best thing to do was to actually have alternate members so we could accommodate all 12 people.”
The committee will conduct a systematic review of existing and proposed township regulations and practices for any potential discriminatory effect and offer suggestions on how to remedy any such issues if they do arise in the course of the review.
“Once the committee is formed we are going to set up a meeting, hopefully within the next few weeks, for the initial kickoff meeting, where they select a chairperson and vice chair. Then it is up to them on what they want to look at first,” Ruger said.
This group would look at various aspects of Hopewell Township government that include the Hopewell Township Police Department. The members that have been selected will review the township’s rules, regulations and practices.
CEAC is part of the township committee’s next steps to address any systemic issues in township government. The committee will come back to the township committee and give the committee members advice to address any issues uncovered during their reviews.
A member of the township committee would be a liaison, but a non-voting member.
