Civic engagement is a hallmark of model community members and advocates. But what happens when, despite local advocacy, a city’s local government continues to lack the structure and transparency to allow people to access public meetings? You know, public meetings? The place where we as a community can raise our voices and demand change from our elected officials?

In Newark, New Jersey, this has been an ongoing challenge, but community members aren’t standing for this any longer. In the summer of 2024, the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice (NJAIJ) launched the Newark (NWK) Documenters, a civic journalism initiative that trains and pays locals to attend and document public meetings in the state’s largest and most diverse city. The NWK Documenters’ website provides a one-stop hub to find public meeting information and provide a record of past meeting notes that detail important discussions and decisions that impact the community. 

When agencies fail to ensure transparency and access to information, NWK Documenters put pressure on them to do so. 

Public Meeting Obstacles

Since the launch of our program, Documenters have reported various obstacles in accessing public meetings. This includes meeting cancellations with no prior notice or update, no meeting agendas, and no notice of meeting times. Let’s take the Public Safety Committee, for example, a notorious agency for their lack of information. Its website has not been updated since 2022 – over a decade ago. Although they host community meetings across different wards, there seems to be no cohesion across the city. Some wards are more consistent in holding meetings than others, but the announcement of these meetings are mainly shared on Facebook and Instagram, not the City of Newark’s official website.

The absence of public meeting notices is also a chronic issue in Newark. This is evident in the case of a senior citizen who attended a Zoning Board meeting, where the demolition of a building and the subsequent creation of a high-rise building was on the agenda. During public comment, the elderly community member testified that she had tried various times to find more information about the construction happening right across the street from her home. The older woman said she only heard about this same public meeting by chance. She was confronted by a member of the committee, who dismissed her comment and said that they had done their due diligence by posting the meeting time in the basement of Newark City Hall and the Star-Ledger newspaper. Let’s be clear: New Jersey’s Open Public Meetings Act states, “the public policy of this State to insure the right of its citizens to have adequate advance notice of and the right to attend all meetings of public bodies.” In this digital age, justifying the notice of the meeting by stating it was reasonably accessible through a now-out-of-print newspaper is questionable. Where other cities thrive in creating notices through print, websites, and social media posts, Newark agencies are not consistent with how meetings are publicized.

Another issue with public meetings is the lack of physical accessibility. For an Essex County Board of County Commissioners meeting, it was announced that it would take place at 5 p.m. in the usual location of the Hall of Records, 465 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 5th Floor, Room 506. However, once I arrived, I was met with locked doors since the building closes at 4 p.m. I eventually got inside and spoke to the security guard, asking her if there was another means to enter the building. She shared that this was the only entrance after a certain time. Once inside, there was no sign that a public meeting was scheduled, despite only being five 5-minutes late. No one was around for me to ask for help. I looked for signs with the room number and took the elevator to another floor for clues, but nothing. Although this meeting was announced and advertised on their website and social media platforms, the lack of signage and instructions for accessing the meetings was a barrier to entry. Many people could have made it up the long steps of the building, just to turn home when finding the doors locked. 

Get Involved

It is important to show up! As we continue to work to provide updated, accurate information on public meetings, we will continue to document the progress or lack thereof of agencies to update their means of communication. Join us to become a documenter and put more public meetings on the record! Follow us on social media to stay updated on action items you can join.

In solidarity, 

NWK Documenters