UPDATE: NOTE to Frick-'n-Frack: Subcommittee meetings are NOT noticed

UPDATE: GOVERNING BY PERCEPTION (NOT LAW)
We live in Kafka-esque times.

From Washington D.C.to Hoboken, elected officials use social media to pump disinformation into our hearts and minds. Facts are loose, amorphous things. What is real and true no longer matters, officials create alternative facts for us to digest. Such disinformation often panders to our worst instincts; you can't trust your government, they are incompetent,  they don't follow the law, they "don't notice meetings properly."

That's how propagandists (and autocrats like Trump) create an alternate reality where they are "truth tellers" and the rest is fake news; perception replaces fact.

Thanks to FAP (Forde),  he was able to extract a stunning admission from Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher.  In a Facebook exchange, she explains why she [followed by Jen Giattino] put out a comment in the public domain that the Public Safety subcommittee meeting was "noticed improperly." 

"I agree with you. It was a subcommittee. But the perception by the public is that it is a public meeting and will question why all of us aren't there to discuss this important issue."

You follow? The reason why she put out misinformation to the public was political self-interest.  

"...So all residents of Hoboken [were] invited except 5" wrote the 2nd Ward Councilwoman.

Yes, those are the rules. And she is not a "resident" she is a legislator. 

Rather than putting the truth out in the public domain- that a subcommittee committee meeting is limited to 4 councilpersons (generally the 3-member committee and the Council Pres),  Fisher and Giattino put out disinformation, and of a derogatory nature.  They put out alternative facts that the subcommittee meeting somehow excluded them by error or  omission.

The Fisher/Giattino comments mislead the public to believe that subcommittee meetings are noticed, contrary to law. 

That is the definition of propaganda. From misleading the public about "one petition" when there were two, to  being excluded from a subcommittee meeting because it was "noticed improperly."

prop·a·gan·da

ˌpräpəˈɡandə 

noun

1.derogatory information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. 

synonyms: information, promotion, advertising, publicity, spin;  

Folks, all of us need to pay very close attention  

______________ 

Last night, David Mello's live feed from the City Council's Public Safety Subcommittee meeting popped up on my Facebook page, someone had shared it.  

Below Mello's feed, Council's Frick an'Frack (Tiffanie Fisher and Jen Giattino) each left a comment that the meeting had "not been properly noticed"-- why they could not attend. 

Were Frick an' Frack being truthful that the meeting wasn't properly noticed?  

GA has spent this morning trying to get answers on that question, and more generally on what the noticing requirements are for Council subcommittee meetings.

Folks, if you didn't know those answers, you are about to learn something.

You will also learn that Jen Giattino, with 6 years of Council  experience, and Tiffanie Fisher, with 2 years of Council experience, are lying to you like a pair of Persian rugs. 

GA's source is a municipal law practitioner in the state of New Jersey.  I asked her point-blank: is there a noticing requirement for City Council Subcommittee meetings? 

"Official notice (48 hours in advance and published in the newspaper of record, etc.) only applies to meetings of the public body where action may be taken.  Action can only be taken when there is a Quorum of the body. In the case of the Council, there would need to be at least 5 council people present for action. Subcommittees are designed to be working groups that present findings to the full council. No action is taken by subcommittees.If a fifth member of the Council showed up at the meeting last night, it would have to be adjourned because it would be in violation of the Open Public Meetings Act." 

Is that clear, enough, people?

Giattino and Fisher mislead the public to believe that Jim Doyle, Chair of the Public Safety Committee, violated the Sunshine Law by "not properly noticing" a subcommittee meeting that they both know is not subject to a noticing requirement.  

First the imaginary petition, then the phony lament: "the meeting wasn't noticed properly..."

The garbage is piling up.