After bizarre burqa stunt, Morris County mayor says no more public meetings

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18 hours ago

Fed up after yet another Dover council meeting was disrupted by activists on May 27, Mayor James Dodd declared that he will bar the public from future meetings and instead present them only online.
"We're gonna go virtual," Dodd said.
The council later passed a resolution, drafted during the meeting, that said that "due to emergent circumstances ... future public meetings shall be held virtually until changed by the Town Council."
The resolution passed 8-1, with council member Sandra Wittner casting the lone "no" vote and questioning the legality of the hastily authorized move.
"To say that this is a safety risk is insulting to the hundreds of people who died in Dover" during COVID, said Wittner, who frequently clashes with the mayor. Town council meetings last went online during the pandemic lockdown, which, by contrast, was a "very real safety risk," she said.
Dodd took his action after a bizarre confrontation during the meeting's public comment session, at which the council was addressed by a person dressed in a blue burqa covering their entire face and body. The speaker, claiming to be a Muslim woman, began to talk in an affected, falsetto voice. The encounter ground the meeting to a halt for about 40 minutes.
Dodd identified the "woman" as Edward "Lefty" Grimes, a Bayonne resident and disability activist who has been a frequent critic of the mayor and council at recent meetings.
Dressed in the burqa, Grimes appeared in a motorized wheelchair. Grimes has said he needs the chair after allegedly being injured by Dover police who were directed to remove him from a January meeting for using profanity.
Officials advised Grimes there was a town policy against meeting attendees wearing full-face coverings. But Grimes continued his complaints about a smoking ordinance he felt would violate his rights as a medical cannabis user. He refused to unveil his face, citing "religious reasons."
The meeting was adjourned and Grimes was approached by Dover police. They tried to escort the activist from council chambers before Grimes was finally called out by an angry Dodd.
"There's a law against impersonating a religious belief, and that's exactly what you're doing, Ed Grimes!' Dodd shouted. "Your Jeep is outside. I took a picture of your license plate. I will now press charges against you."
After Grimes finally left, Dodd resumed the proceedings and added the resolution to suspend in-person meetings to the agenda.
Contacted on Friday, Grimes did not deny he was at the meeting, but added, "I'm not admitting to anything." He insisted the speaker wearing the burqa was a Muslim woman named Elram Pador.
He said he witnessed the confrontation on a YouTube stream posted by Maria Chacon. The Dover resident has been streaming meetings since the town suspended the practice last year, citing the need for a new video system and a lack of money to pay for it.
"We all know Dodd would not allow someone in a burqa to speak," Grimes said. "Elram proved it and exposed his Islamophobia, exposed his racism, exposed his ego, because all he had to do was let that woman speak for three minutes. But his ego would not allow it, and now he's got a [expletive] show on his hands. He's got issues now.'
A burqa-clad "Elram Pador" has also spoken at public meetings in other New Jersey towns in recent months, including an appearance — without a wheelchair — in Edison on April 30.
Grimes and other online activists have frequented Dover meetings over the past six months, typically taking aim at Dodd and Councilman Sergio Rodriguez, who retains the mayor's support despite facing multiple assault charges. One critic wore a football helmet to a meeting, claiming he expected to be attacked.
"I'm not in a position to sit here and be ridiculed and humiliated," Dodd said at the May 27 meeting. "It's insanity. This has been going on for some time. Who knows if that guy has a shotgun under what he was wearing? And when somebody comes here and mocks a religious belief, and thinks it's OK, that's not acceptable.
"These people are crazy," he continued. "I won't be part of that anymore and I don't think this town should be subject to that anymore, either."
Wittner said Dodd directed town Attorney Ramon Rivera to draft the resolution while the session was adjourned to remove Grimes.
Rivera cited provisions in the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, also known as the Sunshine Law, that would permit the suspension of in-person meetings due to security reasons and "emergent circumstances," as the resolution reads. The resolution said that council meetings "have been interrupted by unprecedented members of the public who violate the town's public-comment policies."
Challenged by Wittner on the legality of the move, and questioned about the nature of the "emergent circumstances," Rivera said, "In my opinion, based on what I saw tonight, there is a safety concern."
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"The town is prohibited from conducting business" due to the interruptions, he added.
Rivera noted in the resolution that "many entities conduct their meetings virtually in compliance with the OPMA," although he did not specify whether any governing bodies were currently doing so. Virtual meetings were common during the COVID lockdown but most local governing bodies switched back to in-person proceedings years ago.
Rivera did not return a call seeking follow-up information.
At the meeting, Dodd said he did not expect the move to be permanent. It would last only until the council felt it could safely resume public gatherings, he said. He added the town would come up with a plan to stream meetings within 30 days.
Dover suspended online streaming of meetings last year, saying the town needed a new camera system and did not have the estimated $80,000 it would cost. Dodd said at the January reorganization meeting that he hoped to find money in this year's budget to resume the streaming.
The streamed meetings will allow for public participation in that format, the mayor said at the latest meeting.
"I don't expect this to be forever," Dodd explained. "But we need to conduct business, and we will."
Chacon can be heard in her streaming video confronting the mayor. "It's unbelievable to me that we haven't had any livestreaming," she commented. She blamed Dodd for "elevating" the "chaos" at the meeting.
"And then to come back and punish the public, the taxpayers who have a right to be here, it's appalling," she said. "To punish us for one person who got under the mayor's skin."
State Sen. Anthony Bucco, who represents Dover in Trenton, speculated in an interview that Dover may be vulnerable to a court challenge. Bucco, a Republican representing the 25th District, is a municipal attorney by profession.
"It's definitely an unusual step, outside of something like COVID," Bucco said. "Even before COVID, there were instances where towns held remote meetings, but they never closed the meeting room off."
"So it will be interesting, he continued. "I would guess it would probably be challenged, and I don't know how a judge would rule."
But Bucco, the Senate minority leader, also shared his concerns about what he sees as a troubling increase across the state of deliberate interruptions at meetings by members of the public.
"It's a shame," Bucco said. "It seems lately, people have become more and more disrespectful at council meetings. People who come to meetings and say things that aren't accurate, or hide their identity, it's just not right for good government. And once one person becomes disrespectful, it starts to spread, and then a governing body cannot conduct business properly."
On May 30, Dodd released a statement about the meeting and the decision to "go virtual."
"Over the past several weeks, our meetings have been marred by behavior that has no place in public service," the mayor wrote. "We have witnessed individuals wearing full facial coverings, altering their voices, and delivering crude, vulgar remarks including sexually explicit references and disturbing comments. These actions have turned our council chambers into a spectacle that undermines the dignity of public discourse."
"This decision wasn't made lightly," he continued. "But we cannot allow a small group to hijack the democratic process and create a toxic atmosphere that discourages community participation. We are committed to transparency, accountability, and — above all — civility in government."
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Dover NJ cancels public meetings after bizarre burqa stunt