Opinion ID: 1972212
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Public Organizations

Text: The Monmouth County Mental Health Board, the Freehold Borough Board of Assessment, the Freehold Borough Youth Guidance Council, and the Freehold Borough Citizens Participation Group HUD, are public organizations established according to statutory authority. Each plays a role designated by statute, regulation, or ordinance in government and public affairs. The Monmouth County Mental Health Board is a public body established by N.J.S.A. 30:9A-3. It is an agency of county government. Among its duties established by N.J.S.A. 30:9A-5 are involvement in the selection of community mental health service projects to be funded by the State; the development of a comprehensive plan of community mental health services; and the recommendation of the amount of state financial aid to be allocated to each such project in the county. The Board must necessarily involve itself in legislation that involves the funding for mental health projects. (Pending resolution of this matter, Mrs. Randolph was not reappointed to this board.) The Freehold Borough Board of Assessment is established pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:56-1, in particular, N.J.S.A. 40:56-21. Its function is to make assessments of benefits accruing from local improvements in the Borough. The Board is to examine real estate in the vicinity of a local improvement to determine what lands have been benefited and also to fix and determine the amount of damages accruing to any property by reason of construction of municipal facilities. The Citizens Participation Group of the Freehold Borough HUD is an organization constituted under federal regulations of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that required citizens' participation for Community Development Block Grants funded through the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, 88 Stat. 633, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5301-5320 (1976 ed. and Supp. V). Under that act, the Secretary of HUD was authorized to dispense federal block grants to state and local governments and nonprofit community organizations for urban renewal programs such as the rehabilitation of residential structures, code enforcement in deteriorating areas, and the construction of public works projects. The function of such a group is to hold public hearings and determine the establishment of priorities for the expenditure of funds allocated to the communities in connection with the community block grant program. The Borough of Freehold Youth Guidance Council is a public body established pursuant to N.J.S.A. 9:22-1. Its purpose is in part to serve as a pre-complaint diversionary program. Instead of signing juvenile complaints, police officials may refer them to the Youth Guidance Council, which makes a recommendation for corrective action. The Council has no powers of enforcement or direct connection with the court system. None of these organizations endorses political candidates or is involved in partisan politics, but the first three of them are deeply involved in the political activity of the community. The determination of which section of the community shall receive community development block grant programs can be a highly-charged political decision. Such a decision has a realistic likelihood of involvement in litigation if dissatisfied citizens protest the action of the governing body in adopting its plan for participation in the community-development block-grant program. Few subjects are more controversial than a public improvement. The citizen whose lands have been the subject of a road improvement or a sewer assessment finds himself or herself deeply embroiled in a community dispute about the wisdom or necessity of the improvement. An equally realistic likelihood for public controversy arises with respect to the determination of funds and sites for community mental health programs. Although the number of citizens involved in such work is not large, their concern is deep. The Freehold Borough Youth Guidance Council serves as an alternative to judicial enforcement. Individuals and families who have been subjected to its process and who later appear in court might understandably feel that their position was somewhat compromised by their prior involvement with the court employee in the employee's municipal capacity. In addition, citizen complainants affected by the disposition of a juvenile matter may be aggrieved if the community representative is at the same time a court employee. Finally, one of the agency's missions is to respond to a court's finding that the child's delinquency is attributable in whole or in part to the existence of deleterious, degrading or deteriorating conditions, practices or influences within the municipality. N.J.S.A. 9:21-1. Hence, we perceive in each of these governmental agencies a realistic likelihood of involvement in community disputes. These disputes are intensely political in the sense that they are directly aimed at government action or inaction, and often reflect the viewpoint of larger political movements. Such movements may transcend partisan party activities. Such disputes divide the members of a community in its most political activity, that of self-government. More often than not such issues will correspond directly with partisan political activities. Indeed, they may include both major parties on one side or the other, but they are always bitterly partisan in a factional sense. These issues very often wind up determining positions of the parties and the voting of citizens in a local election. Moreover, the very appointment of the judicial employee to the position is an involvement in politics. Members of government boards are not drawn from a computer list of available citizens as, for example, jurors are. They are chosen by elected political figures who cannot be faulted if they yield to political wisdom in their selections for governmental boards. Realistically, such appointments come about through politics in the broader sense. The dissent would have us trace the origins of such appointments to assure ourselves of their pristine nature. Post at 466. That is simply unfeasible if not impossible. Finally, it is another reality that courts are frequently called upon to resolve the disputes that arise from the exercise of political choice by these boards. (If there is any doubt that such activities cast participants in such public affairs into the center of judicial controversy, a random survey of recent decisions will disclose the extent of judicial involvement. See Appendix, post at 455-457. And whether litigation ensues or not, each of the parties involved in such local controversy should enjoy the fullest confidence that the court system has no stake in the controversy. We simply do not want anyone walking into a judge's courtroom on any matter thinking that the judge is somehow connected with the person who made the assessment, or who participated in it, or the person who tried to have all the money allocated to the development project that the litigant bitterly opposes. More importantly, we do not want the public wondering whether the judge may share the views of that judicial employee; we want every person walking into that court to understand that the judge and the entire court are dispassionate and impartial.