Despite more than one week since we presented our Petition to the Council on Sept. 25, and after various legitimate questions were raised in both the Petition and the many individuals who asked questions at the Council meeting that evening, we have not received any formal response to our Petition or to most of the questions from the Council. Aside from two emails from Council member Lisa Petriello thanking us for our interest on this issue, I have rec'd no email or other communication from the members of the Council. One would think that a Petition signed by well over 500 concerned residents would warrant some answers to the questions asked in the Petition. We made a request under the Open Public Records Act on September 27 asking for all relevant documents, meeting minutes and other materials related to the low income/affordable housing discussions held by Council, as well as all records and information provided and obtained by the Council from the developers who are interested and seeking to be qualified to build the low income/affordable housing, at the meeting for the developers (which was closed to the public) on Sept. 20. To date, we have not rec'd a response to that OPRA request. The Mayor and Council may say that they are unable to discuss some of these issues due to "the pending litigation." However, the point was made at the Council meeting on Sept. 25 that much of the information being requested is likely NOT confidential or privileged and may even be contained in pleadings and records that have already been filed with the Court, and hence they are public records not subject to any legitimate claim of privilege. Moreover, the Council and its administrative body can and should make those public documents available to the concerned residents of Moorestown if the Council is unable (or unwilling) to be fully transparent with the residents on this issue. There was discussion at the Council meeting that there would be public documents and all public pleadings (that is Court records that anyone can view by requesting from the Court) posted on the Township website so that interested citizens could review them. As of this morning, I was unable to locate any such documents on the Moorestown Government website. As one commenter said at the Council meeting on Sept. 25, and with the agreement of some of the Council members, the lack of transparency and engagement of the residents on this issue has been a problem and must be improved. We certainly should know more on October 4 when the Council is going to release the information on the "qualified" contractors/developers who have submitted information to be considered for whatever the development the Council is planning at 200 Hartford Road. At that time, one would think the Mayor and Council will have no choice but to publish that information to the public, and I have already requested it. Thank you.