Township committee adopts resolution to enter closed session over Woodland Volunteer Fire Company matters

The Woodland Township Committee adopted Resolution 2024-77 and voted to enter a closed (executive) session Dec. 12, 2024, to discuss pending or anticipated litigation, contract negotiation and matters protected by the attorney–client privilege related to the Woodland Volunteer Fire Company.

Mary Alice, the clerk who read the meeting notice, recited the resolution on behalf of the township, saying the committee desired to enter closed session “in order to discuss any pending or anticipated litigation, contract negotiation in which the township is or may become a party and/or any matters falling within the attorney client privilege related to the Woodland Volunteer Fire Company.” The notice read into the record was dated Dec. 5, 2024 and stated it was published in the Burlington County Times and the Courier Post and posted on the municipal building bulletin board in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act.

A motion to enter executive session under Resolution 2024-77 was moved and seconded; the clerk conducted a roll call for the vote. The transcript records affirmative votes of “yes” from Mary DeGraw, Mister Herndon and Miss Mall during the roll call recorded in the transcript. Following the recorded roll call, the resolution was declared adopted and the committee prepared to enter closed session immediately.

The resolution cites statutory authority under the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, specifically NJSA 10:4-12 for permitted closed-session topics and NJSA 10:4-13 for disclosure of minutes when confidentiality no longer applies. The resolution states minutes of the closed session will be made available for public disclosure consistent with those statutory provisions when the confidentiality reasons end.

The transcript contains some garbled or fragmentary phrasing in the opening remarks (for example, the initial motion language is not entirely clear in the recording), and the roll-call sequence captured in the transcript appears incomplete; several members were listed as present during roll call earlier in the meeting but are not captured by name in the roll call for the executive-session vote as printed in the transcript. The minutes to be kept on file, and subsequent public records, should clarify the full vote tally and who made the motion and second if that is not clear from the final, official minutes.