City denies request for debate at City Hall
Community group seeks alternate venue for council candidates debate
BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH -- A community-based organization is seeking a venue to hold a debate among candidates for City Council in the upcoming November municipal election.

A request by the Long Branch Concerned Citizens Coalition (CCC) to hold the debate at City Hall was denied by the city, according to CCC Executive Director Avery Grant.

"We wanted to use the City Council chambers," Grant said Monday. "The city responded that no debate has ever been held there and there was a concern that the crowd would be too big."

City Administrator Howard Woolley could not be reached for comment by deadline on Tuesday.

In a Sept. 15 letter, CCC Chairwoman Julia E. Wheeler asked Mayor Adam Schneider for permission to use City Hall for the debate on either Oct. 25 or Oct. 30, according to the letter.

The letter states, "There is no more appropriate place than the 'house of the people' for this public forum to be held to have the candidates present themselves to the people, and to have the people communicate with the candidates."

On Sept. 28, Wheeler received a letter from Michael F. Muscillo, an aide to Schneider, denying the request.

"The use of City Council chambers for a political debate between candidates has not been allowed in the past," the letter stated.

"Because of its size, the issue of overcrowding arises, as well as the potential need for a police presence," the letter continued. "A more appropriate venue that could handle such a crowd would be a school auditorium, or as has been done in the past, a ballroom at the Ocean Place Hotel."

The CCC reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union for assistance in challenging the city's denial, according to Grant.

Grant said the CCC's position in the challenge is, "This is a First Amendment right.

"The citizens paid taxes to operate [City Hall], to maintain it, to insure it and in the past, to build it," he said.

Grant added that on April 17, the CCC hosted a Mayor and Council Candidates forum at Salem Baptist Church and less than 100 people attended.

"The City Council chambers seat 108 people with standing room for at least 50 more. Our forum is for only five council candidates," he said.

Grant added that the CCC is looking for another venue at which to host the debate.