The Board Director says meetings are “not planning on being public.” Commissioner Ramsay, in writing: “Advisory boards are public.”
SALEM — Salem County has created a Nuclear Advisory Council to prepare for what may be the largest development question in the county’s modern history. Whether the public will be allowed to watch it work is already a fight at the top of county government.
The Board of County Commissioners adopted Resolution 2026-430 at its Sept. 2 meeting, establishing the nine-member council as an advisory body amid mounting expectations of new nuclear development at Artificial Island. The measure was moved by Deputy Director Cordy Taylor, seconded by Commissioner Ed Ramsay, and adopted without a dissenting vote; Commissioner Dan Timmerman was absent.
Within a day, the question of public access split the Board in writing.
Asked directly by The News of Salem County whether the council’s meetings will be public, Board Director Benjamin Laury answered: “Currently no.”
The following day, in an email to Ramsay with Commissioner Paul Collier copied, Laury went further. “The SCNAB (Salem County Nuclear Advisory Council) meetings are not planning on being public. The board is advisory only,” he wrote, arguing that where a body is “purely making recommendations only, and do not make any decisions that could affect the public (residents, infrastructure, spending, etc.) then there is a case to exclude.” The email, under the subject line “Update your comments,” told Ramsay: “I would suggest next time you change what I said, talk to me first,” and asked him to retract an earlier email that had included this publication.
Ramsay refused — and copied this publication on his reply.
“No, as you know advisory boards are public,” Ramsay wrote. “Why you feel public business is not to be conducted in public at the time business is happening over waiting until the 11th hour to let the public know what the public decided is beyond me.”
The exchange was provided to The News of Salem County when Ramsay included the publication on his response.
What the Commissioner Board adopted
The dispute is sharpened by the council’s own governing document which was adopted unanimously by the commissioners present, Laury among them, on Sept. 2. Article Four, Section 2 of the attached bylaws states that meetings “shall be conducted in accordance with applicable requirements governing public bodies, public notice, public attendance, meeting minutes, and access to government records.” The bylaws set a standing schedule and that is for the meetings to be held on the third Tuesday of each month, 4:30 p.m., at 110 Fifth Street in Salem. It specifically requires the council to keep records of its studies, minutes, and recommendations, and require a report to the commissioners at least annually.
Whether New Jersey’s Open Public Meetings Act strictly compels a purely advisory body to meet in public is a contested legal question. Courts have at times held advisory bodies without effective authority to fall outside the act, which is presumed yet appears to be Laury’s argument.
But the access question does not arrive in a vacuum. Until June, all commissioner meetings were livestreamed; the practice stopped when the staff member responsible resigned, according to Clerk of the Board Stacy Pennington. And as of publishing, the county’s website has no minutes from last month posted, and the website just recently had the June 24th meeting minutes posted (sometime within the last 36-48 hours). Against that backdrop, the first act of the county’s newest public body may be deciding whether the public is in the room.
Asked in a follow-up inquiry how he reconciles non-public meetings with the bylaws’ public-body provision, and whether the Board’s position is that the Open Public Meetings Act does not apply to the council, Laury did not answer directly, writing: “I suggest you contact our solicitor, Karin Wood for clarification.” Asked whether the full Board will take a formal position and whether the question will be addressed at the Sept. 16 meeting, Laury wrote of Ramsay: “Most likely he will be having a discussion with our solicitor before the meeting.”
The question of whether the public may attend the council’s meetings, in other words, now sits with the county solicitor, Ms. Karin Wood of Pennsville.
Who’s on the Salem County Nuclear Advisory Board (SCNAB)
The nine appointed voting members, serving three-year terms:
- Sean Elwell, Mayor of Elsinboro Township;
- Dan Neu, Mayor of Pennsville Township;
- Dr. Jody Veler, Mayor of the City of Salem;
- Henry Papiano, Pittsgrove Township Committeeman and small business owner;
- April Venable, Senior Vice President at Inspira Health;
- Sean Sepsey, Director of Salem County Economic Development;
- Jeff Pompper, Deputy Director of the Salem County Office of Emergency Management;
- Mickey Ostrum, Salem County Surrogate & Salem County Commissioner
- Dr. Michael Gorman, President of Salem Community College.
The council’s charge spans infrastructure, workforce development, fiscal impacts, emergency preparedness, environmental review, community impacts, and state and federal funding opportunities. Its bylaws are explicit that it “shall have no regulatory, permitting, enforcement, or taxing authority.” Nuclear facility developers and operators may be invited to present but cannot be members, vote, or hold office.
The bylaws permit up to 11 members and suggest membership may include business representatives from “Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, and Real Estate.” The initial appointments include no farmer, no agricultural business, and no community organization seat. That leaves the nine votes with three mayors, four county officials or institutional leaders, a hospital executive, and a college president.
Asked who selected the members and whether representatives from agriculture or community organizations were considered, Laury wrote: “They were chosen based on the interest each member brings to the table. Nine was the number chosen to make the meeting easier to handle.” He did not address whether agricultural or community representatives were considered.
How the Nuclear Advisory Board came to exist
The push for the county to prepare for development-related community benefits has been driven in significant part by citizen advocacy. Only a few citizens were even at the meeting and only one calls themself an “advocate.” During public comment, Jennifer Thomas who is listed as Initiative Coordinator on South Jersey Preservation letterhead did not state this at the podium. Furthermore she urged the Board to create a Community Benefits Agreement Task Force to “help us prepare for incoming development,” which she said is expected in the first quarter of 2027.
“We have all seen what a decade of uncoordinated development has produced: empty warehouses that attract crime,” Thomas told the board, describing residents left to fight development proposals through long and costly legal battles which she said are still underway. “We need coordinated action so that the next chapter serves the people who live here now and the generations that follow.”
Addressing concerns about county-led coordination, she said county facilitation would not take autonomy away from municipalities or infringe on local control. Asked whether her framework is in use elsewhere, she said, “I have friends in Sussex, Warren, Cumberland and Gloucester Counties looking at this right now.”
Responding to Thomas, Laury noted that the resolution forming the nuclear advisory council was spurred by her earlier efforts. The very same clear characterization that was also put to Laury in writing by this publication and stands uncorrected. Asked whether the Board will introduce the task force resolution Thomas requested, Laury wrote: “Still reviewing the benefit and costs.” Asked whether the council’s scope will include community benefits agreements, host community agreements, or PILOTs: “TBD They have not met yet.”
What to Expect from SCNAB?
The council’s first meeting is on the third Tuesday of October (which is Oct. 20) according to Commissioner Paul Collier, who said whether the meetings will be public “is still being determined.”
That makes three commissioners with three answers: Laury’s “currently no,” Ramsay’s “advisory boards are public,” and Collier’s still-being-determined. The Board’s next regular meeting on Wednesday Sept. 16 at 6 pm is its first opportunity to resolve the question in public session, a month before the council convenes.
The News of Salem County has asked Director Laury and the full Board to state whether council meetings will be open, and will report their responses. The full resolution and bylaws are available
The full resolution and bylaws are available below: