Steve Van Saun hails from sprawling, rural Hardyston Township in Sussex County, the extreme northwest corner of the state. Meanwhile, his friend Lawrence Jones comes from East Newark, a tiny, urban Hudson County borough wedged between Harrison and Kearny. If you blink, you’ll miss it when you drive through it.

James McGrath was raised in leafy Madison, a Morris County college town. Vincent Hufnagel rode up the Garden State Parkway from Wall Township, a Monmouth County town hard by the Jersey Shore.

Finally, Bergen County native Joe Judge arrived from just down the road in Dumont.

Three things unite these five men. They are all seniors at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark, the state’s premier science and technology research university. They are also all members of a particular class that sent them to a municipal council meeting to see how the business of government is done in New Jersey. By happenstance, they were assigned to Hackensack for the April 22 city council meeting.

By observation, all five students did their own research, focused on the unique brand of political science they witnessed being conducted in Bergen County’s seat. The results of their study left a distinct impression on a group who may well be among the Garden State’s leaders in the future.

School is in session

The five NJIT students, sent by teacher Ron Lai as part of their civil engineering design class, entered the council chambers on a night when the fate of the eight emergency medical technicians (EMTs) currently under Hackensack Fire Department command was being heatedly debated once again. The eight paid EMTs are scheduled to be replaced by workers hired by Hackensack University Medical Center by August.

Watching a crowd that grew to more than 80 people assemble before the meeting, Jones, 22, suspected that he would soon see something that he didn’t expect.

"We picked a good night to come, huh?" he said after the meeting. "I didn’t expect to see anything like this. I thought that it would be just six or seven people going through the motions. It was just crazy. It’s great to see people really fighting for something that they believe in."

Jones’ sense of that fight came from a distinct vantagepoint.

"I’m an outsider. I guess it’s good to get a perspective from somebody on the outside rather than from somebody who is deeply involved," he said. "People got out of hand a little bit tonight, but that’s because they were so emotional about what’s going on here. You can’t put a price on good health care. The experience that the EMTs have is something that the city should stick with. They shouldn’t get rid of them. I think that it’s screwed up."

Jones’ class colleague Hufnagel concurred with his comments.

"How can you say that this is democracy when these people are here complaining time and time again that this is wrong?" said Hufnagel, 23. "It seems like the councilmen just turn a blind eye like they have already made up their minds behind closed doors. Nothing is being done. It’s just ridiculous."

The lesson continues

Van Saun’s view of what’s happening in Hackensack regarding the EMT issue is colored by what goes on in his Hardyston hometown.

"Two ambulances for that whole area," said Van Saun, 22, pointing to the aerial map of Hackensack, a city of close to 45,000 people, that graces one of the council chamber’s walls. "Look at how many houses are there. Where I’m from, there are a lot less houses, but there are a lot more than two ambulances. That’s like 12 towns by me, and each town has two ambulances."

Hardyston Township has a population of slightly over 6,000, according to 2000 U.S. Census figures.

"You can’t possibly service this many people here with only two ambulances," Van Saun continued. "My town is run better than this."

McGrath’s objections to the conduct of Hackensack city business were based on the council’s approval of the $2.5 million purchase of the former Greene Uniform property on Anderson Street. While city officials have said that the property will be used to move some workers out of City Hall, as well as for the storage of municipal equipment, McGrath, 22, felt more clarity about the property’s future use is needed.

"I was appalled by the $2.5 million being spent on the property, and they wouldn’t let anybody know what was going on," he said, a reference to city officials stating that the final use of the property had yet to be determined during the course of the meeting. "The fact that they are going to spend money that everybody in Hackensack earned, and then figure out what to do with it later, bothers me."

Class dismissed

For Judge, 23, what takes place two towns south from his native Bergen County borough matters.

"I used to work for the engineering board in Fair Lawn," he said. "A lot of things go on in city government because they believe that what they are doing is truly good for the town. But 90 percent of the time, the people in local towns don’t know or don’t even care what’s going on. In this case in Hackensack, it was interesting that people caught on pretty quick to what was going on, and that they were so passionate about it."

In his own way, Judge affirmed the aphorism made famous by the late Massachusetts congressman Thomas P. "Tip" O’Neill: All politics is local.

"What happens at these meetings still absolutely involves your life," he said. "The system is designed to include people at these meetings so that you can voice your opinion and represent yourself and your interests. You should be interested and be there. People have to check what the government is doing."

For his part, Van Saun believes the Hackensack city government needs to be checked and balanced.

"Isn’t it the goal of all politicians to get re-elected and give their constituents what they want, not what they want?" he asked. "If this is how things are run, you could lose your faith in government."

As for McGrath, he plans to help build up New Jersey’s infrastructure when he becomes a civil engineer after graduation. After going to the last Hackensack city council meeting, he and his classmates also stand ready to help construct the state’s civil society.

"We learned more at this meeting than we learned in class the entire semester," he said.