Fighting the odds: Residents in Hardyston, Sparta attempt rare recall elections

December 30, 2007

By STEPHEN J. NOVAK

Recall elections are not common in New Jersey, and even when the petitions prove successful, the outcomes rarely do.

Though recalls have been attempted before in Sussex County, Margaret McCabe, administrator of the county Board of Elections, said she does not believe any have resulted in the ousting of an official.

Yet residents in two neighboring townships, Sparta and Hardyston, are making a push to do just that, though for different reasons.

In Hardyston, about 1,350 residents supported a move to recall School Board President Marbeth Boffa after the controversial firing of popular school administrator Dominic Fest-ante. If the recall is successful and Boffa is forced to give up her position, it would be only the second recall of a school official in New Jersey.

As it stands, it is only the third time, at least for New Jersey school boards, that a recall has been placed on a ballot since 1995.

In Sparta, opposition to a Township Council-approved garbage utility will have to muster more than twice as many signatures as its last petition challenging the service if they hope to recall the three councilmen who supported it. The petition to bring to a public referendum the mandatory garbage pickup service was accepted by the council on Thursday. Approximately 1,400 residents signed the petition, though only 578 were needed — 15 percent of those who voted in the last general election in November.

State election laws say that a petition for a recall election like the one promised by the first petition's organizer at a council meeting last week will require the endorsement of about 3,000 people — a full quarter of Sparta's approximately 12,000 registered voters, McCabe said.

"It's a huge undertaking," she said. "The people doing the petitions need to be ready to do a lot of work."

Gaining confidence

The Hardyston petition was completed earlier this month having gathered 1,350 signatures, 200 more than what they needed. The committee that organized the petition requested the recall be held with the regular school board election in April, which will eliminate the cost of a special election.

Though the recall committee did not attach its reasons for the recall when it submitted its petition, members have said that the effort was fueled not only by the school board's dismissal of Festante but also by the way it was done. Over the course of three months, the board voted to renew Festante's contract, then to rescind it, then reaffirmed its decision at a raucous public meeting in July.

Though history indicates that a recall will be hard to pull off, one committee member said it is "important to try, at least." Boffa could not be reached for comment Saturday.

The newly announced recall effort in Sparta has not yet gone to petition, the first step in the process. But township resident Jesse Wolosky, the organizer of an earlier petition opposing the township's garbage service, announced at a meeting Thursday that one will begin.

Wolosky he is confident he will be able to obtain all of the necessary signatures for a recall. The first petition earlier this month to bring the utility to referendum was a chance to "buy more time" and "build confidence" for a recall, he said.

There was continued interest in signing the referendum petition after it was completed, and though recall efforts are limited to 160 days after announcing the intention, "we'll do it in a week, two weeks," he said.

The desire for a recall is "more than the garbage thing," Wolosky said. "It's about First Amendment rights. Again and again, the people felt the three (councilmen) who were voting against them ... were condescending and had their minds set."

Promises kept

Sparta Mayor Michael Spekhardt, Deputy Mayor Brian Brady and Councilman Manny Goldberg — all of whom were elected in 2006 — are being threatened with the recall, but Spekhardt said the council's accomplishments should support them in such an event.

"The idea of a resignation would probably be appealing to my wife and children," he said Friday, paraphrasing a statement he made at the previous night's meeting, "but I did make a promise to the people of Sparta."

Spekhardt said he has achieved many of his election goals — sharing services with the county by merging health departments, working more closely with the Sparta Board of Education through joint meetings and cutting spending on the budget.

"Anybody who voted for me shouldn't be disappointed," he said. "I've done what I said I was going to do. ... If we're going to be the first town to go to referendum for garbage (service), we might as well be the first town to recall an official who made good on his promises."

The decision on the garbage utility came after more than seven hours of public comments, most of them opposing the service as it was presented. It was "a tough decision," Spekhardt said, but one that will benefit "90 percent of the town" by providing pickup at a cheaper rate than private services. Much of the vocal opposition, at least in the reasons presented at meetings, is based on "misinformation," he said.

Sparta Township Clerk Miriam Tower said Friday that she had just begun to review the rules and procedures for a recall election and could not speculate how long the process could run or when a recall might take place.

A referendum on the garbage ordinance is anticipated for March. The clerk's office will handle all of the verifications and arrangements necessary prior to the election and the county will handle the operations the day of the vote, McCabe said. If there is a recall, it is possible that it could happen at the same time as the referendum; though it is also possible it might fall around the time of the regular May election or be done in a special, separate vote.

"It all depends on the timing," she said.