April 8, 2008
By SETH AUGENSTEIN
SPARTA — the most recent petition opposing the new garbage utility has been trashed by the township clerk.
A petition seeking an "opt-out clause" for residents not wanting to pay for the mandatory trash pick-up was denied Monday by Township Clerk Miriam Tower, due to a technical error in the petitioners' form.
Tower said the newest petition does not meet state law requiring the text of the proposed ordinance to appear on the signed petitions. The petition form, she said, did not have a properly phrased question for voters to vote upon, and so she denied it by a Monday letter to the petitioners.
Those petitioners, led by resident Jesse Wolosky, are seeking to bring an ordinance to council which will create an "opt-out" clause for the solid waste utility allowing Sparta residents to remove themselves from the contract with Blue Diamond Disposal — and also exempt themselves from paying roughly $240 annually on their tax bills for three years.
Wolosky said 643 signatures; roughly double the number required by law, were collected by petitioners and then submitted to the clerk on March 18. Tower denied it on Monday, the last day of the 20-day deadline to approve or deny the petition. She said the decision will be formally certified at tonight's township council meeting. The petition, if certified, would bring the ordinance to the attention of the council, who would either choose to pass an ordinance or send the matter to a referendum.
The latest petition comes after the decisive March 11 referendum approval of the December council ordinance creating the utility.
The voter turnout was roughly 42 percent — much greater than most local elections — and the ordinance passed by 414 votes.
Nevertheless, many of the petitioners have continued with their efforts to limit the garbage ordinance to those who want the service.
The effort has branched off into separate recall efforts against the three council members who voted for the garbage collection in the first place: Mayor Michael Spekhardt, Deputy Mayor Brian Brady and Councilman Manny Goldberg.
Wolosky said Sparta government is "not transparent," and that the rejection of his petition was a repeat occurrence of his difficulties certifying petitions to recall the three council members — a series of which were rejected over the course of several weeks earlier this year.
Eventually those recall petitions were certified by the clerk's office.
But Wolosky maintains there is "an abuse of power" in town hall, and that he has alerted the state's Department of Community Affairs and attorney general's office, as well as the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office, about possible wrongdoing.
"We are going to clean up our town," he said. "Something is very wrong in Sparta."
