August 10, 2008
Holding officials accountable, residents sign petitions for their removal
BY JIM LOCKWOOD
Star-Ledger Staff
You might be able to fight city hall after all -- by trying to recall an elected official.
But is that necessarily a good thing, or sour grapes from a disgruntled citizenry?
Such sentiments and questions are being raised in three towns in Sussex County -- Sparta, Frankford and Stillwater -- where recall petitions against municipal officials have been under way.
It's too early to know for sure, but it looks like Stillwater and Frankford may have recall elections on the Nov. 4 ballot, but Sparta won't.
In Sparta, recall petitions against Mayor Brian Brady and councilmen Michael Spekhardt and Manny Goldberg are falling short of garnering the 3,125 signatures needed per petition, said Jesse Wolosky, the recall organizer there. The deadlines for petitions to be submitted in Sparta are Tuesday for the one against Spekhardt, and Aug. 19 for the ones against Brady and Goldberg.
"We will not be submitting a petition on the 12th or the 19th. We did not make our numbers," said Wolosky, who would not disclose how far short they fell.
Wolosky, who earlier this year engineered three other petitions against ordinances in Sparta and helped Stillwater and Frankford petitioners, cited "petition fatigue" as one reason for the recall failures in his town. He said his group has had no trouble obtaining several-hundred signatures needed to oppose ordinances, but a recall requires a much-higher threshold of 25 percent of registered voters.
"I don't think it's petition-fatigue at all," Brady said. "I stand by the fact that the council keeps the entire township in mind and we do what we think is right."
Recalls are allowed under a 1995 law that only recently has begun to be employed as a grassroots political tool throughout the state. Recall petitions are the most difficult petitions to achieve, as petitions need signatures from at least 25 percent of a town's registered voters. There also are limits on who can be recalled; officials in their first year or six months away from the end of a term can't be recalled. Residents also simultaneously choose a replacement if a recall passes, and the recall target can also be a replacement candidate.
Earlier this year, Hardyston had the first recall in Sussex County, in the April 15 school election, when former school board president Marbeth Boffa was recalled and replaced.
In Stillwater, petitions to recall Township Committeeman Al Fuoco needed 707 signatures and were submitted on Aug. 1 with 855 signatures. Last week, the municipal clerk determined there are enough valid signatures, and Fuoco now has until Aug. 19 to challenge any of them. If there still are enough after that, a recall election would occur on Nov. 4.
"This is a ruse for a political vendetta," Fuoco said. "There's a lot of personal animosity going back four or five years."
Carol Fredericks, one of the Stillwater recall organizers, disagreed and cited Fuoco's vote against gypsy-moth spraying as a catalyst for the recall drive.
"The will of the people wasn't done. We decided enough is enough," Fredericks said. "It's not a personal vendetta. Politicians have to be accountable."
Frankford residents targeted Mayor Robert McDowell for recall after the township committee restricted some commercial development along part of Route 206. They need 947 signatures for a recall election, and petitions have not yet been submitted.
Rich Wingle, one of the recall organizers in Frankford, said of McDowell: "He's against business and doesn't listen to residents. It's a pretty strong (recall) movement in town. I've been here 35 years and never seen anything like it."
McDowell, who said he's "hearing a lot of strong support against the recall," said he's not anti-business, but rather following state procedures to gain Trenton's approval for a town center. "You have to do certain things, pass ordinances. We did that and now we're getting a little backlash over it."
While acknowledging that recall organizers are exercising their rights, the officials each expressed concern with how laws do not require petitions to contain any reasons for a recall. They feel recalls should be reserved for corruption or malfeasance, and not over political feuds or disagreements about decisions.
"I believe what they're doing (in Stillwater) is an abuse of the recall process," Fuoco said. "There's no basis for a recall, no malfeasance. It's the way people who are angry and can't get their way at the ballot box go about it now."
McDowell said, "I'm really concerned about where this recall thing (in Frankford) is going to go. If this is the nature of what recalls are about, why would people run for office in the future?"
Brady, who plans to fight for a change in the law to require a reason stated on a recall petition, said, "I feel for anybody who becomes subject of a recall without cause, for doing nothing more than what you were put in office to do."
Petition organizers note they adhered to the recall law, and also set up web sites or issued letters, mailers or word-of-mouth information stating various reasons for recalls.
"We live in a democracy," Fredericks said. "You can't fight city hall? I think that's changing."
