August 28, 2008
By SETH AUGENSTEIN
FRANKFORD -- The recall petition effort against Mayor Robert McDowell hit a stumbling block this week.
Township Administrator and Clerk Louanne Cular rejected the petition over a technical error with the petition forms, according to a letter sent to both McDowell and the committee seeking to recall him.
According to Cular, the lack of sequential numbers on petition signature pages was the sole reason for the rejection of the paperwork -- and its more than 1,200 signatures amassed during two months.
"Only one of the 51 separate and distinct petitions sections is sequentially numbered," she wrote. "In the absence of sequential page numbering, I cannot confirm that the signer of each petition section was provided with the first page of the petition form that I approved and which contains statutorily mandated information. Based upon this statutory mandate, I am constrained to declare the Petition for the Recall of Robert McDowell from the office of Township Committee null and void."
The organizers of the petition said they will challenge Cular's decision by the Sept. 11 deadline to do so. Gary Larson, one of the petitioners -- and the candidate who plans to challenge McDowell in a possible recall election -- voiced the petitioners' misgivings about the peoples' will being ignored. He points to several cases -- like a similar technicalities issue in a Mount Olive recall in 2006 -- in which judges side with popular opinion, and not just statutory requirements
"Does a technicality like that really negate 1,200 signatures?" Larson said. "Clearly the township has spoken."
McDowell could not be reached for comment.
The form of the petition was submitted on April 17. Cular said the form she approved had a blank to put in the page number for sequential verification. The petitioners had to get at least 25 percent of the registered voters, or 947 signatures, within 160 days. The petitioners submitted 51 sheets of signatures. Cular checked 613 of them and OK'd 575 of them. However, the page numbering technicality was the ultimate cause for the denial of the petition.
Kevin Benbrook, the township's attorney, said the clerk had no choice but to follow the letter of the law -- and the town has no local authority to go against the exact wording of a state statute.
"It's a straightforward, statutory, mandatory requirement," Benbrook said.
The Frankford recall effort is arguably the biggest and most successful movement of its kind among several in Sussex County. In Sparta, the first recall effort against three councilmen failed last week without any petitions being filed. In Stillwater, Committeeman Al Fuoco resigned Tuesday while a group in town still was collecting signatures to recall him.
There have been various issues behind the recalls in each town, and each group has spoken about the reasons for their petitions. The organizers of the Frankford effort have mentioned several reasons for trying to remove McDowell from office, including his views on economic development and misgivings about his conduct in office.
