August 22, 2008
By SETH AUGENSTEIN
MORRISTOWN -- Nine months of citizen activism finally has entered a new forum -- the courtroom.
Five people behind the garbage petition and referendum and the recently-ended campaign to recall three councilmen, represented themselves in court as plaintiffs against the town. They said their last round of petitions were improperly denied by the township clerk.
Judge Theodore Bozonelis heard both the group and Township Attorney Tom Ryan at the pre-trial conference, and he scheduled a series of paperwork deadlines leading up to an Oct. 17 summary hearing at which he expects to make a ruling.
Jesse Wolosky, Phil Lid, Anne Simkatis, Aileen Shane and Myron Leski explained their two complaints against the township for the two petitions they filed with the clerk, but which were denied on technicalities. The first was to provide an "opt-out" clause for the mandatory garbage pickup, which was filed shortly after the March 11 referendum failed to stop the ordinance from creating the service in the first place. The second petition was filed to stop the town's salary ordinance, which established new ranges for non-union Sparta employees. The move, in theory, could cost the town up to $355,000 if all the non-union employees were paid the highest ends of the ranges.
Township Clerk Miriam Tower denied the "opt-out" petition based on the form of the language on the petition, and cited insufficient numbers of signatures for the salary ordinance petition.
Wolosky and the group said the town's denial of their petitions was based on "hyper-technical readings" that followed the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it. They said the town was denying them based on political reasons, and not appropriate legal reasons.
They spoke from prepared statements and quoted numerous parts of state statute.
"Not only has Sparta broken the letter of the law, they've squashed the spirit of the law," Simkatis told the judge.
Ryan, representing the town, said in the courtroom that simple petition procedures had not been followed.
The judge set down weeks of deadlines for legal briefs and other documentation, with a final oral argument and judgment expected Oct. 17.
"I think the issue is a relatively narrow, simple issue," Bozonelis said.
