August 10, 2008
By SETH AUGENSTEIN
SPARTA -- Two out of three ain't bad, say some local activists.
The recent wave of recalls in Sussex County will successfully bring two local officials up for votes of confidence in November.
In Stillwater, the petition to recall Committeeman Alfred Fuoco was submitted and filed last week. And this week, the petition to recall Frankford Mayor Robert McDowell will be submitted to the township, according to organizers.
But the first of the recalls will end in defeat. In Sparta, the effort to recall three council members fell short of the required number of names and will not even be submitted to the township clerk before the deadlines this week and the next, according to Jesse Wolosky, the main organizer behind the movement.
Wolosky said he has been consulted by other municipalities seeking to remove their elected officials from office, including Stillwater and Frankford.
Wolosky said the Sparta petition movement failed because the 3,000-plus signature requirement was too vast for a relatively small group of collectors. But they tried anyway, because of the dissatisfaction people have had with officials.
"Some people said, 'We never knew we had this way to change,'" he said.
He cites a litany of grievances against the current officials, including the garbage collection ordinance which brought about a petition effort and a subsequent March referendum. But the main thrust of the issue in Sparta, he said, is to replace Henry Underhill, the township manager. He claims that the petitions to recall then-Mayor Michael Spekhardt and councilmen Brian Brady and Manny Goldberg were never done out of personal grudges.
Spekhardt refused to comment until after it's certain the group did not make the number of signatures. The deadline to submit the petition to recall him is Tuesday. During the months of the campaign against him, he has consistently railed his detractors for what he has called "lies" about him. Brady and Goldberg, whose petition deadline is a week after Spekhardt's, have similarly addressed the accusations against them -- even at public council meetings.
Wolosky said the recall efforts have a different focus in each town, but always bring the same conclusion -- a sense of empowerment for citizens. Sussex County's first recall was the successful ouster of Hardyston school board president Marbeth Boffa earlier this year. The recall possibilities opened some eyes, Wolosky said.
"Nobody knew you could stop this stuff (in this way)," he said.
The recall reasons vary in each town. In Stillwater, Fuoco's stance on gypsy moth spraying was the first reason stated by the petitioners, who took only three months to collect the 707 signatures necessary. In Frankford, money is the main reason. George Lista, one of the Frankford petitioners, said McDowell is targeted because of his conduct -- and particularly how his conservationist stance is affecting the financial development of the entire township.
"Economics is the big issue," he said. "And they're just not following the protocol of how elected officials should act."
Whatever the reason, Wolosky says his role outside Sparta has been simply a numbers game -- about how to collect the signatures necessary to recall officials. He said he steers clear of the politics in other municipalities, and is simply looking to get the numbers for people who want to "make a change."
"I'm not into politics -- it's about the activism," he said.
As for the Sparta failure, he said he still sees it as a victory. In fact, the group is still fighting the township's garbage collection and the township's latest salary ordinance. This time, though, the battlefield won't be on the streets and in front of Sparta stores -- it will be in a Morristown courtroom next week.
"We tried our best in something we believed in," he said.
"It just needs to be known that if you're a public official, and you stop listening to the people... be prepared to be recalled."
