October 18, 2008
BY JIM LOCKWOOD
Star-Ledger Staff
It was a split decision for a group of Sparta residents who sued the township clerk for rejecting two petitions -- one for a referendum on a salary ordinance and one seeking to let residents opt out of curb side garbage collection.
Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis, sitting in Morristown yesterday, upheld the rejection of the trash petition, but reinstated the petition on the salary ordinance.
Municipal clerk Miriam Tower rejected the trash petition in March because it was vague and not in the proper form. It did not provide the text of the original ordinance creating curbside collection and did not spell out opt-out costs or how that would work. Bozonelis agreed and upheld her rejection, but also laid out a framework for how a future petition should be structured to pass muster.
"It was properly rejected. The clerk has no choice but to reject it," Bozonelis said. "It doesn't mean you can't go out and do it again. It simply must be more specific."
Regarding salary-ordinance petition, residents argued that Tower wrongly rejected it in May. They submitted 638 signatures, but she found they needed 650. When they then submitted 30 more signatures a few days later, which was still within the deadline, Tower determined the petition could not simply be supplemented with extra signatures but would have to be started over from scratch.
Bozonelis disagreed and validated the salary-ordinance petition, because the extra signatures were submitted before the deadline expired. "The clerk rejected it on a strict reading of the statute, (leaving it) for the court to decide," he said.
Now, the salary petition goes back to Tower to verify the signatures. If there are enough valid sig natures, the salary ordinance would be put up for a referendum in the 2009 general election.
The ordinance provides a range of salary raises for some 11 non- union employees, including the town manager and his secretary, four department heads and the five elected township council members.
Sparta Township attorney Thomas Ryan said he was pleased with the rulings. "The issue of solid waste has been addressed with the community (who approved curb side collection in a referendum). With the salary ordinance, I believe the township handled that properly as well."
The residents, Jesse Wolosky, Philip Lid, Aileen Shane, Anne Simkatis and Myron Leski, who represented themselves in court, said they were happy the salary petition was upheld. But they were disappointed that the trash petition was denied, but pleased with the judge's spelling out how to correctly redo an opt-out petition.
"We're going to do another (opt-out) petition," Wolosky said. "We're going to get better at it so that we don't make a mistake."
