BY MEGHAN VAN DYK • STAFF WRITER • MAY 6, 2010
MOUNT OLIVE -- Voters will get to decide the fate of emergency medical service in the township, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Superior Court Assignment Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis sided in favor of a group of petitioners who sought to get a referendum question on the ballot asking whether the township should be required to contract with the Budd Lake and Flanders volunteer first aid squads for ambulance service on weeknights and weekends.
The petition was brought forward by a committee called Save the Mount Olive Rescue Squads in response to Mayor David Scapicchio's decision to seek a full-time private crew that would bill patients directly for transportation to hospitals.
Township attorney John Dorsey filed a lawsuit last month seeking to have the referendum blocked, arguing that voters have no authority to decide a budgetary issue.
But in his ruling, Bozonelis said the question of whether volunteers or a paid service provides EMS service is policy issue that citizens are permitted to bring to a referendum.
Citing an April decision of the state Supreme Court in the case of a citizens' challenge of the proposed sale of Trenton's water utility, Bozonelis said the township failed to show a clear legislative exemption to initiative and referendum as permitted in the state Faulkner Act, which he called "the most fundamental democratic process'' in the Act.
"This is not a budget ordinance,'' Bozonelis said. "It is a policy decision, a choice made by the governing body made for legitimate reasons to cut out volunteer services as a budget fix. The ordinance suggests (residents) believe there is a competing policy.''
It remains unclear whether the referendum will be held in the November general election or whether a special election date will be set. Bozonelis urged officials to continue funding the volunteer squads until the November election so the township, which cited economic woes in the argument for privatization, does not incur the $43,000 cost of a special election.
Bozonelis did, however, side with the township in that the ordinance, if approved by voters, would only contract with volunteers for two years, not the five requested by the petitioners.
Scapicchio, who did not attend the hearing, said he plans to arrange a meeting with leadership from the volunteer squads to discuss the issue. He had previously said he would recommend the council approve a contract with Hackettstown Regional Medical Center despite the ruling. In its proposal, the hospital said it would keep two ambulances on call and bill patients $650 plus a fee of $12 per mile to be transported to the hospital.
"The goal is to improve EMS in Mount Olive township and I will work with the volunteers to make that happen,'' Scapicchio said.
Colleen Labow, a councilwoman who has supported the volunteer squads, criticized Scapicchio for his "relentless'' pursuit of a 24/7 paid ambulance service.
"His was not a well thought out plan,'' Labow said. "The township would be forcing residents to pay for 24/7 and to pay to keep volunteers on as backup.''
Former township councilwoman Barbara Swasey, who was one of those who petitioned for the referendum and who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed by the township, said after the ruling that she felt relieved.
"I'm smiling,'' she said. "We are reasonable, intelligent people with good intentions and we should be able to work this out.''
