BY MEGHAN VAN DYK • STAFF WRITER • MAY 5, 2010
A judge today ruled that voters in Mount Olive will decide the fate of emergency medical service in the township.
Superior Court Assignment Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis sided with a group of petitioners who sought to get a referendum question on the ballot for voters to decide 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 paid ambulance crew that would bill patients directly for transportation to the hospital. the committee collected hundreds more signatures needed than the required 1,100 for a ballot initiative.
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.
