Randolph Trial

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Randolph Township Petition

Results from the February 26, 2008 referendum.
http://www.randolphnj.org/news/pool_referendum_results/

Press Release From The Pool Bond Petition Committee

December 4, 2007

On December 3rd in Superior Court in Morristown Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis ruled that Randolph Township must hold a referendum election to allow the voters of Randolph to decide whether the town may borrow $5.5 million to construct a municipal swimming pool. Judge Bozonelis’ opinion can be appealed, but assuming the Randolph Town Council finally decides to give up its fight to prevent the people of Randolph from voting on this issue, the vote will take place on a date specified by the court, which will occur as soon as is practical.

Judge Bozonelis’ ruling brings to an end five arduous months of work by our committee and our supporters to bring this bond ordinance to a vote. During this period we and our supporters have been repeatedly and maliciously attacked for the sole reason that we felt that the people of Randolph, not just seven town council members and a handful of supporters, deserved the right to decide if the Township should incur this debt. Judge Bozonelis’ ruling represents a total vindication of the efforts of all the people who have worked to make this vote a reality. The Judge stated that the technical reasons which the Randolph Township clerk used to justify the disqualifications of our petitions were without substance or merit and that the Township’s allegations that our petition process was tainted were totally wrong. (In fact, in Township Attorney Ed Buzak’s closing comments, even he stated that he did not question the integrity of our signature collectors.)

Even though the December 3rd’s hearing is concluded, we continue to incur expenses related to our lawsuit against the town. Over 100 of our supporters have contributed to our defense fund so far, and we are indebted to these people for their support. Any further contributions to help us defray our remaining legal expenses will be greatly appreciated. After all of our expenses have been paid, we will provide each of our contributors with a final accounting of contributions and expenses. Any amounts remaining in the fund after all of the fund’s obligations have been satisfied will be returned to the contributors.

RELEASE FROM THE RANDOLPH POOL BOND PETITION COMMITTEE

September 10, 2007

During an attorney’s conference with Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis, Randolph Township Attorney Edward Buzak informed the Judge that the defendants in the legal action brought by our committee have elected to proceed with their attempt to prevent the voters of Randolph Township from voting on the pool bond ordinance. Having been advised by Judge Bozonelis that none of the reasons originally cited by Township Clerk Donna Luciani in her rejections of two petitions are likely to be sustained by the court, Mr. Buzak, on behalf of his clients – the Randolph Township Council and Ms. Luciani, now alleges irregularities in the way that signatures were gathered during the recent petition efforts. Oddly, these allegations were not mentioned in either of the Clerk’s certification reports.

Mr. Buzak has asked for a month to allow depositions to be taken from the five petition sponsors and from approximately 15 individuals who collected signatures during the petition efforts. The Township is alleging that not all signatures placed on the petition forms were witnessed by the signature collectors.

As a consequence of Mr. Buzak’s request, which was granted by Judge Bozonelis, it is unlikely that the referendum for the pool bond petition can be placed on the November ballot. Consequently, the actions which Mr. Buzak has undertaken on behalf of the town council and the clerk will require the township to incur the expense of a special election. Furthermore, Mr. Buzak’s actions will now result in Randolph incurring the cost associated with this effort to deny the citizens of Randolph an opportunity to vote on the pool bond ordinance. Sadly, these expenses will be funded by the taxpayers of Randolph, many of whom signed our petition.
During an interview which Mr. Buzak granted to a local newspaper last week, he commented on his discussions which he intended to have with the Randolph town council. Mr. Buzak said, "I’m going to discuss various options and they’re going to give me some direction, but what that is I don’t know yet.” People may draw their own conclusions as to whether that direction was on display in Judge Bozonelis’ court today.

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Today in Superior Court in Morristown, Judge Bozenelis issued a temporary restraining order, preventing Randolph Township from proceeding with the bond issue authorized by Ordinance 21-07 until a final hearing is held on the validity of the petitions submitted by our committee. Final resolution of our petition awaits the outcome of that hearing. However, Judge Bozenelis’ comments today made it very clear that based upon the evidence that has been presented to him so far, he believes that the technical disqualifications made by the Township Clerk to our original petition and our amended petition lack substance. Consequently, he expressed the view that it appears that both the original petition and our amended petition should have been validated by the Township Clerk.

The judge has scheduled a September 10th attorneys’ conference to determine what further legal proceedings will be necessary. The timing of the September 10th conference date will allow the Township Attorney to review the Judge’s initial decision with the Township Council at their September 6th meeting. However, we believe that the Judge was strongly suggesting to Township Attorney Ed Buzak that the proper course of action here is for the Township to accept the validity of the petitions protesting the adoption of Ordinance No. 21-07 and to have the matter placed on the November ballot for a public vote. We hope that the Judge’s advice will be heeded.

Friday, August 24th, 2007

Today the Randolph Township Clerk advised the Randolph Pool Bond Petition Committee that she was not certifying our amended referendum petition. As we expected, she rejected our petition based upon technical issues raised in an opinion that presumably was provided to her by the Randolph Township attorney. Our petition was rejected in spite of the fact that, except for these technical disqualifications, the Clerk validated over 1,500 individual petition signatures, well in excess of the 1,143 signatures required to cause a referendum on Randolph Township Ordinance 21-07.Friday, August 24th, 2007Today the Randolph Township Clerk advised the Randolph Pool Bond Petition Committee that she was not certifying our amended referendum petition. As we expected, she rejected our petition based upon technical issues raised in an opinion that presumably was provided to her by the Randolph Township attorney. Our petition was rejected in spite of the fact that, except for these technical disqualifications, the Clerk validated over 1,500 individual petition signatures, well in excess of the 1,143 signatures required to cause a referendum on Randolph Township Ordinance 21-07.

The Committee has instructed our attorneys, Laddey, Clark & Ryan LLP, to file suit against the Clerk and the Randolph Township Council, seeking to (a) enjoin Randolph Township from proceeding with the bond issue authorized by 21-07 and (b) force Randolph to place a binding referendum question concerning the bond issue on the November ballot in accordance with state law. We expect that suit to be filed within the next several business days.

We are not yet at liberty to discuss the issues which will be addressed in our lawsuit. When our lawsuit has been filed, the complaint will be posted on the Committee’s website, and Committee members will be available to address questions which petition supporters may have. In the meantime, we remain dismayed that the Township continues to use the very statutes designed to make possible grass root efforts such as ours to frustrate our attempts to provide the residents of Randolph with the ability to vote on Ordinance 21-07.

The Randolph New Jersey Pool Bond Petition Committee –

Sunday, August 12th, 9:00 P.M.

The Pool Bond Petition Committee (the “Committee”), announces that, as of 6 p.m. this evening, it has collected more than 1,400 signatures on the amended petition which it is circulating as a result of Randolph Township’s rejection for technical reasons of our initial petition. This submission, which amends the petition that was submitted on July 23rd, seeks to force Randolph Township to hold a referendum on Randolph Ordinance #21-07. This ordinance permits the Township to borrow $5.5 million of general obligation bonds to build a members-only swimming pool in Randolph. The taxpayers of Randolph will be indirectly obligated for the repayment of these bonds when they are issued.

The Committee would like to express its deep gratitude to the volunteers who helped us gather these signatures. Although our signature collection effort did not begin until last Sunday and ended today, no less than 65 people have stepped up to help us collect signatures. (We do not know the exact number yet because not all petition sheets have been returned to the Committee.) The Committee feels a deep sense of obligation to these people, and we will use every effort to ensure that our petition efforts are successful.

Tomorrow, the Committee will be submitting this amended petition to Donna M. Luciani, Randolph Township Clerk. Because additional petitions will be delivered to Committee members up to the time of submission, we are hopeful that the final number of signatures delivered to Ms. Luciani will be greater than the figure cited above.

Because we have once again gathered more signatures than required by the applicable New Jersey statutes, we are hopeful that the Clerk accepts our amended petition, as the statutes provide. While recognizing that some signatures may be validly disqualified, as they were with our initial petition, we hope that the Township will recognize that the essential purpose of referenda such as ours is to allow the electorate to decide controversial local issues. The Courts have instructed that these petitions are to be reviewed reasonably and not rejected on mere technicalities. All our Committee seeks is to provide the people of Randolph with an opportunity to vote on #21-07, a right which is embodied in the Faulkner Act, Randolph’s chosen form of government. We sincerely hope that we are not forced to initiate legal action against Randolph Township when none should be needed, given fair acceptance of the referendum petition.

The Randolph Pool Petition Committee is proceeding with its efforts to cause a referendum on the proposed $5.5 million Randolph pool bond financing, in spite of the initial rejection of the Committee’s petition by the Randolph Township Clerk. The petition initiative is proceeding on two fronts. First, effective today, the volunteers who collected signatures for the original petition will begin collecting signatures again in an attempt to correct the deficiencies alleged by the Clerk. (The Committee disputes a portion of the allegations.) Second, the Committee will meet with its legal advisors early next week to determine the most appropriate legal strategy to pursue in this matter, including the initiation of legal action against the Township Clerk and Randolph Township. The Committee has established the Pool Bond Petition Defense Fund, and contributions to this fund are being sought to finance any litigation which may be commenced.

The Committee’s decision to continue its petition efforts is based upon the continued strong support of the volunteers who initially collected signatures for the petition. These people remain determined to give the vote on the pool funding back to the people, and the Committee wishes to express its deep gratitude to all of these concerned Randolph citizens.