July 24, 2009
By CHRISTINA TATU
FRANKFORD -- If a petition to recall Mayor Paul Sutphen goes unchallenged, it is likely a special election will be held Dec. 8.
Frankford Township Clerk Louanne Cular finished reviewing the recall petition for a second time Wednesday and declared 1,055 of the signatures valid, sufficient to hold a special election.
The petition originally had 1,230 signatures. Earlier this month, Sutphen challenged the validity of more than 500 signatures on the petition and recall organizers challenged Cular's decision to invalidate 164 of the signatures.
At least 1,030 signatures are needed -- 25 percent of Frankford voters registered during the last general election.
Many of the invalidated signatures were deleted because they were either duplicate signatures or illegible, Cular said.
County election officials estimated a special election would cost at least $15,500.
Sutphen has 10 business days to decide if he will challenge the petition in Superior Court. If the 10 days pass and Sutphen does not challenge the petition, he has an additional five days to declare whether he will resign.
"I have time here under the statute to examine my options and I think I'm going to do that," Sutphen said Thursday.
He said he will not resign from his term, which expires in December 2010.
"I haven't done anything wrong, and if you haven't done anything wrong, why would you want to resign? That's my opinion," Sutphen said.
Recall activists said in a statement Thursday that Sutphen should resign so taxpayers don't have to foot the $15,500 cost of the special election.
"...If Mayor Sutphen chooses not to resign, the taxpayers will bear the cost of a special election, or if Mayor Sutphen chooses to continue to challenge the certification by the election official, the taxpayers will bear the expense to defend the clerk's decision in court," read the statement issued by recall spokesman George Lista.
During the past year, several recall efforts have been launched in the county, but to date only one of those efforts has resulted in a recall.
In April 2008, Hardyston voters successfully recalled school board president Marbeth Boffa, making her only the second school board member to be recalled in New Jersey history. But, she retained her seat because voters also chose her to
Last year, Stillwater residents succeeded in collecting enough signatures to recall Committeeman Al Fuoco, but he resigned before the question could be voted on in the general election.
In Sparta, last year's effort to recall Mayor Michael Spekhardt and councilmen Brian Brady and Manny Goldberg fell short of the 3,000-plus required number of signatures.
Most recently, a recall has begun in Hopatcong Borough to recall Mayor Sylvia Petillo.
