September 14, 2010
By PHILLIP MOLNAR
VERNON — The township decided Monday night to validate a petition to change the municipality’s form of government, despite rejecting it last week.
The decision by township attorney John Ursin, with the apparent support of the council, brought a round of applause from the more than 40 members of the public in attendance — but it was not without controversy.
Mayor Sally Rinker and Councilman Richard Carson appeared to urge Ursin to expedite the process. “Let’s get this over with,” Carson said.
Ursin then decided, with a nod of support from Acting Township Clerk Angie Bates, that the petition could be certified Monday.
A letter from Bates Thursday stated the petitioners were 70 signatures short of the needed number to get the question before voters.
The petitioners responded to the decision by retaining Newton attorney Eric Wood, who argued their case to Ursin Monday afternoon. Many of the 618 rejected signatures were, in fact, valid, according to petitioners Mary Ellen
Vichiconti and Bonnie Rubin who personally reviewed the rejected names.
“It’s a shame it had to come to this,” Rubin said, of confronting Ursin with the group’s own attorney.
The petition seeks the establishment of non-partisan elections, direct election of a full-time mayor, and altering the duties of a township administrator to deal solely with township finances and business. The petition was submitted to Bates Aug. 23, giving her 10 days to review it to meet a Sept. 3 deadline to get the issue on the November ballot. Bates missed that deadline but completed her review within the allotted 20 days required by law.
The issue should now go before voters in a special election, but the petitioners are opposed to this because it would result in added costs to taxpayers
Wood said he would be bringing the petition to Superior Court Judge B. Theodore Bonzonelis in order to get the petition on the November ballot, but needed the approval of the township Monday evening in order to go before the judge.
Wood said if the petition was not certified Monday night, he would have spent the next “six or seven hours” preparing a complaint against the township and Sussex County.
The discussion was far from over, however. Sparta activist Jesse Wolosky, well-known for several of his own petitions in Sparta, question the validity of the petition. Wolosky alleged the initiative petition papers did not contain the full text of the proposed ordinance, each separate petition page did not have an attached affidavit stating circulators were the ones collecting signatures, and said the petitioners got more signatures than needed.
Petitioner Jessi Paladini then took to the microphone, questioning Wolosky’s “motivation for being here” and saying “he was 100-percent wrong.” A shouting match between the two went on for several minutes, while Rinker repeatedly slammed her gavel and yelled for order. Wolosky was eventually asked to leave the meeting by Rinker.
After the meeting, Wolosky said, “I wanted to make sure both sides were following the law regarding the petition process.”
Ursin confirmed after the meeting was adjourned the petition would be validated by Bates Monday evening and physically delivered to the Board of Elections today.
