Standing on the steps of City Hall yesterday before a City Council meeting, members of Empower Our Neighborhoods announced they filed a new petition.
The petition would call for a vote to change the New Brunswick system of government to a ward-based system on Nov. 3, 2009, a goal EON members said they refuse to abandon.
"We are not giving up," said Charlie Kratovil, the co-campaign manager of EON. "We will not quit until every resident of New Brunswick has the opportunity to vote for or against the ward question."
The five members of EON's committee of petitioners withdrew their petition submitted June 30 at approximately 3:45 p.m. yesterday. Five minutes later, they submitted a new one.
EON is also moving to have their pending court case dismissed, said Kratovil, a Rutgers College senior.
"With the petition withdrawn … we immediately, five minutes later, turned in a new petition," Kratovil said. "Over the course of three days: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, we collected more than 450 signatures from New Brunswick residents."
Due to EON's interpretation of state statues, they chose to turn in only 347 of those signatures to ensure the question would be voted on during the 2009 gubernatorial election.
Bill Bray, the city spokesman, issued a prepared statement from Mayor Jim Cahill before the council meeting.
"The withdrawal of the petition by the committee of petitioners and the filing of a new petition that attempts to address the issues raised by the city when it declared the petition to be invalid certainly now appears to indicate that the committee of petitioners agrees with the city's position," Bray said.
The city clerk will be asked to review the petition, said William Hamilton, the city's attorney. State statutes require the clerk to report to council after 20 days, he said.
While EON said the city pushed to have the petition presented during a special election, Hamilton said under the law, had EON read carefully, they would know with a petition of this kind, a referendum could only be placed on the next general election ballot. He said there was no effort by the city or anyone else to move this to a special election.
About 25 members of EON crowded council chambers carrying ward signs to respond to a recent Superior Court ruling which will prohibit the petition from appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot. The ruling was based on time requirements posed by state statutes.
The city took legal action to have the previous petition invalidated, citing conflict and ambiguity in the questions on the petition and the fact that no clarifying ordinance was attached.
In a motion for reconsideration, the city attached grievances from 10 residents complaining to have been duped by circulators.
Trying to avoid the same result this time around, EON has made changes to their petition.
"This petition is above and beyond the [necessary] level of accuracy based on all the city's objections to the previous petition," said Erik Straub, the co-campaign manager of EON and a Rutgers College senior.
"The newly-filed petition will be reviewed in due course in accordance with the New Jersey law, as will the impact of the withdrawal of the prior petition upon the ability of the previously-adopted charter study commission ordinance to proceed," Bray said in the prepared statement.
"There's now one question on the ballot," Kratovil said.
The question calls for increasing the size of the council to nine members: six members would be selected from wards and three would be selected at-large.
Currently, the council has five members, all of who are selected through an at-large election.
EON members said they are confident the city would not be able to challenge the new petition and discussed other changes.
"We are positive that we have the required number of signatures valid," Kratovil said. "We have personally verified that we have at least 300 valid signatures, which puts us in the sweet spot."
The city had previously challenged signatures on the reverse side of the petition.
On the reverse side of the new petition in bold text is a notice that the referendum question is on the opposite side.
If the city clerk certifies the petition, City Council will then have an opportunity to hold a public hearing, Hamilton said.
Because of the withdrawal of the petition, no public hearing on the ward-based system took place.
Bray declined to give further comment on whether the city would support having the Charter Study Commission, invalidated by a Superior Court ruling, to be re-instated.
EON is confident of their chances for success.
"We are going to be on the ballot Nov. 3, 2009, and we are going to win," Kratovil said. "We have 12 more months to prepare, 12 more months to register voters and 12 more months to build the largest progressive movement this city has seen in a very long time."
EON said they have a broad range of supporters.
"EON is definitely not only for students," said Cedrick Goodman, a New Brunswick resident associated with EON. "We are receptive to other community organizations … We are for everyone."
EON's membership is growing every day, Kratovil said. There are currently 50 active organizers and thousands of supporters, he said.
"[Supporters include] African Americans, Latinos, Caucasians, Christians, Jewish, it's the community at large coming together," said Jerry Mercado, a New Brunswick resident associated with EON.
EON said the ward campaign is aimed at bringing representation to unrepresented groups in New Brunswick.
"I appreciate and welcome the fact that young energy, like [EON], is getting involved in the process," said Jimmie Cook, a council member. "It's unfortunate that a lot of [members of the public present] feel you're unrepresented, but you're never going to please everybody."
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