Group prepared to reignite ward issue

Members of a city-based activist group said Wednesday at a City Council meeting that they plan to file a lawsuit before early December to get a petition for a ward-based system of government on the November 2009 ballot.
“Empower Our Neighborhoods is in the process of preparing a complaint to enforce the petition,” EON member Charles Renda said.
City Clerk Daniel A. Torrisi, who was responsible for reviewing the petition, formally informed the council that he found the EON petition submitted Oct. 1 invalid on Oct. 22 based on the legal opinion of William J. Hamilton, the city attorney.
EON’s “Petition for a Referendum on a Ward-Based Alternative,” submitted Oct. 1, was determined to have enough valid signatures from registered voters, 272, to be placed on the ballot. The city clerk rejected the petition because of a previously adopted Charter Study Commission ordinance passed July 2 by the City Council.
“The adoption of this ordinance prevents the validation of any charter change petition,” Hamilton said in a letter to Torrisi.
Because EON submitted a petition on June 30, Superior Court Judge Heidi Willis Currier had prevented the Charter Study Commission from moving forward to the Nov. 4 ballot in a ruling on Sept. 2.
“Judge Currier basically invalidated the city’s Charter Study Commission on Sept. 2,” Renda said.
EON’s first petition called for ward questions to be placed on the November 2008 ballot, Renda said.
Bennet D. Zurofsky, EON’s pro bono attorney, said one of the reasons he thought the first petition needed to be withdrawn was because it said it was for the November 2008 election after Currier’s Sept. 24 ruling.
EON is applying that interpretation to the city’s charter study commission.
“[City officials] argue that the Charter Study Commission stood in line before our second petition,” Renda said.
Hamilton said the petition did not have an entire ordinance on both sides of the page.
“Both of these issues were decided by Judge Currier on Sept. 2,” Renda said. “I submit to you that these issues have been litigated.”
On Oct. 29, Currier ruled that her previous ruling should be held in tact despite objection from the city’s attorneys, Renda said.
Hamilton said it was too soon to comment on EON’s challenge against city officials actions because it had not been filed yet, but he said he stands by his legal opinion.
“The city will incur additional legal fees probably as much or maybe even in excess first batch,” Renda said.
Hamilton said he did not have an exact figure for the cost of legal fees for Marvin Brauth, the Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer attorney representing the city in the legal challenges to EON’s original petition, but offered a ballpark figure.
It was something less than $10,000, he said.
“I would like the city to consider whether or not they want to pursue the course of fighting our appeal or whether it makes more sense at this point in time to let the second petition go forward in whatever manner [City Council] can legally do so,” Renda said. This would allow the more than 1,100 people who signed the first petition and the signatories that were validated by Torrisi on the second petition to have their day at the polls, Renda said.
At the meeting the City Council voted in favor of a resolution approving the submission of applications for $15 million to improve parking in downtown New Brunswick from the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
“[The funding would be] for the development of parking facilities,” said Elizabeth Garlatti, the council’s president who was re-elected on Nov. 4. “Parking facilities are inordinately expensive.”
Renda said it was unclear from the resolution where the money is going to go what it is for.
“This is an opportunity for us to get $15 million from DOT to either expand or to replace [and] improve parking downtown, including providing a connection directly to the train platform,” Director of Economic Development Glenn Patterson said.
That improvement would make it easier for people parking near the New Brunswick Train Station and also encourage residents to use mass transit, Patterson said.
“We’re making this application to DOT in the hopes that we will have the opportunity to develop this improved parking,” Patterson said.
The exact location is yet to be determined and it is not related to the Gateway Project, Patterson said.

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