After considerable thought, and after reaching out to Frank Ferereiro with my concerns to no avail, I have to publicly urge all who have not signed Franks petition on changing to mayor/ Town Council to not sign until he changes the wording from...3 wards, with 3 council members(one from each ward), and 2 council members to be elected at large,... (to) ...5 council members to be elected at large,... The reason for my concerns with the way his petition is written is fundamental. Under Franks plan, the voter can only vote for 3 of the 5 members of town council, his ward council candidate and the two at large council candidates. This is not fair and inherently not democratic. Look at the 12 examples of town council allowed under NJ law: njslom.org/types.html While hybrid councils of ward and at-large are permitted, In No shape or form are ward-only councils allowed, while in half if the options permitted, ONLY at-large councils are allowed. Take Bergen-Lafayette ward in Jersey City, which is predominantly African American. Jersey City has 6 ward council persons and 3 at large council persons. Each ward will get to choose a council person for their respective ward, but will NOT get to have a say in who 5 of the other 8 council persons will be. This is purely a political ploy that allows tickets to play the ends against the middle by being able to campaign with different strategies in different wards, even for different ward candidates on the same ticket to stir up inter-ward divisions that may not exist, for political gain. The waterfront is currently located in Wards 1 and 3. It can currently inluence ward 1 district 2 county committee selection, as roughly half the waterfront accounts for 40% of that district. The other half of waterfront is in 4 districts in ward 3. Under Franks plan where each ward gets a council person, The waterfront will have a good chance of securing the ward one seat without any legal opportunity for voters in the other two wards to have a say in ward one. WE ARE NOT THREE WARDS(an artificial distinction) WE ARE ONE TOWN.DO NOT SIGN FRANKS PETITION UNTIL HE REMOVES THE 3 WARD COUNCIL POSITIONS AND HAS ALL COUNCIL POSITIONS AS AT-LARGE, ONLY.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 15:50:45 +0000
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