By Charles Layton
On Saturday, members of the Ocean Grove Home Owners Association waded into the debate over whether Neptune Township should change its form of government. But as the arguments grew more heated — and also more substantive and interesting — the HOA president, Denis McCarthy, tried with limited success to close down the debate.
“This is not a debate here about alternative forms of government,” he told the members at one point. But it was clearly a discussion many audience members wanted to have, and they pressed on.
Warren Lapp, an invited guest speaker, was there to explain the merits of having a referendum this fall on the issue. But he too argued that the present question was not whether changing our government to a Mayor-Council system was a good or bad idea, but merely whether Neptune should put the issue to the voters in November.
Lapp is a member of NeptuneGovernment4All, which is gathering signatures on a petition calling for the referendum. The referendum would be required if the group gets 20 percent of Neptune’s 18,083 registered voters to sign its petition. If voters then approved it, Neptune would be bound to convert to a Mayor-Council system that would expand the number of elected officials from five to ten, including a full-time mayor. The township would also be bound to divide itself into six wards, with one Council member elected from each ward and three more elected at large. (At present, all five Township Committee members run at large.)
Denis McCarthy tells an audience member not to argue about alternative forms of government. Warren Lapp (L). Photo by David Layton.
The debate grew heated as Committeeman Randy Bishop of Ocean Grove, speaking from the audience, began questioning the implications of a ward system. Although proponents have argued that Ocean Grove would receive better representation by having its own ward, Bishop contends that Ocean Grove is only large enough to constitute two-thirds of a ward; it would therefore have to be merged with part of the Midtown neighborhood to form a ward.
Kennedy Buckley, an HOA trustee, said he thought some parts of the change-of-government proposal sounded good, but that a full-time mayor and five more members of the governing body would mean a more costly government. Lapp disputed that. “The cost of government is not in the number of people in government, it’s in the efficiency of government,” he said. However, the question of how a Mayor-Council structure might improve the workings of government was not addressed.
Members of the audience continued to return to the question of exactly how a ward system would work and whether it would help or hurt Ocean Grove. Ann Horan, the HOA’s treasurer, said “we’re not Ocean Grove anymore” if we have to share a ward with Midtown, which lies to the west of Ocean Grove, just across the train tracks.
State law requires that when a political entity is divided into wards, those wards must be contiguous and approximately equal in size. “Because we’re contiguous to Midtown,” said HOA member Norm Goldman, “that’s who we’d be lumped in with.”
“That’s misinformation,” Lapp said. He did not explain what other area might be joined with Ocean Grove to form a ward.
Lapp said the people gathering petition signatures had found widespread approval for the idea of having a full-time, directly-elected mayor.
“We have to have our signatures by next weekend,” he said. “It’s going to be a hell of a task” to meet that deadline.
The petition must be presented to county election officials by September 2 — 60 days before the elections. However, the deadline is actually much shorter, because time is required for the Neptune municipal clerk’s office to process and verify the signatures.
Lapp did not say now many signatures his group has gathered so far.
Before Lapp’s presentation, HOA trustee Barbara Burns gave an explanation of the different forms of local government New Jersey law allows. She recommended two Internet links which she said were especially informative: the New Jersey League of Municipalities and Rutgers University/Center for Government Services.
Lapp’s group also has a website: http://www.ng4a.net.