An Atlantic County Consolidation Story ...

by: denniscmcgrath

Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 03:31:57 PM EDT

Northfield battles over ballot question on shared services
By MARTIN DeANGELIS Staff Writer, (609) 272-7237
Published: Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Updated: Wednesday, July 19, 2006

NORTHFIELD — Local voters may have a say in November on whether they want their town to join nearby Linwood and Somers Point in looking at ways to combine government services, including the school boards, to try to save property tax money.

If the discussion is anything like the one Northfield's City Council had Tuesday night, it won't be cordial.

Council voted 4-3 to put a question on the ballot asking residents whether they want city officials to “examine and undertake efforts to combine government services (with Linwood and Somers Point), and the local and regional school boards, to achieve significant property tax reductions.”

That vote went along party lines, with Northfield Council's four Democrats supporting it and the three Republicans voting no. Now Northfield's governing body would have to approve the ordinance again after a public hearing at its meeting next month before the question can go on the ballot in November.

But Republican Tim Carew objected that the vote was being “shoved down our throats” because the matter was just put on Northfield's agenda in the last few days, at the request of Somers Point Councilman Gregg Clayton. Carew said some Northfield officials hadn't seen or heard about the question until this week, and said Council President Vincent Mazzeo told Carew before the meeting that Mazzeo was calling for a vote because of “pressure from Somers Point.”

Mazzeo denied that, saying he had simply explained that the matter was “time sensitive.” The referendum question notes that in order to be placed on local ballots for the Nov. 7 election, it has to be approved 74 days before that date, or by late August.

Mazzeo also charged that Carew “fabricate(d) things” by saying that Mazzeo was getting pressure from Clayton.

Clayton — who publicly suggested the proposal in Somers Point in late April and said he would try to get the other towns to hold votes also — circulated copies of his ballot question last week. He said he sent it to Mazzeo and to Linwood Councilman Gene Maier, asking them to get the question through their cities. Mazzeo and Maier are both Democrats, with Maier the only Democrat on the seven-member body in his town.

Carew also objected that Clayton — a former Republican who switched parties in April to become a Democrat — didn't go to Linwood Council President Donna Taylor with his question. Carew told Clayton, who was at the Northfield meeting to defend his idea, that it was “common courtesy” to go to a council president to try to move a political issue.

Taylor said later that she she hadn't “seen or heard anything about it” from Clayton.

“A few months ago, we would have had time to easily discuss everything,” Carew said. “But all of a sudden, time is of the essence in Northfield.”

Clayton portrayed the matter as just “a way to gauge where the public is on this issue, and it's long overdue.” He says he plans to introduce the matter next week in his own town, at its only July meeting.

Mazzeo also defended the ballot question as simply going to his constituents to ask what they think.

“I don't know anyone who would be against getting the opinion of the residents,” he said.