New Brunswick Community Calls for Wards

On June 30th, 2008, Empower Our Neighborhoods (EON), a grassroots organization of New Brunswick community members and Rutgers University students, delivered 1,116 signatures to the New Brunswick City Clerk. Those signatures express the community’s desire to change our current form of municipal government from an at-large system to a ward-based system. The petition signatures will place a referendum question on the November ballot that will allow us to vote for increased access and accountability in local government. Currently, New Brunswick’s City Council has five seats—all elected at-large. After our proposed referendum passes the City Council will be expanded to nine seats. Six council members will be elected out of Wards and three will be elected at-large. We see the increased representation afforded by wards as a necessary step to increasing democracy while decreasing government corruption. “Wards are about giving people a voice. Across the country, wards have been proven to increase minority and women’s participation in government, increase government accountability, and remove the need for wealthy backers in local politics,” says EON organizer and Ward 2 resident Sammi Weinstein.

Officially kicking off their campaign on June 3rd, 2008, EON has knocked on thousands of doors in order to collect 1,116 signatures in less than a month. They canvassed each of the city’s five wards and received overwhelming support in each. Every ward is represented by at least 100 signatures. The campaign started smoothly as organizers had planned to meet the August 1st deadline to turn in the required signatures. But the campaign recently heated up when organizers learned that the City Council planned to pass an ordinance on July 2nd in order to counteract their petition. The City Council’s ordinance would place a separate question on the ballot. According to New Jersey law two similar questions cannot appear on the same ballot. “We are out canvassing the streets six days a week gathering signatures and then we find out that the City Council is trying to subvert all of our hard work by passing an ordinance no one asked for,” said Adriel Bernal, an organizer from Ward 5.

EON has gathered three times the 357 required signatures and presented them to the City Clerk before the City Council could pass its counteracting ordinance. EON has also verified over 500 of the 1,116 signatures using the latest city voter registration database. But the work is not over as organizers expect the City Council to take the battle to court. “I just hope this doesn’t turn into an ugly court battle,” said Erik Straub from Ward 6, “This question should be decided by the people, not the courts. We are simply asking the City Council to not fight the people they are supposed to represent.”

For more information: info@empowernb.com

Phone: 732-470-9125