Mahwah April 7, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Township election date may move to November by Frank J. McMahon Next month’s Mahwah Council election could be the last township municipal contest held in May. A new state law now permits municipalities with nonpartisan governments, such as Mahwah, to hold their elections on the date of the general election in November. Mahwah’s municipal government is nonpartisan in that it does not have any party affiliations, and township council candidates do not run for election under the banner of any political party. The move to change the schedule of the nonpartisan elections passed the New Jersey Senate last December by a 38-0 vote. Later that month, it passed the New Jersey Assembly by a vote of 50-24 with two abstentions. It became public law in January, but will not take effect until the first day of January next following the date of enactment, which was January 14, 2010. As a result, the earliest year in which the date of the Mahwah municipal elections could be changed would be 2012. Because the township holds elections every other year, Mahwah’s next May election could be its last. Under previous state law, nonpartisan municipal elections were held on the second Tuesday in May. The new law will allow any municipality that holds regular municipal elections to choose by ordinance whether to hold regular municipal elections on the day of the general election, which is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The new law provides that, once a municipality has chosen to change the date of its regular municipal election to the date of the general election, it would not be permitted to change the date back to May until at least 10 years passed since the adoption of an ordinance to change the date. A new ordinance would have to be adopted in order to change the date back to May. Any runoff in a November general election would be held that December, with the elected official taking office on Jan. 1 next following the election. Mahwah Township Business Administrator Brian Campion advised that the benefit of a change in date of the Mahwah municipal election is that it would save the township $50,000 to $60,000 in election costs, and it would create greater participation by voters. Some elected officials in the state have voiced opposition to the change in date for non-partisan municipal elections because voters in the general election often vote along political party lines, and that could be unfair to Independent candidates. William Dressel, director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, however, agreed that some municipalities, depending on their size, would save money with a change of the municipal election date. He pointed out that the league was pleased that the law was permissive in that it gives municipalities the option to change the date but, at the same time, the league felt the 10-year time frame to change back to the May date was too long. The primary sponsors of the new law were assemblymen Patrick J. Diegnan Jr and Peter J Barnes III both Democrats from the 18th District in Middlesex County; Nellie Pou, a Democrat from the 35th District in Bergen and Passaic counties; and Paul D. Moriarty, a Democrat from the 4th District in Camden and Gloucester counties, and several co-sponsors in the Assembly and State Senator Barbara Buono, also from District 18 in Middlesex County. ��������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������ ���������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������ Online SAT Tutoring Half the Cost! • Experienced Tutor • Personal Web-Conferencing • College Board Online Course www.BirtwistleSAT.com db@birtwistlesat.com LEADERSHIPFORMAHWAH.COM DaPuzzo, Larson, Williams Campaign Fund 114 Glasgow Terrace, Mahwah, NJ 07430 Paid for by T. 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