By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
Asbury Park residents will have the chance to vote for a ward election system and a change to partisan elections on the Nov. 6 ballot.
The Committee for a More Equitable Asbury Park gathered the required 409 signatures on their petition to have both questions placed on the ballot.
A second petition to require city employees to reside in Asbury Park had the required number of signatures but was rejected by City Clerk Cindy Dye because if passed it would violate state law.
In her letter to the committee Dye said, “I must reject the petition due to the failure of the proposed ordinance to comply with state law.”
Dye cited several state statutes regarding New Jersey’s employee residency requirements.
The petition put forth by the CMEAP asked that the city be divided into three wards, with seats for a candidate from each ward, the mayor’s seat and one candidate at large, keeping the number of elected officials at five.
According to Dye if the ward vote is approved an election would have to be held in November of 2019.
If the partisan election vote is approved, but not the ward system vote, the mayor and council would not have to run until Nov. 2020 with a primary election in June of 2020.
