on new ordinance
scheduled Aug. 31
S.B. clerk certifies
pay-to-play petition
Special hearing
on new ordinance
scheduled Aug. 31
BY MELISSA CIFELLI
Staff Writer
The South Brunswick Township Council has only 20 days before it must act on a petition, seeking to enforce stricter regulations on the town’s campaign finance ordinance.
Township Clerk Barbara Gut certified the petition and presented it to the council for review at Tuesday’s night meeting.
Submitted last month by the Initiative for Campaign Finance Reform Committee, the 619-signature petition asks for a restriction of contributions to a period of three years before negotiations begin. The petition also seeks to limit contributions from firms under contract to $400, or $1,200 for the entire firm.
This business practice, known as pay-to-play, involves firms or corporations providing contributions to candidates in return for contracts, which would not be subject to public bids.
The council will hold a special meeting Aug. 31, when it will either change, adopt or reject the ordinance. If it is rejected, it will be placed on the November ballot for township voters to decide.
The council did, however, approve an amendment to the ordinance increasing the contribution’s time restrictions from 90 days before negotiations start to one year before negotiations begin.
The issue of pay-to-play has been on the council’s agenda for several weeks. Mayor Frank Gambatese said the council changed the limit from 90 days to one year because the council believed that is what the public wanted.
Heather Taylor of Common Cause New Jersey, a citizens activist group for good government, said pay-to-play tactics are harmful to a town in several ways, including inflating the price of contracts and running the risk that contractors are not qualified.
Taylor said Common Cause New Jersey is seeking to limit the use of pay-to-play in an attempt to protect taxpayers.
"We hope the council takes into serious consideration what the citizens have put forward," Taylor said.
Taylor said the corruption that may occur from pay-to-play tactics is not necessarily in South Brunswick, but must be prevented.
Councilman Edmund Luciano, however, said he felt the public remained uninformed on this issue.
"Do they really know what they want?" Luciano said.
Lew Schwartz, an Initiative Committee member, said the large number of South Brunswick residents who signed the petition was proof that the public was in favor of a new ordinance.
"It’s up to the township," Schwartz said.