Stephen Acropolis BRICK TOWNSHIP – Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis doesn’t want to wait until the November election for a referendum on whether the Ocean Ice Palace should be purchased.
Acropolis plans to push for a special election on the question, if Township Clerk Virginia Lampman determines there are enough valid petition signatures gathered by the group Stop Overspending (SOS) to put the matter on the ballot.
“We’ve wasted enough time on it,” the mayor said. “If they want an election, they are going to get an election. We believe it’s that important of an issue that it should be separated out from the political issues in November. We are not going to confuse the issue. The people of Brick deserve better.”
Lampman must first determine if the signatures are valid, Acropolis said.
“Then what’s the township’s next
step?” he said. “Were
those signatures gathered by being factual? We are going to take a look at that as well.”
He has no problem with initiative and referendum, which is part of the township’s form of government.
“Having the right to gather signatures for a nonbinding referendum is something that is written into the law for a reason,” Acropolis said. “I have no problem with that whatsoever.”
But the SOS group is a partisan Democratic group trying to rouse support for their candidates in the November election, he said.
“This group of people does not have a good track record,” the mayor said. “These are the same people that were involved with Joe [former Mayor Joseph C.] Scarpelli.”
The SOS committee members include Sal Petoia (an independent), former Township Clerk and former Democratic Municipal Chairman George Cevasco, Joseph Lamb, Michael Mastroserio and Jeanine Schwartz.
Both Petoia and Lamb have denied the petition drive is partisan.
When asked who would determine whether petition signers were given factual information before they signed, Acropolis said it’s possible a group of volunteers who support the community center might do it.
“Their job might be to make sure those people who signed the petitions signed for the right reasons,” the mayor said.
If it’s determined a signer wasn’t provided the correct information, that person could ask that their name be withdrawn from the petition, Acropolis said.
There are six or seven concept plans for a community center on the Ice Palace site, none of which will be decided without public input, the mayor said.
“Isn’t it interesting that the people passing around the petitions picked the worst possible concept plan and said this is what the township wants to do?” he said.