change in points
based on census
Judge to hear arguments
on FRHSD voting system
Marlboro seeking
change in points
based on census
By karl vilacoba
Staff Writer
The U.S. District Court of New Jersey will soon hear oral arguments on a preliminary injunction filed by Marlboro that could temporarily block some voting powers of the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education. A Nov. 4 court date has been set for the matter in Trenton before Judge Garrett E. Brown.
Marlboro is currently moving forward with a lawsuit alleging that residents’ constitutional rights as voters are being violated under the FRHSD’s current weighted voting apportionment. In a preliminary statement filed with the injunction, the township maintains that votes on any "substantive issues except financial matters that occur in the normal course of events" are invalid pending the outcome of the voting apportionment decision.
"In my mind, they’re doing things at their own risk until Nov. 4," Marlboro Councilman Barry Denkensohn said of any important FRHSD votes. "Because if a judge decides to give us remedy, all of their actions will be overturned."
Denkensohn, along with Marlboro Mayor Matthew Scannapieco, is co-chair of the town’s Advisory Committee of Education. The group is comprised of residents and public officials in Marlboro who are concerned with several aspects of FRHSD operations.
Under the FRHSD’s current weighted voting system, formed by a 1998 decision by Judge Alfred Wolin, Howell is the only town with two board members holding a combined 2.0 voting points; Marlboro, 1.4 points; Manalapan, 1.4 points; Freehold Township, 1.4 points; Colts Neck, 0.9 points; Freehold Borough, 0.9 points; Englishtown, 0.5 points; and Farmingdale, 0.5 points.
But in court papers filed by attorney Lance Kalik, of the firm Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Highland and Perretti, Marlboro claims the 2000 census figures have resulted in a "maximum population deviation" of 13.74 percent, a violation of statutory parameters. In an August letter to Monmouth County Superintendent of Schools Michael Maddaluna, Kalik said, "Maximum deviations of over 10 percent are automatically considered prima facie violations of the ‘one person, one vote’ principle."
"The Freehold board is therefore unconstitutionally composed," the preliminary statement said. "Yet, at every voting session, the illegally constituted Freehold board makes vital decisions about the future of the regional district. Marlboro brings this motion to halt all non-financial related decisions by the Freehold board until Marlboro and its citizens obtain their proportional right to vote."
However, the population deviation formula is not an absolute, and may not lead to change, according to FRHSD attorney Nathanya Simon. The point of the Wolin decision was to ensure that a few towns don’t dominate all of the district’s decisions, and may be upheld if a court believes that is what would happen in a new voting apportionment, she said.
"That’s the key here," Simon said. "Judge Wolin made clear that he did not want some of these towns to have such a diluted vote that it doesn’t count."
Simon said if the court decides to reapportion the votes, "so be it," but the FRHSD plans to oppose the injunction. All votes have been made constitutionally, and the Marlboro injunction should not stop the board from continuing its business, she said.
In a December 2001 letter to the FRHSD board, Maddaluna, whose county office is an arm of the state Department of Education, said there would be no change in the voting apportionment due to the 2000 census.
"To send us a cryptic letter just doesn’t make sense to me," Denkensohn said. "It just doesn’t seem accurate in light of the 2000 census figures. I don’t have much faith in the letter written by the county superintendent of schools."
The injunction also seeks to nullify the outcome of a Sept. 9 vote that will result in the shift of students from an area of Marlboro to Colts Neck High School beginning in September 2003. A petition is also being filed by Kalik to state Commissioner of Education William Librera to invalidate the vote, according to Stephanie Luftglass, director of the Marlboro Public Information Office.