The Hoboken City Clerk’s Office has deemed a proposed rent control referendum “defective” in a letter issued today, but the group spearheading the effort is vowing to press forward.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“The Committee of Petitioners submitted a petition with 2,162 signatures. Out of 2,162 signatures, 802 were found to be valid pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:69A-187,” City Clerk Jimmy Farina wrote in a letter to the city council.
“The remaining 1,360 signatures were found to be invalid signatures, as the signatories were not found to be qualified voters based upon comparison to the current registered voter logs.”
The petitioners submitted the signatures 10 days ago in an effort to force a rent control ballot referendum in the late summer, as HCV first reported.
The yes or no question that they sought to put before Mile Square City voters is as follows:
“Should Chapter 155-31 of the Ordinances of the City of Hoboken, Rent Control Ordinance
(“RCO”) be amended to provide an option to landlords to pay a fee of $2500 to the Hoboken Affordable Housing Trust Fund in order to lease voluntarily vacated apartments at a freely negotiated rent, which thereafter remain subject to the provisions of the (“RCO”) including limitations on annual rent increases.”
According to Mile Square Taxpayers Association Executive Director Ron Simoncini, Farina’s assessment is incorrect and it will be challenged one way or another.
“They inflated my required signatures by a completely careless and callous standard. This is a clear effort to frustrate our initiative at any cost and it symbolizes what has been a hallmark of the Bhalla administration since the beginning, and if we have to, we’ll sue them, and we’ll prevail because they lose all the time,” he said over the phone.
“However, I’d rather provide my response to the clerk’s review, which will say most of the signatures rejected were on an incorrect basis and they’ll certify the ballot against the correct number of ballot signatures which is 1,340 for a special election. For now, we’re mulling if we’d do a special election or just go on the general election ballot.”
8,935 Hoboken residents cast their ballots in November 2023, therefore a ballot referendum to accompany a general election would require 895 signatures (10 percent) and 1,340 (15 percent) for a special election, Simoncini also noted.
However, according to Farina’s interpretation, 564 more (1,366) total) are necessary to be part of the general election.
The committee of petitioners now has 10 days to amend or cure their petitions.
“Having collected signatures in many a referendum, if they needed around 1350 signatures for a special election, I suspected that they wouldn’t have enough. I found that you need to collect twice what you need in order to end up with enough signatures to get the petition certified,” said rent control advocate Cheryl Fallick.
“If they wanted to be on the general election ballot they only need 10 percent, which would be a little bit under 900, I guess.”