Petitioners submitted over 2,100 signatures to the Hoboken City Clerk’s Office earlier today, making a late summer rent control referendum possible, though not definite yet.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“We recognize the profound moment that referendum represents and we are guided by Hoboken’s recent demonstration that is conceptually interested in providing affordable housing and in equity for multi-family and condo owners, but that without citizen action, it is unlikely to occur,” Mile Square Taxpayers Association Executive Director Ron Simoncini said in a statement.
“50 years of waiting is enough to persuade us to propose a solution that lets the voter govern the municipality when government is incapable or unwilling to do so. A prior compromise between the landlords and the tenant advocates that was passed by the council last year did not survive a mayoral veto …”
The clerk has 20 days to certify signatures on the petitions and 1,366 certified signatures are needed to trigger a special election.
Once the petitions are certified, the proposed amendment is then treated as if it was passed as a first reading by the city council.
Then, the governing body has 20 days to act and if they fail to pass the amendment as written or a compromise with the Committee of Petitioners isn’t made, it goes to the ballot unless the Committee withdraws.
There are variables in the timing of when a special election would occur, but considering today’s submission a special election that will only be associated to this rent control reform amendment would be sometime in late August or early September.
In a phone interview, Simoncini said the group is still open to a compromise, but time is running out.
“We’ve had a lot of dialogue, a number of officials, electeds in particular, have engaged in conversation about what could happen here, what should happen here, what are the alternatives,” he said.
“We are certainly open to a set of things that would offset our referendum that will benefit tenants and our municipal government, but we now have a clock ticking. If we can’t find common ground, we’re gonna go the voters.”
Simoncini announced the proposal in March, as HCV first reported, with the council narrowly voting down an emergency resolution rejecting alleged misleading tactics to collect signatures last month.
According to rent control advocate Cheryl Fallick, those concerns raised were not without merit.
“There’s been some concern, I have audio and video of their signature collectors saying this is an affordable housing petition, so I think the clerk should investigate that further, because if a lot of signature collection that was misrepresenting this, then the city should disqualify those signatures,” she said in a separate phone interview.
“Barring that, the city has to compromise with the MSTA committee of petitioners, not tenants, and I just don’t think they should leave us out of the equation because they could try to satisfy the MSTA that necessitates a referendum initiated by tenants. Vacancy decontrol is a death knell for rent control as far as I’m concerned.”
The yes or no question that would potentially go 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.”
Additional information on the referendum can be found here.
I signed this petition largely because it was approved by the council — then vetoed by our Mayor. Recent efforts by some of our council members to “re-educate” our citizens are, in my opinion, a form of voter suppression. I hope this petiton receives the required number of signatures, and we can vote on it, out in the open, in the fall. The process will have been much more transparent than that ridiculous school referendum from a few years ago.
The petition wasn’t approved by the council. The mayor vetoed the councils attempt to compromise so we wouldn’t have this costly vote. How sad he didn’t even listen to his 9 people.
Why are they always making living in Hoboken even more expensive for those who already live here so that those who can not afford it get subsidized by those who are working hard to just keep ahead of the rising costs.
Exactly jimmy. They are forcing us to leave town
What I mean is that those of us who already live here could afford it until rents were jacked up and Ravi let it happen. Barely hanging on and working like a dog. Do something or this will get worse. We do not need more Stevens students paying 8000 a month so landlords get greedier. They have dorms.