SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — With the excitement of last month’s election has come some uncertainty regarding the laws for filling vacant seats on the South Orange Board of Trustees.
On May 12, Sheena Collum was elected the village’s first female president. As a result, her seat on the Board of Trustees is now vacant.
During the board’s executive session on June 8, members discussed what the next step should be, coming to the conclusion that it is not altogether clear.
First and foremost, according to Collum in a June 9 email to the News-Record, the board plans to appoint a replacement trustee at its June 22 meeting.
Under Article 2.4 of the South Orange Village Charter, the Board of Trustees has the power to appoint someone to serve the remainder of a vacated, unexpired term. Since Collum’s term as a trustee began in May 2013, the seat would then be held by an appointee until May 2017.
“If the trustees fail to appoint someone by affirmative vote of at least four trustees by the second regular meeting following the vacancy, which would be June 22, the vacancy would be filled by a special election,” Collum explained. “Holding a special election would cost the village significant money — roughly $25,000 to do so.”
To avoid this expense, Collum told the News-Record that the Board of Trustees intends to appoint someone to fill her former seat June 22.
While this may seem clear, it becomes more complicated when the charter-review process is taken into account. Every 12 years, the village government, with the help of a Charter Review Committee, conducts a charter review to address any errors in the village’s charter and to update it.
According to Collum, during the most recent charter-review process, the Board of Trustees and the Charter Review Committee has unanimously recommended that Article 2.4 be changed, bringing the village in line with the majority of the state, which follows New Jersey law.
“State law provides that the governing body can appoint someone until the next municipal or general election, whichever comes first,” Collum explained. “In this instance, that would mean the Board of Trustees can appoint someone until November 2015, at which point an election would be held to fill the unexpired term.
“This recommendation was accepted by the Board of Trustees and the amended charter was submitted to the Office of Legislative Services for review and introduction through the New Jersey State Legislature,” Collum continued. “To date, the Legislature has not introduced or voted on the passage of a bill putting our new charter into effect, and thus, we’re seeking legal opinions on what our options are.”
Village Administrator Barry Lewis Jr. was quick to remind the News-Record that the November election would be a general election, one incurring no additional costs for South Orange.
According to Collum, the village government will likely know by June 22 whether the appointed trustee will serve through November 2015 or May 2017.
But if residents were at all anxious about what electing a current trustee as president would mean for their government, it certainly did not show in the election numbers.
According to the official election results, recently authorized and released by Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin, Collum won big May 12.
Collum garnered 1,434 votes, or 70.3 percent, while her opponent, Emily Hynes, only earned 604 votes, or 29.6 percent. Of the 13 voting districts, Collum won the majority of votes in each.
Re-elected trustees Deborah Davis Ford, Howard Levison and Mark Rosner, who were all running unopposed, each garnered approximately 30.2 percent of the vote, keeping them fairly tied. Levison earned the most votes, followed by Rosner, then Davis Ford — but Levison only had 38 votes more than Davis Ford. There were 142 write-in votes, a rather large number.
Of course, these numbers do not necessarily reflect the entirety of the village, as voter turnout still remained fairly low. Only 16.56 percent of registered South Orange voters cast ballots in this election. This was a bump from the 2011 municipal election, when Alex Torpey beat former Trustee Janine Bauer by 14 votes, with a voter turnout of only 11 percent.