ORANGE, NJ — In an email to the Record-Transcript on Monday, Feb. 13, Orange City Council President Donna K. Williams confirmed the date of the special election for the two new Orange Board of Education members as Tuesday, March 14. Orange voted on Public Question No. 1 in November 2016 to change from an appointed school board to an elected one, a decision the board is resisting.
“Good day all, today is a holiday, Lincoln’s Birthday, and next Monday is a holiday, President’s Day, as well,” Williams said in the email on Monday, Feb 13. “As our clerk, Joyce Lanier has previously stated: ‘The election is still going forward.’”
This email did not placate local businessman and Orange Chamber of Commerce member Jeff Feld, who asked, in an email sent Monday, Feb. 13, to Williams and other City Council members, “What is the current status? City Hall is closed today. Is the March 14 election going forward?”
“It’s going to be worked out,” City Council Vice President and East Ward Councilman Kerry Coley verified Monday, Feb. 13. “I’m confident that we’re going to have a special election on March 14. When you tell someone that they can’t do something, that just makes them want to go out and do it that much more.”
Coley made his remarks after special attorney Stephen Edelstein, hired by the Orange Board of Education, filed a petition seeking an injunction with the New Jersey Department of Education on Friday, Feb. 3, to stop the transition from an appointed board to an elected board in the city. According to David Saenz, the NJDOE press secretary, Edelstein’s petition was “mailed to the Office of Administrative Law” on Monday, Feb. 6.
Attempts to contact Edelstein for a comment or update on his petition filing were unsuccessful by press time this week. During a telephone interview with the Record-Transcript on Sunday, Feb. 12, Williams said a preliminary hearing regarding Edelstein’s petition was scheduled to take place sometime this week, possibly on Wednesday, Feb. 15.
The council also passed a resolution to hire attorney Robert Tarver to represent it in its latest legal battle with Mayor Dwayne Warren’s administration at its regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 7. Tarver successfully represented the council when it filed a lawsuit protesting Warren’s appointment of Willis Edwards to serve as the city’s deputy business administrator, after a majority of the governing body voted not to make him the permanent, full-time business administrator once his 90-day appointment as acting business administrator had expired.
After almost three years of legal wrangling, Superior Court Judge Christine Farrington ruled Warren had illegally appointed Edwards to serve as deputy business administrator and ordered him to repay $268,000 he’d been paid during his employment with the city, a decision Edwards is now appealing.
Meanwhile, Tarver is set to go into court for the council again, this time against Edelstein, who previously served as the BOE attorney and was appointed by the board’s current members. The BOE members, in turn, were all appointed or reappointed by Warren, who once worked at Edelstein’s law firm, Schwartz, Simon, Edelstein & Celso, in Whippany.
Tarver could not be reached for comment about his latest legal battle on the council’s behalf by press time this week.
Coley said Orange voters who want to change to an elected school board should not be discouraged by this attempt to void the outcome of the vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8, regarding Public Question No. 1.
“I don’t think it discourages people from voting,” said Coley on Monday, Feb. 13. “I think it makes people keenly aware that there are people out here trying to disenfranchise them.”
Orange City Council confirms special election still pending added by Chris Sykes on
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