Petition circulating to ask state to take over township’s finances

IRVINGTON, NJ — Elouise McDaniel, president of both the Irvington Joint Block Association Coalition and the Nesbitt Terrace Block Association, has begun circulating a petition among township residents to ask the state to take over Irvington’s finances.

McDaniels, who is also still running a petition to recall Mayor Tony Vauss, now alleges that Vauss is mismanaging Irvington’s finances, and the Municipal Council is complicit with him.

She began the recall petition with help from sometime Board of Education candidate Cathy Southerland and Orange Avenue and Oakland Avenue Block Association President Dee Fuqua.

Currently, McDaniel already has 500 signatures on her petition seeking a state intervention in Irvington’s finances.

“The petition is going good,” said McDaniel on Wednesday, July 5. “I’ve already gotten 500 signatures and I know we can get more. I’ve been saying all along that this mayor and this council are mismanaging the town and now I have the evidence to prove it.”

The evidence McDaniel referred to comes from the Open Public Records Act request for information on the township payroll from 2015-2017 that she filed with the municipal clerk. On Wednesday, July 5, she finally got the payroll records and now claims they prove Vauss and a number of township employees, including some of his department heads, have been taking payments in addition to their regular salaries.

McDaniel’s evidence stems from the fact Municipal Council President and North Ward Councilman David Lyons admitted on the record at the June council meeting that the township is facing a larger budget deficit than the $3.25 million for 2015, which Vauss previously acknowledged had prompted employee furloughs, layoffs and givebacks that went into effect Monday, May 1.

McDaniel was at the June council meeting when Lyons admitted Irvington was running $2.4 million deficits for 2016 and 2017, in addition to the $3.25 million for 2015.

  Elouise McDaniel, Mayor Tony Vauss