On May 10 the Ocean County Money & Politics Action Group, with which SBB is active, kicked off Dover and Manchester Township Pay to Play Public Contracting Reform Initiative & Referendum drives. This is an environmental issue if there ever was one.
– What is Pay to Play?
– Read the prepared statement of the Manchester group
– Read Model Pay to Play ordinance. Read Plain Language Summary
– How YOU can enact Pay to Play if you live in Brick, Berkeley, Dover
– Island Heights, Long Beach, Manchester or Stafford Township.
2009 Royal Oaks Drive
Toms River, NJ 08753
FOR RELEASE
May 10, 2004
Contact:
Frank Kenny
732-674-1485
William deCamp Jr.
732-830-3600
Common Cause NJ
(For technical aspects of ordinance)
732-548-9798
Pay-to-Play Petition Campaigns
Citizens from two Ocean County municipalities – Dover and Manchester Townships – are today launching petition campaigns to place binding “Pay to Play” public contracting reform referendums on the November 2 General Election ballot.
If these citizens succeed in gathering the necessary signatures – and if the voters pass these ordinances in the November election – Dover and Manchester Townships will be banned from granting no-bid contracts to any person or firm who has made a political contribution to their respective local or Ocean County political campaign funds.
Since most attorneys, planners and engineering firms are hired on a no-bid basis, these persons and firms would have to refrain from making political contributions should they wish to do business with these townships.
Dover township citizens must collect 2,085 valid signatures by mid-July in order to allow time for the signatures to be verified by their respective township clerks and meet the deadline for inclusion on the November ballot. The number of signatures required to be collected in Manchester Township is 1,178.
With a population of approximately 93,000 [US Census Bureau, 2002] Dover Township is Ocean County’s largest municipality and its county seat. The population of Manchester is approximately 41,500. Together these two townships comprise just over 25% of the total population of Ocean County.
The proposed Dover and Manchester Pay to Play ordinances, which are identical, were drafted for Common Cause New Jersey and the Center for Civic Responsibility, whose experts are confident that the measures can pass any constitutional test. Nearly identical ordinances have been passed in fourteen other New Jersey municipalities, none of them in Ocean County. The exact wording of the Dover and Manchester Ordinances is available at www.savebarnegatbay.org.
Citizens in five other municipalities and boroughs in Ocean County are also eligible under their municipal charters to pass binding Pay to Play ordinances. The number of registered voters’ signatures required in each of these five towns is:
Berkeley
1,421
Brick
1,625
Island Heights
46
Long Beach
116
Stafford
441
“A major goal of the Dover Township effort is to inspire citizens of the five other eligible towns to do exactly as we are doing,” said Frank Kenny a leader of the Dover petition drive. “That way we can have an impact throughout Ocean County”.
Persons from these townships who are interested in enacting Pay to Play ordinances should contact William deCamp at 732-830-3600 or Common Cause New Jersey at 732-548-9798.
Dover Township registered voters wishing to sign petitions or participate in collecting signatures should contact Frank Kenny at 732-674-1485.
Further information on Pay to Play reform and other available mechanisms for clean government and civic involvement is available at the website of the Center for Civic Responsibility, www.jointhecampaign.org.
************
Also, Read the statement of the Manchester Pay to Play reform petitioners.
