Hoboken's Municipal Elections Will Not Be Moved

Hoboken residents will keep choosing their municipal representatives in May.

to move municipal elections to November—when other, general elections, are also held—this measure was officially undone on Tuesay night.

In a 7-1 vote—Fourth Ward Councilman Tim Occhipinti voted against and First Ward Counciwoman Theresa Castellano was absent—the

Council President Ravi Bhalla sponsored rescinding the election move, after a couple of thousand residents signed a petition against it.

Although some of the majority council members, who have the support of Mayor Dawn Zimmer, said that there were issues with the petition, they voted to rescind the move nonetheless.

"I haven’t had a chance to review the signatures that have been submitted," said Fifth Ward Councilman Peter Cunningham who represents the northwestern part of town, "I’d like to see how many residents are from the fifth ward."

Bhalla said he heard other concerns about city government in the process. "I've heard we should not have nine people running this city," Bhalla said, continuing "there’s been complains about a December run off," which he said begs questions about a run-off in general.

Third Ward Councilman Russo, who voted against the move months ago, asked his fellow council members why they had changed their minds.

But, the people of Hoboken will still have a chance to cast their vote in a referendum in November. Hoboken's rent control advocates also completed a petition action and gathered more than 3,000 signatures to on the ballot.

Cheryl Fallick, a tenant advocate, attended Tuesday's special meeting. "I think this is a good thing," she told the council members, "to repeal something that 3,000 citizens protest." But, she added, that she would like to see the rent control ordinance rescinded as well.

The election move would have added six months to all council members' terms, as well as the mayor's term, which would also have added several board appointments to the hands of Zimmer and the council majority.

After all, it seemed that the move itself was less of a discussion than how the councl made the decision.

"I have no problems with moving elections to November," said Franz Paetzold, who went out to get signatures for the petition drive, "if that’s what the people want."