Newark Council Expected to Vote on Water Utility Ordinance

The Newark Municipal Council is expected to vote on an ordinance next month that would bar the city from placing water and sewer utilities under control of a public utility authority without direct voter approval.

Mayor Cory Booker, as well as his predecessor, Sharpe James, have pushed for the creation of a municipal utility authority, or MUA, as the most cost-effective way to operate and overhaul the water system, which serves a half-million customers in Newark and nearby cities and towns.   

Opponents, however, contend an authority would deprive residents control of an invaluable city resource. Booker has said he would support an alternative to an MUA if it accomplished the same goals, including making the utilities fiscally sustainable.

An authority, although it would be a government agency, would largely be run by an appointed board independent of city government. It would also have the ability to bond, or borrow, for its needs and would set water and sewer rates.

The ordinance, which was proposed by a grassroots group opposed to an MUA, has been forced on the council agenda by a petition campaign. Under state law, an ordinance can be placed before a municipal government for consideration if a certain minimum number of city voters sign a petition in favor.

The Newark Water Group submitted its signatures earlier this month. Enough of those signatures were effectively verified by City Clerk Robert Marasco, the Newark Water Group was reportedly told Tuesday. The group said it gathered more than 5,000 sigantures, which, if all of them are legitimate, are more than twice as many needed to force a council vote. 

Marasco's office could not immediately be reached Tuesday afternoon. 

Marasco stopped short of certifying the signatures, said Dan O’Flaherty, who is advising the Newark Water Group, but Marasco did say “there were enough and they were right,” O’Flaherty told Patch. Marasco is expected to officially certify the signatures at the next meeting of the council Sept. 6.

The ordinance is expected to be on the agenda for a second and final reading at that meeting, even though ordinances normally must undergo two readings.

“The petition process is equivalent to a first reading” for the MUA ordinance, O’Flaherty said.

O’Flaherty also said he expects the council to defer voting on the ordinance until later in the month because several members of the council will be attending the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina. But under state law, the council must render a decision before the end of September.

State law also says that if the council fails to approve the ordinance, it would go before the voters of Newark in a special election, the timing of which is also governed by state law. That election would likely be held in late November, O’Flaherty said.