'Pay-to-Play' Comes Under Scrutiny of Appellate Court

Ken Thorbourne
The Jersey Journal

A three-judge Appellate Court panel will hear oral arguments today as to whether a group of Hoboken activists have the right to sue the city to enforce a "pay-to-play" ordinance voters approved by a 9-to-1 margin three years ago.

The People for Open Government filed the lawsuit in June 2005, claiming a slate headed up by Hoboken Mayor David Roberts, collected more than $1 million in campaign contributions from businesses that have no-bid professional contracts with the city. The lawsuit claims that these actions are in violation of the "Hoboken Public Contracting Reform Ordinance." POG members collected enough signatures to get the ordinance on the ballot and voters approved it in 2004.

But in April 2006, Hudson County Assignment Judge Maurice J. Gallipoli ruled POG had no legal standing to bring the lawsuit, since none of the group's members would "suffer harm in the event of an unfavorable decision."

By Gallipoli's reasoning, the only valid plaintiffs in this case would be vendors who believed they had been adversely affected by the contributions or unsuccessful candidates.

POG's attorney, Renée Steinhagen, executive director of the New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center in Newark, argues Gallipoli is backtracking from New Jersey's longstanding "broad and liberal approach to standing."

Gallipoli declined to comment beyond his written opinion.

Stephen Edelstein, the attorney representing the city, said POG's lawsuit contains a jumble of misinformation and misinterpretation.

The lawsuits, for example, lumps in thousands of dollars given to Team Roberts by developers, which as a group were not covered by the 2004 ordinance, Edelstein said. In November 2005, the city adopted a "pay-to-play" ordinance specifically targeting developers.

Plus, POG claims Roberts violated the 2004 ordinance by accepting contributions from businesses "between the time of first communication" with the city about a contract "and the later of the termination of negotiations or the completion of the contract or agreement."

Edelstein interprets this clause to mean business entities can make political contributions once the contract is either awarded or negotiations come to an end.

Roberts said, Hoboken has the "strictest 'pay-to-play' laws in the state," and that's made it difficult for anyone but individuals who can self-finance their campaigns to run.

Roberts said he's in favor of the government paying for campaigns, but wants to raise the standard for the number of petition signatures it takes to get on the ballot.