{"id":11549,"date":"2017-09-08T01:47:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T05:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=11549"},"modified":"2017-09-08T01:47:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T05:47:16","slug":"brick-mayoral-candidate-proposes-splitting-town-into-wards-for-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2017\/09\/brick-mayoral-candidate-proposes-splitting-town-into-wards-for-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Mayoral Candidate Proposes Splitting Town Into ‘Wards’ for Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Brick Township municipal complex. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

An independent candidate for Brick Township mayor has proposed modifying the municipal electoral system so that the town is split into four wards, each of which would directly elect a council member from their part of town.<\/p>\n

The move has not gained favor with either the Republican or Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

Robbert Canfield, the independent candidate, said his proposal would help residents express concerns since they would have a designated representative on the council. As it currently stands, seven members are elected to the council at-large, regardless of where they live in town. Under Canfield\u2019s proposal, three at-large council members would remain and the other four seats would be split into wards. Toms River currently uses a partial ward system for its municipal council.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like sometimes there\u2019s not enough representation going on,\u201d said Canfield, expressing, for example that Lake Riviera residents likely wouldn\u2019t share the same concerns as Herbertsville or barrier island residents. \u201cPeople feel there is no one on their side, so to speak, and they have to show up en masse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor John Ducey said implementing a ward system could prove an \u201cinteresting, but expensive endeavor, and under the current system varying parts of town are already represented.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody has really been clamoring for something like this,\u201d he said. \u201cOn the current council, every seat is opened up to every resident.<\/p>\n

There are members of council who live in Herbertsville, off Princeton Avenue, near Drum Point Road and one barrier island resident currently serving, just to name a few. Ducey said the idea is an \u201cinteresting\u201d one, but comes with its pitfalls.<\/p>\n

Ruthanne Scaturro, Ducey\u2019s GOP mayoral challenger, said the idea would merit \u201cserious consideration,\u201d but also said she has heard negative feedback on the ward system from Toms River residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to Toms River people many times and they often regret doing that.\u00a0It individualizes certain areas, and I don\u2019t think you want to do that,\u201d Scaturro said. \u201cIt causes some infighting \u2013 my ward needs this and my ward needs that \u2013 so you get some of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canfield said the idea is worth implementing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have someone you can go to \u2013 someone who knows the problems and can bring that voice with them,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about representation and advocacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An independent candidate for Brick Township mayor has proposed modifying the municipal electoral system so that the town is split into four wards, each of which would directly elect a council member from their part of town. The move has not gained favor with either the Republican or Democratic candidates. Robbert Canfield, the independent candidate, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[24,3049,3048],"class_list":["post-11549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-elections","category-government","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-system-of-government","tag-ward-system"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/DSC_0129.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-30h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}