TUF - THN - Recall Results

Deputy mayor's fate on ballot

Home News Tribune Online 09/10/07
By DAVID STEGON
STAFF WRITER
dstegon@thnt.com

FRANKLIN — Third Ward residents will vote in a special election Tuesday on whether to oust Deputy Mayor Ellen Ritchie from the Township Council following accusations she did not act in the public's best interest by pushing for a housing development on Bennetts Lane and Veronica Avenue.

"She is going to lose her bid for reelection," said Chip Hoever, who headed the recall effort. "During the course of getting signatures for the recall I cannot tell you how many people said, "Yeah, I voted for her, but that was a huge mistake.' She has abused her rights as a public official and needs to go."

Ritchie, a council member since 2004, said the recall committee misled the ward's registered voters into signing the petition calling for the special election. She said the voters were made to believe the petition was against overdevelopment and high taxes and not about her performance in office.

"There is a big difference between a petition and an actual election," Ritchie said. "These last 10 months have been horrible. This small group of politically ambitious people have lied about my character, dedication and honesty, and I'm hopeful that people will listen to the truth and keep me in office."

Voters in Tuesday's election will first choose whether to keep Ritchie in office and then select a possible replacement between Democrat Michael Orsini, the chair of the township's Shade Tree Commission and vice chair of the Planning Board, and Republican Bob Mettler, a former township councilman, who along with Ritchie is running as an independent.

The recall effort accused Ritchie of secretly meeting with developer Jack Morris on a 684-unit housing development that would satisfy the township's state requirement with the Council on Affordable Housing in December 2005.

Ritchie said the meeting was to talk about decreasing the density of the project, which she claimed was inevitable, despite outcry from township residents who feared the new development, and accompanying Home Depot, would increase traffic and be a burden on the school district.

Ritchie, the planning director for Old Bridge, said she was trying to act in the ward's best interest.

The recall effort also accused Ritchie of overstepping her bounds and threatening the political career of Orsini at a December 2005 Planning Board meeting. Ritchie said Orsini voted against the proposed housing development after saying earlier he would support it.

She also denied published reports in the Home News Tribune that she admitted to the alleged threat.

"It was something that happened in the heat of the moment," Ritchie said of the outburst. "I felt betrayed and lashed out. I'm sorry that happened, but I never threatened him."

Orsini said he is the logical choice to replace Ritchie.

"I feel like all of this started with me and what happened at that meeting," Orsini said. "I took a stand against my party because I felt what they were doing was wrong. I did what I thought was best for the residents of the Third Ward and I stuck my neck out for that."

Mettler, a lifelong Franklin resident and member of the Township Council from 1975 to 1995 and again from 2000 to 2003, lost to Ritchie in the last election. He said his experience will help him if he is reelected to the council.

"When I was first on the council I felt like things were so much more open," Mettler said. "There were Democrats I liked working with because they were open to all ideas and I would like to bring some of that back."