Lawrence Living Wage Coalition
Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648
http://www.njlivingwagecoalition.org
August 28, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nicole Plett, 609-915-8759 <nbplett@yahoo.com>; or petitioners
Edith Pike, 609-883-1428; Christe McCoy, 609-882-7099; Harold Vereen, 609-882-4344.
Lawrence Township petitioners for the “Large Retail Living Wage and Benefits Ordinance” will get their first hearing in New Jersey Superior Court on Wednesday, August 30, at 2 p.m. Assignment Judge Linda R. Feinberg will preside. Members of the press are urged to join Lawrence Township residents in attending the court hearing at the Mercer County Courthouse, 175 South Broad Street, Trenton, NJ 08650.
A total of 1,054 signatures of registered Lawrenceville voters supporting the “Living Wage” ordinance were certified by Municipal Clerk Kathleen Norcia on August 7. (Additional signatures were collected but not certified because the clerk stopped counting when the numbers certified exceeded the 997 signatures required by law.) However, at the Township Council meeting on August 15, based on the advice of Lawrence Township attorney Kevin Nerwinski, the Council voted to table action on the ordinance and seek opinions from the court. Mr. Nerwinski served papers on Falk Engel, attorney for the petitioners, on August 21, initiating legal proceedings and seeking an injunction against placing the ordinance on the ballot on the grounds that a minimum wage ordinance may be illegal under New Jersey State law.
In a tactic that shocked many who attended the August 15 Township Council meeting, members of the public who wished to speak about the ordinance were excluded from the open public participation portion of the meeting, advised by Mayor Michael Powers to wait until the ordinance came up on the agenda. These citizens were again denied the right to speak when the ordinance came up on the agenda, and it was quickly tabled by Council vote.
“This ordinance will benefit everyone in Lawrenceville,” says petitioner Christe McCoy. “Decent pay for their hard hours of work will help free Lawrence employees from poverty and reliance on government entitlements. The result will be improved quality of life for everyone in our township. There is no way an individual worker or a family can survive here on either the federal or the state minimum wage,” she added. “Research shows that a person making minimum wage (currently $6.15) in New Jersey would have to work 128 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment in our county.”
Lawrence Living Wage Coalition members are also urging Lawrence Township residents, particularly those residents who signed the “Large Retail Living Wage and Benefits” petition, to attend the next Lawrence Township Council meeting on Tuesday, September 5, at 7 p.m.
“We urge all residents to voice their outrage over the steps the Council has taken to prevent this ordinance from appearing on the November ballot,” said Coalition member Edith Pike. “We were silenced at the August 15 meeting, but we trust this will not happen again on September 5.”
For more information, please contact members of the Lawrence Living Wage Coalition: Nicole Plett, Edith Pike, Christe McCoy, or Harold Vereen.
-30-