City Councilman and candidate for Mayor Anthony Merante, with former Yonkers Inspector General Phil Zissman, submitting petitions last month that appear to be invalid
By Dan Murphy
The Yonkers City Clerk’s office issued a statement on Aug. 1 stating that the petitions submitted by a group of Yonkers residents to get the issue of term limits before the voters this November on a referendum was rejected.
Yonkers City Clerk Vincent Spano recused himself from the matter last month because his brother, Mayor Mike Spano is running for reelection this year. Deputy County Clerks Nerissa Pena and Mike Ramondelli oversaw the review of the petition, which sought to ask the voters whether they wanted to reduce the number of terms a Mayor or City Council member can serve from 4, four-year terms, to 3, four year terms.
The statement reads: TERM LIMIT PETITION FAILS TO COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW
The City Clerk’s Office has undertaken a review of the Petition submitted on July 10, 2023, seeking to amend the City Charter as it relates to term limits of certain elected officials, and has determined that said Petition fails to comply with the requirements of law in that: (1) there are an insufficient number of valid signatures; (2) it is untimely; and (3) it is insufficient on its face. The complete report has been provided to the City Council that fully describes the insufficiencies of the Petition. The complete report and petition are on file and may be examined at the Office of the City Clerk, City Hall, 40 S. Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10701. A full copy of the report is available on our website: City Clerk Term Limits Petition Certification Report -link to report-https://www.yonkersny.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/38934
Highlights of the 11-page report, which was delivered to all members of the City Council, include:
The petition consisted of 5,076 signatures. The valid number of signatures required is 4,723. According to the review, 2,463 valid and 2,613 invalid.
The largest number of invalid signatures are those deemed not legible, 1,821. 352 voters are not registered in Yonkers, 284 signatures are “printed”, 273 have an incomplete name, 106 signatures were witnessed by a non registered voter, and 175 address incomplete.
Other reasons cited as the cause of the rejection of the petitions include:
The petition was untimely: There are deadlines for when the petition can be filed, which allow the City Council to accept or reject. If the Council rejects the petition, there needs to be enough time for the petitioners to go out and collect another 2,500 signatures and resubmit. According to the report, this additional petition “may be filed with the City Clerk at least two months and not more than four months after the filing of the original petition.”
The original petition was filed on July 10; 60 days after that date is September 11. 60 days after 9/11/23 is November 10, three days after the election, which is not enough time to get the referendum approved and on the ballot.
