Schwartz v. Board of Aldermen
Schwartz v. Board of Aldermen
Opinion of the Court
This suit seeks to compel the reapportionment of the Board of Aldermen of the City of Paterson according to the one-man one-vote principle as set forth in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, 84 S. Ct. 1362, 12 L. Ed. 2d 506 (1964), and explicitly made applicable to municipal governments in Avery v. Midland County, 390 U. S. 474, 88 S. Ct. 1114, 20 L. Ed. 2d 45 (1968). Parenthetically, the holding in Avery was clearly forecast in this State in Judge Wick’s opinion in Mauk v. Hoffman, 87 N. J. Super. 276 (Ch. Div. 1965) concerned with county government and the composition of boards of chosen freeholders.
The board of aldermen consists of 11 members, each elected from a separate aldermanie district or ward. At the time of the 1960 census these districts ranged in population from 4,120 residents in the smallest to 20,334 residents in the largest; there is very clearly a decided malapportionment.
In evaluating the contentions of the parties it is first necessary to examine carefully the powers and functions of the board of aldermen. When initially created, L. 1871, c. 325, the board clearly possessed general governing powers. However, chapters 45, 46 and 62 of the Laws of 1907 (now R. S. 40 :174-6 et seq., 40 :186—5 el seq. and 40 :175-9 et seq.) made provision for the creation of a board of fire and police commissioners, a board of finance and a board of public works. Most of the powers of the board of aldermen were transferred to and divided among these three boards. Grosso v. Paterson, 55 N. J. Super. 164, 170 (Law Div. 1959), affirmed 33 N. J. 477 (1960); McCarter v. McKelvey, 78 N. J. L. 3 (Sup. Ct. 1909), affirmed sub. nom. Attorney-General v. McKelvey, 78 N. J. L. 621 (E. & A. 1910) (sustaining constitutionality). As a result of the governmental changes of 1907, the board of aldermen retained only the residuum of powers not given to the newly created bodies.
A comparison of the 1871 and 1907 legislation reveals that the powers remaining in the board of aldermen seem confined to the appointment of certain municipal officials such as the city clerk and the register of licenses, a right of veto over mayoral appointments to the board of health, and a limited authority to pass certain regulatory ordinances. The materials provided for in the inspection of the court, especially the enumerated list of ordinances of the board of aider-men supplied by the plaintiff, reveal very clearly the nature of these powers. Ordinances may be adopted with respect to
While there does not appear to be a New Jersey decision which has related the present issue to comparable facts, the United States Supreme Court decision in Sailors v. Kent County Bd. of Education, supra, seems pertinent. There the court dealt with a suit to compel reapportionment of a county school board. The powers of this board included the authority to prepare an annual budget and levy taxes, to provide numerous services to constituent school districts, and to transfer areas from one school district to another. The court said of the above enumerated powers that they are “essentially administrative functions and while they are important, they are not legislative in the classical sense,”
It seems clear that the powers of Paterson’s board of aldermen are more administrative in nature and afford less opportunity for discrimination against under-represented districts than those of the county school board in Sailors. While a board of aldermen might ordinarily be thought of as having more general legislative powers than a board of education, this is not true in the case of the rather anomalous government of the City of Paterson. The Paterson board is limited almost exclusively to administrative functions and clearly does not possess general powers of government.
In light of what has been said, I find that the present procedure for selecting the members of the board of aider-men is not violative of the United States Constitution, and plaintiff’s application to compel the reapportionment of this board is therefore denied. There will be no costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.