ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS — Residents have filed a petition to sponsor a recall election targeting two Democratic members of the Borough Council. .

Three residents filed a petition with the borough clerk to sponsor a recall committee for council members Edward Aversa and Gloria Oh.

In the paperwork, Aversa and Oh are accused of failing to do adequate due diligence on affordable housing, failing to be transparent regarding the negotiations, failing to work with other borough departments to determine the impact an influx of residents would have on the borough and failing to demonstrate to residents that they are working in their best interest.

Hundreds of residents turned out earlier this month for a presentation on affordable housing, and many urged the council not to settle a suit brought by a developer, but rather to fight it in court. Normandy Real Estate Partners is looking to build hundreds of housing units, including 100 affordable units, at the former Unilever site on Sylvan Avenue.

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Aversa says the recall effort is the work of Mayor Mario Kranjac, who will be his opponent in the fall mayoral race.

“It’s nothing more than a desperate attempt by Mario Kranjac and his cronies to maintain control by doing their best to divide our wonderful community and deflect from the mistakes of their Planning Board,” Aversa said.

When reached by email, Kranjac said that he has "no comment on the recall at this time."

According to the state, recall committees needs to collect signatures from 25 percent of the registered voters in town, or more than 900, for a recall to be held on the date of the general election. The committees have 160 days to gather those signatures. Since each committee can call for the recall of only one elected official, two committees are technically needed in Englewood Cliffs.

Alicia D’Alessandro, a spokeswoman for the Department of State, said that in order to get the recall on the ballot this November, the signatures must be certified 60 days before the election. The certification process takes five days, so they would need to be turned in to the borough clerk by Aug. 26.

If the residents don’t manage that, the “clock doesn’t just run out with the election,” D’Alessandro said. The committees would have all 160 of their days to collect signatures for next year’s ballot.

The statute for recall elections, though, says a recall election can’t be held in the last six months of the final year of a term, which for both Aversa and Oh is next year.

The three residents who filed the paperwork, Michael Kim, Ram Tiwari and Tim Koutroubas, could not be reached for comment.

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