Rita Marano’s name could be one of the many appearing on the Asbury Park ballot in November.
The longtime city resident says she’s collected slightly more than the requisite 100 signatures to secure a nomination for the charter study commission. If city clerk Steve Kay verifies that 100 of those signatures belong to registered Asbury Park voters, Marano will officially become a nominee for the commission.
In the November election, voters will be asked whether they want to establish the charter study commission, as well as vote for five candidates to serve on it.
The commission will scrutinize the city’s current form of government to determine if changes need to be made, as well as potentially reschedule the date of elections. If the five commissioners determine change is necessary, they will make recommendations to the electorate, who will vote on the change at the 2013 election.
“I don’t think our government is bad if we have the right people up there,” Marano said of her reason for throwing her hat in the ring. “But we should have it a little different.”
The commission can propose such changes as establishing a directly-elected mayor, creating a ward system to elect council members and many other options allowed under the law. Marano may like to see staggered terms, for example. Currently, all five council members are elected at once, every four years in May.
The commission can also recommend changing the municipal election from May to November, as well as switch from the current non-partisan system where candidate run without party affiliation to one where they’re designated as Democrats or Republicans.
“I want to be on [the commission] because I’ve lived here so long and I’ve seen a lot of changes — but not in government,” she said. “It’s always been the same there.”
Marano has lived in the city since 1967 when she moved here full-time from Union City. Before that, she spent summers in Asbury Park. She was in her 30s when she moved here, and her two daughters were elementary-school-aged.
“I moved here because of the beauty of Asbury,” she said. “Rides on the boardwalk, candy shops, ice cream shops — it was just a beautiful place to be.”
Marano operated a deli on Kingsley Street for 21 years, from 1988 to 2009, until it was taken through eminent domain, she said. The Kingsley Deli opened in a storefront in the 1200 block and later moved to a building Marano purchased between Third and Fourth avenues.
Marano served as a commissioner on the Asbury Park Housing Authority from 1972 to 1976 and also on a county tuberculosis board. She’s also served on the city’s senior citizen, budget and crime committees.
Marano’s daughters live in West Chester, N.Y., and Marlboro. Her husband, Frank, died three years ago. They met in 1951 when she was working as a ballroom-dance teacher in Union City and he came in for a lesson, she said.
Marano still lives in the same Eighth Avenue house her family bought in 1967.
“Asbury Park is a great place to be,” she said. “Why would you want to go anywhere else?”
Other declared charter study candidates include Michelle Maguire and Pam Lamberton. Two other residents — Robert Obler and Daryl Hammary — picked up petitions for commission candidates, according to Kay, but neither has formally declared he is a candidate. Petitions and signatures are due in city hall by Aug. 31, Kay said.
