A new bill proposed by State Senator Paul Sarlo would allow municipalities covered under Bergen County’s Blue Laws, which forbid many retail establishments from doing business on Sundays, to adopt resolutions designating up to two exceptions per year for "street festivals" and other special events.
Supporters of the bill see it as a narrowly tailored fix to help downtown businesses capitalize on foot-traffic generated by parades and fairs. Under the most common interpretation of the current Blue Laws, these businesses must remain closed or else sell their wares at outdoor tables during such events.
But opponents of the proposal, including Rutherford mayor John Hipp, see it as a preamble to a wider assault on the Sunday tradition spurred by new Meadowlands development.
"This legislation opens the door for legislation in the future to allow Xanadu to be open on Sundays," said Hipp.
Sarlo aide Chris Eilert strongly disagrees.
"Mayor Hipp’s comments are absurd and without basis," Eilert said during a phone interview. "They indicate that he neither read the bill nor understands the issue."
James Cassella, mayor of East Rutherford where Xanadu sits, remains uncertain of the bill’s intent. "I don’t know if it is or isn’t related to Xanadu," said Cassella. "The way I read it, the intent of the bill is to address the situation in towns like Hackensack, who have a festival on a Monday."
Eilert confirmed that Senator Sarlo, whose legislative district does not include Hackensack, was approached by Hackensack city officials to sponsor the legislation. According to Eilert, the bill, S-1333, contains a number of specific provisions that minimize its overall impact on the Blue Laws. Exceptions are limited to one day a year, are restricted to specific geographic zones within a municipality, and must be used in conjunction with municipally-sponsored and council-approved events.
The three-page draft of the bill available on the New Jersey legislature’s Web site reads somewhat differently. It sets the number of exceptions at two rather than one, and makes no specific mention of geographic restrictions.
Cassella believes that if the bill’s aims are restricted to bolstering a handful of street fairs, then its language goes too far.
"The simple solution for situations [like Hackensack’s] is to allow vendors to sell from booths, but keep the stores closed," said Casella. "Otherwise, it sets a lot of things in motion and opens the door for more legal challenges."
Hipp too worries that the very passage of the bill would set an unwanted precedent for state interference in county affairs.
"Trenton shouldn't be introducing legislation affecting the Blue Laws of Bergen County," said Hipp. "If Bergen County wants to change its laws, it is up to the Bergen County board of freeholders."
"Whether you agree with the Blue Laws or not, this is the first time that I know of that the state has decided to insert itself into these decisions," Hipp added. "If that concept is acceptable, then the Blue Laws of Bergen County are [as good as] gone, not by the choice of Bergen County residents, but by the choice of the legislature."
The Blue Laws, which have their earliest roots in colonial rules barring commerce on the Sabbath, were adopted by four New Jersey counties in 1958. Today, Bergen is the only county of the four to retain the laws, which were repealed by referendum in Hudson, Morris and Passaic counties in 1985. Bergen residents have voted to uphold the Blue Laws in three separate referenda, most recently in 1996.
More recently, Bernadette McPherson, a county freeholder and former Rutherford mayor, led the county response to a coordinated effort by the business community to reconsider the Blue Laws in 2005. McPherson says her position remains the same.
"I would be against any exceptions to the Blue Laws," she said, including potential exceptions for Xanadu.
Cassella agrees.
