Following Mims Hackett's plea of guilty to attempted extortion,
Acting Mayor Lisa Perkins Council President Lisa Perkins took the reins of government in Orange today, and is now serving as the city's acting mayor.
Orange has a code provision in the event of the mayor's illness, which gives the business administrator authority to take over in the chief elected official's absence.
But in this case, state law regarding succession trumps Orange's code and grants authority to the council president to step in for a mayor who has pleaded guilty to a corruption charge.
Councilman Edward Marable, Jr. today said he would consider challenging Perkins's right to serve as mayor.
"I have heard that she is somehow related to him (Hackett)," said the councilman. "I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is that could be antithetical to the spirit of the law."
Orange had an election earlier this month in which voters picked West Orange Patrolman Eldridge Hawkins, Jr. as mayor. He begins his four-year term on July 1.
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