Four members of the Newark City Council will file suit tomorrow, one week after a surprise appointment by Mayor Cory Booker sparked a melee at City Hall.

The council members have hired an independent attorney to ask a judge to block the appointment of Booker ally Shanique Davis Speight.

They say the mayor violated the council’s rules of order when he showed up at last week’s meeting unannounced to cast the deciding vote for Speight, citing a state statute.

Councilman Darrin Sharif says Booker knew better as a former councilman himself.    

“What statute was applied should be secondary to the most important thing: how the municipal council has run the meetings for years and years and years and years.”

Booker maintains his actions were in the interest of avoiding a deadlock among the eight council members, and moving city business forward.  

But Sharif says what happened shows a side to Mayor Booker that’s at odds with his national reputation. When it comes to being a proponent of democracy, Sharif says Booker should take a page from his own rhetoric.