Jachera in support of consolidation

As Princeton residents ponder the issue of Borough-Township consolidation for a few more weeks, Republican candidate for Borough mayor Jill Jachera has announced her support for consolidation while Democratic candidate Yina Moore ’79 has reaffirmed that she will not take an official position.

Borough and Township residents will vote on consolidation on Nov. 8. If the consolidation referendum passes with a majority in both the Borough and Township, the two municipalities would consolidate under a borough form of government beginning in 2013. For the past few months, both candidates have declined to state official positions on the issue.

Commission members who prepared the consolidation proposal will present their findings and answer questions about consolidation this evening at 7:30 p.m. in Bowl 016 of Robertson Hall.

At 10 p.m. on Oct. 12, Jachera sent her supporters an email notifying them that she had decided to vote in favor of consolidation.

“I believe that the potential benefits outweigh the potential detriments,” Jachera said in the email. She cited greater efficiency from the proposed consolidation of the departments and lower property taxes resulting from the predicted budgetary cuts. “Consolidation, if done correctly and under the right leadership, can achieve important cost savings.”

At the mayoral candidates’ debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters on Sept. 20, Jachera said she wanted confirmation that the new municipality would begin with a “zero-based budget” rather than combining the existing budgets of both municipalities. Township Mayor Chad Goerner, chair of the finance subcommittee of the consolidation commission, has stated that he will recommend the zero-based budgeting process to the new municipal government, according to Jachera’s email.

In an email to The Daily Princetonian, Moore confirmed her decision not to state an official position.

“In a representative democracy, where our elected officials represent the public interest, I will not tell citizens how they should vote on the issue of consolidation,” Moore said in an email. “Each citizen has a responsibility to review all of the facts and fully participate in the process by making his or her own decision.”

The two municipalities would consolidate according to a plan prepared by the Joint Consolidation/Shared Services Study Commission, a commission of 10 representatives from both the Borough and Township. The commission studied the feasibility of consolidation over the past year and worked with the Center for Governmental Research, a nonprofit public-management consulting firm, to prepare the report.

The commission predicted that the newly-formed municipality would save $3.1 million per year by consolidating. The bulk of the savings would come from consolidating the police department and gradually reducing the number of officers.

The University administration has no official position on the consolidation.

The Borough-Township border crosses through the University campus, so some undergraduates are Borough residents and others are Township residents. Because the boundary bisects South Baker Hall, Yoseloff Hall, Wilf Hall and Forbes College, students living on the northern side of these buildings must vote in the Borough, while those on the southern side must vote in the Township.