One of the many challenges presented by consolidation was which form of government the joint municipality should choose. In February 2011, the Municipal Consolidation Subcommittee of the Transition Task Force — the entity responsible for ensuring that the consolidation of the two municipalities occurs smoothly — unanimously recommended that the joint Princeton municipality adopt the borough government structure.
As a borough form of government, the new Princeton municipality will consist of a council governing body of six representatives and a mayor, all of whom are elected at-large. The mayor will serve a term of four years while the council members will be elected for a three-year term. The mayor will not vote but preside over the body and break tie votes.
The subcommittee’s decision to form a Borough government means that residents of the former Township will be leaving their former government structure behind in favor of the Borough’s current governing style. The township form of government has three or five committee members, two of whom are the mayor and deputy mayor. The mayor and deputy mayor are elected by the existing committee of five. Both the mayor and the deputy mayor serve a term of one year. The remaining officials are elected at-large and serve staggered three-year terms.
Although consolidation will more than double the population of the municipality — the current Township has a population of 16,265 and the Borough has a population of 12,307 — the number of representatives will remain fixed at six, essentially increasing the number of constituents each representative on the governing body is required to represent.
It was a concern … but on the positive side, there’s more accountability,” Democratic mayoral candidate and Township Deputy Mayor Liz Lempert said. “It’s a small enough town that the ratio is not totally out of proportion.”
Under New Jersey statutes, there are six other options for forms of municipal government: council-manager, mayor-council, mayor-council administrator, commission, municipal manager and special charter.
The subcommittee was charged with choosing which of the eight forms would best fit this new town. The subcommittee approached the decision with two screening characteristics, according to a report from the Center for Governmental Research, which is advising the merger.
The first criteria was whether the mayor would be directly elected by voters or by members of the governing body. At the outset, the subcommittee shared the view that it would prefer to have the mayor directly elected. This eliminated three options that did not meet this requirement immediately: township, commission and municipal manager.
“It’s nice to be able to vote for our mayor,” said Princeton Community Democratic Organization President Dan Preston, who is from the Township.
Lempert said that there were two major factors in the decision.
“There was a desire to have a directly elected mayor. And I think there was also a desire to have a form of government people are familiar with,” she explained.
The next requirement set by the subcommittee was that all elected officials have the opportunity to directly interact with municipal staff members. According to the CGR report, the governments of both the Township and the Borough already provide this opportunity, since committee and council members “function as liaisons to departments, advisory committees and commissions.” The report also indicated that the subcommittee thought it best to retain this familiarity between officials and staff. With this requirement, three other forms of government — council-manager, mayor-council and mayor-council administrator — were weeded out in the second round.
The subcommittee was therefore left to choose between the special charter and borough forms. The former allows the municipality to start from scratch and outline its own unique form of government.
The problem the subcommittee found with special charter, however, was that two different votes would have to be taken to approve the proposed government, according to the report. First, the citizens of both municipalities would have to approve this specific structure proposed by the charter explicitly through a referendum. If approved, the New Jersey State Assembly and Senate would have to officially approve the proposed government. The special charter option would cost valuable time, the report said, so the borough form of government was chosen.
Republican candidate for the Princeton Council Geoff Aton expressed some disapproval about the borough form of government. Instead, he strongly promotes a ward system, in which sections of the town would have a representative in the governing body. This way, the University would count as a ward and be involved in local politics, Aton said. The mayor-council and council-manager governments would offer the ward system as an option.
“In addition to the wards, I would’ve preferred to see a strong mayor figurehead that would be able to take on the task, especially with the University,” he added. “[The borough form of government] promotes a weak mayor system … In a township system, the mayor votes and has the ability to do more than just preside.”
But according to Lempert, the debate is already closed.
“The decision has already been made,” Lempert said. “I think it’s going to work fine.”
This is the first in a four-part series about the consolidation of the Borough and the Township.
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