Borough Council declines to renew Marc Citron’s contract.
By: Jennifer Potash
Marc Citron, the longtime prosecutor for Princeton Borough and Princeton Township, will step down at the end of the year.
Borough Council members said the change was in accordance with the municipal policy of re-evaluating professional staff every few years to bring a fresh perspective to municipal services.
The municipal prosecutor is an annual appointment the council typically makes at its reorganization meeting held in early January.
"Marc has been an excellent prosecutor in the borough and I assume in the township," said Borough Councilman Roger Martindell. "Every few years we review our professional staff but we haven’t looked at the prosecutor’s office recently."
An appointment to a borough position does not mean a lifetime appointment, said Councilman David Goldfarb. Mr. Goldfarb said he was absent from the Nov. 23 council meeting where the governing body decided to consider a new municipal prosecutor.
The borough often changes auditors every four years or so, Mr. Goldfarb said.
Mayor Joseph O’Neill, who said he had been away for a couple of weeks, said he had not spoken with Mr. Citron.
Borough Councilwoman Peggy Karcher said Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi spoke with Mr. Citron about making a change.
Mr. Bruschi confirmed he and Mr. Citron discussed the matter but referred comment to the mayor and council members.
Mr. Citron, who is a partner in the West Windsor office of the law firm Saul Ewing, could not be reached for comment. A search is under way to find a replacement in the borough and in the township.
Ms. Karcher, said the borough has received several resumes and will begin to conduct interviews in January. She said Mr. Citron did "a fine job" as municipal prosecutor.
Princeton Township Mayor Phyllis Marchard said she is sorry to see Mr. Citron leave the post he occupied for 17 years and served township residents with distinction.
Conflict-of-interest rules may have limited him in accepting clients or considering other opportunities in his legal practice, Mayor Marchand said.
"But I understand how he would want to move on," she said.
The township is proceeding with its own search for a municipal prosecutor, Mayor Marchand said.
"The borough did not reach out to us about this," she said.
As prosecutor, Mr. Citron took a hard line against violators of an anti-graffiti ordinance and a perceived growing lack of respect among Princeton University students.
In 1999 the attorney for a 19-year-old man charged with 22 counts of criminal mischief for painting graffiti in the downtown sought to consolidate them into a single charge. Mr. Citron objected and recommended at least six counts.
"It’s a desecration to this community," Mr. Citron said of the graffiti.
Also, the court needs to send a strong message to discourage would-be graffiti artists from adding their handiwork to properties in the borough, Mr. Citron said. "It’s a cancer that must be cut out," he said.
When more than a dozen Princeton University students were before the municipal court in 2001 on borough ordinance violations, such as public drinking, Mr. Citron said he noticed a lack of respect by Princeton University students for local ordinances as well as for police officers.
"We had one young lady tell a police officer, ‘I’m out of here next year and I’ll be making $150,000 a year while you’ll be a cop making $30,000,’" Mr. Citron said at the time.
He also won convictions against landlords who permitted overcrowding conditions in borough rental properties.
Mr. Citron, a Princeton Borough resident, received a bachelor of science degree from Rutgers University and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.
Earlier this year he served on Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes’ affiliated schools task force, one of several advisory groups formed after Mr. Hughes’ election.

