If voters approve the change to a new form of government on Tuesday’ election, 2006 will be the last year for the township committee form of government, which the township has had since 1798
By John Tredrea
Whether Hopewell Township should discard the form of government it has had for over 200 years is a decision that will face township voters in the general election on Tuesday.
A ballot question will ask the electorate if they wish to switch from the current committee form to the mayor-council administrator form that has been unanimously backed by the township Charter Study Commission (CSC).
Citing the 1992 recommendations of a state commission, a grass-roots group has opposed the switch (see separate story on this page) to the new form of government.
Last year, the Township Committee voted unanimously in favor of a having ballot question in the November 2004 general election asking voters if they wanted to form a CSC. A majority of voters said yes, and the CSC that has recommended a new form of government was thus formed.
If voters approve the change to a new form of government on Tuesday’ election, 2006 will be the last year for the township committee form of government, which the township has had since 1798. In next year’s (2006) general election, voters would pick a mayor for four years and six council members for three years each. The winners would take office in January 2007.
Under the current form of township government, the five-member committee picks its own mayor each year. Under the form proposed by the CSC, the mayor would be elected by the people for a four-year term. The six members of the council would be elected to three-year terms.
After about six months of work, the CSC formally presented its report to the Township Committee in early August. About a month ago, the report was mailed to every residential address in the township. The CSC had talked to dozens of residents and present and former township officials, both elected and appointed.
"What we heard repeatedly was that the people should elect their own mayor," CSC chairman Jim McGuire said. "Under the system we have now, no one is in charge and there is not enough continuity."
The CSC believes the best way to address those problems is to switch to the form that will be proposed to the voters next Tuesday a form in which the people elect the mayor to a four-year term.
The CSC report states that, under the new form, the mayor would have "both the authority and the time, via a four-year term, to set longer-term priorities for the township, work toward accomplishing these priorities and be held accountable by voters for the results."
Under the mayor-council-administrator form, state law stipulates that council members have no appointive powers, but do approve mayoral appointees for municipal clerk, administrator, attorney, tax collector, tax assessor, treasurer and department heads of municipal government.
The administrator may be removed by a two-thirds vote of council under the form of government proposed in the ballot question. The administrator supervises the head of each department of township government.

