Succession in Rocky Hill a closed affair

PACKET EDITORIAL, Dec. 9

By: Packet Editorial
   About a month ago in this space, we wondered whether it was really necessary for a town that had just lost its mayor to go through the elaborate, time-consuming procedure called for under New Jersey law to appoint a successor.
   We raised this question shortly after Princeton Borough Mayor Joseph O’Neill died, and the following scenario unfolded:
   First, the municipal committee of the mayor’s political party (in this case the Democrats) had to come up with three nominees for the position. Then, the Borough Council chose one of those nominees, council President Mildred Trotman, to fill the mayoral vacancy. Then, the Democratic committee met again to come up with three more nominees for the now-vacant council position. Then, the Borough Council selected Barbara Trelstad to serve for the remainder of Ms. Trotman’s term — which expires Dec. 31. So next month, the Democratic committee will meet, once again, to submit three nominees, once again, from among whom the Borough Council, once again, will select yet another new member.
   We remarked at the time that there’s got to be a better, less time-consuming way. Well, it turns out there is a less time-consuming way — but it certainly isn’t a better one.
   Last Friday, Rocky Hill Mayor Brian Nolan resigned. Within moments, Borough Council President George Morren was designated as "acting mayor" — a position that appears to be authorized by state law only when the mayor is out of town or incapacitated, but not after he has resigned. Be that as it may, three days later, the municipal committee of the mayor’s political party (in this case the Republicans) presented the Borough Council with three nominees to fill the mayoral vacancy. The council promptly selected Mr. Morren. Then, moments later, the GOP committee put forward three more nominees to fill the council position left vacant by Mr. Morren. Had two council members — Ed Zimmerman and Jared Witt — not objected, the council would have gone ahead and filled that position, as well.
   How, you might ask, did the committee manage to come up with not only three mayoral nominees, but three council nominees as well, between Friday and Monday? More remarkably, how was it able to line up the three council nominees over the weekend when that position didn’t even become vacant until Monday night?
   The answer is simple. The Rocky Hill Republican Committee didn’t have to meet, nor did it have to consider variant views regarding the strengths and weaknesses of various mayoral or council candidates, because it has only two members: Mr. Nolan and Eileen Uhrik. (Ms. Uhrik was not elected to this position; she was appointed to it, by Mr. Nolan, after the previous occupant moved out of town.) So even as Mr. Nolan, the mayor, was resigning, Mr. Nolan, the borough Republican committeeman, and his hand-picked colleague, Ms. Uhrik, were crafting not only the list from which Mr. Nolan’s successor would be named, but also the list from which his successor’s successor would be chosen.
   Since Mr. Morren had already been named "acting mayor," he was clearly the preferred nominee to succeed Mr. Nolan. And the preferred candidate to succeed Mr. Morren? Why, it was none other than Ms. Uhrik, who happened to finish third in the race for two Borough Council seats in last month’s election.
   Thanks to Mr. Zimmerman and Mr. Witt, who refused to be steamrolled into filling the council vacancy from a list concocted before it even existed, the second of those two shoes did not drop on Monday. But the footprints are there for all to see — and they lead to the modern equivalent of a smoke-filled room, a place where the favors of government are being dispensed without the bother or inconvenience of public comment or participation.
   That’s how politics used to be played in places like Jersey City. It’s a sorry sight indeed in a place like Rocky Hill.