Hightstown mayor seeks consensus from Borough Council to resume discussions with East Windsor.
By: Vic Monaco
HIGHTSTOWN Mayor Bob Patten had an initial meeting with East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov on April 19 to discuss possible consolidation of the borough Police Department after being ordered to explore the subject by Borough Council.
There may not be a second meeting.
"I’m not sure yet," Mayor Patten said Thursday evening when asked if he plans to seek another session with Mayor Mironov.
The problem, Mayor Patten said, is that he’s not sure he has a consensus from Borough Council to continue the talks, something he sought at its May 1 meeting.
"I’m going to listen to the tape of the meeting," he continued. "I’m not going to spend time knocking on somebody’s door … when that person might say ‘you’re not ready.’"
Following the April 19 consolidation meeting which also included Borough Councilman Walt Sikorski and Township Councilman Marc Lippman Mayor Mironov said she was willing to continue the talks if "most if not all" of the Borough Council members favored such action.
When Mayor Patten sought consensus May 1, Councilmen Dave Schneider and Larry Quattrone repeated their general opposition to police consolidation and Councilwoman Constance Harinxma said she was beginning to lean in the same direction. But they seemed to indicate they were OK with the talks continuing.
Councilman Sikorski declared that night that there was consensus, and he still believes that.
"My understanding was that we did have consensus and we were waiting until after the school budget decision to proceed," he said in a reference to the councils of both towns spending two weeks in trimming close to $500,000 from the regional school district’s budget after it was defeated by voters.
Mr. Sikorski, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to oppose Republican Mayor Patten in the fall, said he would be disappointed if consolidations talks don’t continue.
"I think it’s still worth pursuing," he said. "The issue is not dead yet, and I also think we still should purse a grant from the state to look at the feasibility of it and let some scientific information be used instead of emotion."
Councilman Quattrone doesn’t think consolidation would work, but he said he thinks it is incumbent upon the mayor to continue the talks.
"I made my statement on how I feel about consolidation. Do I think he should pursue it? He has to pursue it. Council voted for him to pursue it. Whether the mayor of East Windsor wants to listens or not is up to her," he said. "Maybe Mayor Patten would like to go to other municipalities and see if we want to make our police department bigger instead of smaller, as (Councilman) Patrick Thompson suggested. I think the consensus was that he should go on."
Borough Council voted in March to require the mayor and a council member of his choosing to discuss regionalization of police services with neighboring communities. The motivation was a proposed 28-cent tax rate hike called for by a $5.28 million budget of which about $1.5 million is earmarked for police-related services.
For an update on this story see the June 2 edition of the Windsor-Hights Herald.

