PACKET EDITORIAL, July 20
The prospect of West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and the Township Council becoming embroiled in a lawsuit over Township Attorney Michael Herbert has been averted by a compromise. That is good news for several reasons.
First, the sight of taxpayer dollars being converted into billable hours by litigators is never pretty, unless you are one of the lucky lawyers.
Second, there appeared to be no good reason for the mayor to be deprived of his statutory authority to choose the continued counsel of Mr. Herbert, who has, by most accounts, provided the township with sound legal advice.
Third, it bodes well for governmental civility in West Windsor that elected officials could step back from the brink and defuse a heated dispute before it became a major distraction from the important business facing both mayor and council.
Speaking of important business, it appears that redevelopment in West Windsor may be back on the agenda as a matter warranting serious discussion and debate, rather than political posturing and recrimination. That, too, is good news, especially if it produces a constructive consensus for the future of the Township.
Library parking: Now both mayors favor new talks
Those who attended Tuesday night’s meeting of Princeton’s Library Board in the hope of witnessing real progress toward restoration of free parking for library patrons were not disappointed. They heard some important words from a key player Township Mayor Phyllis Marchand, publicly endorsing Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman’s call for new talks on the matter.
"We have to resolve this," Mayor Marchand said, after hearing from residents who had turned out for the meeting. "I’m glad that we have come to a consensus that we will sit down and see how we can negotiate the best settlement."
The crux of the matter, of course, will be how to split the cost between borough and township. Contention over that is what prompted both sides in February to walk away from a long-standing commitment, one that was gracefully but unambigously referenced Tuesday night by former borough mayor Marvin Reed.
Mr. Reed said: "I’m very hopeful that people can see their way to reexamining the situation and seeing what can be done in order to operate the library more or less the way we told people in town we were going to operate it."
Amen to that.

