HILLSBOROUGH: McCauley tapped for mayoral term

By Andrew Corselli, Staff Writer
   The Township Committee on Tuesday unanimously elected Gloria McCauley to serve as mayor in 2011.
   Carl Suraci, another unanimous selection at the annual reorganization meeting, will serve as deputy mayor for the term.
   Committeeman Frank DelCore, who served as mayor in 2009 and 2010, was sworn in for a new three-year term on the committee before nominating Ms. McCauley as his successor.
   ”Over the course of the past year, as I had the pleasure to serve as mayor, I had the opportunity to work very closely with Deputy Mayor, at the time, McCauley and I think she would make an outstanding mayor and I would like to nominate her as mayor,” Mr. DelCore said at the meeting.
   Following Ms. McCauley’s election, each of the five members of the Township Committee will have served a term as mayor of Hillsborough. “Individuals do not sit in the mayor’s chair without the help and support of a great many people over a long period of time,” said Ms. McCauley, who was elected to the Township Committee in 2008.
   ”I am so honored to be selected by my colleagues here on the Township Committee to serve as the mayor of Hillsborough. I take this responsibility seriously and you have my pledge that through my performance in this role I will reward your confidence in me as we continue to work as a team to keep Hillsborough one of the best places to live.”
   Mayor McCauley said she plans to continue to keep “the interest of the taxpayers first and foremost in our minds and our actions, and operate the township in a business-like manner.” One way she plans to make tax savings a priority is through implementing the shared municipal court services plan with Montgomery, she said.
   ”We have been advised there are significant budget savings with the shared court plan, making its achievement a taxpayer priority this year,” she said.
   Deputy Mayor Suraci, selected to serve as chairman of the Finance Committee again, also made tax savings a priority.
   ”There is no more difficult a challenge facing the township in 2011 than meeting the needs of the residents, while minimizing the impact of taxes and coming up with a balanced budget that does both,” he said.
   ”We continue to put taxpayers first by implementing cost-cutting measures, as seen in the 2010 budget, which was actually less than the prior year’s. The committee reduced nearly all of the appropriations that we have control over, continued to pay down debt and reduced the number of employees through attrition.”
   On top of saving taxpayers money, Mayor McCauley set goals of having “the township lead the way in reducing energy use, developing energy saving and of getting the business community more involved in Hillsborough’s sustainability program.”
   ”With the cooperation of the Township Committee, the Sustainable Hillsborough Committee and the Economic and Business Development Commission, it is my intention to have the first ever Sustainable Town Meeting to include businesses here in Hillsborough,” she said.
   ”Some have said solar power, sustainable environments, the reduction of our carbon footprint — these are issues for the future. I say, in Hillsborough, the future is now.”
   In addition, Mr. DelCore will serve on the township’s Finance Committee and as liaison to the Planning Board, Sustainable Hillsborough Committee, Economic and Business Development Commission and Municipal Alliance.
   Committeeman Anthony Ferrera again will serve as liaison to the township’s Parks and Recreation Commission and the Board of Health.
   Committeeman Bob Wagner vowed to continue his work to preserve land from development. He was reappointed as liaison to the Open Space Advisory Committee and will serve on the Board of Adjustment, Capital Planning Commission, Environmental Commission and as veterans liaison.
   Among the other appointments Tuesday night were the reappointment of Nancy Haberle to a four-year term as tax collector; the reappointment of Lori Zelasko to a three-year term as Municipal Court administrator; and the appointment of Michael Merdinger, who succeeded Kevin Davis as township clerk/administrator on Wednesday, as certifying official.