By: centraljersey.com
Doug Carman
Staff Writer
EAST WINDSOR – The Town Council made one major change to its lineup at the annual reorganization meeting at the Senior Center Jan. 6 on a night officials spoke of hope for the year ahead.
Mayor Janice Mironov was elected to her 16th term by the council, while councilman Walter Daniels was appointed deputy mayor by the governing body. Both appointments were unanimous decisions by the council.
According to township law, the mayor and deputy are appointed each year by a council majority at the meeting. The deputy mayor is responsible for manning the office in the event the mayor is not available.
Both Mayor Mironov and Mr. Daniels, who has served in office since 1996, lamented conflicts the township had last year with Trenton. But they said they are confident the town is better suited to handle obstacles down the road, despite economic pitfalls facing municipalities throughout the state.
"I think with this type of leadership and the team spirit we have in this council," Mr. Daniels said, "we will successfully meet the challenges of 2011"
"I called 2009 a challenging year, and I called (2010) a daunting year. This year, I’m going to actually call it a hopeful year," Mayor Mironov told a crowd of about 100 residents, township employees and dignitaries that gathered at the meeting. "It’s going to be very, very difficult, and things are still very tight, but I think we set ourselves on a course."
Mayor Mironov and Mr. Daniels were unanimously elected by their colleagues in separate votes. Councilman and previous deputy mayor Marc Lippman did not attend the meeting.
After the votes were cast, Mayor Mironov, in a speech that was somewhat of a State of the Township address, detailed her hopes for the New Year. She cited positive reports coming out of McGraw-Hill and Conair, two of East Windsor’s largest private-sector employers, along with several new businesses planning to open in the area. She cited five new leases that will fill the Windsor Crossing shopping center on Route 130.
East Windsor’s council continued to rail against Trenton lawmakers during the meeting. The criticism comes after a year when the state withheld more than $820,000 in energy tax receipts and, under Gov. Chris Christie’s controversial "tool kit" legislation, enforced a hard 2-percent cap on municipal budget increases. The caps forced the town to make $2 million in spending cuts and implement a 7-cent property tax hike.
Mayor Mironov, who is also a high-ranking member of the League of Municipalities, has previously questioned the merits of the tool kit. Late last year at a town hall event, she told residents the legislation would not help towns to lower property taxes.
Also last year, East Windsor faced the loss of about $4.5 million in much-needed revenue when the New Jersey Turnpike Authority planned to give the money – originally slated to replace about 110 acres of trees lost in the Turnpike Widening Project – to the Department of Environmental Protection. Mayor Mironov banded together with the mayors of Robbinsville and Hamilton to successfully block the transfer. In late December, the town finally received the first $1.3 million of the reforestation payments. East Windsor is due two more payments in 2011 and 2012 that will be used to plant trees on public land throughout the township.
The mayor and five of the six council members in attendance at the reorganization meeting bristled over last year’s battles with the state. Council members Marsha Weinstein and Perry Shapiro brought up the energy receipt dilemma and tied it to what Mr. Shapiro called a "horrendous" economy that gave slugged the township with a one-two budgetary punch.
"2010 was a really tough year for municipalities in New Jersey and it hit us hard also," Ms. Weinstein said.
"The hardest part for us was, they even tried to take our tree money," Shapiro said to the crowd of residents, some of whom chuckled at the statement.
Councilman Alan Rosenberg, however, took a more positive position and mentioned the cooperation between Mayor Mironov, a Democrat, with the Republican leaders of Robbinsville and Hamilton, in an alliance that stopped the state from stripping the reforestation funds from the three municipalities.
"Our mayor reached out to neighboring communities where both mayors are incidentally members of our respected opposition and accomplished what Trenton can’t do, what Washington can’t do," Mr. Rosenberg said. "We got a consensus between good people.
"See. There’s hope."

