Physics teacher vies for one-year seat
By Jen Samuel, Managing Editor
"At every stage of my professional career, I have had to be prepared, responsible and accountable. I would bring those assets to the council." -Gail Doran
HIGHTSTOWN — High school physics teacher Gail Doran is running for the one-year Borough Council seat on the Democratic ticket.
Ms. Doran, 60, explained to the Herald that she joined the race as a call to civic duty.
"I have been attending and participating in council meetings for over four years,” she said. “It is time to roll up my sleeves and get out of the audience.”
Running as a Democrat against Republican George Serrano on Nov. 8, Ms. Doran, has been a resident of Hightstown Borough for five years.
"At every stage of my professional career, I have had to be prepared, responsible and accountable,” Ms. Doran said. “I would bring those assets to the council.”
She, along with fellow Democratic candidates Susan Bluth and Rob Thibault, who are both running for the two three-year seats on council, are running as a team with the platform called Leadership with the FACTS, a platform for better government.
Their campaign focuses on the importance of fairness for residents; accountability for borough employees and elected officials; cooperation among council members, the public, and borough employees; transparency for borough and council operations; and shared services as a means to reduce the tax burden on residents while improving borough services.
If elected to fill the one-year term, Ms. Doran’s work on council would begin in 2011.
"Since the one-year term is to fill a vacancy, the winner will be sworn in at the first council meeting following the election, not waiting till January. It will be an immediate immersion into current council activity,” she explained.
Former councilman Dimitri Musing, a Democrat, vacated the one-year unexpired seat, earlier this year. Councilman Mike Vanderbeck was appointed to fill the seat by council until voters chose a replacement for Mr. Musing on Nov. 8. Ms. Doran has several items she would immediately focus on if elected.
"The most pressing issues deal with hurricane damage remediation including the possibility of moving the borough offices to the Lucas site on Mercer Street at the edge of town,” Ms. Doran said. “This seems to have merit, but needs a more public airing. Police issues also are on the front burner, with insufficient staffing, overtime issues, (stemming from) even before the hurricane, and the near term hiring of a police director.”
For Doran, “the concerns facing Hightstown are the same as the concerns of communities everywhere in this downturn, but more concentrated and critical because of our size and lack of ratables,” she said.
"We have to be concerned about the economic viability of this town and take care to understand and preserve the character we value as we transition into a more regional service arrangement. I don’t have solutions and neither does anyone else. The best a candidate can promise is to work hard with the council and the community to collaboratively work out problems.
"To that end, I would point out that Hightstown has truly flawed communication paths among council, residents and borough departments,” she said. “For too long, borough departments have operated without accountability to council and residents, and borough council has largely ignored its responsibility to communicate with residents.”
Ms. Doran supports the idea of moving Hightstown in a direction of “creative cooperative arrangements” with its nearby neighbors.
"Without creative cooperative arrangements with surrounding communities we cannot continue to provide adequate services,” she said.
"The economic viability of this community requires us to explore every avenue for reducing costs.”
When asked by the Herald if the hiring of two more officers could alleviate overtime costs incurred by the borough, which amounted to more than $170,000 in 2010, she answered, “It’s hard to know what’s going on with police costs when information has been withheld from the public.
"There was a bi-partisan council committee that studied the police situation last winter and compiled a report. It was never released and the committee was disbanded without further comment. We cannot afford the police force we have and it wouldn’t be wise to add two more officers to that commitment.”
Ms. Doran said that Hightstown should explore “other ways of covering some shifts to alleviate under staffing in the short run, and moving toward a regional solution in the long term.”
In addition to teaching physics, she worked for years as a Bell Labs researcher in opto-electronics and was an engineering manager for Corning Incorporated.
"For several years, I served as a certified project manager at the cutting edge of optical engineering at AT&T. In my corporate career, I was concurrently a leader, a manager and a team member.
"As a teacher, my performance requires constant preparation and effective communication. I believe my skills and life experiences would be a welcome addition to the council.”
Ms. Doran said what she loves about Hightstown is that it is a small cohesive community.
"We have cozy neighborhoods, old houses, big trees, many beautiful parks, and many smart and engaged residents,” she said. “I will give this challenge my all,” Ms. Doran stated. “I also commit to keeping as my priority that we will preserve the small town character of Hightstown — as we adapt in smart ways to our economic realities.”
Election Day is Nov. 8.