John Clearwater, Princeton
I wish to respond to Anton Lahnston’s skillfully written and seemingly well justified characterization of Liz Lempert as the mayoral candidate with the “critical leadership qualities” needed for consolidation to succeed. Certainly, Lahnston’s opinion must be given some credence given his key role in the important work of the commission, which he now confidently wishes to hand over to Liz Lempert for implementation.
However, the critical question does not relate to Liz Lempert’s qualities or the five important leadership assets he attributes to her. The real question is whether or not she has demonstrated convincingly the required performance and experienced-based record of success in leading any organization, public or private, comparable to the united Princeton. A brief stint as township deputy mayor and success in running partisan political campaigns hardly constitutes such proven experience to address the leadership challenges facing the first mayor.
Liz Lempert may well have the personal qualities and future capacity to lead, but is she ready now to assume the heady responsibility and withstand the pressures of being the first mayor of a consolidated Princeton? Her task will be to achieve unqualified success of one of the most important initiatives of local government in the long history of both our towns and the state of New Jersey. In the clearly apparent absence of any specific career experience and successful performance in leading any comparable venture, she is clearly not ready under the current circumstances to be mayor of Princeton at this time.
John Clearwater
Princeton
