By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton Councilman Bernard P. Miller was voted the council president on Tuesday, the first day the six-member legislative body took office as a unified government.
Mr. Miller, a former township mayor, was the unanimous choice of his colleagues, a choice that Democrats had made prior to the official vote. Word of Mr. Miller’s becoming council president had leaked out the week before Christmas, although officials were reluctant to say as much ahead of time.
In his remarks, Mr. Miller, 83, told the audience in the municipal building that there had been a series of “explicit” promises that consolidation would save taxpayers money and “implicit” promises that it would improve the delivery of government services.
”I believe that it is our first job as your elected representatives to deliver what we promised the residents of our community who affirmed the choice of consolidation in November 2011,” he said. “I’m certain (that) by working together, we can make our one Princeton greater than was the sum of its two individual parts.”
Earlier in the afternoon, he and the five other council members drew slips of paper out of a hat to determine the length of their terms. Council members Lance Liverman and Heather H. Howard drew three-year terms. Mr. Miller and Councilwoman Jo S. Butler drew two-year-terms. and council members Jenny Crumiller and Patrick Simon drew one-year-terms. For Ms. Crumiller and Mr. Simon, that means they will be up for re-election in November.
Afterward, all six were sworn in with family members at their side.
Ms Crumiller said there would be a full agenda this year, including addressing “a set of serious issues facing the town.” She said those include an aging public works facility, a vacant hospital site, Princeton University’s arts and transit project and searching for a new administrator.
When officials tapped then-Borough administrator Robert W. Bruschi in July to be administrator of the merged town, they knew then he had plans to retire at the end of 2013. After Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Bruschi gave no indication of when he planned to step down.
Ms. Crumiller, assuming that he planned to leave after 2013, said in a follow-up interview Wednesday that she wanted to find out what Mr. Bruschi’s plans are.
In other business Tuesday, the council approved a slew of appointments including naming former Borough Police Chief David J. Dudeck the chief of the combined department.
In addition, officials named longtime township attorney Edwin W. Schmierer attorney for the municipality, although by a 4-2 vote with Ms. Crumiller and Ms. Butler voting no.
Later during the meeting, Ms. Butler raised concern about what she viewed as violation of the state’s Open Public Meetings act. She said a resolution on Tuesday’s agenda listing Princeton officials authorized to sign checks for the town included Mr. Miller as council president before he was voted into the position.
She said the “only way this could have happened” is if there were a “little bit politicking and a little bit of head-counting going on to have Bernie’s name already on the agenda before we had voted for him.”
She said officials need to be careful in the future.

