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HIGHTSTOWN: Mayoral candidates face off

Candidates answer residents questions

By Amy Batista, Special Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — The three candidates running for mayor participated in a League of Women Voters forum on Oct. 16.
The League of Women Voters of East Windsor-Hightstown sponsored the forum in room 601, the media room, at the Hightstown High School, which is located at 25 Leshin Lane. The mayoral forum was held from 8:10 p.m. to 9:10 p.m.
"The League of Women Voters of New Jersey encourages an informed and active participation in government," said Deborah Macmillan, president of League of Women Voters of East Windsor-Hightstown. "It works to increase understanding on major public policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy."
It neither supports nor opposes political parties or candidates for office, she said.
The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan, multi-issue grassroots organization that encourages informed and active participation in government and works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, according to the press release.
Mayoral candidates newcomer Republican Douglas Mair, incumbent Democrat Councilman Larry Quattrone and Councilman Robert Thibault, who is running as an independent, are all vying for the four-year seat.
Nicole Plett, of the League of Women Voters of Lawrence Township, moderated the forum.
The forum started with candidates opening one-minute statements.
"As a leader, we need a leader in Hightstown," said Mr. Mair. "I believe a good leader works with a team to set goals for the greater good. An effective leader is one who leads that same time and achieves those goals despite differences and opinions."
He wants to serve this town by committing to action through cooperation and transparency, he said.
Mr. Quattrone said he "wanted to pay back to his community" and got involved in politics when his three daughters got older.
He was elected to council in 1999 and has served since then and has a business that just celebrated its 50th anniversary.
"These are some of the things that prove to you that I know what I’m doing and I can do it," he said. "I want to be mayor of this town to lead this town. Mayors in this town are called weak mayors because they only vote (in the case of a) tie, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t lead and get things done."
Mr. Thibault talked about the other candidates and what they represented or didn’t represent and the results he has achieved over the years on council.
"I haven’t just talked about representing the residents or just making promises to get things done I’ve been busy getting things done," he said. "Even before I was elected to council three years ago, my leadership in representing resident’s interests lead me to be called a consistent and ardent advocate for taxpayer’s interests. I’ve worked hard and generated results."
The first question asked was in your opinion, what is the most important part of the mayor’s job and since the mayor only votes in case of a tie why do you run for the office of mayor and not (a) council member?
Mr. Quattrone said the job of a mayor is to "focus on leadership, set the direction of the borough, and get people moving in the right direction."
"You have to have a consensus," he said. "Your last 10 months we’ve gotten an awful lot done in council right now because we have people working together. As soon as you get deadlock, you don’t have four votes, you can’t get anything done."
He said he has changed his votes at times to help move things along on council.
"I want to be the mayor because I’ve served my time on council and I’ve worked hard under different mayors," he said. "I enjoy what I’m doing and I want to move forward with it."
Mr. Thibault said there are two parts that make the mayor’s job important – to serve as a cheerleader and as a spokesperson for the borough and also sets the agenda for council.
"Leadership on council and in the mayor’s office who withheld information intentionally created lockdowns and stopped council from making progress," he said. "I’ll work to create progress instead of fighting it."
Mr. Mair said the "important part of a mayor is to create leadership."
"To set the tone and direction and to inform the public," he said, adding to set the standard.
He said another important part of the mayor’s office is to go to different municipalities and "sell ourselves."
"The person that puts that face on is the mayor," he said. "That’s the goto individual."
The next question addressed the candidate’s skills and how they could help the borough.
Mr. Thibault said it’s a combination of "experience on council but still being an outsider and questioning things."
"Over the 14 years that I have been attending council meetings, 11 years as a resident, I’ve developed the reputation as being the numbers guy," he said. "I don’t just accept what somebody gives me I look into and analyze it for new and different ways to things."
The other thing he said he bring is creative problem solving.
"Time commitment, as much as it takes," he said.
Mr. Mair said his skill set is "tact, leadership, setting a goal, achieving that goal and non-stop until that goal is achieved."
"There’s no problem that cannot be solved in 12 hours or less as long as we have somebody that can set that agenda," he said.
He said that he owns his own business so he is "very fortunate that he can set his own schedule."
"So my time belongs to the borough," he said. "I’m committed a 100 percent to give all of myself to this borough."
Mr. Quattrone said "it’s not always the numbers."
"The numbers are never 100 percent," he said, adding that if you read the numbers you can come up with three different answers.
"I’ve been working with budgets for years," he added.
The next question was about consolidation and shared services.
Consolidation has been talked about since the 1960s, Mr. Mair said.
"What can I do to improve upon," he said. "What has not been done. What could I possibly do or any other candidate do that’s not already been discussed or that’s not already been studied."
He said he’s not against consolidation but he hasn’t seen anything thus far that shows him to be in favor of it.
"As a mayor, I have to listen to all angles of every situation to decide what is the best course for each and every one of the residents in the borough and if consolidation is the answer then it’s the answer and if it’s not then it’s not," he said.
Mr. Quattrone said he has heard it every time he has been up there on the council dais.
"Consolidation can work," he said. "Princeton has proven it is working, but Princeton had a lot of help."
He said it needs two partners willing to work together.
"The numbers need to work," he said. "The only way it will work is if the state steps forward and puts some kind of incentive in there."
There is no way that East Windsor is going to want to come in here and take over our debt, he added.
He said "it’s time we look at police and dispatch closely."
There’s a lot to be gained in the shared services, he added.
"We have to make sure that what we share and what we get is the same," he said.
Mr. Thibault said he has tried in the past three years to get everything put out to bid.
"The goal of government should be to provide services that taxpayers want and need at the lowest possible cost," he said, adding that often is not the case.
He said when looking at shared services you need two things – to do analysis of what we have and what it is costing us.
"You need to make sure you are getting a fair deal from a community you want to share services with," he said. "Unfortunately, that is not always the case with our surrounding communities."
Mr. Mair said there is not one service in this borough that’s not up for shared services talks.
"To say that we wouldn’t talk about shared services that would be a disservice to the community," he said, adding there’s nothing off the table.
The candidates were asked the question about house prices going up in many parts of the state, but house prices in Hightstown are going down, houses are not selling and the number of renters is increasing.
Mr. Thibault said one component is taxes.
"When taxes are high your housing prices to be lower than they should be," he said. "We need to lower taxes. That’s why I’ve identified ways to save taxes."
The second thing is quality of life, and that comes down to code enforcement, he added.
"This administration is responsible for the reassessment of your homes which plummeted your values," Mr. Mair said, adding they lowered the home values.
Mr. Quattrone talked about an article he read that spoke about how it started with people in the community picking up papers, parents making sure their children did their homework and did well on their exams, and then when the school ratings started going up, the community started looking nice, and people started wanting to move in.
"When people started to move in, the more people that wanted to move in, the more they were willing to pay, the more property value went up," he said. "It’s a big snowball effect."
The candidates were then asked to present a new idea or new initiative that they would bring to the position of mayor.
Mr. Quattrone discussed the Rug Mill property and tying it to the downtown area.
"I believe it would encourage business downtown and the more business that happens downtown the better stores that will come in," he said. "Right now I believe that one more good restaurant downtown will really increase the amount of people that flow through Hightstown."
Mr. Thibault said his idea "isn’t new to him."
"I’m going to represent taxpayers," he said. "I’m going to operate in the interest of the people paying the bills and that often hasn’t been the case."
He said he has lots of new ideas and he has introduced a lot of them as he listed some of them.
Mr. Mair said he is going to tear down the Borough Hall.
"It’s a simple as that," he said. "Just by doing that I am going to do more than this borough has done in the past four years."
A broadcast of the forum will be airing on Comcast Channel 27 and Verizon Channel 38 at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. after the forums and continuing every Sunday, Tuesday and Saturday to Election Day on Nov. 4.