Committee re-organizes for new year
By Nicole M. Wells, Special Writer
CRANBURY — Following on the heels of previous Mayor Susan Goetz won’t be easy, but newly selected Mayor Jay Taylor wants you to know that he’s going to try.
“I guess the number one thing is just not to screw up too badly,” Mayor Taylor said, with a laugh, when reached by phone. “If you can manage to do that, I think everything else is easy.”
Sworn in at Monday night’s Township Committee meeting by retired Superior Court Judge C. Judson Hamlin, Mayor Taylor thanked his fellow committee members for their vote of confidence, in his prepared remarks.
In addition to being his parents’ long time next door neighbor, Judge Hamlin was also an attorney when Mayor Taylor’s great-grandfather was on the bench in New Brunswick, he said.
“Last night, when Jud (Hamlin) got up there, he said, ’Never did I imagine that I’d be swearing in as the mayor, the great grandson of a judge that I went before in New Brunswick,’” Mayor Taylor said.
Cranbury’s committee form of government, with the power vested in the mayor equal to that of any other committee member, will be a plus for him, Mayor Taylor said.
“One of the benefits involved is that, as you get an experienced township committee like we have, you have members on the committee who have served in the role of mayor,” he said. “What this enables the new mayor, like myself, to have is a great sounding board and a well (of experience) to go to.”
Of the five-member committee, David Cook, Glenn Johnson and Susan Goetz have each served a one-year term as mayor.
Building upon the actions of prior mayors, Mayor Taylor said that his focus this year is going to be on leveraging the knowledge of the Township Committee members for the betterment of the town and keeping the lines of communication open with residents.
To that end, he said he intends to continue the monthly tradition of coffee with the mayor at Teddy’s and expand the interaction with the community to include a monthly letter to the town, which will appear in The Cranbury Press.
In her time as mayor, Ms. Goetz initiated a running dialogue with the community by making herself available to residents on Saturday mornings for coffee and conversation at Teddy’s Restaurant.
“That’s really why we need to have that open communication with our residents,” he said. “Because it’s in communication that everybody feels vested in the town, everybody knows what’s going on and therefore, if you feel that you’re part of the community, if you feel that you’re part of the decision-making process, you’re going to feel more vested in the community.”
It was through listening to residents that the committee decided to delay the budget proceedings for one month this year and begin in February instead of January, Mayor Taylor said.
“What that’ll allow us to do is by that point in time (February), we’ll have all the property tax assessments so we’ll know what the value of the tax roll is in town, we’ll have the final year-end expenses all in hand and, with that data, we’ll then be able to perform our fiduciary duties and assign an appropriate tax rate for the town,” he said. “When you do it in January, what happens is some of the final year-end expenses may not be in, so we end up having to have multiple meetings, we end up looking at things a little bit longer in the process than would be if you have everything all in hand at one time.”
Mayor Taylor said the committee is going to see how the process goes this year before deciding whether to make the change permanent.
According to Mayor Taylor, the committee took action at the last meeting of 2014 to begin to re-develop the Hagerty/Kushner/Cheney property at the intersection of South Main Street and Old Trenton Road.
“(Monday) night, I asked that we establish a subcommittee and I asked Mr. Johnson, since he has the planning and zoning experience, to chair that committee, which will work with the property owners and work with the developers to make sure that we, as a town, do everything possible to help re-develop that section of town,” he said.
While the mayor typically serves on the Planning Board, Mayor Taylor said that he has decided not to do so, and has asked Mr. Johnson to serve in his stead.
At a time when development is critical, the town will benefit more from Mr. Johnson’s years of experience on the planning and zoning boards, he said.