By MICHAEL NUNES
Staff Writer
EAST BRUNSWICK- With the role of mayor currently being filled by the township’s business administrator, the council has until Feb 12 to decide on a long-term replacement.
The East Brunswick Democratic party submitted three names to the council as possible replacements for former mayor David Stahl, who resigned on Jan. 13 in order to become a municipal judge in Woodbridge Township.
The candidates are Kevin McEvoy, who currently sits on the East Brunswick Board of Education, Edward Janzekovich and Deborah Cornavaca.
Since Stahl, who was re-elected in 2012 as a Democrat, the party is responsible for providing a list of possible replacements.
The township council plans to decide which of the three will assume the office of mayor at the next council meeting on Feb 8, according to Council President Michael Hughes. Whoever is chosen, will serve for the remainder of Stahl’s term, which expires at the end of this year.
On the day of his resignation, Jan. 13, Stahl took to Facebook to inform residents of his departure.
“The residents, volunteers, dedicated leaders and municipal employees who I have had the privilege to work with over the years have had an indelible impact on my life. East Brunswick is blessed to have some of the most diverse, intelligent and hard-working residents that call our town home. I am eternally humbled by and grateful for the confidence our residents entrusted in me to serve on the governing body,” Stahl said in a Facebook post the day he resigned.
“It is time for some new ideas and a fresh prospective to continue to build on the progress we have made, and while I am moving on to a new opportunity to serve, I have no doubt that our leaders will continue to ensure that East Brunswick’s brightest days are ahead,” he posted.
For Hughes, who ran in 2010 ran against candidates backed by Stahl, said the now ex-mayor will be missed.
“When I ran for council in 2010, he supported my opponent and, for two people who were not friendly and didn’t even know one another, when I first started serving party affiliation, it never mattered to him. We ended striking a great friendship and working relationship, and now at this point six years later, I’m glad to count him as a friend and a colleague,” Hughes said.
Stahl was first elected to the township council in 2002 and in 2008 he became mayor. After his re-election in 2012, he switched his affiliation in 2013 to the Republican Party.
That same year he lost a state Senate bid to then-Assemblymen Peter J. Barnes III (D-Middlesex).