By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
In 1991, the year Jenny Crumiller moved to Princeton, she was a nonfactor on the local political scene.
But slowly, at a step at a time, she made herself into a community organizer, a reformer within the Princeton Democratic Party and, of late, a Borough Councilwoman running for re-election in the June 7 primary.
In an interview last week on Hinds Plaza, she reflected on her tenure, the debate she had with herself about whether to run for office again and what the Delaware native wants to accomplish in another three-year-term in her adopted community.
In a race where the affordability of living in Princeton is front and center, Ms. Crumiller touched on two popular issues. She said she wants to use zoning regulations to “protect the town’s character,” and is concerned about the “tear down epidemic” of homes being demolished and larger ones built in their place. She later talked of the need to provide subsidized affordable housing in a community where the demand for housing is high.
“Most people, myself included, want to live in a town with people from varied socio-economic strata,” she said. “I think a nice town is where people who work here live here and where we have friends and neighbors of all income levels.”
In her time as a councilwoman, she has butted heads with the Princeton University administration, notably with her opposition to rezoning the area for the Arts and Transit project. It is a vote, she said, that she stands by.
In terms of future town/gown issues, she said she favors rezoning the university land known as the Butler tract to be for residential only. She said she thought the town was able to negotiate a “decent” long-term financial contribution from Nassau Hall to the town, although it could have been higher than the total of $21.7 million the sides settled on.
“Of course I wish we could have gotten more, but the law is on the university’s side. We don’t have much leverage,” she said. “Do I think an organization with $22 billion in assets should pay property taxes, the answer is yes. But right now they don’t have to, and I don’t think that’s going to change.”
Ms. Crumiller supported the merger of Princeton Borough and Township, a union she described as “two kind of warring municipalities that often had difficulties.” She said the merger has helped keep municipal taxes from being higher had the towns remained separate.
“It’s hard to measure, but I do believe that our tax increases are less of a tax increase than they would be if we had not consolidated,” she said. “A decrease in the increase is better than an increase in the increase.”
Next to affordability, Ms. Crumiller said the second most cited complaint she hears is the need to slow down traffic. She plans to work on the issue on a committee examining traffic calming methods that other towns have used, like narrowing traffic lanes and installing bike lanes where the road can accommodate them.
In terms of major capital projects the town takes on, she said the firehouse on Witherspoon Street “most likely” would be renovated and expanded, although she did not give a price tag for how much that might cost.
“But I hope that it’s not a complete budget breaker,” she said.
Along those lines, she said she favors selling the other two fire stations that are located on Harrison and Chestnut streets.
Ms. Crumiller differed with one of the other candidates in the race, Anne Neumann, by saying she opposed creating a special improvement district to manage the downtown. Such an arrangement would carry an added assessment or tax on property owners, who usually pass the charge on to their tenants.
“It would cost the businesses. I’ve heard the businesses are not interested,” she said. “If I heard that the businesses were interested, I would support it. We impose enough regulation and taxation on the business community that I don’t want to do a special improvement district that they don’t want.”
Yet, in the same breath, she said she favors requiring businesses to provide paid sick leave to their employees. She said it is the “obligation” of the council to protect workers.
Ms. Crumiller, 56, is a graduate of Rutgers University. She and her husband, Jon, have three adult children and two granddaughters. She is not employed.
Asked if her lack of being in the workforce led her not to understand the impacts of council decisions on the private sector, she replied, “I’m sure there are areas that I don’t understand because I’m not in the workforce.”
Ms. Crumiller has been in office since 2009, first as a member of the Borough Council and now as a member of the council of the merged town.
“I think that I’ve been there long enough that the experience is valuable but not too long that I’m stale,” she said in seeking what will “probably” be her last term.
She said she had debated with herself whether to run this year and considered wanting to do technology based work instead.
“There’s no doubt that it’s a lot of work and commitment,” she said of serving on council.
Her service in government has affected the way she perceives things. As a private citizen, she found herself “more critical” of government staff. But she now has developed “a lot more respect” for them.
“I’m not saying that I have become part of the unquestioning bureaucracy,” she said. “I’m saying I have asked questions and I’ve gotten answers and find out that, most of the time, there are answers and there are good reasons for things that don’t seem as apparent from just seeing it from the residents’ point of view or the person sitting behind the dais.”
