Meeting set for Thursday evening
includes lawyer, Somerville mayor
By:Melissa Edmond
A forum about the proposed mayor-council form of government and other government options has been set for 8 p.m. Thursday in the municipal building but who is organizing it is not clear.
Tudor Court resident George Fenwick said he and a group of about four other Hillsborough residents whom he declined to identify are organizing the forum.
"This is totally about informing people," said Mr. Fenwick. "This is about choice so that when Election Day comes, they’ll be able to make an informed decision."
Hillsborough voters will decide on Nov. 8 whether or not to change the township’s form of government to the proposed mayor-council form.
If the charter change is approved by Hillsborough voters, the current Township Committee, boards, and commissions would cease to exist at midnight, Dec. 31, 2006.
On Jan. 1, 2007, the mayor and seven township council members three elected at-large, four representing wards in the township all elected in November 2006 would be sworn into office.
Mr. Fenwick his group is a bipartisan group that decided that this is what it needed to do to inform the community.
"This is not political," he said. "We are trying to keep it as bipartisan as possible."
Mr. Fenwick said the speakers of the event will include attorney Flavio Komuves and Somerville Mayor Brian Gallagher.
Mr. Komuves, an attorney in the law firm Buchanan Ingersoll PC in Princeton, focuses his practice in litigation including election law.
According to Mr. Fenwick, Mr. Komuves has a broad experience in local government charter changes, and has counseled more than a dozen petitioners’ committees throughout the state, including Dover and Edison.
Mr. Fenwick said that Mr. Komuves will speak about the proposed mayor-council government, as well as the other options available to voters.
He said that Mayor Gallagher will discuss how the mayor-council system functions in Somerville. The system in Somerville varies from the one proposed for Hillsborough since Somerville is a borough council.
"We want people to look at all of the possibilities," said Mr. Fenwick.