New councilmembers Falcone, O’Reilly, Wolfe also sworn in at Monroe Township Council meeting
Monroe Township Council welcomed two of New Jersey’s top Democrats at its reorganization meeting — Congressman Donald Norcross and Assemblyman Paul Moriarty.
Norcross swore in the new mayor, Rich DiLucia, along with new council members Katherine Falcone, Pat O’Reilly and Greg Wolfe.
After the initial ceremony, Councilman Marvin Dilks nominated Ron Garbowski for president and Joe Marino for vice president. Both were voted in unanimously and were sworn in by Moriarty.
DiLucia reinforced the notion that his new role as mayor isn’t any different than his previous role on council — being the mayor to him is just an extension of the council.
“We will work together, harmoniously as we can,” he said. “You can rest assured that this government will set aside political differences and we’re here to make Monroe a better town.”
DiLucia continued by laying out expectations for his mayorship and the council.
“I’m not going to stand here and make outlandish promises, I can tell you this group will work hard,” he said. “Our goal is to improve services and to maintain taxes to the point where we don’t drive people out of this town.”
An example of improving services while keeping taxes low was evident in a resolution passed at the meeting, which put the Municipal Utilities Authority in charge of snow removal for the township.
“One of the things I’m very confident of is that going forward, unlike prior years, this town and the three entities — the school board, MUA and township — will be one,” DiLucia said. “I will make every effort to create a bond between those entities to help the township. Wherever there can be a sharing of services, I will attempt to do that.”
The buzzword in today’s political climate is “transparency,” which is something DiLucia plans on practicing as well.
“I will never shut my door to anybody who wants to get involved in any aspect of government,” he said. “We will have an open government. I know you hear the word ‘transparency’ — it will be a transparent government. It will be a government that will govern by majority. That’s the way democracy in this country is designed to work.”
Newly elected council members Falcone, O’Reilly and Wolfe expressed their desire work hard for the taxpayers.
“I’m excited to work hard and that’s what I’m going to do,” said Falcone, whose calling card for this council is economic development.
“I’m excited to roll up my sleeves and dig in,” said O’Reilly, who will work with the environmental protection commission and open space advisory committee.
“To the taxpayers of this town, we made a commitment to work hard for you. I’m going to keep this short and sweet because it’s time to get to work,” said Wolfe. Wolfe will work with the Joint Insurance Fund safety committee and the local emergency management council.
In other news:
● Jill McRea will take over as the township business administrator. She was elected unanimously.
● Former clerk Susan McCormick will take over as the confidential aide to DiLucia. Former deputy municipal clerk Aileen Chiselko was promoted to township clerk and Jennifer Harbison will be the new deputy municipal clerk.
● Marino was appointed the ordinance committee chairperson for 2019.
● The next council meeting will take place on Jan. 14. The work session begins at 7 p.m., the regular meeting starts at 8 p.m. Both meetings are open to the public and take place at the municipal building.
