With the November special elections less than a month away, two candidates, Diane Ciccone and Andrew Hersh, are vying for election to one available seat on the Township Council. They are also preparing for a debate scheduled for Monday, October 19, at 10 a.m. at the municipal building.
The candidates will be seeking to fill the remainder of the term of Will Anklowitz, who resigned in March to assume his position as a Superior Court judge in Mercer County. His term expires on June 30, 2011.
In the meantime, here is a look at the candidates:
Diane Ciccone, a West Windsor resident since August, 2000, has been serving on the council since April, when she was chosen by the council as Anklowitz’s replacement until the election.
She began serving as a member of the Planning Board in 2006, where she continues to serve as the council’s representative.
Ciccone, an attorney with a private practice in civil ligation, ran for a Township Council seat in the 2007 election. Her work as an attorney includes serving on several national arbitration panels, representing several organizations in New York City, including serving as outside counsel to the NYC Transit Authority, and state matrimonial and civil litigation.
Ciccone grew up in upstate New York and attended Colgate University, where her daughter, Kali, 21, is now a senior. Her mother was am antique dealer, and her father was the director of parks and recreation for the city of Syracuse. He also served as the assistant softball coach at Colgate. Ciccone and her husband, Daryl McMillan, moved to New Jersey after he took a job with what is now Munich Re America. Prior to moving to West Windsor, she lived in East Windsor for 11 years.
Ciccone has worked with Bikefest, is a member of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance, and served in volunteer roles with the school district when her daughter was in high school.
Having gone knocking on doors as part of the campaign, Ciccone says she sees that a major concern for residents is controlling property taxes. “Most people recognize that the biggest chunk of our taxes comes from our school, and that we maintain an excellent school system, and for council, that’s really beyond our control.”
However, she says, her obligation as part of council is “to find that balance between maintaining the services that we do have and finding creative ways to reduce costs.” When she was appointed to council in April, she said she asked for a zero-based budget, but became frustrated that she joined the budget process after it had already been prepared and it was hard to get her own footprint on it.
Ciccone says she and her council colleagues had called for meetings with the administration prior to preparing this year’s budget to “they would understand our goals, parameters, and guidelines before preparing the budget.”
Ciccone, who claims her biggest passion is the environment, has been pressing for an energy audit, which is in the 2009 budget. “An energy audit helps us identify areas where we can do quick reductions and then do some long-range planning to really have a balanced budget.” Long-range planning is essential to being sustainable, she says.
Another area Ciccone wants to look for savings is in shared services. “I have asked for the administration to again look for areas where they can increase their shared services,” Ciccone says. She said, for example, that the township should look at ways it can purchase larger pieces of equipment with another town. And “of course, we also have a consensus on looking at health-care costs,” she added.
Ciccone says she is striving to keep the property tax bill to a minimum, if not flat. “It also sends the message to the administration to think outside the box,” she said. “What we have now on council is the willingness, and this is something I’m certainly striving for, to be visionary in our thoughts.”
In doing that, Ciccone says she also wants to help market the township to bring in more businesses to increase the ratables. “The more pockets the township can dip into for taxes the less” it will affect any one pocket, she said. “We’re known in this town for having an excellent school system and as a great transportation hub,” she added. Wouldn’t it be great to attract more businesses that can give us another thing to brag about?”
She says the township’s location between New York and Philadelphia should lend itself to creative marketing ideas to bring in those businesses. And Ciccone says, she’d like to see some of those businesses be environmentally-oriented. “It’s the whole idea of the council beginning to take a look at what we can do now to improve the quality of life for residents now and in the future,” she said.
In addition to that, Ciccone says she is recommending that council set up a task force or ad-hoc committee to look at green initiatives, especially since the Planning Board’s sustainability sub-committee — of which she is a member — will be holding a public hearing on the sustainability element to the Master Plan on Wednesday, October 14.
In looking at past council business, Ciccone says she would bring more progressive and forward thinking to the dais to “keep dialogue moving in a progressive, positive manner.” Ciccone refers to her recent push during a council meeting to get all material for upcoming meetings into the council packets the Friday before. She says “we have to begin to eliminate stuff that is a distraction, so that when we come to a meeting and hear from the public, we can actually start the dialogue to get things done.”
Ciccone says she is “tired of the in-fighting and tired of the council spinning wheels.” She said, though, that she feels the significant discussion centering around redevelopment of the Princeton Junction train station before a plan was adopted was a “good thing,” but that there are “ways you can do that and be more efficient.”
Ciccone also said that she walks and bikes to the train station and around the community and that she lives near a school. “I’ve seen the kids struggling to get across the street,” which is why she emphasizes infrastructure as well as bicycle and pedestrian improvements, especially as it relates to redevelopment. “We need to get people out of their cars, but they’re not going to do that if they don’t have a destination to go to, or it’s not safe,” she said.
She said she knows that residents are also concerned with the lack of development and abandoned buildings along Route 571. “The problem is it’s private property, but the mayor is working with the developer to get the buildings demolished” near the site of the proposed RiteAid, and he is also working with the developer who is trying to purchase the vacant Acme site, she said. What council can do, she said, is “work with the administration and let them know what our thoughts are. Dialogue and constructive criticism and working together is really the only way to progress in this town,” she said.
Ciccone says she wants the council to examine ways the council can incorporate discussion of residents’ voiced concerns during meetings. She said she understands there is a process in place for the meetings and that public comment is not a dialogue, but rather a chance for residents to state their opinions and concerns during which council members do not respond. But just because they do not respond, “doesn’t mean we don’t care,” she said. “I believe that everyone has something to say — there’s value in that. I always try to balance their interests versus the interests of the whole.”
Ciccone also said that she tries to have a constructive, productive relationship with each of the council members as well as the administration.”That’s really the only way things are going to get done. Once you start the personal, emotional, and the attacks, you may have a great idea, but it’s not going to go anywhere.”
Ciccone says she wants to serve on council because of her own philosophy that it is important to give back to her community. In addition to her work on the Planning Board, Ciccone also serves on the West Windsor Arts Council, as a committee member of the Greening of West Windsor environmental fair, as a member of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance, and she is involved with Bikefest. “Now that we’re empty nesters, I feel I have more time to give back to this community because the community has done well for us,” she said. “I’m only going to do things I think can improve the quality of life, improve our existence.”
“I have experience, have been involved in the community, and I’ve got the background and expertise, and I want to bring something positive to the council,” Ciccone added. Otherwise, I don’t need to be bothered.”
Andrew Hersh, who has lived in the township for four years, is a vice president with Marsh USA.
Hersh said he believes his background and experience will enable him to fill a void on the council that is badly needed in the community. “I’ve worked over 17,000 hours successfully enabling public entities, such as the U.S. Navy, and global corporations to achieve their strategic objectives, improve financial and operational performance, and manage risk,” he said.
Among his top three priorities is to focus the township as well as the residential and business communities on “rejuvenating Route 571, between Wallace and Alexander Roads, before we invest in brand new development elsewhere.”
His second priority is to “make council open, responsive, and inclusive of the community.” In addition to that, Hersh said he also wants to help West Windsor achieve its strategic objectives, such as environmental sustainability and improvement of its financial performance without increasing the burden on taxpayers.
He pointed to the forecasted tax increase for 2010 of 8 percent — or approximately $3 million. “I have the experience to produce a flat budget while actually improving services and protecting the AAA bond rating, but I can only ensure success from the inside of council.”
He said he is willing to work with other council members as well as the mayor and broader community to achieve his goals. He said he has already met with the mayor as well as Linda Geevers, Charles Morgan, and George Borek and that he has also met with former council members Franc Gambatese and Alison Miller to help him to understand difference perspectives on the issues and how to build consensus to achieve results.
Hersh grew up in Rockville, Maryland. Both of his parents were in social work. His mother retired as part of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and his father worked with the mentally challenged, helping to place them into jobs.
He has a bachelors degree in logistics from Penn State University. His background is in supply-chain management, shared services, cost reduction, and risk management. When he came to Marsh, he helped companies and entities run safer business by identifying risks and mitigating them. He led risk consulting in the Northeast and very recently began working with client relationships with Fortune 500 companies.
Hersh moved to West Windsor in 2005 for his job. At the time, he held regional responsibilities for the consulting division at Marsh, and had been familiar to the area after having previously worked at Johnson & Johnson. He said he knew that West Windsor would be a good place to raise his three-year-old son, Benjamin, who currently attends pre-school in the district.
Currently, he is a vice president with Marsh & McLennan. He is also the president of the central New Jersey chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association, and has done charity work with Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness as well as participate in Toys for Tots.
He said his position as the vice president does not require him to travel, which allows him to devote more of his time to his top priorities — his son, his family, and his community. When asked how he would balance the responsibilities of being a single father with late-night meetings at the council, Hersh said, “I do what every working parent does — I balance my time effectively. I’m fortunate to have a strong family unit that jump at the chance to help out. I have access to help whenever I need it.”
Hersh is also a member of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance, Congregation Beth Chaim, Friends of West Windsor Open Space, and is a contributor to the Red Cross and the West Windsor Arts Council. He said he has volunteered to serve on the Planning Board and Parks and Recreation Board. He said that he has also volunteered his “deep consulting expertise to help West Windsor become more efficient and resourceful.”
“We all have decision to make in life on how to allocate the most precious resource we have — our time,” he said. “I have aligned my time with my highest priorities — my son, my family, and my community. The latter is what drives me to run for council. I have the ability and desire to do mitzvot (good deeds) for my community and am asking the community to put me in the best position possible to do so.”
