Over a cup of chai latte at the Grover’s Mill coffee shop in Southfield Center, Hemant Marathe is not running but sitting — and reflecting on his future plans, which for the first time in 13 years will not involve regularly scheduled public meetings. Marathe, the outgoing president of the West Windsor-Plainsboro school board, narrowly lost his bid to unseat Shing-Fu Hsueh as West Windsor’s mayor.
“I am glad I had the opportunity to run,” says Marathe. “I met a lot of nice people, made a lot of friends, and learned a lot about our town. And I will stay involved with the town. I made promises to people that — win or lose — I would work on three important issues, to make sure they stay on the township’s radar: sidewalks for Cranbury Road; the situation with the Acme Woods development; and the lack of sewers on South Post Road, because currently they do not have safe drinking water.”
Regarding another campaign issue, that of the potential development at the Howard Hughes/American Cyanamid property, Marathe notes, “that is an important issue as well, but the three I mentioned are the ones I made a firm commitment on, and I will fulfill that commitment. I think, going forward, the Mayor and the Council should do the same thing — choose a few high-priority projects, and get them done before planning others.”
Marathe concedes that the new make-up of the Council may initially result in some challenges to getting things done. “My recommendation to Mayor Hsueh is that he should start with projects that he knows he can get approved, focus on those, and get them done. It will be a challenge for him, but it gives him an opportunity as well, because there will be no expectation that they will side with him. He should rethink his approach, and focus on those things that can get done.”
“If the council members ask for my advice, it will be similar,” Marathe says. “Get recommendations on projects, get the information you want, make a decision, and vote it up or down. Justify your decision and then live with it, and move onto the next one. But there is no reason to be uncivil. You don’t have to agree with anybody at any time, but you have to be professional. Otherwise it is counterproductive. Instead, build a coalition and convince the others that your position is the correct one.”
Marathe has contemplated the outcome of the election, and believes that several factors influenced the outcome. “Going in, I knew the deck was stacked against me. There was a third candidate, and I was last on the ballot and two places away from my running mates.
“The third candidate [Rick Visovsky] did serve to spoil things. If he was looking for change for the township, he didn’t help his own cause by continuing to run, because I think it is fair to say that most of the votes he received would have gone to me. But he had a difference of opinion, and he is entitled to it, and entitled to run. I also think the presence of the third-party slate confused the ballot even more than it would have been, but I am not using any of these things as an excuse, nor am I upset that I lost.”
However, Marathe believes that the ballot problems will continue to occur in the future. His suggestion would be to move the township elections back to May, when the ballot is less crowded, so that people can focus more on the local candidates.
“I am not in favor of having the township become ‘partisan.’ This country is a mess because of divisions between Democrats and Republicans, and I think this is a great disservice to the public. I don’t want to see that happen in West Windsor. But I do think the cost savings of having the election in November is not worth it. The school board elections must remain in November under state law, but the township can move theirs back to May, and that is what I recommend.”
Another of Marathe’s suggestions would be to have a run-off election for mayor in the event that no one candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, because this would solve the problems caused by having a third candidate, as well as allowing the victor to have a clear mandate. However, whether any of these potential changes would help Marathe himself in the future remains to be seen. “Right now, I don’t know if I will run again, either for mayor or even for the school board. At this point, I cannot predict the future, but will keep my options open,” he says.
Marathe has some personal goals in mind for the near future. “I want to catch up on my reading. It has been a while since I could enjoy a really good book. And I will watch some TV, especially football, so I can root for my favorite team, the Seattle Seahawks. I like the Dolphins too. But not to worry, although my wife roots for Seattle, she is also a Giants fan. In fact, we are going to the Giants-Seahawks game.”
Marathe runs his own business, which will continue to keep him busy. Now that he has more time, he wants to become more involved in his youngest daughters’ lives, since they are high school juniors, and begin looking at colleges for them.
Beyond that, says Marathe, he would be happy to serve on a township board or committee, “if there is a need, and if I can be useful. I won’t do it just to do it. I will also stay involved with the schools as well. My first priority was always the school board, and I am happy to help them in any way I can.”
“This is a fantastic school district, and we have always worked well together. Even if we don’t always agree, we have open and honest discussions, and then we move on. The calendar issue is a perfect example of that (see story, page 1).”
But Marathe has some reservations about the state’s education policies. “Some of the state’s decisions haven’t helped districts like our district. What is good for Trenton is not necessarily good for WW-P.
“The state should give us more leeway. Instead, it is forcing the administration and the teachers to waste a lot of time on meaningless things. This is very unproductive and disadvantageous for a district like ours. State regulators should listen to the people in the field, because we can tell them a lot. But they do not listen to us. Instead, they issue guidelines that are counter-productive. This is very frustrating as a board member, an administrator, as a teacher.”
Marathe believes that such policies are short-sighted and will eventually hurt WW-P. “The state should use us as a model — we have done very well both in terms of academics and costs per pupil. But instead, they put so much budget pressure on our district. The state makes it very difficult to maintain academic excellence and to do what’s right for the kids. And no matter what, the kids need to remain the district’s number one priority,” he says.
