The races for the municipal election in May are heating up. Council President Charles Morgan, who is seeking to unseat current Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, will run with Anupam Gupta and Nitin Shah, both of whom will run for the two open council seats in the May 12 election.
Hsueh, who is seeking his third mayoral term, and Councilwoman Linda Geevers have teamed up with Kamal Khanna, who will be seeking to fill the second seat on council.
The Best 4 West Windsor Slate. Anupam Gupta, who serves as president of Avenues International Inc., an information technology company specializing in business intelligence solutions, holds degree in engineering from IIT Delhi, India, and has been prominent in the field of business intelligence.
Gupta, who lives on Restrick Court, has two daughters, Nikita, 13, who attends Grover Middle School, and Radhika, 10, who attends the Village school. His wife, Vaishali, is a business analyst for MetLife. Gupta is also a founding member and vice president of the New Jersey Indian Association, a West Windsor-based nonprofit organization.
Born and raised in India, Gupta moved to the United States in 1987 and traveled around the country before moving to Parsippany 14 years ago. His father was an electronics engineer with the Indian government, and his mother stayed home to raise the family. He moved to West Windsor three years ago because he thought West Windsor was a great town with a great school district.
Gupta says he feels he can contribute to managing the various operations of the township. “We need to be fiscally responsible,” he says. “We need to make the right decisions in redevelopment.” He said it is also important for the council to manage financial responsibilities, which includes decreasing costs and increasing revenues. He says he would like to help bring in federal and state funding.
He says he has experience in managing very complex projects, and wants to resolve as many of the residents’ concerns as possible.
“It’s about time for a change,” he says. “West Windsor is going through so many issues.” He said the people he met when he moved to the township three years ago have since moved out of the township because of high taxes, and he wants to change that. “People need some good quality of life,” he said.
Shah, a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch, has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Rider University. He and his wife, Shilpa Shah, a doctor practicing internal medicine, have two daughters — Vaishali, 5, who attends kindergarten at Dutch Neck Elementary, and Sonali, 3.
Born in India, Shah moved to the United States when he was six years old. He lived in Virginia, and went back to India when he was 10 years old and came back to the United States when he was 19. His father owned his own business, where metal would be melted into parts that would be provided to manufacturing mills that made clothes. His parents currently live with him and his wife on Zaitz Farm Road, and his father currently works in the produce department at McCaffrey’s.
Shah has lived in Mercer County for a total of 25 years. He moved to West Windsor because of its farmland, open space, newer communities, and good school district.
Shah also says, like his running mates, that an open government is needed. “We need to understand what the residents of West Windsor need or are looking for,” he says. “They came to this town, and they had a dream; they had a desire. The current mayor’s administration is not really listening to them.”
Redevelopment is one example, he says. “They’re just trying to push things really fast, and not really listening or understanding what the problem is,” he said. He says the taxpayers will be burdened as the population grows, adding more school-age children to the system.
But “the biggest thing is I feel it’s time for change,” he said. “I personally feel the township needs fresh blood and fresh ideas. This is just my observation from whatever I see on television from town hall and read in the newspapers.”
He also said he would like to see a change in the way the current administration operates. “The current mayor is not getting along well with council,” Shah says. “He doesn’t seem to be understanding the individuals on council.”
Shah says he also believes that taxes should be capped, and costs should be reduced. He said he would work to “bring in revenue that will offset some of the costs in the township” and help keep the taxes from rising.
He said people are getting laid off, and if taxes continue going up, it will be difficult for people to be able to afford to remain in West Windsor. “If I lost my job, or my wife lost her job, it would make it difficult for us to live in West Windsor,” said Shah, who pays between $18,”500 and $18,”700 a year in taxes. “Those are not the dreams that brought us into this township.”
Ultimately, Shah says his goal is to make West Windsor a better place to live and listen to the residents. “Each of them have a right to inject their ideas, their feelings, their emotions,” he said. “Ultimately, we are all neighbors living under a huge umbrella that we call West Windsor.”
Morgan says he knew Shah because he served as the treasurer for Councilman Will Anklowitz’s campaign in 2007, when Morgan, Anklowitz, and Councilman George Borek ran on a slate together. He was also a candidate when Kristin Appleget resigned from council to take her new job at Princeton University. Shah was one of eight candidates for the seat, which eventually went to Barbara Pfeiffer. Morgan also said that Gupta was a friend of Shah’s, and that he was impressed by him.
Morgan has been serving on council since 1999. Active in the West Windsor Republican Committee along with his wife, Lois, Morgan worked on the successful campaign to elect Carole Carson as mayor in 1997. He was appointed by Carson to serve on the planning board that year before and served for several years before deciding to run for council.
“Redevelopment is still the number one issue around here, along with parking garages,” says Morgan. “If I’m elected mayor, the whole effort there is going to commiserate more with what people want. People want to fix the parking situation. People want to fix the traffic situation.”
He says residents are highly skeptical of the economics. “We’ve been totally denied any financial analytics by the mayor and administration.” He said he would need the necessary financial studies to be done before proceeding with anything. In addition, “we won’t proceed on anything without a strong redeveloper contract, and I plan to negotiate. I’m a pretty good negotiator.”
Morgan says one of his goals is to also have the mayor and council work together. “Unlike this mayor, and unlike this administration, nothing is going to be happening behind closed doors.”
“This mayor talks about working together, but he doesn’t,” added Morgan. “I will work together. Everything I’ve tried to work with him, he’s gone off and done his own thing. You’re going to see me working with council. If council wants to move in a direction, I’m going to say, ‘Hey, go for it,’ unless it’s something expensive or ridiculous.”
West Windsor First Slate. Geevers, a 14-year resident of West Windsor, will be running for a second four-year term. Prior to being elected to the council, Geevers served two terms, or six years, on the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional Board of Education.
Geevers and her husband, Neil, have three daughters and live in the Hunters Run development.
While on the school board, Geevers served as board vice president for three years, chaired several school district labor negotiations committees, and was chair of the administration and facilities committee for two years.
Geevers is making the budget a priority issue. Geevers issued a press release calling upon Hsueh and the administration to introduce the 2009 municipal budget with a zero percent increase.
“Every day thousands of people are losing their jobs, along with having to deal with a decline in their personal investments,” Geevers said. “I want to do whatever I can to ease the financial pain that our residents are experiencing. This is an unprecedented national and State crisis.”
“It’s important to continue to prioritize goals, while acknowledging that spending must be curtailed because revenues are down,” Geevers added. “While hopefully better times are ahead, there’s no greater time than now to take a conservative approach to developing a fiscally responsible budget.”
At a press conference on February 18, Geevers explained her goals and accomplishments in more detail. Geevers stressed the importance of comprehensive planning, which she says can transform the community’s efforts “and financial resources toward a more sustainable community,” and “going green” is a major part of that.
Geevers emphasized that she was the only council member last year who voted against increasing the salary for the mayor and council. She also pointed out that she voted against limiting competition for bidding on township construction projects and that she wants to continue to seek out more public-private partnerships. She also says a goal is to create new marketing strategies to attract more ratables.
She said she also wanted to promote an open, inviting process as redevelopment evolves. She said she wanted to continue scheduling periodic “open mic” sessions with residents and work toward getting a dedicated Verizon channel for local educational programming.
With regard to the stimulus package from the federal government, Geevers said she wants to see that capital funding will go toward such needs as emergency services equipment as well as bicycle, pedestrian, road, intersection, and circulation improvements. She said she also supports funding for projects at the senior center and for code-related renovations at the old Alexander Road firehouse, which will become the new West Windsor Arts Center.
Geevers said she also supports the use of open space tax funds for acquisition, maintenance and, where appropriate, developing land for passive and active recreational uses.
“A spirit of openness and teamwork is very much a part of my philosophy toward governance,” she said.
Hsueh, who came to the United States in 1969 from Taiwan with $300 in his pocket and a scholarship for a graduate degree, has served as an adjunct professor at Rutgers, and has experience working as a senior engineer with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for 27 years.
Hsueh also worked his way up to become administrator of the Water Supply Administration. In 1997 he moved to the Office of State Planning and initiated the Brownfields Redevelopment Program.
Hsueh was first elected to public office on West Windsor Council in 1993, the year that the township changed from a township committee to a mayor-council form of government. A veteran of the township board of health and the environmental commission, Hsueh was the first Asian elected to West Windsor government.
Hsueh served as president of council for four years, from 1993 to 1995, and 1997 to 1999. He also served one year as council vice president in 1996-1997. He has served as mayor since 2001. During a press conference on February 18, Hsueh recalled his accomplishments over the past eight years, beginning with the construction of the $24 million Alexander Road bridge and roundabout. “This could be the biggest project we ever completed in West Windsor Township,” he said, adding that it did not cost West Windsor taxpayers anything. “It takes a person who really understands governmental operations to get that done.”
In addition, “you have to be decisive, not divisive,” he said.
He also pointed out the AAA bond rating the township received in 2007, the fact that the township was designated the first Greentown USA in the state in 2002, and that West Windsor’s was the first publicly-owned senior center to be nationally certified.
Contrary to what his opponents say, Hsueh points out that he has an open government, and recalled the 14 Town Hall meetings he has held since 2005, during which residents are able to voice concerns or ask questions. “We talk about being open, but we also need to be effective,” he said.
He also pointed to the Grovers Mill Pond restoration, which was completed at the end of 2008 using $3.2 million in federal funding. He also pointed to the expansion project currently taking place at the senior center.
Hsueh also pointed out that he used his mayoral veto for the first time in eight years when he vetoed the council’s attempt to increase its salary by 50 percent last year.
With regard to redevelopment, Hsueh pointed out once a redevelopment plan is adopted, the township can get funding for infrastructure improvements. He pointed to the loss of $159 million in state funding for Route 1 improvements and $19 million in state funding for Vaughn Drive last year, during which state officials cited the township’s lack of a plan for the train station area as a major reason they dropped the projects from their priority list.
He says he has good working relationships with state and county representatives and will continue to pursue them to bring in more revenue and help for the township. “This administration has been in the front, trying to get all the money we can,” he said.
He is also optimistic a plan will be adopted soon. “I’m very happy to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
Having lived in West Windsor for more than 30 years, Khanna will be running for the first time in seeking a council seat. Like Hsueh, when Khanna came to the country in 1965, he only had a small amount of money on him, but in his case, it was only $8 and a teaching assistantship to pursue advanced studies in engineering. At the time, his native country, India, would not allow him to bring any more money.
Khanna earned a master’s degree in industrial engineering and management from the University of Florida and joined Dupont in 1967. He worked at Dupont’s textile fibers plant in Tennessee for five years as an efficiency engineer. He then spent five year’s at Dupont’s headquarters in Delaware as a business analyst.
In 1977, Khanna founded Sante Classics, a manufacturing and distribution company of clothing in New York. He said believes his corporate and business experience will be an asset in making West Windsor government more effective and efficient.
Khanna and his wife, Veena, a physician, have lived in the township for 30 years, with their two children, Sanjay and Monica. Monica and her husband, Martin, also live in West Windsor, and Khanna’s three grandchildren attend WW-P schools. His son is a professional musician living in New York. Khanna’s father was a veterinarian and later ran Khanna’s factory. His mother also helped in that endeavor.
Khanna says he believes his corporate and business experience will be beneficial to help running the township government more effectively. “I have no personal agenda; I bring no baggage with me,” he said. He said he will not allow anyone else to waste taxpayer money, and pointed to the council’s debate last year over whether to increase council member’s salaries by 50 percent. “In this uncertain economic time, we cannot afford that,” he said, adding that West Windsor needs someone who will understand this — “and that person is me.”
He also says he is an optimist, and believes that anything can be accomplished by working together. “If elected, I plan to take a fresh look at every budget item, every project, and every activity in West Windsor Township, in order to find ways to reduce expenditures and obtain the best value for your tax dollars,” he said.
The slate’s first fundraiser will be held at Super Star East Buffet in the Nassau Park Shopping Center on Sunday, March 8, from noon to 3:30 p.m. Tickets are available for $25 before or at the door. Call Richard Eland at 609-947-3790 for details.
