There could be a new face on the West Windsor Township Council as soon as Thursday, April 2.
The township is currently accepting applications from township residents who are interested in filling the new vacancy created by the appointment of Will Anklowitz as a Mercer County Superior Court judge. The state Senate officially appointed him to his new post on March 16.
Anklowitz immediately delivered his letter of resignation to the township clerk’s office. By March 17, he had already taken the bench — a much welcomed relief for the Superior Court, which had been faced with a shortage of judges. He is assigned to the family division.
As a result of the new vacancy, the council came up with a resolution setting up an interview process for candidates at the meeting on Monday, March 30, followed by a special meeting on Thursday, April 2, where a vote would be taken.
Council President Charles Morgan explained that the council’s own adopted rules — separate from the state statute — were adopted by resolution. This meant the council could change the rules for selecting a new council candidate by another resolution, which it did to create a process that accommodated travel plans for council members George Borek and Linda Geevers, who will be out of the state for some time in April.
The only state law the council has to follow is that if council is to select a new member, it has to do so within 30 days, which in this case, would fall on Wednesday, April 15. However, state law does not require the council to do so. The council could wait until a new person is elected in November. Regardless, if a member is selected, he or she would have to run and be re-elected to fill the remainder of the term in November, through June 30, 2011.
“We all sit up here because we’re elected by the public,” said Borek. “To me, I’m compelled to leave the vacancy open until November.”
The council’s own rules had allotted a 10-day period of time in which candidates could submit the necessary paperwork. Then, the rules required a special meeting in the third week of the vacancy, during which the council would allow each of the interested candidates a five minute slot to make a presentation about themselves and then answer council questions. The public would have been able to make comments only after the presentations and council questioning. A vote would then be held at the next public meeting following the special meeting.
But because following such a schedule would have placed a vote on the new council member in April while Geevers and Borek are away, the council had to change it, Morgan said.
Township Clerk Sharon Young also pointed out that a quorum would be needed in April when Geevers and Borek are away because the township must pay its bills every two weeks, and the council cannot approve of those bills to be paid if two members are absent and there is no quorum.
Originally, council was going to hold the interview and selection process in the same night on Thursday, April 2, but Geevers said she would prefer that there be two meetings so that if there are many candidates, council members could have time to reflect and make a decision about the candidate they feel will do the best job. “I want to be fair to everybody,” she said.
The council debated whether the candidate would have to be chosen based on a majority vote of all the eligible council members — in which the person must be elected by three votes, including a case in which the tie-breaking vote is cast by the mayor — or a majority of those who are voting, in which case, a vote of 2-1 with an abstention would be able to prevail.
“We should have a majority of the entire membership,” Geevers said, adding that appointing a member to council by only two votes makes the process too easy. “It’s a very important appointment.”
Morgan, on the contrary, said it would be important to have the ability to win appointment based solely two votes. For example, if the council specified the entire membership in the vote, two council members could conceivably conspire ahead of time to both abstain on the vote, and the vote would fail because it needs three votes, and there would be a 2-0 vote with two abstentions. In this case, because it would not be considered a tie, there would be no mayoral vote, and the measure would fail.
However, Township Attorney Michael Herbert also said he was “a little bit uneasy” about not specifying a majority vote by full membership.
Ultimately, the council held off on making a decision on the voting matter. That will come on Monday, March 30, at the meeting in which council will be interviewing the candidates — when Heidi Kleinman, who was absent for the March 16 meeting, would be able to give her input.
Now, residents interested in becoming a council member can pick up an application packet from the township clerk’s office or visit the district’s website, www.westwindsornj.org. Applications must be received by Thursday, March 26. As of March 19, no one had come to the clerk’s office to pick up or submit an application, officials said.
With Anklowitz’s resignation, however, this means that there will only be four council members to vote on adoption of the redevelopment plan.
With regard to missing the final vote on redevelopment, Anklowitz says: “I have a great deal of faith in the remaining council members to do the right thing. It’s been a privilege to serve with them. This is an extraordinary group, and I have the utmost faith they will handle things very well.”
Governor Jon Corzine nominated Anklowitz, a certified criminal trial attorney, to the Superior Court in Mercer County last month.
Anklowitz, 40, whose familial roots have been in West Windsor since the 1930s, began his legal career when he was doing work with the public defender’s office beginning in 1995. In 2001, he left his own practice to become a per diem attorney with the office until they hired him as staff a year later. He has been working as a public defender ever since.
Ironically, Anklowitz was first elected to council during a special election in November, 2006. Now, there will be a special election this coming November to fill his seat.
Anklowitz and his wife have two boys, ages 6 and 9. “I’m so humbled, honored, and privileged to be able to do this,” Anklowitz said about his new title. “There are some big shoes to fill. There are some great jurists who retired recently from the Mercer County bench. I’m going to have to work very hard to try to take their slot.”
Anklowitz said the last 36 months of his life were exciting — from running two successful election campaigns to dealing with redevelopment issues, to working toward becoming a judge. Now, with his new title, he jokes, “my time in the public eye won’t be as exciting in the next 36 months.”
