Politics & Government

Hightstown Candidates Discuss Transparency, Shared Services at League of Women Voters Forum

Some candidates say more technology should be used to communicate with residents.

More transparency, shared services and consolidation of resources were among questions raised at the Hightstown council candidates forum Tuesday night.

The League of Women Voters provided a forum for candidates to explain their views on issues facing Hightstown. Six candidates are vying for three open slots on the Highstown Borough Council. Republican incumbent Skye Gilmartin, and newcomers John Archer and George Serrano will face Democratic challengers Susan Bluth, Gail Doran and Rob Thibault on the ballot Nov. 8.

Candidates generally agreed there should be more transparency in the local government, and all said Hightstown needs some form of shared services with either neighboring towns or at a regional level.

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Serrano said decisions are made “behind closed doors” and Bluth said in the past “back room deals” have been made, but didn’t provide specific incidences. Several candidates called for better communication to residents.

“I believe that Hightstown has a seriously flawed communication past, a flawed communication past among the council, the residents and the borough departments,” said Doran.

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Thibault suggested one way to improve transparency is by using technology, including Facebook and Twitter, to reach residents.

Gilmartin said the communication system has faults and agreed that technology needs to be used to communicate with residents.

with the discussion on the potential move of Borough Hall and the police department.

In the recently adopted police director position, the council has direct oversight of the police department. Candidates were asked what changes they would like to see, if any, within the department.

Serrano said more police are needed because of the amount of overtime and Archer said they should look into sharing services at the county level, but did not provide specifics. Gilmartin agreed other options need to be explored.

Bluth said the Borough can’t afford to hire additional officers, and Thibault said the Borough needs to look at sharing services with another municipality, but did not elaborate on how this would be done.

Doran agreed looking into regionalized services, but said it was hard to know what was going on with police department costs because information is being withheld from the public. She said a report compiled by a bipartisan committee was never released.

Candidates were also asked if they favored sharing police and other services and whether or not East Windsor could help Hightstown.

Bluth said she strongly supports shared services and said we need to sit down with neighboring towns to find what additional services can be shared. 

Thibault said trying to share services at a state or county level could take years and it needs to be done more immediately.

“We’re [Hightstown] too small to do everything home grown,” Doran said

Archer said regionalization needs to be done at a county level to include schools, first aid, police and fire, and that would save money.

“Consolidation with our neighbors, East Windsor, would definitely be more efficient and effective, but is also a short sighted idea that doesn’t meet the needs of our whole state or our whole county,” Gilmartin said, agreeing with Archer. 

A question was also asked on the candidate’s position of the Borough operating under resolution intended to facilitate good relations between police and Latino community.

Doran said people are confusing the resolution with a “sanctuary city” designation, and said that term is not used in the resolution. 

All of the candidates said Hightstown is not a "sanctuary city" and some tried to place blame at where this misconception was rooted. 

Nicole Plett, from the League of Women Voters in Lawrenceville, moderated the forum and each candidate had a minute and a half prepared opening statement, one minute to answer each question and a minute closing statement.

A broadcast of the full forum will be shown on Verizon channel 38 and Comcast channel 27 on Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays at noon, 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. until Election Day on Nov. 8.


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