Quattrone Voted New Borough Council President

The Hightstown Borough Council voted unanimously at its Monday meeting to select Democrat Larry Quattrone as its new council president.

“I’d like to see the council look on the brighter side of things instead of always the negative side,” he said after the vote. “I really think that if we work together and look at the brighter side of things, the other side of the coin might not be as dark as people make it out to be.”

Democrat Isabel McGinty from the post—but not the council—at the borough’s June 6 meeting. At the time, McGinty told Patch she hoped to be able to voice her concerns from a more effective position.

At Monday’s meeting, she said she hoped Quattrone would be accorded more responsibilities as president than she was.

“It would be nice to a have a council president who was involved in setting the agendas and the discussions matters on the agenda, and if there were some responsibilities that were attached to the office of council president,” she said. “I think it’s very, very important to have a council president that can be effective and supported… in that role.

“I certainly hope that our administrator, mayor and town clerk would involve the Borough Council in the matters that are of greatest importance to the borough,” she added.

Quattrone said it was a “different situation” between him and the administration, and noted he had helped set that night’s agenda and planned to keep doing so.

“Ms. McGinty, I appreciate your comments,” he said. “It’s a different situation this year. The mayor and myself, we get along very fine… We have no problems communicating with each other, we work things out, we hash things out.”