By John Burton
SHREWSBURY – This is an unusual year for borough politics. When voters go to the polls on Nov. 8 they will have two rows of candidates to select from for the four available seats on the six-member Borough Council. Among them are Republicans seeking re-election and Democratic challengers.
Not since 2007 has there been a contested election. For the first time in a number of years there is a full slate of local Democrats running for local seats. Some have said there hasn’t been a Democrat in a borough council seat since the Watergate era.
In the election, voters will choose two candidates to serve one-year terms to fill vacancies on the council. They will also select two candidates for the three-year full terms to the council.
Voters will have the choice of Republican incumbents Erik Anderson and Thomas L. Moran, or Democratic challengers Shane Berkelaar and Patrick DiBello, for the two one-year terms.
For the two full three-year terms available, incumbent Republicans Peter J. Meyer and Deidre M. DerAsadourian are seeking another term, while Democratic challengers John M. Collins and Donald Sena hope to make inroads and secure seats on the council.
Anderson, 40, is an attorney and has lived in the borough for almost his entire life. Prior to serving on council he had served on the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment for six years.
“This is my community,” he said of his reason for looking to continue on the council. Service, he added, “is not something new to me.”
DerAsadourian, Thomas L. Moran and Erik Anderson.
The issues facing Shrewsbury are the issues facing any small municipality, he said. Government needs to look for ways to “continue to provide top rate services while working to keep the tax rate stable.”
Moran, a 69-year-old environmental consultant for remediation and construction projects who has lived in Shrewsbury since 1985, shares the ticket with Anderson for the abbreviated term. He has served on the Planning Board since 2010. He had previously served on the Mount Olive Township Board of Education when he lived in that community.
Moran said he’s running to continue to serve on the council because “I feel in the short time I’ve been on, we’ve been very effective,” in addressing the community’s needs.
Given his employment background, Moran said his role as the council liaison to the Department of Public Works is a good fit. And he believes he’s well-suited to push forward “the continuity needed” to move the community forward.
Democratic challenger Berkelaar, 39, is a commercial banker who is making his first run for elected office.
He has decided to throw his hat into the political ring because he’s found “The spending and taxation in town has been questionable,” with property owners annually facing tax increases.
“The finances can only be brought under control by a good team,” he said, believing he and the other Democratic candidates will bring about change. In addition, there has been one-party rule for much too long, Berkelaar argued. “We really do need a balance” of voices on the governing body, he said.
DiBello, 82, is a retired mechanical engineer and a longtime member of the borough Environmental Commission and had served on the Planning Board.
“I am interested in what’s going on in town,” he said. And for DiBello the reason to seek the one-year seat is because of the lack of dissenting voices that comes with one-party rule, especially after so many years. “That’s not the way good government works,” he said.
He would like to see the council develop a long-range plan for development, capital projects and other undertakings. “You like the town and it’s a beautiful place to live,” he said, “and you want to make sure it continues on its path.”
Meyer, age not given, works in the financial services industry and has been on the council for six years. He’s seeking another three-year term in part “to continue the work we’ve done already.”
Meyer explained that Shrewsbury has a substantial commercial district in addition to its residential neighborhoods and that requires a considerable amount of time to keep what can be competing interests on an even keel that benefits both. “I think we spent a lot of time to get and attract a balance,” he said.
And the same effort is true for negotiating shared service agreements with other towns and with school districts, agreements that have benefitted Shrewsbury, Meyer said.
“People have been suffering in silence,” with rising property taxes, said Collins, who charged the taxes have gone up by 30 percent over a 10-year period. Those increases have led older residents to have to relocate because they simply can’t afford it, he charged. “And that’s not something on their radar,” Collins said of the incumbents.
Collins, 52, is an attorney who works as the deputy general counsel for an insurance company and this is his first run for office, though he currently serves as the planning board vice chair.
“There is the whole issue of transparency,” and the council’s lack of it, he alleged. Collins pointed to the recent dust up over work at the borough’s Manson Park. The plans called for additional basketball courts and other attractions. But it also required the taking down of trees and a cost associated with the work. The Democrats charged this was authorized without the input of the environmental commission, planning board or community outreach, sparking a local controversy. “Every once in while we should say thanks but no thanks,” to grants, which often require matching local funds, and to some projects, given the cost, Collins said.
Sena, Collins’ running mate, 48, is a technology senior director for Microsoft and has lived here since 2006. “The first criteria for running for public office in this town is a love for this town,” which he said was his motivation.
He pointed to the issues raised by his running mates and believes “everything can always be done better,” adding, “I have some ideas” on how to improve things.
With Republicans running things for so long, he maintained, “It seems a little of gaming the system.”
When you enter the voting booth, Sena offered, “It’s nice to have a choice.”
Repeated attempts to contact DerAsadourian over the last 2 ½ weeks for this story were unsuccessful.
