By Allison Perrine
Holmdel’s newly formed charter commission will study the town’s existing form of government and make recommendations for changes. Pictured from left are William D. Kastning, C. Zachary Gilstein, Janet M. Berk, Gerald Buffalino and Kin Gee.
In November, residents of Holmdel and Red Bank overwhelmingly supported referendums that would allow professionals to study whether or not the towns’ existing forms of government are best serving their communities today.
Recently, those teams came together for the first time to discuss some basic housekeeping items – selecting a chairperson, hiring special counsel, establishing a meeting schedule and more. “Your vote is your voice and voting is the essence of our democracy at work. I just want to say thank you to all of you who have voted,” said Holmdel resident Kin Gee, who was named the township’s charter commission chair at its first meeting Nov. 23. Gee will serve on the five-member board alongside vice chairperson William D. Kastning and members Janet M. Berk, Gerald Buffalino and C. Zachary Gilstein. Currently, the township operates through a partisan five-member committee which the charter commission will study for the next several months “in an open and transparent process” through public meetings, Gee said. Should a change be recommended down the line, it will be submitted to township residents in the form of a public question in a future election for approval or disapproval. “We look for ward to the important work that’s ahead of us and hope that all Holmdel residents can join us in this process,” said Gee.
The next meeting will beheldDec.9at7p.m.in committee chambers when the board is expected to establish its full meeting schedule for the new year. Red Bank’s charter commission held a similar meeting Nov. 30 when its five-member team – Nancy Facey-Blackwood, Kathryn Okeson, Mark Taylor, Benedict Forest and Michael R. DuPont – sat before a crowd of about 20 attendees and discussed similar business. The five were the top vote-getting candidates in the November election when 11 Red Bank residents competed for seats on the charter commission. After being sworn in by Mayor Pasquale “Pat” Menna, members named Blackwood the commission’s chairperson and Taylor its vice chair. “I’m pleased and honored to once again represent Red Bank,” said Taylor, a former council member. “We’re here for a good purpose.”
Over the next nine months, the commission will study Red Bank’s existing form of government, a partisan borough council established in the early 1900s when the borough was “a sleepy river front trading center” and its economy was surrounded by adjacent residential farms and railroad-driven commerce, Menna said earlier this year. At the Nov. 30 meeting, commissioners decided a $50,000 budget would be most appropriate to cover any necessary costs, mostly for legal counsel, along with travel reimbursement and a board clerk. The budget request must be approved by the council, however. Members also agreed that they would meet on a semimonthly schedule and potentially in a hybrid format amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The topic has circulated for some time in Red Bank, a town that has been under Democratic rule for decades. Last year, Red Bank resident and former Republican committeeman in Hazlet Township Scott Broschart star ted an online petition to bring nonpartisan elections up for a vote in Red Bank. “It’s not creating a democracy; it’s not creating a system where the right candidates are running for office,” Broschart told The Two River Times about the existing partisan system in the borough. “At the end of the day, if you want to run for office, you have to kiss the ring of the Democrat party chairman or the Republican party chairman in order to run.”
Broschart was not the first to suggest this change. In 2018 the borough hired a third-party consultant, Government Strategy Group, to conduct a Management Enhancement Review for Red Bank. It analyzed the operations of the borough from top- to-bottom and provided a detailed list broken down into a handful of key areas with suggestions on how to improve borough management and operations. Its top recommendation was to address the current form of government. The charter commission’s next meeting will be held Wednesday, Dec. 22, with a full semimonthly schedule to begin in the new year.
The article originally appeared in the December 2 – 8, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
