By Vita Duva
HOLMDEL – Over the course of the last several months, the Holmdel Charter Study Commission has held a series of public hearings in an effort to more closely examine and identify possible alternatives to its existing partisan township committee form of government.
This continued effort is part of Phase III of the committee’s three-phase plan, after a number of Holmdel residents raised their voices against what some have been referring to as “unjust regional partisan politics” and advocating for the municipality to adopt a nonpartisan democracy, mayoral elections and expanded representation during a public input session held in February.
During the municipality’s latest open public meeting, which was held on the evening of Thursday, May 12, the commissioners – Kin Gee, William Kastning, Janet Berk, Gerald Buffalino and Zach Gilstein – discussed recommendations to change the municipality to a council-manager form of government.
“The council-manager form of government, which is very similar to our current form of government, would allow modern upgrades that give more power to Holmdel residents,” chairman Gee explained.
Finally reaching a consensus, the committee went on to file a formal written report of these recommendations approved and signed by all five commissioners and filed with the township clerk.
“After a thorough study and review of the alternatives, I believe we achieved our goal to retain many features of our current form of government while improving it and making it more responsive and accountable to the people.” vice-chair Kastning told The Two River Times.
As stated in the report, the commission has unanimously concluded that Holmdel’s current township committee form of government, which operates under the Optional Municipal Charter Law (OMCL) can be “strengthened” and made “more clearly responsive” and “accountable to the people” if it is changed over to the OMCL council-manager form.
The 200-year old township committee form of government currently lacks three components that are available in the council-manager form: a direct election of its mayor; initiative and referendum by petition; and nonpartisan elections.
As the committee’s report further explained, Holmdel residents currently do not have the power to elect their mayor directly. Instead, the mayor is selected by the township committee members. Holmdel residents also currently do not have the power of initiative and referendum, which would allow them to petition to place on the ballot a proposal for a new law or the repeal of an existing one.
And, under the current form of government, elections can be held only on a partisan basis, which affords political party bosses, who are not residents of Holmdel, the power to select candidates to run on a party line for the township committee. Those selected candidates have a significant advantage over candidates who are not on a party line.
Alternatively, the council-manager form of government allows for all three while upholding the structure of the current township committee form of government.
“The recommendations make our local government more accountable to the residents of Holmdel by affording them more power in the governing process and in ensuring greater fairness in elections,” Berk told The Two River Times.
“As one of our interviewees stated, ‘I am for anything that gives more power to the people.’ Our recommendations do just that. We enable our citizens to elect their mayor directly, provide them the opportunity for initiative and referendum, and eliminate the inappropriate outside influence of county party managers,” said Gilstein.
Holmdel residents will now have the opportunity to vote to approve or disapprove the commission’s recommendations in a referendum. The special election has been scheduled for July 26.
The article originally appeared in the May 19 – 25, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
