By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – Residents delivered a historic verdict at the polls Nov. 8, voting to approve a referendum that will end the century-old borough form of government. Democrats Angela Mirandi and John Jackson won the two open borough council seats, keeping a Democratic stronghold on the borough intact despite recent party in-fighting.
As of Wednesday noon, with all Red Bank districts reporting, including early in-person voting, the unofficial results from the Monmouth County Clerk’s office showed incumbent Mirandi and political newcomer Jackson scoring 1,707 and 1,688 votes, respectively; Republican opponents Mark Taylor and Jonathan Penny garnered 1,551 and 1,459 votes.
Once sworn in, Mirandi and Jackson will join current council members Michael Ballard, Jacqueline Sturdivant, Kate Triggiano (who also serves as council president and the Democratic municipal chairperson) and Ed Zipprich.
On her win, Mirandi said in a joint statement with Jackson, “I’d like to thank everyone who voted for me, and I look forward to serving all of Red Bank. I want to thank everyone who helped with the campaign and John Jackson for being my running mate. I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue serving my community and making positive changes as we all work together to move Red Bank forward.”
Jackson was as enthusiastic about his win saying, “I’m excited that I’ll get to do what I’ve longed to do in Red Bank – serve our community in a leadership capacity. I also appreciate that voters based their choice on what they saw and heard of us, through our own words and actions. Angela and I will lead in the same manner in which we campaigned – with thoughtfulness and integrity.”
Mayor-elect William Portman ran unopposed and received 2,350 votes to succeed four-term Mayor Pasquale Menna.
Party affiliation will be moot next year as the borough’s bipartisan form of government, in existence since 1907, will be replaced with a nonpartisan council-manager form of government in 2023. As per unofficial results, 2,013 residents voted in favor of the change while 931 voted against it.
But the wins for Mirandi, Jackson and Portman will be short-lived; in May 2023, the borough will hold its first municipal elections under the new form of government to elect a mayor and council who will be installed in July. That means Mirandi, Jackson and Portman, along with the four council members who were not up for reelection in 2022, will be on the ballot again in a few months, if they choose to run. Under the nonpartisan council-manager form, the mayor will get a full vote on borough matters and will be directly elected by the people to serve a four-year term. Six council members will be elected for staggered terms through nonpartisan elections to serve four-year terms.
The referendum question was put on the ballot after a charter study commission – which residents voted to convene in November 2021 – published their final report in July, recommending the change.
“There are stronger lines of accountability and areas of responsibility,” commission member Ben Forest said in a video on Facebook at the time. “The whole body will be accountable to all of us voters – Democrats, Republicans, unaffiliated voters – as opposed to just party bosses.”
“I’m hyper aware of the fact that I am stepping into this role during massive changes,” Portman said during election night celebrations at the Dublin House, with a new form of government and an updated Master Plan. ”With a recurring undercurrent of internal differences within the party that Portman stands to inherit, he is hoping to find common ground to unify and move forward.
“The biggest thing I’d like to do,” Portman said, “is change the tone.”
Triggiano and Menna joined Portman at the packed event. Triggiano has been very vocal about nonpartisan elections and moving to a council-manager form of government. “These are changes that will help give everybody in town a voice,” she said.Menna did not indicate his future plans after his term ends in December but agreed that the council-manager form would settle a lot of differences within the party because “it would make the people running for council run as nonparty individuals.” Menna said that would eliminate the power of the Republican and Democratic Party chairs “who control right now who gets to run and who gets the line and that gives them a lot of control on spending issues on the council.”
“Stuff like that shouldn’t be part of a modern operation,” Menna said. “We’re not a sleepy town.”
The article originally appeared in the November 10 – 16, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
