Vanderbeck Joins Hightstown Council

The Hightstown Borough Council voted 5-0 Monday to bring Democrat and former councilman Mike Vanderbeck back into its ranks, replacing former councilman and fellow Democrat Dimitri Musing.

Vanderbeck, 58, previously served on the council from 1999 to 2003. He has been active in several local groups and owns in the borough.

“I would like to thank the council. I think that was a great exercise, and as the council president mentioned, it did provoke a back-and-forth-ness of deliberative comments,” Vanderbeck said after being sworn in by Mayor Steve Kirson, another Democrat. “I think all candidates were forthright in their answers about how they want to see the borough advance.”

The council chose Vanderbeck after nearly two hours of interviewing him and the other two people the borough Democratic council , Gail Doran and Eugene Sarafin. The three candidates answered a number of questions from current council members on what they hoped to address on council, the borough’s viability and the way it is currently run.

The three agreed on many issues, but Vanderbeck differentiated himself from his competition on several different topics. He focused largely on how the borough will be affected by the New Jersey Turnpike Expansion Project, which will relocate Exit 8 so that it routes traffic onto Route 133 in East Windsor instead of Franklin Street directly next to Hightstown.

“If we’re going look at a turnpike expansion that’s going to affect this town in a way that it hasn’t been affected since the turnpike was built, I think that’s a watershed moment,” Vanderbeck said, adding New York City will be easier to reach after the project.

“Hightstown is in a unique, unique position and that’s why I put myself forward to be on council,” he continued.

“We need to really work on the Master Plan and projects with the public, really look at, can we build ourselves out of this tax problem we have… or do we want to look more to become a tourist/recreational town and at some point merge with another community or neighboring town? And if we don’t do anything, if we don’t position ourselves to at least have a reasonable future, then it’s a bleak future we have.”

Responding to a question from Republican Lynne Woods about transparency, Vanderbeck said, “I feel the Borough of Hightstown is exceedingly transparent. It has been for a number of years, we’ve won awards for that. I don’t see it as a problem at all.”

Doran, meanwhile, said she was “very concerned” about the level of transparency in the administration. “I see what looks to be a lot of dissension on council and I get the sense that you’re not talking to each other, much less meeting with the public,” she said. She noted that despite campaign promises, there still have been no town hall-style meetings since the new administration took office in January.

Sarafin said he has “never had a problem” getting information from the borough, adding, “If not, you’ll see me in court.”

Asked by Democrat and Council President Isabel McGinty what is the most pressing issue facing the Borough Council, Vanderbeck said it was “cohesion.”

“There’s no common vision on council. I think I would like to develop first off that,” he said. He told McGinty she has “been remiss in not bringing people along with [her]” in her vision of the borough. If cohesion can’t be achieved, he said, the council should select a new president.

“You guys have to work as one body,” he said.

Sarafin said it was important to look at the downtown's population density and the sustainability of the borough's water and sewer plants. Doran said the council needs to focus on making things like the budget more understandable to the public and on holding borough employees accountable.

Republican Selena Bibens asked the candidates if they thought the borough would be able to improve services, lower taxes and remain independent.

“That question you asked is the existential question of Hightstown, it has been for 50 years,” Vanderbeck said. “I think Hightstown, we really need to massage that notion of ‘independence’ to more of ‘identity.’”

The borough, he said, can keep the identity of “downtown Hightstown” even if it ends up being part of another municipality.

When the time came to vote, most council members said that given the relative lack of experience of the current governing body, they wanted someone who had been on council before.

“I think one thing that I see as a priority is that, with so many new council members on the current council, that it’s really important to have somebody fill this spot who has prior experience and can really hit the ground running and start leading us—working with us right away, working with the concepts and even maybe be a leader,” Woods said.

Republican Skye Gilmartin, who joined the council through the same process to replace former councilman Mike Theokas and who is now running for reelection, agreed. “The majority of us up here are new,” she said. “I think experience is going to be the selling point here.”

Bibens also said experience would be an asset to the council. “There’s been a lot going on over the past month and I think a new set of eyes is definitely going to be helpful to us here,” she said. “We got here based on topics and some of those topics are now no longer [present], and there’s a lot more going on.”

Democrat Larry Quattrone, who has been on council the longest, said choosing a new member without an election puts the council in “an awkward position,” but he too said experience was “critical,” especially since the borough has yet to hire a new administrator.

“There’s so many irons in the fire right now that the public doesn’t know about that have to be dealt with,” he said.

But McGinty said if experience were the only factor, the council could have skipped the interviews and just looked at the resumes the candidates submitted. She gave an analysis of each candidate, praising Vanderbeck for his experience both on council and in business and for bringing forward new ideas in his interview. She also expressed concern about his answer regarding transparency.

“I can appreciate Mr. Vanderbeck’s identification of the existential questions faced by the borough,” she said. “I think sometimes what we have are conversations on issues that are going nowhere and not addressing the deeper issues overall.”

After being sworn in, Vanderbeck said he would not be able to attend the council’s May 16 meeting but would be able to rearrange his schedule to make the others.

Vanderbeck takes the seat of Democrat and former councilman Musing, who over issues of legal liability. Vanderbeck will take up Musing's former positions as liaison to the construction office, borough administration and the Historic Preservation Committee.