Voters to Elect Two Township Committee Members

This election has been a trying one – , tropical storms, and a snowstorm that plunged much of the township in to darkness 10 days before election day.

Many phones were out of service all week with residents using their cell phones to call the power company or the township, not to make candidate phone calls.

But the candidates have been meeting voters where they can – at the train stations, at civic association meetings, at coffee shops, in carpool lines and on the streets downtown.

When they came together at a candidate forum 10 days ago on a rainy evening, they attracted a full house – people really wanted to hear their opinions on issues, particularly on flooding.

Two Democrats and two Republicans are running for the two open seats on the Millburn Township Committee. Deputy Mayor Republican Robert Tillotson is seeking re-election and the other seat is open because the lone Democrat on the committee, Jim Suell, decided not to run again.

Republican Sari Greenberg is running with Tillotson and they face Democratic challengers Seth Levine and Stephen Thomas.

It has been a cordial but heated race, but one thing the candidates all agree on is that flood remediation is the top priority for Millburn-Short Hills.

Had Irene not flooded homes and and caused the inadequate storm and to back up on , then the other issues facing the township would loom larger, including parking, shared services, downtown redevelopment and planning and zoning issues.

But will be the biggest expense and issue for years to come, the candidates all agree.

 “As we’re all aware, it’s a grave situation in ," said Democratic Candidate Stephen Thomas, at a recent debate hosted by the Short Hills Association. "We are going to have to spend a lot of money to improve the sewer system there. …Our budget doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room and we’re going to feel it. We need to sit back and take a long, hard look at what we’re spending money on.

Tillotson said that Township Committee is working hard on various areas to fix the flooding from working with other towns and counties to planning drainage projects in the South Mountain area that the committee can act on now.

“We are getting a lot done,” he said. "The hurricane and flood damage and sewer damage is priority No. 1, and the Township Committee has exhibited that behavior since the day of the storm."

Democrat Seth Levine, who worked on the committee that formed in the wake of to address the same issues the town faces now, said he felt that the Township Committee had not adequately addressed flooding at the time.

“The township chose a parochial fix without engaging towns up and down the river,” Levine said. “It is probably the single largest priority now because it wasn’t done effectively earlier.”

Republican Sari Greenberg said Irene has been very polarizing and she hopes to bring residents together to work on the issue.

“It’s critical we that we implement a comprehensive program [to deal with recovery] and not do it in a vacuum. There are multiple moving parts and not all the parts are going to move in unison,” Greenberg said. “Dealing with it is an absolute priority.”

While the flooding issue – and most recently the second round of power outages in the wake of another natural disaster – are at the forefront of conversations in town, candidates have also talked about other issues such as parking, redevelopment, sharing services with other towns and traffic and zoning issues

Levine and Thomas have said downtown needs some redevelopment and that while they support the parking garage, they would like to see it planned along with some other revitalization efforts and improvements downtown.

Levine said the township needs to talk with the county about changing the one-way road configuration downtown that “basically turns Millburn Avenue into a three lane highway as it goes through downtown.”

All the candidates agree that the parking deck was needed but Levine and Thomas have said it should have happened 15 years ago, when it was first proposed, because it would be paid for by now.

Tillotson, was a key proponent of the parking garage, but not the revitalization plan that was proposed four years ago, prompting him to run the first time. He said a redevelopment plan should be something taxpayers want and approve of and is not a burden tax-wise.

Greenberg said any downtown plan should be also done in consideration of The Mall at Short Hills and should not compete with it. Additionally, she said, much of the revitalization efforts should made by the Downtown Millburn Development Alliance and by businesses.

The township is already sharing some services with other towns and is looking into other services, and issue that Levine ran on unsuccessfully last year.

All the candidates also agree that sharing services with other towns is a way to save money, but will only get the township so far.

The election is Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Voters will also be voting for a and two Assemblyman positions in the .

The Candidates at a Glance (in alphabetical order):

Sari Greenberg, a Short Hills Republican who grew up in West Caldwell, has lived in the township since 2000. She and her husband, Scott Segel, have daughters in 8^th and 4^th grades in Millburn schools.  A lot of her work has dealt with negotiations and bringing two sides together to come up with workable solutions, a skill she thinks will serve the committee well. After 15 years as general counsel with NBC Universal, she took a buyout and is spending more time with her family and in her community. She is chairwoman of religious school board and on the board of trustees at B’nai Israel in Millburn. She’s running, she says, to give back to the community that has given so much to her and her family.

Democrat Seth Levine, a telecommunications consultant, has lived with his wife Patty in the Wyoming area for 21 years. Their children graduated from Millburn High School, and he has long been active in civic organizations, including being co-president of the Wyoming Civic Association and on the committee that looked into flood control after Hurricane Floyd, and he says the town didn’t do enough at that time. He is a regular attendee at committee meetings, often asking questions and offering suggestions. In an earlier bid for office, he campaigned on the idea of sharing services, and improving downtown by adding a parking deck. He is running again because, he said, he feels he can help the township spend its tax money more efficiently and effectively.

Democrat Stephen Thomas spent 15 years as a writer for Sports Illustrated and online media until the economy first began to turn. He changed professions and worked as a carpenter and eventually a property manager. He and his wife, Susan Brody, have lived in Millburn since 1994 and have two children at Millburn High School and Middle School. Thomas has been active in civic life, including coaching Little League and serving on the town's parking committee years ago. He decided to run for office because, as a regular meeting attendee, he does not like the “dismissive way the committee treats its constituents.” He says he also thinks there needs to be someone on the committee willing to ask tough questions.

Incumbent and Deputy Mayor Robert Tillotson, a Republican, has a finance background and worked at a hedge fund for nearly 25 years and has lived in Short Hills more than 15 years. He and his wife, Suzan, have two children who graduated from Millburn High School and he, to, has been involved in civic life, including coaching rec sports teams. When he first ran for office three years ago, he ran on a campaign against large-scale redevelopment because he felt it would be a tax burden on the residents. He is running for re-election because, he says, the committee has made progress on issues in the three years he's been there  and he wants to build on that.