Moorestown Council Selects Newest Member

Moorestown, NJ -- Moorestown’s newest council member is an active member of the community, a stay-at-home mom with a background in tech management and spent her first official day as a councilwoman celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary.

Lisa Petriello was unanimously approved as the newest member of Moorestown Council during a special meeting at town hall Wednesday morning. She will fill the unexpired term of Greg Newcomer, who resigned on Nov. 30. She is the lone Democrat on the five-member council. The term expires next year.

“I’m really excited to work with council and all the residents,” Petriello said. “It’s good to have different perspectives on council. It’s how we get smart, creative solutions.”

She was selected from among three candidates put forth by the Democratic Committee.

“I had a conversation with all three candidates and they were all good, but she has an understanding of all the topics we have to deal with,” Deputy Mayor Phil Garwood said. “I think Lisa will be a good addition.”

All four members of council agreed in nominating and approving Petriello as a member of council.

“You have big shoes to fill,” Councilwoman Stacey Jordan told Petriello. “Greg had a big heart for Moorestown.”

“I felt you would be the best person to fill those shoes,” Mayor Victoria Napolitano said. “I know you’ll continue the tradition of putting Moorestown first.”

Petriello has been a Moorestown resident for 10 years. She was born in Oklahoma, spent part of her life working in New Yorkj City, and lived in London for a year. She lives with her husband, Sal, and 9-year-old son, Luca, a third-grader at South Valley Elementary School. They were both in attendance for Wednesday morning’s swearing-in.

Petriello has been a member of the Sustainable Moorestown Advisory Committee since 2012, an Advisory Member of the Mt. Laurel YMCA since 2013, the Chair of the YMCA Togetherhood Service Committee since 2014, and a Master Gardener with the Burlington County branch of the Rutgers University Cooperative Extension since 2009. She was previously a Master Gardener with the Cornell Unviersity Cooperative Extension in Erie County, NY.

She said her primary goals as a council member are to help develop a sustainable budget, which she explained as a budget that relies on long-term solutions as opposed to temporary income, such as the revenue generated by liquor licenses.

“Council agrees and it is so important,” Petriello said. “We have to look at the budget and make smart decisions.”

She also referenced water infrastructure as an important issue, as well as the Complete Streets program and transparency, including the video and audio recording of council meetings.

Council next meets on Wednesday night, Jan. 6, 2016, for its annual reorganization meeting at town hall, 7 p.m.