To the Editor:

As deputy mayor of the Township, Liz Lempert has been closely involved in our town’s road to consolidation. But that’s not the best reason for her to become mayor of a united Princeton. The best reason is her record.

As Liz’s fellow member on the Princeton Environmental Commission, I can say that her commitment to the environment and sustainability has been unsurpassed by any other municipal official who has served on the PEC. One of her greatest achievements was helping preserve 66 acres of open space, including the Princeton Ridge Preserve. With Liz as mayor, our town will become greener faster.

As a fellow public school mother, I am grateful for Liz founding Save Our Schools, which has waged a tough and ongoing fight with the state legislature to give local voters — not the state — power over charter schools that usurp local funds to create boutique schools within a system ranked among the best in the nation. In my two decades in Princeton, I’ve not seen this kind of activism and commitment to public education by any other municipal official. Liz will keep working hard to keep our schools strong.

Liz also has been a local hero for the less fortunate in our town by leading the effort to save Princeton’s Human Service Commission. There are many individuals in Princeton with low-paying jobs and no health insurance who have difficulty paying rent and putting food on the table. The commission exists to help these people when they are in need or in crisis, yet it was nearly abolished.

Lastly, I am grateful for Liz’s successful efforts in working with officials and staff to keep the property tax rate flat, and for her intent to keep it flat once she’s elected mayor.

Liz is short on rhetoric and long on action. She is open-minded, fair, pragmatic, and gets things done, thanks in large part to her collaborative style of leadership. She’s not in the race for the limelight. She loves this town as much as her Princeton born and bred contender, and she’s in it to keep Princeton a great, neighborhood-oriented and progressive place to live.

Wendy Kaczerski

Chestnut Street