To the Editor:

Jo Butler should be re-elected to Town Council because she has served Princeton well. She has worked tirelessly for the success of consolidation and has sought to ensure that it delivers on its core promise of maintaining services while reducing costs. Her training and experience in business administration combined with her in-depth knowledge of consolidation as a work in progress will continue to provide needed leadership.

Jo understands the connection between the stability of Princeton’s tax rates and our sustainability as a diverse community. During her two years on the former Borough Council, she was a co-founder of the first Citizen Finance Advisory Task Force and served as its first chair. Both years, the Council delivered budgets with no new tax increases. With Jo’s help, the new Town Council has improved on that record, shrinking the budget and delivering a reduced municipal tax rate in the first year.

Jo believes in the ideals of good government — not the least of which are openness and accountability — and she has proved that she can stand up for these ideals even when it is easier to remain silent.

As a member of Council, Jo has worked hard between meetings, done her homework, and engaged fully in the process of governance, as she believes her constituents expect. She has stood up for expanding the items listed for separate public discussion at Council meetings; for Council access to monthly police reports; for greater clarity and public access to meeting minutes; for close scrutiny of proposed professional contracts and related spending; for creation of a formal conflicts-of-interest policy for Council; and for more frequent meetings of Council, to improve opportunities for public comment. Process issues generally fly below the public’s radar, but it is good government which favors openness and accountability of the kind Jo advocates.

Town Council has done a commendable job in its first two years. Jo Butler has made an invaluable contribution to its accomplishments. Please join me in supporting her re-election.

Walter Bliss

Moore Street