By Donald Gilpin

Mia Sacks

With just two weeks until Election Day 2022, Michelle Pirone Lambros and Mia Sacks, both Democrats, are running unopposed for re-election to three-year terms on Princeton Council. Also on the ballot for Princeton residents is a congressional contest, an election for Mercer County Commissioners, and a race for three seats on the Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Board of Education (BOE).

Both seeking their second terms, Lambros and Sacks were asked to share some of their accomplishments over the past three years and what they see as priorities for Council and the town of Princeton in the upcoming months and years.

Lambros wrote the following in her response:

Michelle Pirone Lambros

“When I ran in 2019, I had two main pillars of my campaign; I promised to help drive economic development, specifically to enhance and restore the vitality of our shopping and dining districts, and I promised to address affordability, which is causing the evaporation of socio-economic diversity in our town. I believe these two goals are synergistic; economic growth makes sense financially as the health of our commercial tax base is critical to help offset our residential tax burden.

To the economic development goal, we were faced with incredible challenges these past few years to our business community. First plunging in to help them cope and survive the pandemic, where we worked on the COVID response to help support our small businesses. We helped them survive through creating a grant program that dispersed nearly half a million dollars in grant funding, helped them get reopened through programs like outdoor dining, and kept up regular communications on ever-changing COVID protocols. This work and the team building it engendered culminated in the creation of a Special Improvement District, the Princeton Business Partnership, which will have long-lasting benefits to the community by supporting the revitalization of our small businesses and will have as a goal to support expansion of minority and women-owned entrepreneurship. Having the business community come together to create and fund their own self-help program will be transformative, and I am proud to have shepherded this effort which will be a milestone in our town’s history.

To address my second goal, affordability and maintaining greater diversity in our town, we worked to eliminate exclusionary zoning practices, build more affordable housing, and increased our stock of middle-income housing; both rentals and for sale properties. There is no singular path forward that will have all the solutions; it must be a multi-pronged strategy of finding ways to incentivize smart growth development without increasing the financial burden on taxpayers. My work on Council has been focused on creating more housing stock for affordable and middle-income residents, while adding to our tax base and investing in community benefits and assuring that we are not adding more financial burden for residents. 

Our Council Finance Committee, which I chair, is focused on finding ways to trim the budget, while maintaining the very high level of services our town enjoys. We are looking at ways that our municipal properties could better serve the town and how we can capture federal infrastructure funding for a wide array of capital improvement projects. To better serve the diverse needs of our residents, we are exploring options for a community center and we are investing more in our parks and recreational amenities.

There have been some great accomplishments these past two and a half years, but there is still so much more work to do. I couldn’t’t ask for a better, more collaborative team of Council colleagues to work with, and I would be honored to continue serving our town for a second term.”

Sacks wrote the following:

“Serving on Princeton Council these past three years has been equally challenging and rewarding. I’m grateful for the opportunity to help shape my hometown during this critical period.

Planning for our town’s future will continue to be my primary focus. I serve as the Council’s Representative on the Princeton Planning Board and its Master Plan Steering Committee. We have convened a public process for comprehensive review of the town’s Master Plan. An updated plan, reflecting our residents’ core values, will provide a much-needed guide for municipal decision makers as we navigate the impact of growth in Princeton and in the communities surrounding us.

Repairing Princeton’s sanitary sewer system, expanding our stormwater infrastructure, and creating a Stormwater Utility are top priorities for me. We are forging ahead with updates to our stormwater management ordinances that meet and exceed state requirements for green infrastructure, and promote crucial resiliency in the face of climate change and increasingly severe weather events.

As chair of Council’s Affordable Housing, Planning and Redevelopment Committee, I will be spearheading the final steps to implement Princeton’s Affordable Housing Settlement. Princeton’s plan increases the amount of affordable housing for seniors and developmentally disabled adults, and locates housing close to transit, shopping, and jobs to maximize positive local economic impacts.

In the past year, I worked with a consortium of local partners to secure funding for preservation of a 153-acre parcel, the largest remaining tract of undeveloped land in Princeton. The acquisition is part of an ongoing initiative called Princeton’s Emerald Necklace, through which we are working to more responsibly steward and connect open spaces throughout town for passive recreational use.

As Council’s liaison to the Public Transit Committee, I transitioned Princeton’s free bus service to a new model that will enable us to create greater efficiencies of scale with the University. We are working to expand routes to our new affordable housing sites in ways that take into account the needs of working families — especially those with after-school transportation needs.

As chair of the newly-constituted Infrastructure and Operations Committee, I spearheaded a merger of our Public Works and Engineering departments. The consolidated departments will provide better coordination for planning and maintenance of our municipal infrastructure, as well as more streamlined, cost-effective delivery of services.

This past year we retained a consultant to undertake an in-depth analysis of our solid waste collection and disposal systems. We will launch town-wide composting in the new year as well as a cart-based system to help realize significant cost savings.

In the Personnel Committee I was involved with an organization-wide restructuring that combined multiple departments and created a new leadership team. I will continue to look for ways to make our local government more efficient and effective.

On Council’s Finance Committee we are working to create a budget process that is more accessible to the public. This reconstituted process will ensure that core expenditures reflect current community values and objectives.

I am currently part of the team renegotiating the town’s voluntary contribution agreement with Princeton University. We hope the result will be an agreement which strengthens our shared interest in enhancing the town’s fiscal health, diverse population, and thriving central business district.”

Also on the ballot for Princeton residents is the election for the New Jersey 12th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Democrat Bonnie Watson Coleman is running for her fifth term in Congress against first-time challenger Republican Darius Mayfield and a third-party Libertarian candidate, C. Lynn Genrich.

Watson Coleman served eight terms in the New Jersey State Assembly before becoming the first African American woman to represent New Jersey in Congress. Mayfield, a businessman, in 2019 became the first African American general manager of the United States’ third fastest growing auto group. Mayfield is described on his website as “a self-made business strategist, political commentator, and political visionary.”

There are four candidates running for two seats on the Mercer County Board of Commissioners, two Democrats — incumbent Nina Melker and new candidate  Cathleen Lewis, and two Republicans — both new candidates Michael Chianese and Andrew Kotula.

Currently serving as chair of the Board of Commissioners, Melker is running for her second three-year term. She has worked in the banking industry for the past 40 years, has served on many local boards and committees, and has received a number of awards for her service.

Lewis is a first-time candidate for Board of Commissioners, but has served on the Lawrence Council for 10 years, including a two-year term as mayor. Most recently, she has served at the Board of Public Utilities, working with businesses and local government through the New Jersey Clean Energy Program, and she serves on several local boards.

Chianese is running for the Board of Commissioners for the second time. He worked in state government for more than 35 years and was also fire commissioner for Mercerville Firehouse for about three years. 

Kotula is a field service specialist for Epson America, traveling regionally to provide customers with quality service support and training on a wide range of Epson industrial products. He has lived in Mercer County for 22 years and is running for the Board of Commissioners for the second time. 

The race for three seats on the PPS School Board matches three incumbents — Debbie Bronfeld, Susan Kanter, and Dafna Kendal — against two challengers — Margarita “Rita” Rafalovsky and Lishian “Lisa” Wu.

There are three ways to vote in the upcoming election: early in person,  by mail, or at the polls on Election Day. 

Registered voters can cast their ballots early from Saturday, October 29 through Sunday, November 6 in person at any one of seven early voting locations throughout Mercer County. There is a Princeton early voting location at the Princeton Shopping Center, and other Mercer County locations can be found at vote.nj.gov.

To vote by mail, voters can apply for and return a vote-by-mail ballot by following instructions at vote.nj.gov or contacting the county clerk at mercercounty.org.

The third option is to vote in person at your designated polling place (see vote.nj.gov.) between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Election Day, November 8.