Informed Voting: Candidates for Marlboro Township Council

Next week, Marlboro residents will again head to the polls to choose three candidates for the Marlboro Town Council. 

Profiles on each candidate were published last week on Patch, and you can always find voting information in our elections category.

• Council Candidate: Carol Mazzola
• Council Candidate: Craig Marshall
• Council Candidate: Jeff Cantor
• Council Candidate: Marielaina LaRosa
• Council Candidate: Scott Metzger
• Council Candidate: Bob Knight

Know how your government works:

The Marlboro Township government works under the Faulkner Act, which is a mayor-council form of government. Marlboro specifically has five council members, Dr. Scott Metzger, Carol Mazzola, Frank LaRocca, Lt. Col. Jeff Cantor and Randi Marder.

Under the Faulkner Act, municipal councils can have five, seven or nine members of council.

Council members are elected every four years, and serve staggered terms. 

In any regular Town Council meeting, the council will pass budget and tax resolutions, ordinances, determine tax rates and anything that involves governing the town on a day-to-day basis.

Resolutions and ordinances are passed by a council majority vote. During a meeting, both the council and the mayor hear from citizens, who sign up to speak in 5-minute intervals about scheduled agenda items or non-agenda items. Council members and the mayor answer questions and respond to comments at their discretion.

This portion, citizen's voice, usually occurs in the beginning of a council meeting. However, sometimes changes are made to the agenda, which can be found on the township website.

The council has a president and vice-president, who are named at the annual reorganization meeting in January.

The Mayor of Marlboro, Jon Hornik, is not a voting member of council. The mayor is elected every four years. Although the mayor does not vote during council meetings, he is the Chief Executive and Administrative Officer of the township, according to Marlboro's website.

This means Marlboro Township runs under a "strong-mayor" system, and the mayor can appoint or veto committee appointments and appoint officers and employees of the township. Each year, the mayor also presents a budget to the council, which is determined based on statements from township department heads, committees, and the incurred budget amendments from the previous year (such as emergency budget approvals for snow removal.)

The council can reduce any item on the budget by a majority vote and increase any item by a two-thirds vote, according to the township website and the Municipal Charter Laws of New Jersey.

At the reorganization meeting each year, the mayor appoints a Deputy Mayor, municipal clerk and business administrator. The Deputy Mayor would take over the duties of the mayor if the mayor was unable to work for 60 days or more.

Initiative Referendum

In a Faulkner Act government, residents have the right to introduce an ordinance into a council agenda with a petition signed by 10 percent of the registered voters who turned out for the last general election.