Township Council reorganizes with two new members, president

BY ANN GENADER
WEST MILFORD ‑‑ Trisha Gerst and Andrena “Andie” Pegel, newly elected members of the Township of West Milford Council, were administered their oaths of office by New Jersey Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26th Legislative District) on Jan. 3 during the annual reorganization meeting in the municipal building meeting room. They are each beginning their first terms office.
Councilman Tim Wagner is the new council president and will conduct meetings and fill in at events when Mayor Bettina Bieri is not available. Selected by council peers, he replaces Luciano "Lou" Signorino as president.
Signorino immediately asked that permanent appointments of professionals and department heads be held off while the new council studies responses to requests for resumes from those interested in working for West Milford. He said the council wants to employ those who come at the lowest cost while providing the best service.
People who have been working in capacity of professionals and department heads will continue in their jobs for now as holdovers but they do not yet have permanent reappointments.
With philosophy like council members who are no longer in office, Councilman Michael Hensley told Signorino that the hold-up of permanent appointments would take a heavy detrimental toll on the morale of township employees, especially the professionals.
Signorino responded that if there was that concern it would have been raised already. He said now in his seventh year on the council he has seen that when proposals for change come up everyone clams up and nothing happens. He said new council members have the right to make comparisons in order to make informed decisions. They cannot be held to decisions of a former council, he said.
Hensley reminded the council of the successful legal work Attorney Fred Semrau has done for the township and he said it would be disgraceful to place him in a temporary position while they studied resumes of people they might choose to replace him.
Hensley said no person has had more success in solving local problems than Semrau. He reminded the council of the West Milford Municipal Utility (MUA) “near impossible situation in which he found ways to get everything done”.
He mentioned that Semrau “has done an outstanding job for years” in cases including watershed tax relief.
It’s fine if the council wants to get more information – but singling out a professional such as the attorney and putting his job on the line is not fine, continued Hensley.
In the end, Semrau was reappointed to his position as township attorney – the only permanent professional appointment made to date by the new council. All other appointments are still tentative.
Bieri reminded the council that the current form of government in West Milford gives the mayor the right to make certain appointments and by their actions the new council is interfering with her doing her job.
Former Councilwomen Ada Erik and Marilyn Lichtenberg, Republicans who ran as Independent candidates after declining a Republican primary in the spring, lost to Gerst and Pegel in the November elections.
They were in the audience at Wednesday’s meeting and were upset when the new council did not return them and other volunteers to positions they held previously. Erik said there are committees that often cannot meet for lack of a quorum. She said people are not volunteering because of the party politics.