Short Chosen as Mayor, Roehrich To Be Vice

The Washington Township Committee of 2012 was made official on Saturday, Jan. 7 at its annual reorganization meeting, as Committeeman Tracy Tobin was sworn in, Ken Short was named mayor, and Bill Roehrich was selected as vice mayor.

Tobin, who served on the committee for 27 years previously, stepped down in 2009 for personal reasons. He in June 2011, in November 2011 to win the vacant three-year seat.

The committee then voted on its selection of mayor, with Roehrich nominating Short and Tobin seconding the motion. All five committee members approved the nomination, and Short took over as mayor for the third straight year.

The next item on the agenda was to select a vice mayor. Short nominated Roehrich, the second-longest tenured member on the current committee, and James LiaBraaten seconded the motion. All five committee members approved the nomination. This is Roehrich’s first term as vice mayor.

Short thanked the committee for once again entrusting its confidence in him to lead the governing body, but he made it clear that it wasn’t a one-man show.

“This is a group that works together,” Short said. “My name may hit the headlines or be in the story more often, but everyone on this committee has an equal vote. This isn’t one person leading four others. It’s a group effort.”

Short also welcomed back Tracy Tobin to the committee, saying that his experience and knowledge of the town is extremely important to the committee.

The mayor also acknowledged that 2011 was a difficult year in Washington Township, as revenues declined and the recession continued on. But he focused on the new year, the budget the committee would soon be working on, and how to best improve the township going forward.

“Our budget in 2011 was 1.81-percent over the previous year, and it should be noted that was all inclusive, with pension and health funding,” Short said. “We will keep the budget under (state mandated) 2-percent cap again, and will eliminate anything not needed to help keep taxes affordable in town.”

Short said among the objectives in 2012 were to keep an open line of communication with the two school districts serving the township. The mayor said the township will continue to move forward with the at the , and will to establish an equitable way of funding the regional high school district.

But it was the topic of that Short made an emphasis to address, after a year in which the township saw record outages.

“Between , Tropical Storm Lee, and the , storms left us humble to nature in 2011,” Short said. “We had 677 residents lose power on Christmas Day for no reason at all, and that’s uncalled for. We can’t let it happen again. We should not be treated as a secondary community.”

Senator Anthony Bucco and his son, Assemblyman Anthony Bucco, were both in attendance for the reorganization meeting. The Buccos have worked closely with Washington Township in its efforts to get responses from JCP&L after weather-related outages ravaged the town.

Former Washington Township mayor and current , in addition to freeholders Doug Cabana, Gene Feyl, Thomas Mastrangelo, and Ann Grossi, was also in attendance at the meeting. Morris County Sheriff Ed Rochford was in attendance as well.