Ciccarelli, Payne to lead Hillsborough Township Committee in new year

The Hillsborough Township Committee reorganized with new leadership.

John Ciccarelli was nominated and selected to serve as mayor for 2025 and Catherine Payne was nominated and selected to serve as deputy mayor.

Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli swore in Ciccarelli and Payne, who were joined alongside by their families, into their new roles at a reorganization meeting on Jan. 2.

“I am truly honored and humbled to be up here on the dais this year and be selected by the Township Committee as your mayor,” Ciccarelli said. “Last year you put your faith in me as deputy mayor and the team, led by [Mayor Robert Britting], we were able to accomplish great things. [We] advocated for Hillsborough to get [Route] 206 moving and back on track, increased transparency through the new Ask the Mayor initiative, focused on infrastructure, purchased more open space and fully funded the police department to keep Hillsborough safe among other tasks we accomplished.

“I am committed in expanding these efforts while implementing additional improvements to bring benefits and services to the residents of Hillsborough.”

Ciccarelli came to the dais two years ago with a professional engineering background as a consultant and certified professional in construction, engineering and the public works industry.

As a committeeman, Ciccarelli said the exposure to all the services that are delivered to the 43,000 residents and 1,500 businesses has been gratifying from health, social services, police to BoroSafe, Boro Aware, Interfaith, youth, veterans, and seniors.

“Each of these things benefit building and maintaining infrastructure,” he said. “I accept the role of mayor from the perspective of being in the right place with the right skills and time and bringing together this collective skill and knowledge with the services that are being delivered to the residents.”

In 2025, Ciccarelli said he will continue leading the baseline principles outlined and executed during the last couple of years – fiscal responsibility, structure and open space – with a focus on developing the overall vision for Hillsborough’s future.

“These three are primary keystone vision points with each in their own way helping to protect the town and pave the way for Hillsborough’s future,” he said.

• Fiscal responsibility – Continue business-like approach and maintain strong fiscal policies, maintain excellent credit rating and overall financial position while increasing excellent township service, continue supporting police funding and maintaining the township’s fiscal responsibility.
• Infrastructure – Continue to work to improve the township’s sustainability infrastructure, which is not just about paving roads, Ciccarelli said. It expands to IT (information technology), utilities, buildings and any structures and facilities. Making sure infrastructure benefits the safety and health of all of residents, economic development of community known as a triple bottom line where infrastructure benefits social, environmental and economic causes.
• Preserving and expanding existing open space – Coordination with the township’s open space trust fund. Somerset County and the state’s Green Acres has helped the township with farmland preservation. This will be related to the master plan, Ciccarelli said, adding he will continue championing the master plan, which will be a significant part of the keystone points.

Along with the three keystone points, Ciccarelli said he will continue to make health a priority including advocating for diabetes awareness and will continue being a cheerleader for the Hillsborough Township Public Schools – the high school’s RoboRaiders, the marching band and the Girl and Boy Scouts and youth sports.

“As stated last year, we have serious work to do,” Ciccarelli said. ” … We accomplished a lot of great things in 2024 with this team and I look forward to working in the best of my abilities with my fellow committee members, township staff and residents of Hillsborough during the coming year.”

Payne, who is serving her first term on the committee, said they had a really great 2024.

“It was definitely a stepping year in the right direction and a teaching moment on a lot of different things,” she said. “It’s always important that you give your time to something a little bit bigger than yourself … to see behind the curtain is really important, it offers you other steps, opportunities and other paths. This year was definitely full of them and I am very appreciative.”

Payne noted her work with the veterans.

“[Committeewoman] Samantha Hand and I were able to do amazing things this year with the Veterans Commission that had pretty much stalled out a little bit because of 2020 and illness, people were afraid to come back together,” she said. “We were able to bring that community back in a very safe, formative way with informative sessions and I’m very, very proud of our work with that organization and to kind of revive that in our community.

“It’s a very important part of our community. We will continue to do that in 2025 as well.”

Payne said she will continue to work with the county on a water hazard on one of their roads in town and push to resolve the issue in the new year.

Britting said along with working closely with the administration team to make sure communication and transparencies are at the highest standard, his focus this year will be coordinating with the superintendent of schools, Mike Volpe, and the Hillsborough Board of Education.

“With 65% of our taxes going towards the schools, it’s incredibly important to find common connections to make sure our children have the best future,” he said.

Hand, who is the lone Democrat on the dais, said she has met the most remarkable people that work at the municipal building when she began her first term a year ago.

“I have every right and every obligation to raise issues in public and I will continue to do that, to expect answers,” she said. “We’ve had difficult conversations and debates, which is healthy and hopefully results in the best decision for our community.

“I don’t think it requires others to mischaracterize my questions, disparage my comments or feel threatened by them,” Hand continued. “As a committee we ultimately want to work together for the betterment and good for our Hillsborough community.”

In 2025, Hand said she will continue to advocate for affordability for the township residents by calling for fiscal accountability – reducing taxes and reducing debt.

“We should be very careful about adding to resident’s financial burden by committing this town to high interest payments, which extends beyond our terms of our office,” she said. “We should focus on road safety. This is in regards to speed limits, distraction, protecting bicyclists and pedestrians of our town.

“We should work to preserve the character of our town by protecting open space. Again, I was elected to represent all of the people of Hillsborough. I will always prioritize their well-being over any other consideration and will continue to serve effectively.”

Lipani said in 2025, he promises to continue to represent the residents and be approachable.

“If I’m having dinner with my wife maybe give me a break,” he joked, but in all seriousness, Lipani said the residents can approach him anytime and/or email him. “I am truly humbled to be elected to a third term. The second one was special because you felt like maybe you didn’t get fired because you didn’t screw up enough. The third one gives me [the confidence that] I’m doing the right thing most of the time.

“We can’t always tell you what you want to hear. I’ve always said that rip the Band-Aid off once and you tell them the truth. As the mayor said, we have to do what is good for all 43,000 residents, not necessarily what’s good for a small group of people.”

Also during the reorganization meeting, Lipani and Britting were sworn in to their new three-year terms by Ciattarelli. Lipani is beginning his third term and Britting is beginning his second term.