Voters will choose from among three candidates for two open seats on the Princeton Council in the first contested race in several years in the Nov. 3 general election.
Voters’ choices will be made easier when choosing candidates to fill three open seats on the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education. None of the incumbent school board members – Adam Bierman, Beth Behrend and Eleanor Hubbard – are facing opposition on the ballot.
In the Princeton Council election, Democratic Party candidates David Cohen and Marina Rubina and Republican Party candidate Antonio Merolli are seeking the two open seats. Cohen is an incumbent Princeton Councilman, but Rubina and Merolli are newcomers.
The term is for three years.
Cohen is a retired architect. He worked for Michael Landau Associates PA and then opened his own architecture practice. He was active in the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, the Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee, Sustainable Princeton’s Climate Action Plan steering committee, and the Princeton Planning Board – on which he still serves as a Princeton Council representative.
Cohen said he is running for a fourth term “very specifically” to accomplish several goals that are in reach, but that will take more than just the remainder of this year to complete. These include implementing a storm water utility and replacing the existing lightly used muni-shuttle system with a micro-transit-on-demand system, which he compared to a public Uber.
Merolli is a retired university orthopedic surgeon who worked at the Catholic University Medical School in Rome. He joined the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials at Rutgers University in 2016, and moved to Princeton in 2020. He became active in the Westminster Community Orchestra before its demise in August.
His campaign is focused on transparency. Decisions were made behind closed doors, and consultants were chosen many times without bids, he said. If he is elected, he has pledged to be the eyes and ears of Princeton citizens and report back on how the budget is prepared, how consultants are chosen and the priorities selected.
Rubina is an architect and has a practice in Princeton. Her work has included residential projects and housing developments, including developments that include affordable housing. She said that if she is elected to the Princeton Council, she would not take on projects in town to avoid a conflict of interest.
She said she has three goals that she would like to accomplish – to revise the zoning code, which governs how land is developed. She would like to make it reflect the town’s values, such as walkability, sustainability, community, shopping, working and playing locally. And she also wants to bring municipal services online.
Rubina sits the board of Princeton Future, which has discussed local planning, development, sustainability and housing affordability. Asked about her service on its board, she said she had been wondering about the requirements and restrictions for Princeton Council members to serve on local nonprofit boards. She said she would seek guidance from the municipal attorney and act in the best interests of the residents.
Across the street at the Princeton Public Schools, incumbent school board members Adam Bierman, Beth Behrend and Eleanor Hubbard are running unopposed for reelection – Bierman and Hubbard to their second terms, and Behrend to her fourth term. The terms are for three years.
Bierman sits on the school board’s Operations Committee. He said he is seeking reelection in part because it is a family tradition. His father served on the former Princeton Regionals Schools Board of Education, including a stint as president, in the late 1960s. His mother taught in the district for more than 30 years.
In his next term, Bierman said, he would like to focus on fixing the school district budget’s structural deficit. The district spends more each year than it brings in. Recurring expenses must match recurring revenue. He also would like to control health care costs, because health benefits make up a large part of every school budget – putting pressure on classroom resources.
Behrend chairs the school board’s Long Term Planning Committee, the Operations Committee and the Policy Committee. She said she is running for another term to help take the school district to the next level in meeting students’ needs.
Her goals for her next term include seeing a smooth buildout and optimal use of the new spaces – compliments of the bond referendum – to better serve students across the six school buildings. She also would like to see state level legislative solutions to employee benefit and school funding mechanisms that are unduly burdening local taxpayers.
Hubbard chairs the school board’s Student Equity and Achievement Committee, and sits on the Personnel Committee and the Policy Committee. She wants to serve another term to continue working to make public education in Princeton as good as it can be.
Hubbard said she is pleased that concerns about the math curriculum, which drew her to run for the school board, have been addressed. Going forward, she would hope to support efforts to strengthen and improve other elements of the curriculum, particularly in the humanities.
Meanwhile, early in-person voting runs from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1. Voters can cast their ballots in-person Monday through Saturday between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at any one of seven polling places in Mercer County. In Princeton, the polling place is the Community Room at the Princeton Municipal Building at 400 Witherspoon St.
