Tinton Falls council seeks to fill vacancy
Council president moving out of state; replacement sought
BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS — In May, residents elected a new mayor and two new council members.

On Tuesday, Sept. 27, the council was expected to announce the appointment of a new business administrator.

But there are more changes in store for the Borough Council.

Council President LuAnn Catlin announced on Sept. 20 that she was resigning from her position effective that night and also from her seat on the council effective Tuesday.

Catlin, who lives on Riverdale Avenue west, said she is leaving because her new husband has received a job offer in another state and she will be moving. Catlin, who was married on Friday, said she had intended to resign at the Oct. 4 meeting, but that meeting was pushed forward because of the Rosh Hashana holiday.

Councilwoman Therese Cahill, who has been serving as the council deputy, will take over Catlin’s position as president. Cahill has been on the council since 2000 when she replaced Rick Mayor, who resigned. She ran for his unexpired seat and won in May 2001 and then ran again in 2003.

Cahill was to preside as council president at the Sept. 27 meeting, and it was expected that the council would elect a new deputy president from among the remaining three council members.

Catlin had been council president since May when she replaced Jerome Donlon who lost his seat in the May election, but she had served as council president one other time in the 10 years during which she has been a councilwoman.

Catlin was elected to her third term in 2003. The remaining council members on the five-member council will have to nominate a new member to fill Catlin’s seat. Her successor will have to run in the November 2006 general election for the remainder of Catlin’s term, which expires in May 2007.

According to Karen Mount-Taylor, borough clerk, Catlin is probably the only council member who was elected three times since 1985 when the borough changed its form of government to the nonpartisan Faulkner Act mayor-council form.

In Tinton Falls’ unique form of government, the council president presides over the two monthly meetings of the council.

The mayor is the chief executive officer and is elected for a four-year term. The borough business administrator reports to, and may act in the absence of, the mayor who does not preside over the council or vote on council issues.

In fact, Mount-Taylor said, the mayor is not even required to attend the meetings, but usually does.

The mayor may vote only in case of a tie on the question of filling a council vacancy, which could conceivably happen if the council were split on a replacement for Catlin.