Our View
Full Planning Board
necessity in Jackson

If he chooses not to serve on the Planning Board, Jackson Mayor Michael Kafton should immediately designate a person to take his spot on this most important public body.

By declining to take the mayor’s seat on the board, Kafton is breaking with a tradition that has seen Democratic and Republican mayors serve on the Planning Board.

He tells the Tri-Town News in an article published today that a personal commitment will prevent him from attending the board’s Tuesday evening meetings. He declined to say what that personal commitment is.

Residents, therefore, are unable to judge for themselves if that is enough of a reason for their mayor to decline to serve on the board that some people would argue holds the real key to what happens in the community.

What is important here is the state statute that allows the mayor to designate a person to take his place on the Planning Board. It is not enough for the mayor to say that one of the board’s alternate members will fill in for him. Alternates are just that; they fill in when any particular board member is absent.

Kafton should designate a person who will fill his seat on a regular basis if, in fact, he has no plans to attend the Planning Board meetings this year.

Today’s article also reports that Deputy Mayor Sean Giblin, who by virtue of his position on the Township Committee is also entitled to a seat on the Planning Board, will not be attending meetings of that body either.

Giblin is the Township Com-mittee’s liaison to the Jackson Board of Education, which meets on the same night as the Planning Board. Giblin said he will be attending the school board meetings, rather than the Planning Board meetings.

While Township Committee-man Michael Broderick and former Committeeman Marvin Krakower are serving on the Planning Board this year, neither is a person who will have to face voters in November and answer for the actions of the board.

Broderick was re-elected to a three-year term on the Township Committee in November and Krakower was defeated in that same race.

It would take an extremely cynical person to suggest that Kafton and Giblin, whose terms of office expire this year and who may stand for re-election, simply do not want to have to vote on any Planning Board application that will bring new homes to Jackson. That way, a cynic would say, they won’t be able to be accused by their opponents of being pro-development.

Kafton is a principal in George Realty and Pinnacle Title Agency Inc., and it is possible that if he sat on the Planning Board his business dealings would put him in conflict on some applications and necessitate his stepping down from hearing those applications.

That said, however, it is critical that Jackson, a growing town with more than 42,000 residents, has a fully functional Planning Board with a representative of the mayor, if not the mayor himself. Kafton should name someone as soon as possible to fill the seats that he knows will be vacant.