On Thursday, January 2nd, 2025 at 7:00 pm, the Teaneck Council will hold the semi-annual reorganization meeting at the Rodda Center.
(Agenda available here: Reorganization Agenda)
We will be swearing in Mark Schwartz, Karen Orgen & Mike Pagan.
In addition, the Council will elect the Mayor & Deputy Mayors, among others.
For those who may not be familiar with the way the Teaneck Council operates, I’d like to offer some additional information:
How does our system work?
Teaneck utilizes the Council-Manager form of Government under the Faulkner Act. What that means in practice is that residents choose their council members “at-large” (i.e. you vote for everyone, as opposed to a ward system like neighboring Englewood) and the Council as a body, once elected and seated, chooses a mayor from among the council-members (as opposed to municipalities where the Mayor runs separately).
What do residents vote for? How are positions chosen?
Teaneck residents vote for council members every two years. This year 3 of the 7 council positions were up for election and in two years, the remaining 4 will be up for election. We keep alternating between the 4 and 3 every other year.
What is the difference between a Mayor and a Manager?
Under the Council-Manager form of government, the mayor presides at all meetings but gets the same vote as all other council members. He or she gets to appoint certain members of boards as vacancies arise and can execute documents as permitted by the code. The manager acts as the CEO of the Township and handles the day-to-day administrative functions. You can find the rules under Title 40:96A-81.
How does the Mayor get chosen and how long is their term?
Under our system, there is a “reorganization” meeting every two years that takes place in the first week of January, following the November council elections (this year it will take place on January 2nd). At that meeting, new members are sworn in and the newly constituted council votes among themselves as to which of them will be mayor, deputy mayor I and deputy mayor II. They will also select several other positions. The rules for how this works can be found in Sec 2-13 & 14 of our code.
“The term of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor I and Deputy Mayor II shall be for two years and shall expire upon the election of a successor at the next organizational meeting of the Council. ”
(Sec. 2-15)“The Council shall, on January 1 next following the general election, at 12:00 noon, or at some other hour on any day during the first week in January as fixed by resolution of the Council, assemble at a location designated by the Council to organize itself and elect one of its number as Mayor, another as Deputy Mayor I, another as Deputy Mayor II, and make such other appointments, perform such other functions and carry on such other business as is appropriate. Until the election of the Mayor occurs, the Clerk shall preside over the organizational meeting, but the Mayor shall preside once elected.”
Addressing the commonly held misconception that the individual elected with the “highest number of votes” should become mayor.
While it does have brief and passing references, there is very little support for this concept in law or history.
1930 to 1988
From 1930 when our Town adopted the Council-Manager form of government to 1988 (when we switched to the current Faulkner Act), we elected 5 members of council, every 4 years [Ed note: the number of council members switched to seven in 1962, when our population grew to greater than 40,000 – requiring an additional two seats], to serve for four-year terms.
This is how the law worked back then:
- All members were elected in a single election.
- The council would try electing a Mayor from among themselves.
- If they couldn’t choose a mayor, the highest vote recipient would be chosen as mayor.
1988 to Present
In 1988, after a referendum was passed to proceed under the Faulkner Act, elections were staggered, so only a portion of the council would be elected every other year.
Because council members were not all chosen at the same time, this change made any determination of which member received the “highest number of votes” impossible.
Historical Evidence
May, 1966: In his address to the Township, Mayor Feldman lamented the lack of turnout in elections. He noted that in the 1960’s turnout dipped below 50% of registered voters and wondered what could be done to help halt the trend. In his speech, he referenced the issue of public misconceptions.
“I suspect that this bullet voting is motivated in large part by the commonly held belief that the high man in the voting is entitled to the post of mayor.”
– Matthew Feldman
In response, Councilman Henderson gave a brief historical record of the issue.
Councilman Henderson stated that “mention has been made of the fact that high man always received the vote for Mayor. In 1938, Mr. Van Wagner deferred to Mr. Votee, in 1946, Mr. Deissler who was high man voluntarily deferred to Mr. Clarence Brett, and the following term Mr. Brett was high man and voluntarily deferred to Mr. Deissler and Mr. Haggerty, third high man, was voted Deputy Mayor.”
When a resident later asked “if there was a written law on elected officials that the Councilman with the highest number of votes be elected Mayor“, Mayor Costa replied:
“It was not necessarily the Councilman with the highest number of votes.”
In the 1970 reorganization, even before the 1988 referendum, we can see it was not the policy to elect the highest vote recipient as Mayor.
Here are the election results from the 1970 election:
Each of the highlighted council-members had a higher vote count than Mayor Burr.
So if someone tells you that the highest person should become Mayor, point them here.