Attorney Greg Cannon at Red Bank borough hall in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
One year after he was unceremoniously dumped as Red Bank’s borough attorney, Greg Cannon appears set to regain the influential post Thursday night.
That’s when the newly reconstituted government led by Mayor Billy Portman is scheduled to get down to business at a special meeting to kick off the “council-manager” era.
Itzel Hernandez, seen here in 2019, would join the planning board if approved by the council Thursday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Cannon’s nomination is included on an agenda posted on the borough website Wednesday evening. He had been Red Bank’s borough attorney for five years when he was abruptly fired by a bloc led by then- Councilman Ed Zipprich last July. Zipprich proposed replacing him with Scott Salmon, of the Jardim, Meisner & Susser firm, who had exonerated him of accusations that he had interfered in the award of a trash collection contract two years earlier.
The unannounced move so angered then-Mayor Pasquale Menna that he angrily refused to fill the position immediately, leaving the council without legal guidance for a month, until Union County lawyer Dan Antonelli was voted to the position.
Cannon is 13-year council member in Aberdeen Township, where he’s chairman of the Democratic organization, and serves as borough attorney in Fair Haven.
The council also appears set to restore CME Associates as the borough’s primary engineering consultant, replacing T&M Associates. T&M will remain as one of four firms in the town’s “special projects engineering pool.”
According to the agenda, the council will also vote on designating the New York firm of Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart as borough planner. The firm led the rewrite of Red Bank’s Master Plan, a project concluded earlier this year.
Among anticipation actions on the agenda:
• Councilwoman Kate Triggiano would serve as deputy mayor, to stand in when Portman is absent. The title is new, replacing “borough council president.”
A year ago, Triggiano wrested control of the local Democratic organization from Zipprich. She helped engineer Portman’s rise from obscurity and the May 9 election that swept them both, along with a slate of running mates, into office.
• The clerk will conduct a drawing to determine which two of the six new council members will get four-year terms.
Under a staggered-elections schedule approved by voters last November, the other four seats will be open in two years, after which they will convert to four-year terms, with elections held every two years instead of annually. The mayor’s term is set at four.
• Appoint Itzel Hernandez and Megan Massey to the planning board, with Greg Fitzgerald as the mayor’s alternate. Gone are former council members Art Murphy and Juanita Lewis, though there was no immediate indication of whether they’re leaving of their own volition.
Returning are longtime chairman Dan Mancuso; Barbara Boas; and Fred Stone, an alternate member.
• Appoint Paul Cagno and Ben Yuro to the zoning board, with Anna Cruz, Amanda Doremus, Chris Hayes and Gene Horowitz as alternates.
Returning are Anne Torre, Ray Mass, Eileen Hogan – whose husband, Tim Hogan, failed to unseat Portman in the recent election – Vincent Light and former council member Sharon Lee, who served as first alternate. Out are longtime member Lauren Nicosia; Sean Murphy, who ran on a ticket that opposed the Portman-and-Triggiano-led Red Bank’s Ready slate in the May election; Richard Angowski and Christine Irwin.
Also on the agenda is a a swearing-in as councilmember for Ben Forest, who was unable to attend Saturday’s inauguration ceremonies. He is expected to be named council liaison to the board of education, from which he resigned as a member last month to comply with state conflict-of-interest laws.
The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the council chamber at borough hall, 90 Monmouth Street, and will be carried live on the Zoom platform.
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