The municipal Democratic Committee last night chose three nominees to potentially fill the remaining 15 months of an unexpired term representing the 5th Ward on City Council.
The names of Danni Newbury of Bryant Street, John Solomon of Elm Avenue and William Cladek of Esterbrook Avenue will be submitted to the city clerk as nominees for the vacant seat, according to Municipal Chairman Kevin O’Brien. City Council is expected to vote on the appointment Oct. 1, when its monthly pre-conference meeting already had been scheduled.
The 5th Ward seat, which represents parts of downtown and toward St. Georges Avenue, was vacated when Jennifer Wenson-Maier stepped down, effective Sept. 15, to become executive director of the Housing Authority. She had held the seat since 2004.
The party that holds the vacant seat is required by state law to present three nominees. Cladek is a retired Rahway High School teacher and city committeeman. Solomon works at PSE&G and is married to Cynthia Solomon, director of the city’s Division of Planning.
Newbury is coordinator of the Union County Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and former director of communications of the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway. She also serves on the seven-member board of trustees of the Rahway Arts & Business Partnership.
If Newbury is appointed, the male-female split on the governing body would remain 7-2 but if either man is appointed that would leave Councilwoman At-large Joanna Miles as the lone woman. It’s unclear if Newbury would have to give up her seat on the RABP board. If Solomon is the choice, it’s also unclear whether that would create a conflict with his wife being a City Hall employee.
Whoever fills the remaining 15 months of the unexpired 5th Ward term will have to decide whether to run for a full four-year term in 2020. The seat will be up for election next fall when all six ward seats on City Council are up. Elections in Rahway are held every other year. The mayor and three at-large City Council seats were chosen last fall and will be up for election again in 2022.
All nine seats and the mayor’s office currently are held by registered Democrats. The last Republican to hold a seat on the nine-member City Council was Francis Janusz, who represented the 2nd Ward until 2008. City Council and mayor have historically been considered part-time positions with annual salaries of about $8,000 for council members and $72,000 for the mayor’s seat. Although the city’s form of government doesn’t specify full- or part-time mayor, recent mayors have taken on the role full-time.
