Politics & Government

Mayor Designates Planning Board Substitute

Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna designates a replacement should he be unable to attend future meetings.

Prior to Monday’s Planning Board meeting and discussion of a significant proposed hotel project, Mayor Pasquale Menna introduced the board and public to his designated 23-year-old replacement.

Hoping to inject some new blood into the board and encourage the borough’s youth to participate in civil service, Menna gave Michael Anderson the ability to act in his place should he not be able to attend a planning board meeting or vote on a planning matter.

The move was made by Menna in his capacity as Red Bank mayor and did not require approval from either the Planning Board or borough council. Menna was confident in his decision despite protestations from some council members, including Council President Art Murphy.

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“He’s an example of a good graduate from our public school system,” Menna said of Anderson during a planning board intermission. “The borough’s young people can provide a different and valuable perspective.”

Anderson’s also got the chops required to do more than an adequate job as a decision maker on some future undoubtedly critical projects, Menna argues. Though he didn’t graduate, Anderson studied city planning at Montreal’s prestigious McGill University for three years.

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Having returned home early to Red Bank to tend to some, as he categorized them, family concerns, Anderson is currently working at a local law firm as a paralegal but plans on completing his degree eventually.

  “I think I have a substantial formal background in planning,” he said. “I’ve also been working, for two years, at a law office that deals almost specifically with land use law.

“I’ve got a lot of familiarity with planning.”

Though much of Anderson’s education dealt with planning at a larger, more city-centric scale, many of the same principles can be applied to Red Bank, which is home to a similar urban approach, just on a smaller scale, he said.

Menna’s decision to appoint a young person as his fill-in on the planning board was met with some resistance. Not alone on the council, Murphy publically questioned the idea of appointing someone with little experience on a board that serves such a pivotal role at a council meeting more than a month ago.

Menna, however, told Murphy and the rest of the council succinctly that, despite their reservations, it didn’t matter. It was hit decision. And it’s one that Menna stands by.

“He’s a young borough resident and he’s got a planning background,” he said, noting that he also designated someone to fill in for him when he isn’t available for Red Bank Public Library board meetings. “It’s just good policy.”


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