Gallery: Kasko, Moscatelli and Rochford elected as commissioners
Although the results are unofficial, the voters have spoken electing Jeff Kasko, John Moscatelli and Neal Rochford as Haddonfield commissioners.
Kasko (2,066 votes), Moscatelli (1,999 votes) and Rochford (1,851 votes) came out on top after the final results were announced, leaving Ed Borden, who would have served a third term on the commission, approximately 300 votes behind Rochford.
Lee Anne Albright was on the board with 1,123 votes and Ken Kouba with 1,117.
This election, 39.14 percent, or 3,692 registered voters participated.
In 2009, 39.10 percent, or 3,638 registered voters participated and 45.87 percent, or 4,327 registered, voted on the Bancroft referendum in January.
Newcomer Moscatelli didn’t want to “count my chickens before they are hatched,” but believed campaigning was a good representation of the results.
“I want to demystify local government as much as possible and try to open it up and try to get more information out there to people so they know why things are happening the way they are,” he said, adding a majority of frustration is the lack of understanding priorities.
He hopes by opening the doors to communication, creating transparency and using technology as a tool, would ease the confusion of why decisions are made.
“[We] just need to make it a higher priority,” he said.
During his campaign, Moscatelli was against the Bancroft referendum — a $12.5 million bond in which the school district could have acquired the Bancroft property, but was rejected by a margin of 251 votes.
He said his engineering experience and his view of the referendum aided in his election.
“People were not happy with that whole situation. I think that is something we will be acutely aware of as we go forward,” Moscatelli said.
Traditionally, the candidate with the highest number of votes is elected mayor. If he accepts, Kasko would take the place of Mayor Tish Colombi, who served 28 years as a commissioner.
Kasko is looking forward to his next term and is ready to sit down with Moscatelli and Rochford to discuss improvements to the municipal infrastructure — finance, public safety and more.
“We already passed a budget, we are pretty much set for this year. Going forward we have a lot of challenges. We are going to have to work together and work with the residents in this town,” Kasko said.
Although Kasko was for Bancroft, he believes his “middle of the road” take on the situation helped him make the top vote count.
“I voted for it with reservation and I respected those that apposed Bancroft. I understood why they had reasons to vote against it. I think that is reflected in the vote,” he said.
Rochford is “back on the saddle” after a serving as commissioner from 2005 to 2009 and losing the bid for re-election by eight votes.
“I wanted to get back in. I lost a close race four years ago. I wanted to get into that top three and that’s what I accomplished,” he said.
Rochford said he is a part of a “generational family,” growing up, raising his children in Haddonfield and looking forward to making Haddonfield a better place for future generations.
The three commissioners, bringing different views and experience to the dais, are for opening the doors to transparency with board of education, business owners and residents.
Colombi was pleased to see the final results and hopes the commissioners keep the community in mind when making decisions.
“Budgets can be made and changes can be made, but I hope they will be very cognizant of this community of neighbors, who I call a community of goodness. I want to see that continue,” she said.
