Reorganization Meeting Will Seat Two On Holmdel Twp. Committee

HOLMDEL, NJ — The Township Committee will welcome two newly elected members, one already serving an appointed term, at its organization meeting Jan. 3.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the township municipal building.

Republicans Brian Foster and Kim LaMountain won election to the committee in November, defeating Independent candidates Julie Roth and Rajesh Mohan.

Foster was appointed to the Township Committee in September to fill the spot of Prakash Santhana, who resigned for business reasons.

LaMountain will fill the spot of former Committeewoman Cathy Weber, who resigned earlier this year to relocate to New Hampshire and another position.

Both Santhana and Weber were elected in 2019 as Independents in a rift in the Republican party in the town.

The annual organization meeting is also when the members of the Township Committee, in Holmdel's form of government, elect or re-elect a mayor from among the members.

Currently, Mayor Gregory Buontempo, a Republican who was first elected to the committee in 2011 and most recently served several terms as mayor, heads the Township Committee.

The other two currently serving members are Deputy Mayor Domenico "DJ" Luccarelli and Committeeman Rocco Impreveduto.

In September, at the same meeting at which Foster was appointed to the committee, Luccarelli was then chosen deputy mayor by Foster and Impreveduto, the only other two committee members present. Buontempo was not present at the meeting.

Buontempo, a Republican who won election in 2020 despite not being endorsed by the regular county Republican party in the primary that year, had been supported for mayor in 2022 by the two Independents who had been on the committee before their resignations, Santhana and Weber.

In what was the most contentious event of the year in Holmdel, the township Charter Study Commission put forward a vote in July to establish a nonpartisan Council-Manager form of government in Holmdel. The measure was supported by the Independents on the committee and the mayor, but was ultimately defeated in a July 26 vote.