Letter: I Support Liz Lempert for Mayor

To the Editor:

Liz Lempert supports public education, smart growth, environmental protection and social justice, and she knows how to bring people together to resolve difficult issues. That’s why I support her for mayor. She is open-minded, fair, pragmatic and gets things done, as evidenced by her founding Save Our Schools, preserving 66 acres of open space including the Princeton Ridge Preserve, saving the Human Resources Commission and helping to keep taxes flat in spite of increased costs.

As Liz’s fellow member on the Princeton Environmental Commission, I can say that her commitment to the environment and sustainability has been unsurpassed by any other municipal official who has served on the PEC. As a fellow mom of two children in the public schools, I am grateful for Liz’s tough and ongoing fight with the state legislature to give local voters – not the state – power over charter schools that usurp local funds to create boutique schools within a system ranked among the best in the nation. Here, too, her activism and commitment to public education are unsurpassed by any other municipal official I’ve known in my 21 years as a Borough resident.

Liz also has been a local hero for the less fortunate in our town. There are many individuals in Princeton who have low-paying jobs with no health insurance and have difficulty paying rent and putting food on the table. Princeton’s Human Service Commission exists to help these people when they are in need or in crisis, yet it was nearly abolished. Liz worked hard to save it.

Lastly, I am grateful for Liz’s successful efforts in working with officials and staff to keep the tax rate flat, and for her intent to keep it flat or drive it down once she’s elected mayor.

I hope you reach out to Liz by phone or email or invite her to a neighborhood gathering and get to know her before June 5. You’ll find that Liz is a true public servant. She’s short on rhetoric and long on action. She’s not in the race for the limelight. She’s in it to keep Princeton a great, neighborhood-oriented and progressive place to live for all of us.

Wendy Kaczerski
Princeton