Ho-Ho-Kus January 11, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 5 Randall returns as mayor; Troast is council president by Jennifer Crusco The Ho-Ho-Kus Council has reorganized for the New Year, with Thomas Randall returning to the mayor’s seat. Council Members Maryellen Lennon and Steve Shell also took the oath of office. Randall, a practicing attorney with Randall & Randall, was last elected in 2007. Before he became mayor, he spent 13 years as a member of the council. He is a graduate of Notre Dame University and Seton Hall Law School. Randall has coached recreation baseball and soccer and the traveling basketball team. He has also been active with the Bergen County Scouts, the Northwest Bergen Chapter of the American Heart Association, and the Northeast Republican Organization. Lennon is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s College and was an elementary school teacher. She has served as a troop leader for Girl Scouts, YAC Dance co-chair, and Red Cross Babysitting Course and Saint Gabriel’s CCD instructor. She has run a nursery program in town for preschoolers, and served as a substitute teacher in several local districts. Lennon was elected to her first term in 2005. After earning his bachelor’s degree, Shell began a 28year career in sales, marketing, and management with Stauffer Chemicals, Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, American Cyanamid, and Pfizer. He is currently vice president and general manager in the U.S. Animal Health Division of Merck & Co. The reorganized governing body selected Councilman Doug Troast as council president. In that role, Troast will be responsible for chairing meetings at which the mayor is not present. Troast joined the borough council in 2000, when he was named to replace Councilman Scott Wolff. The new coun- cil president is currently first vice president of Tishman Construction, which is based in Manhattan. In that role, he is involved with the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site, working on the vehicle security center, streets, and utilities. He previously served as chief executive officer of the John Troast Group, a construction and real estate development company. He served on former Governor Whitman’s Property Tax Commission and as a trustee of the New Jersey Organization for a Better State. He also served three years on the Ho-Ho-Kus Zoning Board of Adjustment. (continued on page 15) The Ho-Ho-Kus Council recently approved two ordinances that establish new fees within the borough. Both ordinances were introduced in late November and were approved at the council’s final meeting of 2011. Ordinance 1001 establishes a $100 fee for the installation of a burglar alarm system, and Ordinance 1002 adds administrative fees and a vehicle charge when off-duty police officers are hired for non-borough related work. The burglar alarm ordinance will require a homeowner to register with the borough when an alarm system is installed. Borough police respond to many false alarms each year, officials said, and the registration program will allow the police to communicate with the individual homeowners regarding the causes of those alarms. Currently, after the third false alarm at a given location, the property owner is subject to a fine. The fine, which is Fee ordinances gain council’s approval set at the municipal judge’s discretion, begins at a minimum of $50. Ho-Ho-Kus Borough Administrator Don Cirulli noted that the ordinance will be fine-tuned this year, but the council wanted to get the measure on the books before 2011 ended. Ordinance 1002 states, “Rates of compensation for contracting the services of off-duty law enforcement officers shall be based on a rate equal to that of time and one half of the contractual hourly rate for the individual officer being compensated. An additional fee of 20 percent of the rate as calculated above is hereby established to cover administrative costs, overhead, and out of pocket expenses of the borough. “Use of a borough police vehicle shall be billed at the rate of $30 per hour.” J. CRUSCO