Mahwah November 14, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Laforet wins full term as township’s mayor by Frank J. McMahon Incumbent Mahwah Mayor William C. Laforet has won election to a full four-year term, and incumbent Councilwoman H. “Lisa” DiGiulio and incumbent Councilman John Roth have been reelected to new full terms on the council while Steven Sbarra appeared to have won a council seat for the first time by a 37 vote margin as of election night. That close race will ultimately be decided after a final count of absentee, provisional, and electronic ballots has been completed. The electronic counting equipment at the municipal building failed to operate before a final vote count was reported, but it appeared there were 11,150 votes cast in the township election, or 68.2 percent of the 16,348 registered voters. On election night, Laforet received 5,640 votes while challenger Edward F. Sinclair received 3,233 votes. This tally does not include absentee, provisional, or electronic ballots cast by residents who were displaced by the recent hurricane. Those votes were due to be counted three days after the election. Five candidates sought election to the council. According to the unofficial tally, DiGiulio received 4,684 votes and Roth received 3,252 votes, Sbarra received 1,904 votes, Jonathan Marcus received 1,867 votes, and Todd Van Duren received 1,230 votes. Laforet has been the operator of the Sunoco Gas Station at the corner of Franklin Turnpike and Miller Road in Mahwah for the past 34 years and is a current member of the Mahwah Municipal Alliance. He was elected last year to serve out the final year of the unexpired term of previous Mayor Richard J Martel who died in 2011. He claims he has accomplished many of the tasks he promised to accomplish when he was elected in 2011 and that he has run Mahwah as a business and has involved more citizens in local government while trying to make the township’s government do more with less. Laforet pointed out during the campaign that even though the state took away $1 million in state aid from Mahwah and imposed a two percent tax levy cap on all municipal governments he delivered a 2012 budget with the lowest tax rate increase in 11 years. He also emphasized that Mahwah was awarded a Triple-A bond rating from Standard & Poor’s last year and, as a result, the township saved nearly $500,000 on the term of its debt. Laforet has been chosen as Man of the Year twice by the Mahwah Chamber of Commerce and he has also been named the Man of the Year by Bergen County. DiGiulio has been a resident for 31 years and has been (continued on page 15)