Sea Girt's Farrell Gears Up for Mayoral Election

Though he’s cleared the first hurdle in the race to become Sea Girt’s next mayor, Councilman Ken Farrell is reminding borough residents that the official he expects to succeed is still in charge.  

Running under the banner of Independent Republicans, by 85 votes in the June 7 primary election according to totals released by the Monmouth County Board of Elections.  With 622 votes cast--including one write-in-- Farrell garnered 353 votes to Clemmensen’s 268 votes.  

Farrell took nearly 57 percent of the ballots cast while Clemmensen, the Monmouth County GOP candidate, walked away with 43 percent.  

Vote totals aside, Clemmensen holds the gavel at meetings of the all-GOP council until Dec. 31, 2011.

“This is Mayor Clemmenson’s town. He will direct what we do,” said Farrell, currently chair of the council’s finance committee. “Let his term take its course during the next six months.”

Otherwise it’s business as usual on the Sea Girt council.

“We’ll all be working hard and we’ll work together,” said Farrell, now in his second three-year elected term.  

Walking the town’s streets and knocking on more than 200 doors in the weeks before the primary turned out to be a lesson about residents' expectations from local government, Farrell noted.

“It was the most valuable experience I’ve had as a councilman,” he said. “It was a real eye-opener.”

Going forward, he will tap into that what he gleaned from those chats with townspeople.

“I’m going to do my best to reflect the views of the residents in what we do on the council,” Farrell said.

After spending the summers of his youth in Sea Girt, Farrell moved from Chatham to become  a year-round resident 18 years ago. That same affection prompted him to seek the mayor’s office.

“I have a great love of this town,” the Ocean Avenue resident said. “I see places where we can do better in saving taxpayer money by improving inefficiencies and affecting the residents’ satisfaction with what we are doing.”

First appointed in October, 2005 to fill a council vacancy, Farrell subsequently ran for office and has been twice elected to his seat. He previously chaired the council’s code enforcement, recreation and beach committees.

He has also led the finance committee at St. Mark’s Church, where he is a longtime parishioner and has coached girls’ softball and soccer teams within the borough.

Farrell will run alongside council candidates Paul Cerami and William Foley in this fall’s election. Cerami and Foley secured their nomination over incumbent Councilman Joseph Bonacci  and Peter Mayer in a contest where 1,209 voters went to the polls.

Foley lead the quartet of candidates with 368 votes or 30 percent of the results. Cerami, with 298 voters or nearly 25 percent of the totals, edged out Mayer, who came in third with 291 votes or 24 percent of the votes cast. Bonacci took 249 votes amounting to 21 percent of the votes.

Cerami and Foley would succeed Bonacci and departing Councilman Fred Niemeyer, who chose not to seek re-election after 13 years in office.