JACKSON – Term limits for public officials has been talked about a lot over the last few years around the country but little action has been taken to get them in place. The explanation for this has been said to be that most public officials enjoy the status quo and support the idea of career politicians.
Councilman Christopher Pollak who won his council election in November 2025 and has been an outspoken critic of how business is conducted on the municipal and state level is seeking support to establish local term limits through a voter referendum.
During a recent Township Council meeting, the council approved Resolution 88 which called for the state to consider allowing term limits. Council President Mordechai Burnstein said the township’s legal team found that New Jersey “does not allow for term limits. There are those who support the idea of term limits. There are those who feel there are term limits by being elected or not elected.”
“I’m not going to say I’m hopeful because getting the state to term limit themselves and getting elected officials (to support the idea) is not always so easy but I think it is creating a voice, creating a narrative that I think is important and I’m and I’m sure my council colleague will have more to say about that,” the council president added.
Pollak initiated R88 explaining that it was “for municipal term limits. This is kind of a project of mine and it is only a resolution because the state unfortunately does not give us local control over our own government which is obviously terrible. I am calling for the people to be able to choose term limits through a referendum vote.”
He added, “it’s not just your politicians up here saying this is what we want – it is putting it to the people and that’s how people should be governed. It’s what the people want, what the people deserve and the state unfortunately does not allow it.”
Pollak said “no matter how much residents want term limits, no matter how long someone holds office, the law blocks towns like Jackson setting those rules ourselves. That keeps power in the hands of the same politicians year after year letting them get too comfortable, cut deals in the shadows and drifting away from the people who elected them.”
“Being a politician is about public service. It is not supposed to be a career,” Pollak added. “Their job is to serve the people and move on, not to entrench themselves as corruption creeps in and working families just get ignored. This resolution supports state legislation to give us the rights we deserve as Americans. Liberty, the right to choose, the right to govern ourselves.”
The councilman called “for all municipalities across New Jersey to adopt this same resolution to send a strong message to the state” in order to get a referendum on the ballot “so voters can decide what works for their community. No top-down orders from Trenton, just real choice for the people. We need to fight back against entrenched government, against corruption, against politicians who become powerful and why they are there.”
Pollak said he would be contacting officials around the state to promote this idea “so the state could actually do the right thing and for once New Jersey actually give power back to the people. This is the start.”
Councilman Nino Borrelli agreed with Pollak. “Your elected officials should be working for you and it is definitely a good thing to be looking at.”
Burnstein also discussed another resolution that appointed Holly Reynolds of the Environmental Commission to serve on the township’s Going Green Committee. “The Going Green Committee was always one of those commissions that existed here in town but if you actually read the ordinance, it is outdated.”
“It actually requires a member of Memorial High School, a member of Liberty High School (which now no longer exist as the high schools were merged this fall into Jackson High School) and that is just one of the problems with it so we are in the process of looking at other towns’ Going Green Committees and seeing if we can get something on the books either at the next meeting or in the next two meetings to revise our Going Green Committee,” he added.
“We are actually going to look for people to step up and volunteer helping to identify non-profits and schools where we can make some of these rain gardens and some of these other things that would help our environment,” Burnstein said.
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