> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.johnmangini.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Warren elected a mayor 3 to 2, and the same five people split the same way twice
- URL: https://blog.johnmangini.com/reorganization-2025/
- Published: 2025-01-03T13:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-20T21:27:43.000Z
- Description: At the January 2, 2025 reorganization Victoria Lontai was elected mayor over Shaun Fine on a 3 to 2 roll call, and Daniel Croson was elected deputy mayor on an identical 3 to 2 split. Resolutions 2025-001 through 2025-034 passed 5-0.
- Author: John Mangini
- Tags: Warren Tracked, Township, township committee, reorganization, elections, resolutions

The short answer

Warren Township's reorganization meeting on January 2, 2025 seated Committeemen Daniel Croson and Lance Blick and then elected Victoria Lontai mayor on a 3 to 2 roll call over Shaun Fine. Daniel Croson was elected deputy mayor on an identical 3 to 2 split over Vanessa Kian. The Committee then adopted Resolutions 2025-001 through 2025-034, including the temporary budget and the 2025 salary resolution, on 5-0 votes. In New Jersey township committee government the mayor is chosen by the committee from among its own members and is not elected directly by voters.

The meeting was called to order at 6:38 p.m. in the Susie B. Boyce Court Room. Warren Boy Scout Troop 228 presented the flags. Rabbi Joshua Greenbaum of Temple Har Shalom gave the invocation. Former Governor Don DiFrancesco attended, as did Assemblywomen Michele Matsikoudis and Nancy Munoz.

Zachary Drozd administered the oaths of office to Committeemen Daniel Croson and Lance Blick, both newly elected. Cathy Reese swore in Donna Hands as the newly appointed Township Clerk.

Then the Committee got to the part that decides who runs the meetings for the next twelve months.

## The mayoral vote, member by member

Two names went into nomination. Committeewoman Kian nominated Committeeman Fine. Committeeman Blick nominated Committeewoman Lontai. The roll call ran as follows.

| Member | Voted for |
| ------ | --------- |
| Blick  | Lontai    |
| Croson | Lontai    |
| Kian   | Fine      |
| Fine   | Fine      |
| Lontai | Lontai    |

Victoria Lontai became mayor, 3 to 2.

## The deputy mayor vote split identically

The second vote produced the same 3 to 2 alignment with different names attached.

| Member | Voted for |
| ------ | --------- |
| Blick  | Croson    |
| Croson | Croson    |
| Kian   | Kian      |
| Fine   | Kian      |
| Lontai | Croson    |

Daniel Croson became deputy mayor, 3 to 2.

Blick, Croson and Lontai voted together on both. Kian and Fine voted together on both. That is the structure of the year, laid out in the first fifteen minutes of it.

3-2

mayoral vote

3-2

deputy mayor vote

34

resolutions adopted

## Why a divided mayoral vote is not what it looks like

If you are used to towns where the mayor appears on the ballot, a 3 to 2 mayoral vote reads as a fight. In Warren it is a procedure.

Warren operates under the township committee form of government. Voters elect five committee members to staggered terms. The committee then selects the mayor from among its own five members. You do not vote for mayor in Warren. You vote for committee members, and the members choose which of them holds the gavel.

That means a mayor here is not a separately elected executive with independent authority. The mayor presides, signs, and represents the township, and casts one vote out of five like everyone else. When the choice is between two sitting members and the body is split, the arithmetic produces 3 to 2\. On a five member board there is no way to produce anything else short of unanimity.

So the useful reading of a 3 to 2 reorganization vote is not that the township is in crisis. It is that you now know how the five members line up, which is information worth having when a zoning or budget question comes up in April.

## What else the Committee did that night

The body adopted Resolutions 2025-001 through 2025-034\. Among them:

- Resolution 2025-008, the temporary budget
- Resolution 2025-009, the 2025 salaries
- Resolutions 2025-010 through 2025-033, moved as a consent agenda

All of it passed 5-0\. The split on the leadership votes did not carry into the substantive business of the meeting, which is the ordinary pattern in Warren and worth noting because the leadership vote is the part that gets repeated at sidelines and in group chats.

A consent agenda is a bundle of routine items voted as one. It is efficient and it is also the reason a single 5-0 roll call can cover two dozen separate resolutions. If you want to know what any individual item in that range says, the 2025 Resolutions index on the township site is the place to read the text rather than a summary of it.

## Who runs Warren in 2025

| Role                   | Person          |
| ---------------------- | --------------- |
| Mayor                  | Victoria Lontai |
| Deputy Mayor           | Daniel Croson   |
| Committee member       | Lance Blick     |
| Committee member       | Shaun Fine      |
| Committee member       | Vanessa Kian    |
| Township Administrator | Mark Krane      |
| Township Attorney      | William Willard |
| Township Clerk         | Donna Hands     |

## Two things the mayor announced

Lontai announced a junior membership program that would place students in grades 8 through 12 on township boards. She also announced a first ever Mayor's State of the Township Address, to begin in February.

Both are new practices rather than ordinances, which means they live or die on follow through rather than on a vote. If you have a high school student who wants to see how a land use board actually works, the junior membership program is the door.

What I could not verify

The precise text of the appointment resolutions, 2025-002 through 2025-004, is not in the record I worked from. I am not going to summarize appointments I have not read. The 2025 Resolutions index linked in the sources carries the operative language.

## How to follow this yourself

Reorganization minutes are the single most useful township document of the year and almost nobody reads them. They contain the leadership votes, the year's salary resolution, the professional appointments and the meeting schedule, all in one file. If you read exactly one municipal document in Warren each year, read that one.

Sources

1. Township of Warren, Reorganization Meeting Minutes, January 2, 2025\. [https://www.warrennj.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/\_01022025-826](https://www.warrennj.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/%5F01022025-826?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
2. Township of Warren, 2025 Resolutions index. [https://www.warrennj.org/585/2025-Resolutions](https://www.warrennj.org/585/2025-Resolutions?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)

![John Mangini](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f9/d2/f9d2e72e-65c9-4e98-ba1e-1a7bc528bfaa/content/images/2026/08/john-headshot.jpg) 

John Mangini

Broker / Owner, NextHome Premier

Warren Township resident and full time broker, serving clients since 1999\. Warren, Tracked. is written from live Garden State MLS data, township records and primary sources. Every figure is traceable to a source listed above.

[732.236.1087](tel:+17322361087) [john@nexthomepremier.com](mailto:john@nexthomepremier.com) [102 Town Center Drive, Warren](https://maps.google.com/?q=102+Town+Center+Drive,+Warren,+NJ+07059&ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 

[JohnMangini.com](https://www.johnmangini.com/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) [Reviews on Zillow](https://www.zillow.com/profile/John%20Mangini?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) [About this site](https://blog.johnmangini.com/about/)