The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Gov.-elect Phil Murphy has tapped a township resident to serve on his transition team.
Ed Potosnak, the current Board of Education president and executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, will sit on Murphy’s Environment and Energy committee.
“With the election of Gov. Murphy, New Jersey has a tremendous opportunity to re-claim national leadership on critical environmental issues facing the state,” Potosnak said in a press release about the appointment. “I’m honored to help make Gov.-Elect Murphy’s vision for 100 percent clean energy by 2050 and plans to safeguard drinking water in the Highlands and Pinelands a reality.”
Potosnak is a former chemistry teacher, a trustee on the Franklin Chamber of Commerce and owns a construction business.
Potosnak grew the 5-year-old league from an organization with $20,000 cash-on-hand to one that how employs eight and has a $1.8 million budget, according to the release. The league was the first state-wide environmental group to endorse Murphy’s candidacy.
Potosnak led an effort to get a public referendum to the amend the state Constitution to dedicate pollution settlements to harmed communities into the ballot, which passed overwhelmingly on Nov. 7, according to the release.
He also serves as chairman of New Jersey Keep It Green, with more than 150 member organizations dedicated to preserving New Jersey’s diminishing open space. The coalition led efforts to establish permanent, sustainable funding for land preservation in the most densely populated state and to release more than $200 million in voter-approved open space funding this year.
