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When he accepted his award as Mayor of the Year from the New Jersey Regional Coalition (NJRC), Brian Levine did the same thing he always finds himself doing in front of big crowds -- explaining which Franklin he works for and that particular Franklin's geography. Besides for Franklin Township in Somerset County, where Levine is mayor, there are Franklin townships in Gloucester, Hunterdon, and Warren counties, not to mention Franklin Borough in Sussex County and Franklin Lakes in Bergen County.

Further complicating matters, all of the mailing addresses within Levine's Franklin are to different sections within the town, including Somerset, Franklin Park, Kingston, Griggstown, East Millstone, Little Rocky Hill (not Rocky Hill), and Zarephath. The southern end of Franklin even has a Princeton mailing address. So at the NJRC's Nov. 13 awards dinner in Trenton, Levine began his 3-5 minute speech debriefing a statewide audience on what he calls his town's "identity crisis."

"Whenever I speak, it's often one of the first things I say," Levine told The Jewish State during an interview in his office the morning after he was honored.

Levine, who is on the board of trustees at Temple Beth El of Somerset, received the award for his dedication to the issue of fair housing, one of the NJRC's chief priorities. After serving on a fair housing panel at Somerset's First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, Levine testified for the NJRC before the state legislature and helped the organization raise awareness on the issue at a large Atlantic City convention.

"I think we always kind of worked [together] and supported each other," Levine said of his relationship with the NJRC.

Due to Franklin's proximity to New Brunswick, Levine said he also works with many residents on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale.

"We are near New Brunswick, so market conditions make it so we have to have [affordable housing], so we do," he said.

In the next U.S. census, Levine said he expects Franklin to reach 65,000 residents, which would make it the 21st largest municipality among 566 in New Jersey. Somerset County is mostly Republican territory, but Franklin borders the mostly Democratic Middlesex County and elected an entirely Democratic city council for next year. Levine, in the middle of his second term, was elected on the Republican ticket, but said he has been able to better co-exist with fellow township officials as time goes on.

"In the past, it was downright harsh, and rude, and contentious," Levine said. "This [city council] is actually a good group of people, we just work well together. Once you're elected, I think for a lot of them the party lines drop and they just want to work."

In 2008, Money Magazine ranked Franklin No. 5 on its list of America's best places to live, and upon mention of the rankings Levine eagerly ran to pull out a copy of the excerpt on Franklin. Levine explained that part of the town's high quality of life comes from the fact that 14 of its 40 square miles are designated as preserved space, and cannot be used for construction. While Franklin has hundreds of acres of farmland in the center of town, many other municipalities look almost completely paved, he said.

"About a third of the town is permanently preserved," Levine said. "You can never build, you can never do anything with it."

Franklin is also a "diverse community that works well together," Levine said, with churches, mosques, a Hindu temple, and one synagogue -- Beth El, on Hamilton Street in Somerset. "I don't give them as much time as I should," Levine said of Beth El.

Franklin's active adult communities, including Somerset Run, Canal Walk, and Renaissance, tend to have fairly high Jewish populations, Levine said. Additionally, he said many residents of the Regency Jewish Heritage Nursing & Rehabilitation Center and The Martin & Edith Stein Assisted Living Residence, both in Somerset, become legal residents of Franklin.

Levine entered the Republican primary for the recent New Jersey gubernatorial election, but fellow candidate Steve Lonegan successfully challenged enough of the signatures on Levine's election petitions to knock him off the ballot. Despite the premature exit, Levine said he had no regrets about running.

"I was angry or upset for like a day or two, and then [I said to myself] 'OK, politics, it's behind me, I go on'," Levine said.

At that point, Levine got right back to running Franklin, as well as his local accounting practice.

"They don't pay full-time, but it's a full-time job," Levine said of being mayor.

Levine said one of his favorite mayoral duties is getting to "hear what's going on in people's minds" about constituent issues like fixing a pothole in town. Levine also enjoys having the legal power to officiate weddings, which he said he does 5-10 times per month. One time Levine even performed seven weddings in one day, but said he doesn't think he's taking away any business from Beth El.

"I figure I'm not in competition with them because a Jewish couple isn't going to come to me," Levine said.