Positions

Value for our tax $ is one of my highest priorities. Most of the tax burden in Leonia falls on the back of our homeowners– approximately 93%. Saving money where we can and being smart about how we spend it is essential. My finance background helps me make the most of all of our tax dollars. Maximizing services for the taxes we collect from you is key.

Spending in a way that gives us the biggest bang for the buck is a responsibility I take seriously. Agonizing over each line of our $18 million annual operating budget isn’t fun but is essential and must continue to be a constant exercise.

The key is striking the right balance between cost and services while trying to keep up with ever increasing price tags. Sometimes this requires hard choices and sacrifice. Other times it necessitates modest tax increases in order to protect our collective investment in Leonia, the services we regularly receive and what’s necessary to maintain our property values. We don’t want to be shortsighted and regret being penny wise and pound foolish in the future. It’s easy to cut costs without regard for long term consequences and regret that decision later. Just look at the surrounding towns who outsourced their DPW and came to regret that decision greatly. Or on the capital budget side what happens when you fail to properly maintain your road infrastructure and then, out of necessity, have to play catch up all at once. Which is exactly what happened in Leonia before 2015 and cost us a huge injection of funding ($2million) for something we should have been doing all along. Budget setting is a complicated and detailed process which, when done correctly, balances our short and long term best interests without breaking the bank.

I chaired the committee which oversaw all aspects of the new police HQ building which will also house our Court–everything from where it is located to design, structural materials and approach, financing, construction, IT/security capabilities, furnishings etc. We are currently on schedule for a December 2023 building opening and we are substantially under budget. The latter doesn’t happen very often in public building projects.

We will shortly have a fully modern building which our Police Department is already very proud of and we accomplished this without breaking the bank. In fact, we are likely to be about $2-$3 million under budget when all is completed.

Living in Leonia has many advantages. Traffic congestion, particularly when the GWB backs up is clearly not one of them. While an unfortunate and unavoidable consequence of periodic GWB congestion, I believe the key to managing the traffic challenges is severalfold.

1) Keep managing the flow of vehicles exiting the NJ Turnpike onto Ft Lee Rd. Pause traffic as necessary to avoid congestion throughout the borough.

2) Keep the major Fort Lee Road intersections clear from gridlock by positioning police resources at these intersections and issuing citations as warranted.

3) Solicit and receive help from other police agencies particularly the Port Authority of NY/NJ (which regularly assists Fort Lee but not Leonia) and Bergen County.

4) Address the quality of life issues that arise from GWB traffic, like incessant and unnecessary horn use by deploying the borough’s mobile electronic sign and issuing summonses/warnings as might be required.

5) Deployment of new speed humps on selected Leonia streets, per the recommendation of our LPD Traffic Officer.

6) Addition of three new Special Law Enforcement Officers to further manage traffic conditions at the direction of Leonia’s Police Chief.

I believe we need more police and traffic officers deployed when gridlock strikes. I’ve personally witnessed road rage, numerous cars blocking intersections and incessant honking disturbing our quality of life. This is unacceptable. While we need more help from the Port Authority and the County, and we must continue to beat that drum, we must ensure that even on the most challenging traffic days our town is as safe and peaceful as possible. Ensuring traffic flow from the bottom of Ft Lee Road is regulated and keeping all of the Ft Lee Rd intersections clear with an obvious police presence (and more than a handful of summonses/warnings being issued) will be a big step in the right direction. At the end of the day, we are able to treat the consequences of a GWB backup as best we can but can’t prevent traffic jams from occurring.

Overpeck Park is a beautiful addition to our community. This land was donated by Leonia to Bergen County in the 1950's. And while it took decades to create the parkscape as you see it today, it is a huge improvement over what was once a dumping ground and a junkyard. The entrance to town from the West is now vastly improved with a rolling lawn and parkland on both sides of Fort Lee Road. Designing a park that serves the best interests of Leonians requires the input of local Leonia officials working hand in hand with the County.

Despite all of this good work there are occasional hiccups. Leonia has very recently implored the County not to move so fast on Overpeck Park IV. Unfortunately, the County has inexplicably removed over 100 trees from this section during prime bird nesting season and has proceeded with capping operations involving hundreds of dump trucks on local Leonia streets which have increased noise and traffic congestion. The design of Section IV as it was originally presented by Bergen County officials was wholly viewed as inconsistent with the desires of our local community.

As a result, I drafted the attached resolution for the Leonia governing body’s consideration and urged its approval. I’m pleased to say the resolution passed unanimously and was distributed as requested to all other area towns and our County Executive, County Commissioners and all the other towns in our area who, like Leonia, had donated land which became Overpeck Park. I asked the County to take “a time out” to “hit the pause button, share current plans with the community, solicit input and change course to be more consistent with what a majority of the public thinks is the best way to go”.

The County has formally responded and will form a committee to determine a final plan. We need to make sure the right Leonia representation is on that committee. I am pleased the county referred to the project’s design now as a ‘blank canvas’ which essentially disregards whatever design work had taken place previously, without public participation, and allows the new design to better reflect the community’s input.

When the committee is formed, I expect residents will push for a design with more trees and wildlife and fewer grassy areas or paved pathways. This is a big step in the right direction. Forming the committee and holding information sessions where the public can weigh in will be important to the success of a project that can be embraced by all.

Responsible development which maintains the unique character of Leonia is a must going forward. With 93% of the current tax burden on our homeowners, it also represents a chance to offload some of that burden in a prudent way on new commercial and retail establishments. Our next and perhaps only best chance to get this right will come shortly with the redevelopment of the Fort Lee Road and Willow Tree Road corridors. At the same time, I believe we must be very careful to respect the integrity of existing residential properties north and south of Fort Lee Rd along the west side of Grand Avenue.

A Leonia friend developed a very helpful test that evaluates development projects for their potential effect on Leonia. He calls it The REPP-CVTS Test. Will the project Restore, Enhance, Preserve or Protect the Character, Values, Traditions, and Small-town quality-of-life of Leonia? I see this as a practical yardstick by which to measure any potential developments fit with Leonia’s values.

Leonia’s planners (H2M) and our Planning Board are right now putting together a redevelopment plan at the Mayor and Council’s request for these areas. It is imperative that as many Leonians as possible participate in the process and voice their opinions once the plans have been developed and distributed. This is too important for you to leave exclusively to someone else given the potential tax and property value implications not to mention the real impact on our quality of life if we were to get this wrong. Please watch for notifications regarding the rollout of these redevelopment plans from our Planning Board.

For information about my position on Station Parkway Redevelopment, please read more here.

For information about my position on Station Parkway Redevelopment, please read more here.

Leonia no longer has the luxury of comprehensive local news coverage of community events and issues the governing body is dealing with on a regular basis. Without this important coverage, we face two significant challenges. First, how best to educate Leonians on the issues that matter to them so they can better participate in the process of helping their elected officials come to the right decisions. Second, this lack of coverage also manifests itself as another reason people are less likely to volunteer to help Leonia improve and/or lead the way as a trailblazer in solving problems using creative solutions.

Let me talk about this second point first. I believe the backbone of Leonia, if you study Leonia’s history as I have, has always been its volunteers. Volunteers, both yesterday and today, make up the entirety of our governing body, all of the Commissions including Environmental, Recreation, Shade Tree, The Board of Education and our fire department is all volunteer.

Leonia is blessed with an extraordinary number of highly skilled people who have a lot to give their community if they are so inclined. Talent has always been in abundant supply in Leonia among Leonians. Our proximity to Manhattan heavily influenced our five Nobel Prize Winners, Robert Ludlum, Alan Alda, Rutherford Boyd, etc., to locate in a relatively quiet suburban community with its tree-lined streets and ‘green’ character as a wonderful place to raise their families. And Leonia continues to attract a disproportionately high number of highly educated extraordinary people given our reputation as a great place to live–a relatively quiet oasis in the midst of urban sprawl.

While we have as many talented people still living in the community, I believe our ability to effectively attract them to volunteer their services on behalf of Leonia has been severely compromised since the last local Leonia paper went out of existence. Why is this? Because Leonians don’t have a way to easily familiarize themselves with the big issues of the day. Without this awareness, I contend we have many less qualified and talented people stepping forward to get more involved in their town. Gone are the days when someone could read a few stories about a particular issue and get so invested in the outcome that they would step forward to want to be a part of the solution. I would love it if we could get back to a point in time where that regularly happened again.

But lamenting the absence of a local newspaper as a means to drive awareness and get more volunteers to want to be part of the solution, I know won’t yield any results.

So what can/should be done to increase the number of qualified/skilled volunteers who want to be part of their town’s progress? We require a much more aggressive ‘push’ strategy for our communications that proactively pushes more information out to Leonians via every available outlet. To me, a large part of the answer is also better utilizing the borough website. While we have a much better website today than even two years ago (for example, the regular updates on the new municipal building construction which I’ve posted), we still have much that needs to be done to make sure all information is regularly updated and is current, to further improve navigability on the site, (I still get lost and/or can’t easily find what I’m looking for), highlighting the most important policy matters which the governing body is considering, etc.

My commitment to a more aggressive communications push strategy, coupled with a superior website experience, is an anchor around which, as Mayor, I hope to rally the community to get more involved in determining their own future. I believe this is also the best way to combat apathy by consistently providing pertinent, updated, and clear information. Getting more people energized to want to be part of a solution to an issue they care about is essential to helping us all reach the brightest future collectively. I intend to put my marketing degree to good use as we share much more information through many different venues while improving all aspects of Leonians’ experience with our borough’s website.

The “borough” form of government encourages self-sufficiency. While I support our current form of government, I do not believe we can afford any longer to be completely self-sufficient. Selective shared services agreements with surrounding communities to share expensive equipment (so we no longer have to buy this equipment on our own) will bring down taxes without sacrificing the quality of our services. For example, if we were to purchase a new JetVac sewage vacuum vehicle for our DPW and do this with a neighboring community, we wouldn’t have to spend $550K on our own but could split that cost and the vehicles usage with one of our neighbors. Since this vehicle is not in use 100% of the time such a move seems prudent.

Other opportunities are likely to present themselves for a more regional shared services approach, and we need to evaluate them on their individual merits. Even though we live in the shadow of the most expensive city in the world, it doesn’t mean we should not take advantage of every opportunity to lower the tax base when we reasonably can without endangering public safety or substantially lowering our service levels.

Another good example of a ‘regional’ solution that we’ve already rolled out is what Leonia has done with our police dispatch function. While you would never know based on response times etc., Leonia eliminated its own police dispatchers in favor of a county dispatch regional center more than five years ago. This move saved Leonia taxpayers over $250,000 every year compared to the previous cost of maintaining our own on-site dispatch center in Leonia. Most importantly, it achieved these savings without sacrificing response times or emergency preparedness. This is the type of regional approach we need to continue to be open to considering as opportunities might present themselves in the future.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Leonia had about 24 police officers with a population significantly lower than today. One hundred years later, we are at 20 officers. Obvious improvements in technology and communications make that kind of reduction possible without compromising our safety and security. In the shadow of NYC and literally surrounded by major road arteries, we cannot and must not take security for granted.

For good reason, Leonians take great pride in the professionalism of our trained and diverse police department and the department’s response times during an emergency have saved lives and aided in the apprehension of criminals. It is imperative we give our Police the equipment and facilities they need to perform their essential functions on our behalf. As a member of the Police Committee, I have worked to ensure our Police have the equipment they need, the Police HQ they deserve (I chair the committee overseeing the construction of our new police station and Court building) and the training to excel at their jobs.

I also support full staffing of the department at 20 officers, which allows for a conservatively sized command structure of one Chief, One Captain and our four sergeants, while offering a detective bureau and three officer patrol shifts.

I received the Sierra Club’s endorsement to become Leonia’s next Mayor. Sierra Club is an environmental advocacy group that mirrors many of my own environmental views, and I am proud to accept their endorsement.

Some may ask, “How does this relate to Leonia?”

This endorsement is especially gratifying because of Leonia’s proud history as a beacon of environmental stewardship. From Leonia being a Tree City USA for 34 consecutive years to Dudley Allen’s success (as Mayor) preventing Route 95 from running up Fort Lee Road, or swapping a junk yard for a beautiful county park to being one of New Jersey’s first communities to ever start a recycling program, Leonia has a GREAT environmental track record. My intent is to keep us on this same course and leave Leonia cleaner and better for future generations.

I’d like to share what I’ve done for Leonia’s environment and what I still intend to do, hopefully as your next Mayor. Please read them here.

I believe Leonia’s trees are one of the major ways we are different (in a very good way) from all surrounding towns. If you look at a Google Maps satellite view of Leonia, Palisades Park, Fort Lee, Teaneck and Englewood, you can’t help but be impressed by the beautiful green tree canopy which separates Leonia from everyone else.

Leonia is an oasis in the midst of urban sprawl. Our collective challenge, if you believe in maintaining the residential character that defines our town, includes protecting this canopy from all threats, including from developers, new owners who may not always appreciate trees and the role they serve, and natural attrition and/or Dragon Fly infestations.

On the front lines of this effort is the Leonia Shade Tree Commission comprised of experienced volunteers who give their all to protecting our shade trees and looking to the future by communicating the importance of trees to our town, raising awareness regarding the new shade tree ordinance and its provisions, inventorying the number, species and conditions of trees borough-wide, overseeing the Spring and Fall planting programs and inviting more participation in the new private planting program. I have worked as the Council liaison for the last 9 years with the Shade Tree Commission and am a huge champion and advocate for their work.

A Leonia treasure that I believe should be protected forever. Highwood Hills is the result of an effort by environmentalists to preserve the area from development in the 1970s. At the time, there was a heated debate on the future of this parcel of land in the S.E. corner of our borough. Fortunately, Leonians rallied to protect Highwood Hills from developers who proposed a change in zoning and multiple dwelling development on the site (sound familiar?), which would have created additional strains on the school system, increased traffic/congestion, and decreased breathable air through the destruction of 100’s of trees.

Instead, Leonians voted to protect our suburban way of life by eschewing additional urbanization and took a huge step towards protecting our collective tree canopy. Highwood Hills is one of Leonia’s ‘green oasis’ treasures which will benefit generations to come. If you have yet to personally discover all this park has to offer, I encourage you to go to the S.E. corner of our town to see for yourself the natural wilderness area which has been preserved and now maintained by many in our community.

I commend the hard work of our volunteers spearheaded by The Environmental and Shade Tree Commissions oversee the work of volunteers, provided the maintenance and watched over the park’s best interests. I have consistently supported these efforts as liaison to both the Shade Tree and Environmental Commissions and made sure our volunteers had the appropriate level of funding and resource commitment from the borough to protect this property for the future enjoyment of our residents and their children.

We’ve received a federal grant for almost $1 million to complete the Broad Avenue resurfacing project from Lakeview Avenue to Oakdene excluding a small piece between Fort Lee Road and Borough Place during 2023 and 2024. (Yes, federal grants take that long to come to a successful conclusion). Your volunteers from the Shade Tree Commission and the Committee on Transportation and Pedestrian Safety have walked the avenue with myself, our Borough Administrator and the Borough Engineer to weigh the different ways to make this do-over the best possible outcome. We’re proposing better bike lanes, parking configurations, green space and more trees. I’m looking forward to receiving the Engineer’s revised plans for Broad Avenue that reflects the input from our volunteers.

Leonia learned the hard way that failure to keep up with regular road maintenance and resurfacing can be more expensive in the long run, decrease quality of life in the short term and lower property values. I’m committed to a regular schedule of road resurfacing to best protect Leonia’s quality of life, property values (as this is a reflection of the overall health of a community) and predictability of future costs for this kind of essential capital expenditure.

Believe it or not, the typical lifetime of an asphalt road resurfacing is six to seven years. This means once every seven years or so, your street will need to be resurfaced which is loud, messy, expensive, disruptive and generally a nuisance. Failure to perform this work is an even worse outcome so we will need to grin and bear it for the most part. The only other alternative is to invest in a concrete street which, if our current Leonia concrete streets are any indication, will last for over one hundred years without repaving. I’ve done an analysis and our previous Borough Engineer has confirmed that a concrete street offers better value for the money. So why is it that we don’t have more concrete streets?

The cost of a concrete street, while it lasts 15 or more times longer than asphalt is about 4-5x the expenditure of asphalt. Maintenance of a concrete street can also be a bit tricky. Utility companies hate concrete because of how hard/expensive it is to restore it to its original condition after a utility cut repair. Rest assured, this is the utility company’s responsibility to fix not Leonia and this job can be done expertly. It’s just that utility companies, of course, prefer the easy/cheap fix which is asphalt.

What Leonians have to accept in order to have some more concrete streets is a higher initial cost of doing the work. The return on investment is tremendous but not everyone is enthusiastic about spending money today so they can avoid spending substantially more money in the future. I remember in grade school a test that every ACS student took where the test giver asked each individual student whether they preferred one piece of candy now which they could enjoy immediately or whether they wanted two pieces of candy at the end of the test. I was amazed even as a 3rd or 4th grader how many kids chose the one piece of candy over two.

Applying this paradigm to the road resurfacing in Leonia, I prefer sacrificing a bit in the short term to get a much better outcome in the long run. Consequently, on a selective basis, I believe we should consider replacing some of our asphalt roads with concrete instead. A bit more expensive initially but the benefits and cost savings far outweigh the short-term nature of asphalt.

Leonia has been and continues to be blessed with extraordinarily talented and giving residents. Our volunteers on the Environmental Commission, Recreation Commission, Shade Tree Commission, Historic Preservation, Planning Board, Library Board, etc. (and there are many more to mention) are all united in their concern for their town and selflessly stepping up to make it better. I can’t say enough good things about all the people I have had the pleasure to work with on various Commissions and Boards. I’ve said it before and will say it again, “Volunteerism is the backbone of Leonia.” Our community thrives because of what many residents choose to give of their time and talents. I am hopeful this will continue as pride in our community continues.

On February 9, 2023, the NJ Department of Transportation hosted an evening Open House Information Center about the Broad Avenue Complete Streets Improvements Project. The purpose was to inform, primarily the public, about the proposed Broad Avenue plans, which include narrowed travel lanes, high visibility crosswalks, green bicycle lanes, new sidewalks where needed and curb ramps to meet new ADA standards.

In attendance were two officials from the NJ DOT, three members of Leonia’s governing body, our Borough Administrator, Leonia’s Police Chief, DPW Superintendent, Borough Engineer and just ONE member of the public. I asked myself how this could be when I realized there was only one member of the public present (and this includes the virtual audience too as far as I could tell).

I understand people are crazy busy. I also understand and appreciate how everyone is not necessarily interested in the same things. But if I compare what I saw this past Thursday to what it was like previously in Leonia, I believe a large part of the reason there’s so little public interest and apparent high apathy is because the community doesn’t have an efficient way to learn what’s happening in their own town. If more people knew about the Broad Avenue Complete Streets project and how it will completely change how Broad Avenue looks, there would have been far more interest. The lack of reliable and timely reporting on Leonia's current events and matters pending before the Mayor and Council which affect all Leonians has translated, in my opinion, to what presents itself at first glance as a higher level of apathy. After all, you can’t be interested in something you don’t know about.

What we miss in Leonia and I wish we could have again is a weekly newspaper which reports on all things Leonia– good and bad. For many decades we had exactly this– in the form of the Leonia Life and, later, the Bergen News. Local Leonia coverage in The Record was also much more frequent. Until we have this kind of coverage, I urge Leonians to watch out for news affecting their community and step up if they’re interested in helping out or expressing a view on a particular matter.

If elected Mayor, I will dramatically improve the borough website for timely information and easier navigability. After all, you really can’t have transparency in government when information is either late being posted, very difficult to find, or as was the case for many years the video recordings of M&C meetings were unavailable. This won’t happen on my watch should I become Mayor. And transparency with accurate/timely information sharing leads to more informed citizens and a higher likelihood that people will get involved to make their community even better.

Leonia is so fortunate to have the incredible volunteers we have today. I want to do everything I can if I’m elected Mayor to attract and recruit more volunteers, including more roles for LHS students in meaningful intern assignments. By providing more timely information about what’s happening through every means available today/tomorrow and sharing how to get more involved in one’s community, I believe we will make Leonia even better and build on the wonderful tradition of volunteerism in our borough.

We have a leadership crisis in America. I feel this is largely, but not exclusively, a natural result of NOT having term limits for politicians. Starting with local government and moving up to the US Senate, I believe we need term limits now. The Founding Fathers never imagined that we would have career politicians. And yet, we find this the norm today in Washington, DC. The founding fathers expected capable, smart, independent, experienced, and successful people to step forward for a term or two and then return to their farms, law offices, doctors’ offices, etc., having wisely and effectively served their country. And that’s what they did.

Somewhere along the way to the present, we know this perspective changed dramatically and a new norm was established– a norm where politicians put themselves and their interest in their own power ahead of the best interests of our country supported by a campaign finance infrastructure that further encourages ‘me’ over ‘us.’ I can rail all I want about term limits at the national level. Still, until the same politicians who currently benefit from the current circumstances reverse their course and, instead, think about the country first, there is little prospect for meaningful change.

But I thought we can and should do something about term limits at the local level, specifically for the Leonia Mayor and Council. Unfortunately, when I drafted a resolution calling for voluntary term limits for all members of the M&C in Leonia, I was told by our Borough Attorney at a public meeting that NJ state statute actually prohibits term limit restrictions! Talk about protecting one’s own best interests first!

I know most, but not all, members of Leonia’s current governing body believe in term limits and have willingly signed up to step down after three consecutive terms of being on the Council or two consecutive terms as Mayor. I personally embrace these limits and believe it is healthy to introduce new people, new ideas and diverse thinking into the various volunteer elected leadership roles we have in Leonia. So this is a very good thing for Leonia. I also urge voters to reject any elected official who overstays their welcome as defined by three consecutive Council terms or two consecutive Mayoral terms.

Public service is a privilege. Term limits help get us closer to a service focus during the limited time someone would be allowed to serve in a particular role. Public service is and should be about service, NOT self. Somewhere along the road, we (as a country) seem to have lost this thread. And thanks to a majority in the NJ State Legislature, we now can’t enact term limits formally in Leonia. Not helpful!

One of the main reasons I enjoy my service as an elected official in Leonia is how close to the ground it is in the sense you can immediately see the results of decisions being implemented. What we do is very ‘real’ in terms of the local impact our decisions have as a governing body on all aspects of Leonia. For example, after we agree to host Leonia Day in Wood Park and expand the event to accommodate more people and entertainment, once we make the decision to proceed, it gets done right away. We vote to increase the number of police officers so we can have a minimum of 3 per shift and it gets done. Everything we do as a governing body can make a clear and obvious impact on the community. We discuss the issues which matter most to Leonians and act in a way we believe is prudent and responsible. I personally don’t care about someone’s political affiliations when it comes to working with all members of the M&C and all Leonians to get to the right and best answer for Leonia. What matters to me most is doing the right thing for Leonia. In my opinion, Leonia’s success depends on getting as many people who are smart, capable and independent to voluntarily serve on various commissions, boards, civic organizations, the fire department, and the governing body as possible. Unlike county, state and federal government, we can all very quickly see the fruits of our labors when we make the decisions in our borough for our borough and, hopefully, make a big positive difference for Leonia going forward.

Leonia has a rich and unique history that should be regularly celebrated and can serve as a catalyst for today’s Leonians to advance science, the arts, business, local government, and greater community awareness. How many communities after all can claim five Nobel Prize winners as their own? Or claim the moniker “Athens of the East”? As Shakespeare said (and no, he was not a Leonian), “The past is prologue.”

Leonians should have a way to better understand the past by making more real and more visible the personalities and contributions of those who lived here. I am not exaggerating when I say Leonians have contributed substantially to local, national and world events. We need a way to educate today’s Leonians about what Leonians in the past have accomplished.

A proposal has been made, which I fully endorse, to use a section of the recently renovated and waterproofed Senior Center's first floor as a Leonia Museum overseen by the Leonia Historic Preservation Commission.

I’m confident the museum will assemble various Leonia artifacts and share insights about the five Leonians who won the Nobel Prize (this is more Nobel prize winners in Leonia than some states have in total), Dr. Frances Tyson, one of the first female practicing physicians in the U.S. who played an instrumental role in Leonia’s Girl Scouts and building our library, John McCloy, one of only five two time winners of the Army’s highest award–the Medal of Honor, honored by the U.S. with his own postage stamp and many many contributors to the arts including Robert Ludlum, Alan Alda, and Rutherford Boyd. I look forward to helping the Leonia Museum become a reality.