By Colleen Reynolds / Reporter
WOOD-RIDGE (Oct. 29, 2009) — In Wood-Ridge, where the Democratic Party has wielded unanimous control for at least a decade, three candidates are vying for two open seats on the borough council.
Responses were edited for design purposes.
EZIO ALTAMURA, 52, a Democrat, is an insurance broker/risk manager. Altamura is the current Wood-Ridge Borough Council president who is completing his fourth term and tenth year on the council. Altamura has lived in Wood-Ridge for 14 years, earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from then-William Paterson College, started his own insurance agency in 1994 and has been self-employed for most of his adult life. He has been married for 25 years to Annette and has one daughter, Christina, who attends New York University.
What is the largest problem that needs to be solved right now in Wood-Ridge and a possible solution?
The biggest problem — the biggest problem in the State of New Jersey — is taxes. And what we do at the local municipal level, we control about 37 percent of the tax bill, out of which 60 percent is contractual salaries. We’ve been very diligent as the governing body during the past 10 years to consolidate departments, provide shared services with local municipalities, such as sharing equipment with Moonachie. We have a consortium pistol range in Wood-Ridge that seven governing bodies share, so we don’t have to send police up to Mahwah all the time.
We’ve consolidated our board of health, and we’ve been extremely successful in obtaining grants for many of our projects. So, moving forward, we’re looking toward continuing to apply for and seek grants so that we can continue to provide the level of service that our residents expect, and we think we’ve done a great job. We’re proud of the fact that Wood-Ridge is the 10th-lowest tax base in Bergen County, and it has been steady. And we feel that when Wesmont comes on board — we’ve structured the agreement many years ago, back in 2001 when we started — that it’s going to be a long-term solution to stabilization of our taxes. However, we realize the economy has stalled that project.
We’re optimistic that in the spring of 2010, that project will get underway. I think both of our backgrounds (Councilman Marino and I) ... we’re basically self employed. I have been for most of my life. We both have degrees in business.
We’re going to apply our knowledge. I’m going to continue (on the council), and Ed is certainly going to be an asset in applying our business knowledge to how we run government in Wood-Ridge.
How do you envision the future of the Wesmont Station development?
Providing housing for our senior citizens/adult community, certainly providing Open Space and recreation, which was one of our provisions we were proud of putting into our agreement, and, long-term, providing a school for our children, which will continue to provide excellent education in Wood-Ridge, plus a transit hub.
It will be a town of one square mile that will have two working train stations, and that’s going to encourage people to want to move to the development. And the Open Space alone, the environment of the project based on the written agreement that we have, is such an asset to our community and we’re going to blend it into our existing Wood-Ridge….The recreation component is an 8-acre recreation complex, which has been negotiated. That because of the stalled economy, when we needed to last year, we modified it to allow them to be able to fund the Wood-Ridge High School complex, which was basically a stopgap measure to provide open space for our kids. Every community is always looking for open space and we’re very big on providing opportunities for our families and our children. And we thought that was a great project, getting $1.3 million, and then we funded some of it with grants.
Wood-Ridge has been governed by an all-Democratic council for many years. Is there room for debate or disagreement?
We have debate and disagreement at every public meeting. In fact, our administration – Mayor (Paul) Sarlo’s administration – we pride ourselves on disagreeing, but at the same time coming together to accomplish a common goal for the betterment of our community. And we have two opportunities for the public to speak at each meeting, which was unprecedented. Mayor Sarlo started that back in 2000. And just because we’re all one party, we certainly have our disagreements, but at the end of the day we look to accomplish what’s right for our community.
FORREST ELLIOTT, Jr., 59, a Republican, has been a school teacher in Clifton for 27 years. Elliott is a former Rutherford councilman and president. He has earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in urban education from Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University) and an additional master’s degree in Judeo-Christian studies from Seton Hall University. Elliott is newly married and has no children.
What is the largest problem that needs to be solved right now in Wood-Ridge and a possible solution?
I think there’s a couple. One of them is certainly taxes. Taxes went up this year close to 6 percent. If you keep spending, you can’t spend money that you don’t have. This council has continuously spent the taxpayers’ money. We have to look at maybe consolidating services. I’m not saying that the police should be consolidated because I’m not in favor of that, but I also have to take a look at the salaries that, say, the police chief is making. I think it’s around $140,000 to be the police chief in Wood-Ridge. That’s quite a bit of money. I don’t begrudge him for making it, but we have to start looking at trying to save some money somewhere. We have a town administrator that is getting paid full time and working almost part time. And the problem with that is he’s also working as chief of staff for Paul Sarlo. He’s also working on the tax board, Bergen County.
All those positions are pensions. There’s a lot of people in my town on fixed incomes. Some of them are out of work. They don’t know where their next dollar is coming from. Some people are having a hard time keeping their homes in town. And yet we have people in politics in Wood-Ridge collecting three pensions and working part time and getting paid full time big bucks. We’re not talking somewhere small amounts. We’re talking close to one job holds $60,000, the other job is about $70,000 – with pensions.
I don’t know how you justify that. But then again, you don’t have to justify it because it’s always been a one-party system. So the other issue in town is going back to a two-party system. One-party systems, no matter what town you’re in, what party you belong to, is never good for the town. Example: The councilman that just resigned, Bob Riccardella, ran for the assembly. He lost. Paul was the chosen one in the assembly and my guess is there was some politics all around, but Riccardella then got a job at the county to be an attorney’s chief of staff. That also carries a pension. He worked at one of the vocational schools in Bergen County and received a pension. He was receiving a salary as a borough councilman, with a pension.
And the last one, with no experience, no college degree, no criminal justice experience, he was now appointed to the parole board. It’s almost a lifetime job. Big bucks. Big pension. And someone told me yesterday he was also given a job, which I didn’t know. He was the head of the EMTs, I think, in Bergen County. So, when he says he worked for the benefit of the town, when you look at all that, you have to ask yourself who really did he work for? It doesn’t look like the town. It certainly looks like he was benefiting himself, which is disgraceful for a politician. You were elected to serve the town, not yourself.
How do you envision the future of the Wesmont Station development?
I was never in favor of the Wesmont project. There’s absolutely no way that anyone can tell me that the contamination has been concealed. Right now, there’s nothing going on. And it’s kind of funny. When the project was going on, they took credit for it. It was the greatest thing since white bread, according to them. Now, the project is stopped and their piece of literature that went out, they never once mentioned the Wesmont project. If you’re going to take credit for when you think things are going good, you have to take criticism for when they’re not good. You keep hearing about all the stimulus money from the governor, coming from the federal government. That project was already started. Where’s the stimulus money to continue the project? Now, we shouldn’t have a problem getting stimulus money or the governor’s ear.
We have Paul Sarlo, who’s in the state Senate. He should be fighting extremely hard to get the stimulus money for that project. Am I in favor of it? No. But it’s already there. It’s started. It’s not going to go away. So, let’s continue and let’s move on with it. I have a feeling that once that Wesmont – if it’s ever completed, and that’s a question – I believe the downtown as we know it in Wood-Ridge is going to be gone. I think that’s almost a given.
Do you believe preserving the Bianchi House is a worthy goal?
I don’t know what they’re going to use that Bianchi House for. I mean, they have renovated it at great expense. Even though it’s grant money, it’s still money that’s coming out of taxes. I mean, if they can actually show me what they will use that home for and that it’s going to be used on a regular basis, I might be persuaded to support that, but right now from what I understand is who’s going to go there? It’s a great amount of money that they spent. People look at grant money like it’s free money.
Like you plant a tree and you go to this special tree and all of a sudden you get all this grant money and nobody’s responsible for it. In essence, the grant money, there’s open space money, which that’s where they’re getting it from, we’re all paying for it. If they build a park in Park Ridge, we’re paying for that park out of our tax dollars. So, in essence, we’re all paying for this. It’s coming out of our tax dollars, whether directly or indirectly.
ED MARINO, 40, a Democrat, is in software sales. Marino was appointed to the Wood-Ridge Borough Council in September to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Robert Riccardella. A borough native, he graduated from the public school district and has lived in Wood-Ridge for 35 years. Marino holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from then-Montclair State College. He is married to Andrea, has one son, Andrew, 9 and one daughter, Madylin, 7. He is involved with numerous borough recreation programs.
What is the largest problem that needs to be solved right now in Wood-Ridge and a possible solution?
I agree with Councilman Altamura. Taxes are the biggest thing on the residents’ minds. We’re out there dealing with the residents. Their biggest question is ‘What is the story with taxes? What is the council looking to do?’ Just from my perspective, I will work towards making sure that we are looking at all the options available to us, to not reduce services, but to maintain the level of service, but also keeping fiscal responsibility.
How do you envision the future of the Wesmont Station development?
I believe the importance of open space is a key concern so I think it’s a good thing that the council had done in the past to make sure that those things will be part of the program and part of the plan. Having that part of the community integrated with the rest of the community will be important so it’s not felt like it’s a separate area, but I think that the council has taken steps to make sure that it’s not treated in any different manner, that it’s an integrated part of the community, so I think what the council’s done previous is really set up really nicely for when the economy gets better and construction can begin. I think it’s been kind of planned and set up in a perfect manner to really help the town grow.
Wood-Ridge has been governed by an all-Democratic council for many years. Is there room for debate or disagreement?
Yes, I would say there is. In my short time on the council – it’s only been a few weeks, a month, at this point – but I’ve seen there’s lively discussion about topics and really, for me being new to this, I’ve looked at it at the local level in a community like Wood-Ridge, it’s really all the people there are for the betterment of the town. I don’t think when we sit down as a group that we’re thinking we’re Democrats, you know, or if there were Republicans. I think it’s more ‘let’s look at solutions for whatever problems are presented to the council.’ So, yes, the answer is yes. It is open to discussion and debate, and at the end of the day it’s about solutions to whatever faces the council.
