On May 21, 2026, the three candidates vying for two seats in the Democratic primary for Maplewood Township Committee met for their one and only forum, hosted by the Hilton Neighborhood Association.
The forum was moderated by Mary Boehner and recorded on video by Max Kravitz. Timekeeper was Mark Rutledge.
The following is a transcript by Village Green:
Introductions
Vic De Luca:
Thanks, everyone. Good evening, everyone. I’m Vic De Luca, and I want to take a second to acknowledge my former running mate, Dean Dafis, who is not running anymore. I’m not thanking you for not running, I just want to recognize he’s no longer running! But we did want to thank him and I’m sure we’ll be thanking him more throughout the year.
I want to thank the Hilton Neighborhood Association for tonight. This is really something that’s terrific.
I have had the honor of serving you on the Township Committee, and it has really been a pleasure. And I hope that I’ll earn your support for another three years on the Township Committee.
I believe in government. I believe in local government. I believe it works for people. It can work for people. And I believe that it is an instrument to make life better and to create social change. And that’s how we do things here in Maplewood. We’re a progressive government, and I really enjoy serving the community. Absolutely incredible. I think anyone who leaves the town committee feels that they’ve made an impact. And that’s important. And I think I get things done. And that’s critical. At the local level, it’s not a lot of policy. It’s about getting things done. And I do that. Thank you.
Martin Ceperley:
Hi, my name’s Martin Ceperley. I’m a dad of three, a 15-year resident in Maplewood. My kids have been going around the corner to Seth Boyden school for eight years. I started the SOMA Bike Bus, which is a community movement across SOMA, five local schools. We bring joy, we bring community. We form bonds and we use it for advocacy. I’m a community organizer, and that’s where I’m running from. I bring people together and I advocate for change. I advocate for safer streets. One of the reasons I’m running, my friend was nearly killed earlier this year because of the dangerous streets we have. And that drove home the urgency of why I’m running this year. I had to do it. There was no other option. We need transportation options that work for everybody in this town.
Just this weekend we piloted a shuttle bus called the Swamp Trolley. We transported over 200 people into Maplewood Village. We need transportation options, middle school, high school seniors. Everyone needs ways to get around beyond just driving. We’re facing increasing density. We’re facing traffic congestion, and we need options to get around. But my campaign’s not just about transportation. It’s about more affordable housing. I think we need to keep Maplewood affordable. We need to get creative in how we can do that. We have a moral, legal obligation to do that. We need to develop our business districts like Newark Way, Springfield Avenue, Maplewood Village. I think the town can do much more, and I look forward to speaking about it more tonight. Thank you.
John Sullivan:
Hi, everyone. I’m John Sullivan. I’m not used to sitting in this seat at these types of forums. I’m usually the guy over there that’s yelling “time.” So if you want to put the face to the time. That’s me. I’m a resident for the last 25 years. My wife and three daughters. We live in the Lightning Brook section of the Hilton Neighborhood. I’m involved with the Democratic Committee. During that period of time, we were able to change the bylaws in that district leaders used to have to be male and female. Now it’s just two persons. In addition, we worked on the endorsement process so that it was open to everybody. In addition, I’m on the Planning Board here in Maplewood and on the executive committee of the Hilton Neighborhood Association. And in my free time or my day job, I’m a trial attorney. I’m running tonight because I want to give a voice to those that are underserved and are not treated in the same manner that we all want to be treated. I want to be that voice. I want to listen first. I want to increase communication between the TC and the public. I don’t want large projects being developed without getting the input from the neighborhoods where they’re going to be done.
Moderator Mary Boehner:
Our first question, and we’re going to start with Vic: As redevelopment continues in Hilton, Maplewood’s, most densely populated and economically diverse neighborhood, some residents worry that longtime residents are being priced out of full participation in the local economy. How do you view the relationship between redevelopment and economic accessibility in Hilton? And what specific township policies or planning tools would you support to help longtime residents remain part of the neighborhood’s future?
Vic De Luca:
So, I am very concerned about this, and the growth of some of the businesses on Newark Way is very exciting. They’re neat places to go to, but they have to be done in a smart way. The most affordable housing in Maplewood is on Newark Way. Those duplexes, they sell for about $400,000 so taxes are reasonable. They’re two bedroom, two bath, and families can start there. So I want to make sure that whatever we do on Newark Way or in the Hilton neighborhood, that we preserve what’s there. Now, one of the things we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be reinstating the neighborhood rehabilitation program, affordable housing program. And this is going to give folks $20,000 to fix up their houses. So to address issues like roofs and boilers and things like that. So that’s another way to help folks stay here.
We have to make sure that we’re doing the most we can to keep taxes down. But anybody who tells you they’re going to lower your taxes, nah, I don’t believe them. What we have to do is make sure that taxes don’t eat us up. So that means going to the state and fighting to get our fair share, both on the municipal side with the utility tax that the state has taken from municipalities. And also on the school side. We do the right thing with integration here, and it costs us a lot of money. And the state doesn’t reward us. And we have one of the most segregated school systems in the state of New Jersey. They should be giving us money as a model. So I want to go down there and argue that with our colleagues at the school board and with our colleagues and other municipalities. So we get our fair share here in Maplewood.
Martin Ceperley:
I’m excited by all the development on Newark Way and on Springfield Avenue, but I think we need to spread the development across the whole town. I don’t think development should only be happening in the Hilton neighborhood. I live on Parker Avenue in the Borden Park neighborhood, and we’re seeing some exciting progress there. But we need to push for more affordable housing across Maplewood, not just on this side of town. In terms of residents concerns around development and Newark Way, I think we need to come together and listen to what the concerns are. A lot of concerns I’ve heard are around transportation, around parking. And I think we need to think about infrastructure going forward, how people are getting around, how we’re managing parking, how we can better utilize the resources that we have.
For example, the DPW lot is right there on Newark Way. It is underutilized. It can be used for parking. It can potentially be redeveloped into a shared service with South Orange. And we can use that space for something else. But we need to get creative in terms of solutions. Because we have limited space to work with. In terms of keeping costs down, the town can do more to promote programs that we already have, like a Freeze NJ program that freezes seniors’ property taxes. I think the town can do more communication around that.
I think we need to regulate flippers more. Flippers are taking houses, they’re doing poor quality work, and they’re flipping them in a few months. And the town has an obligation to tax those flippers much more heavily than they’re doing now. In terms of property values, I think the fear of gentrification is a false dichotomy between gentrification and no progress. I think we need to move forward. We need to develop these commercial areas because that’s going to increase our tax base and that’s going to keep Maplewood affordable for everyone.
John Sullivan:
The first one thing we need to do is look at our master plan. The master plan encourages developers to reach out to the communities and engage in conversation about what type of projects are going to be done. We also need to revitalize our rent control ordinance that has not been modified in years. We also need to look at different types of housing instead of expanding areas that permit two-family housing. Being on the planning board, we have people, developers, constantly buying single family properties, asking for a subdivision, knocking down the house that’s there, and then putting in two new houses. And if we were able to increase the two-family unit zones, we would be able to nip that in the bud. The developer would have the two residences that he wants without having to add to the density of our community.
The Hilton neighborhood is the most diverse and most dense neighborhood, and we have not been treated fairly. There have been a number of issues that have happened through the years, but with respect to additional housing options, there’s workforce options, workforce housing, which there’s grants for those type of housing that would allow our teachers and our first responders who work in our community to live here, to know who we are, and engage and become part of the progress that I will be strongly supporting. Thank you.
Question 2: Affordability remains a major concern in Maplewood. How would you address affordable housing obligations, including the fourth round mandates, while preserving income diversity, supporting missing middle housing, and ensuring that growth does not overburden existing infrastructure?
Martin Ceperley:
I’m coming from a family that has deep roots in affordable housing. My wife for her whole career, for 20 years, she’s been working in affordable housing and homeless services. She’s my advisor on this. And I had a lot of in-depth conversations. The only reason that she agreed to let me run was that I would push for affordable housing .
What we’ve talked about a lot recently is this idea of a hundred percent affordable projects. I’m really inspired by the JESPY projects in South Orange, what they’re doing on Prospect Street. I think we need more of that in Maplewood. This idea that we need a giant luxury building with only 15% affordable, that doesn’t cut it. That means we’ve got these giant projects with only a very small number of very hard to get units.
But when you use township property to generate a hundred percent affordable housing, what happens is you get credits from the system, from the state, you get bonus credits for using township property. So I think the township should submit RFPs to non-profit developers. For example, the swimming pool parking lot, you can actually build above that. You can put up a project on stilts above the parking lot, and you can use township property to fulfill our obligations, a hundred percent affordable. And then you don’t need a giant luxury building there. You can provide supportive housing for people with special needs, for seniors. You can provide these projects on township property. The township owns a number of parcels around town that could be used. These don’t have to be huge projects, but they can be micro development projects. And that can fulfill our obligation in a smart way that’ll make Maplewood a more inclusive and affordable place for all sorts of residents to live here.
John Sullivan:
We have a moral and ethical obligation to meet the 216 units of affordable housing by the year 2035. And that will be one of my main goals when elected. Martin just mentioned a hundred percent affordable housing. There is actually a project that’s being discussed right now that would add approximately 48 units throughout Maplewood being built by a nonprofit organization. So I agree with you, Martin, that is a good idea and one that the township’s working on now.
I think it’s also important that we not only just deal with developers, that we deal with non-profit organizations and that we deal with houses of worship. There are a number of houses of worship in our community that own property that is underutilized. We will partner with them in an effort to meet our affordable housing goals. But it’s not just the very low and the middle. There are, as I was talking before about the workforce housing, there’s grants for those so that we can have our teachers and our first responders living in our neighborhoods. We can utilize grants to help those with disabilities, similar to the JESPY House and work together with a common goal of providing affordable housing throughout our community. Thank you.
Vic De Luca:
So, affordable housing is absolutely essential. We can’t be a welcoming community unless we build affordable housing. And I know people are saying that we have a bit overdevelopment, but this gives us the opportunity to create affordable units in that development.
The way it works right now is the state provides zero dollars to help us meet our needs. We have to find that another way. So some of the ways we’re doing that now is we are working with non-profit developers. We work with HANDS, we work with Sierra House, we’re working with JESPY, those are the groups that we have been talking to about creating a mix of housing.
So let’s talk about the mix. First off, we have affordable housing. And I’ll give you, if you ever look at a DPW map, there’s six sections. They’re all in different colors. It represents the whole town. We have affordable housing in five of those six sections. And that housing is rental housing, it’s for sale housing, it is supported housing. These are group homes. We have about 10 group homes in town we don’t even know about. So this is how we’ve put together the plan.
Now we have an obligation, as John said, to do 216 units in the next 10 years. We’ve identified land that we can build about 116 of those units. We still have another one hundred that is an unmet need. And that includes 48 units on a piece of property that’s owned by Providence Bank just next to DPW that we’re working with a developer to build. And then we’re scattering sites around town in different parking lots, different development sites. And that’s how you put it together, that every development that goes up, 20% gets set aside for affordable. And the way that gets paid is that the developer has to pay that. And that stays for forty years, those units.
Question #3: What is your comprehensive plan to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers on both municipal streets and county roads.
John Sullivan:
Whether you know it or not, Maplewood has a complete street policy. However, that policy has not been updated in 12 years. We have seen individuals, pedestrians, cyclists get killed. Martin alluded to one of the most recent incidents. I want to congratulate Martin for what he’s done with the bike bus and also the bike lanes. I want to continue that work, expand it. That one on Parker should be extended all the way down to Irvington Avenue. But we also need to get community feedback. We need to listen before we do something. And I commend the mayor for conducting the last three, — the third one’s on the 26th regarding the Prospect bike lanes.
Now we need to address an issue, this falls into equity, falls into biking and what have you. There are people that live in this community, in the Lightning Brook and the Hilton section ,students who are not attending school. And we’ve learned that there’s this high truancy, because if their parents are unable to get them to school, they can’t get there. And if they have a bicycle, I want to incorporate teaching students, children, the elderly, disabled, how to ride bikes. We can do that by closing off streets for a period of time and teach them how to ride a bike. That will also be beneficial to those students that live here in this section who are unable to make it to school because they don’t have that ride, but they can ride their bike and be safe. Thank you.
Vic De Luca:
I want to thank Martin for raising the whole issue of transportation and bike safety and pedestrian safety, something we’ve been working on. And I think he’s taken some of the ideas to another level. And I really look forward to having more conversations about that. We’re going to start that on June 3rd when we get a presentation from the SOMA bike group and bus group. They have an idea of how do we get working. So the township committee’s going to get a proposal from folks both working on this in South Orange. So I look forward to that and having some conversations.
Last Friday, I spoke to somebody in Trenton at Isles [?] that does a whole series of programs around transportation, including transportation of students and seniors and what have you. So there’s some models out there, certainly the stuff that Martin’s been doing. And we need to look at that and see what’s adaptable, what we can make, what we can scale up.
It’s important that we do transportation three ways. We need to do strong enforcement. And in 2025, we got the police to do 1,000 more moving violations, a 42% increase. And it was our tenacity on the township committee to hold the police accountable so that they do that. And so we’re seeing even more this year, that can’t be enough. We have to educate folks about being safe on the road, taking care when you’re out there because it’s our families that are walking and biking out in the streets. And lastly, we need engineering, we need traffic calming. We need speed humps. We need four-way stops. We need the bump outs. Make it safer for folks to cross the streets. We need the blinking crosswalks that we have right out here with the high intensity blinkers. So it is a comprehensive program, but as John said, it’s a Complete Streets program, which talks about not prioritizing auto, but dealing with auto, pedestrian, bicyclists all the same.
Martin Ceperley:
With the bike bus program that I founded, we’re changing the culture in SOMA. We’re raising kids that need to get around independently without being chauffeured by their parents. We’re a small town. We’re a streetcar suburb less than four square miles. The whole town is accessible on foot by bike, by scooter. You don’t need cars. And we have such density here that we’re not going to meet everyone’s parking need. That’s never going to be a solution to build giant parking garages. We don’t want giant parking garages. We need ways to get around.
An idea I’ve seen in a lot of other cities is this idea about school streets. A school street around our elementary schools means that it’s not focused on cars. It’s not focused on parking. It’s focused on being a place for kids to arrive to school safely.
I’ve been a parent at Seth Boyden for eight years. Boyden Avenue is terrifying. We don’t even have a stop sign there. We need to look at these school streets and think about how we can make them safer for every user, whether they’re six years old or they’re a senior. I don’t think the flashing lights are enough. I’m encouraged by raised crosswalks. Those make drivers slow down. They’re not as intense as a speed bump.
But people need options to get around. That’s why we piloted the SOMA Shuttle last weekend because this is something, the town has idle buses every weekend. They’re never being used. We have these assets, we need to put them into place and we need to build a culture around them because kids want to get around on their own safely, independently. That’s why we’re here. We love to raise independent kids. We have a community vibe. And I think we need to think about our transportation system holistically. Complete streets policy on paper means nothing. We need to build bike lanes that are actually bikeable. Not just a line of paint on the side of the road. That’s not enough. We need physical protection, physical barriers, like armadillos — little rubber divots on the road so that drivers don’t drive on them. It’s a holistic project.
Question #4: What are your top priorities for the Hilton neighborhood, specifically regarding redevelopment, economic accessibility, the Hilton branch library improvements and the addition or preservation of protected green space?
Vic De Luca:
So I’ll start with the library first because I think that’s important. And we have been talking at the Hilton Neighborhood Association for the library going back to Carol Buchanan. I remember coming here, candidate meeting after candidate meeting, and that would be the top question — what’s going to happen to the Hilton library? I’m on the strategic planning committee for the library. And that is a primary discussion that we’re having is how are we going to do a couple things there. How are we going to program it to a full service library? Remember during the construction of the main library, it was a children’s library. We want to bring it back to a full service library because folks need it in this area. It’s a walkable library. We were just talking about walking. That means that we have to have accessible public services. So that’s what we’re looking at.
As far as the program side, the building needs a lot of work. It needs a lot of work. And we don’t want it to be a stepchild of the other building. So we’re talking about, what’s the investment we’re making in that building? We already just put a roof on it, but we’ve got to do inside work, and that’s very important. So that would be one thing.
Second, we’re undertaking a huge project here, right out here in the park. We’re having a construction meeting next week, and work is going to start on the field in July. And we’re going to have a brand new field done correctly. And then we’re going to start doing the playground as people asked us to do, to create a park here that is just not for sports, but gives people here green space. My dream is that we will expand DeHart to take over the DCH parking lot, which is next to it. And we build more fields and more areas for recreation and more green space there.
Lastly, in five seconds, we have been working with the DPW to make sure that we’re planting trees here. So we don’t have any heat island effect. We get more trees in the Hilton neighborhood.
Martin Ceperley:
I think the beauty of the Hilton neighborhood is it’s so walkable. It’s just a neighborhood you can walk around to Springfield Avenue businesses, to Newark Way businesses, Burnett Avenue. It’s so walkable. We need to focus on the pedestrian experience, making it a nicer place to walk around, especially on Springfield Avenue. You’re walking on a highway right now. It’s a poor experience and we don’t have enough foot traffic to the local businesses. We need to make it a destination. Springfield Avenue has so many gems. This whole campaign. I’ve been meeting with business owners on Springfield Avenue, HLS, Sandwicheria, General Store, which sadly just announced their closing. We need to focus on these kind of third spaces, see where we can add some vibrancy, some more public arts, some more public music parklets instead of all these parking spaces.
You can put a little parklet on the side of the road and suddenly it’s more inviting for people to spend time, to spend money. We want more businesses to thrive here. It’s a food desert on Springfield Avenue. We have one butcher shop, and a deli. But there’s no grocery stores. There’s nowhere for people to walk to get food. I think we need to focus on attracting grocers to the area so that it’s a neighborhood where you can fulfill all your needs on foot.
I think green spaces are incredibly important to preserve, because these are third spaces where kids can hang out, community can gather. The bike bus is all about building community, and we need more third spaces in our town where kids can just exist. The work on DeHart’s important. I think the drainage needs to be addressed. I’ve talked to a lot of experts on the field, and the sand under the field is not working now for drainage. But these parks are used for so many uses that I think we need to focus on preserving as much green space as we can and tree canopy as we can.
John Sullivan:
As far as DeHart Park, the township just passed a $3.5 million bond, which will require it to be a natural grass field. The township has gone further and now hired a fields manager. The town has failed us up until recently by continually providing us with fields that are unsafe for our children to play on. This is a safety issue. The design that is being developed is that of a sand base rather than the materials that were not suitable.
Now, there is a need for the use of fields. There is more need than there are fields. And that’s the reality of it. And we need to make sure that we’re not just going to spend another $3.5 million and take care of it for a short period of time and then let it get lost. We must make a commitment to provide fields that are playable, that are also able to be used for people having picnics, playing with their children. And I am a big proponent, and if you look at any of my literature, I have been discussing the renaissance of the Hilton neighborhood, excuse me, the Hilton Branch Library. The need to improve the infrastructure. We just invested tens of millions of dollars on the library on the other side of town. We need to make not that big of an investment, but work on the infrastructure that’s there, work on the services that are there, and the technology. And that is what I’ll do when I’m elected.
Question #5: Over the past two months, approximately 30 township meetings have appeared on the public calendar. How many have you attended? And what, if anything, would you change about Maplewood’s current meeting, decision making and public engagement processes?
Martin Ceperley:
I’ve attended a few township committee meetings. Definitely these meetings on the Prospect Street bike lanes.
I think the problem I’ve encountered with Prospect, with the bike lane meetings and these community meetings is that a lot of them are at times parents can’t attend. When we were going through the Parker Avenue process, I’m being told via text message that I need to attend this meeting at 8:00 a.m. Well, guess what? I’m dropping kids off at Seth Boyden at Maplewood Middle School at 8:00 a.m. I’m not going to be able to jump on your meeting. And furthermore, there’s no published agenda for this meeting. So if I didn’t have an insider on the township committee that was telling me these things, I would’ve no idea these things are happening. I’ve spoke to residents in the Hilton neighborhood about redevelopment plans and the development that’s going on there.
And they’re in the dark until these meetings are actually happen. They’re not being told that developers are attending these meetings. It’s very opaque the town’s processes right now. The township meeting, the committee meeting is public. But these subcommittee meetings where the actual decisions are happening are not very well publicized. There’s no agendas. There’s no recordings that are published online. So if you weren’t there, you missed it. We have to file OPRA requests for every single subcommittee meeting in order to get the content. And I think that’s ridiculous.
John Sullivan:
I believe since January, I’ve attended every township committee meeting. I’ve attended every planning board meeting for the past two years. I’ve attended the bike lane safety meetings, and I agree that there has to be better communication.
My whole story, my whole theme of this campaign is listening first, thriving together. We need the community’s input. We need them to be educated, let them know what is going on. There is a redevelopment plan in that is being discussed now in the village. There are members on this township committee who have not received all the documents and papers that have been filed regarding that redevelopment. I’m on the planning board. I had no idea that there was an ongoing lawsuit until that was brought up as far as that project. In particular, I voted against permitting 11 Inwood to be added to the redevelopment project. That was simply developers looking for the last penny they can make on that project. And I had the opportunity and the pleasure of telling those developers when we passed our affordable housing that I could call them out and let them know, and they could see me vote in favor of the Affordable Housing Act, which did not include their project.
Vic De Luca:
I’ve been to a lot of township committee meetings. I was just talking about this with Janie, who lets me go to all these meetings. Thank you, Janie. I did miss a meeting last year because I was sick. But otherwise I go to a lot of meetings.
I want to give a shout out to Malia Herman and Deb Engel because when they were on the township committee, they pushed more and more communication. And Deb is now off the township committee, but she still tells us we have to do it. And Malia is chairing the communications committee and is doing a great job pushing us. Both of them were strong advocates for having a full-time public information officer. And we got that in this year’s budget. We just passed the resolution the other night that we’ll have a full-time public information officer.
There’s a lot of information to get out and that’s what we’re going to be doing. So you’re going to see more and the newsletters are going out, the electronic newsletters, we’re doing news briefs. All that’s going out in the interest of making sure that you’re aware of what we’re doing.
The subcommittee meetings are in the mornings — except for public safety, which is an evening meeting. And it really has to do with these are working meetings. They are with the professionals, whether it’s township professionals or hired professionals. But no decisions can get made at a subcommittee meeting even though they’re public, because anything at a subcommittee meeting has to be brought back to the township committee at its public meeting.
And the way we do this is before an ordinance or a major decision is made we put it on for discussion. So you’ll see on our agenda, we have discussion items. And this is for two purposes. One is to make sure that all five of us on the township committee have an opportunity to see what may come out of a subcommittee meeting, to ask questions and to discuss it. Secondly, it alerts you that something’s coming down. If we’re going to move on an ordinance, then we introduce the ordinance. There’s an opportunity to speak there. And then there’s a second hearing and a second reading of the hearing and you can speak there.
So yes, there are some subcommittee meetings, but it is always brought back to the public meeting.
Question #6: What is your position on installing turf at Ritzer Field? And how would you vote on this issue if serving on the board of school estimate?
John Sullivan:
I had a feeling this question was going to be asked. Here’s the truth. And I said it just before. There is more need for fields than fields that we have. And we want to provide our student athletes and our children with safe fields. Ritzer has always been an athletic field. It is not like DeHart, which is a community park. It’s always been used for athletics. And the board has passed it on several different occasions to turf Ritzer. My position is that as long as the mitigating of the water issue is taken care of, I’m in favor of turfing Ritzer Field.
Vic De Luca:
So I have in the past been in favor of doing a turf Ritzer. What I’ve told the school board president is that as a member, this board of school estimate, I want to have a definitive plan from the school board as to whether or not they want that turf. And the superintendent. We’ve heard that they do. But I want to see the vote. I want to see them vote as the school board to the board of school estimate. I think that that becomes a factor that we’re going to have to seriously consider. I do not support spending $8 million on the turf. I would be in favor of some kind of compromise that would look at maybe a partial turfing of the field, say the ball field, use the lacrosse field, and then take a look at a natural ball field. I’m open to having more conversation about that, but I do not support putting turf over the whole thing.
But I do think the turf question has to be put in a bigger framework of our school facilities. And look, we can’t be discussing turf or no turf, when we have parents coming up there and telling us that their kids can’t go to the bathrooms because the bathrooms don’t work. And we can’t be talking about turf if they’re telling us that the elevator hasn’t been working and no one knows when it’s going to work again. Or that the gym at Seth Boyden, which was destroyed by a flood, is not going to be fixed. So as we have this conversation about turf, we need to go back and look at those other issues, those other capital needs to figure out how they’re going to get that addressed because we’re going to move on to whatever happens. We’re going to have to make sure that it is part of a larger perspective of how we’re going to address all these facilities.
Martin Ceperley:
The turf question is a hot button issue in our town. I think the temperature has been raised a lot over the years with with DeHart Park and Ritzer. I think you need to look at the green spaces in town holistically. This is not just in an athletic field. This is someone’s backyard. There’s a lot of folks that live in the neighborhood that have feelings about this, and I think we need to listen to them. Most of your taxes go to the school district. I think it’s something around 60%. Most of your property taxes are going in the school district. So we need to look at the fiscal health of the school district. They have to get their fiscal house in order. We have to look at what’s happening in Montclair with their fiscal situation.
I think in our school district, the health insurance costs are going through the roof, the infrastructure’s crumbling. We have all these old buildings that need a lot of help. To see it as turf vs. no turf, I think it’s a false dichotomy. It’s a much bigger picture. We need to maintain the fields that we have. So I think in Ritzer, basic maintenance is not being done. The soil’s not being aerated. We’re not talking to any horticulturist about the drainage and about maintaining a green space. How we can maintain a field properly like they do in Glen Ridge. I think they maintain all grass fields with very high usage, but they actually have staff on the district, in the town that are actually maintaining them with a plan.
I don’t think we’re doing that. I think South Orange is doing a much better job than Maplewood. And so we need to look at the staff in South Orange, potentially as a shared service. So we could have South Orange Parks Department working on Maplewood Parks as well. Maybe with additional staff. We need shared services. Fiscally $8 million for a turf field that’s only going to last eight years. That’s a million dollars a year. I wouldn’t be on board with that. Athletes certainly have needs in our town that are not being met, but seeing that as an isolated thing is not going to do anyone any good. I think we need to better maintain the fields, and we need to come to a compromise with our neighbors in terms of how everyone can use the green space and how we can maintain green space in our town while having adequate fields to play on.
Question #7: How would you engage residents at both ends of the age spectrum? Young voters who represent Maplewood’s future and senior residents who need the town to remain accessible, welcoming, and affordable?
Vic De Luca:
I was very excited to hear about the new law that allows 17 year olds to vote in this primary election if they’re going to be 18 in November. And I think we need to do more. John and I were in a session with the superintendent, trying to push more students to do that. And I think the students, we need work with the school system. There are a lot of 18-year-old students who aren’t even registered to vote. So I think I’m also inspired by the League of Women voters. Now. is being put together again here in Maplewood and South Orange. That can be a major project. We want to have somebody in sort of a nonpartisan figure with some gravitas to come in there. And I think the League of Women Voters is an opportunity to do that with younger voters and get them involved.
But there’s more. We need to make sure our rec department, we have a youth advisory committee now. We need to make sure that the pool committee and the rec committee and the youth advisory committee are talking to one another, and they’re talking with the community board on the police so that we’re making sure that our police officers are dealing with our young people in the right way.
So there’s a lot of stuff that we have to put together, but it really means that we have to get some young voices involved. And that also means putting, and what we’ve been doing is trying to reach out and find young people and putting them on boards and committees. Sometimes they find that a little boring.
On the other side, we are reestablishing our Two Towns for All Ages. We’re putting a staff person in again, and that really makes sure that we’re focusing on policy and programs that will allow people to stay in the community. So that’s the other side. We have to look at both. It’s absolutely critical that we have representation of both of those populations in all of our work that we’re doing.
Martin Ceperley:
I touched on this briefly earlier: this weekend we launched a pilot program. And that’s what I like to do. I like to test things. I like to make stuff happen. I run a bike swap on my front lawn. I started the bike bus. I never know how many people are going to show up. I just do it. The shuttle service, we did that. We rented a bus. We drove over 200 residents around. And this is a service that appeals to all ages. I spoke to a resident in Maplewood Village at Bagel Chateau one day. She had walked all the way from the Hilton neighborhood to Maplewood Village because she doesn’t drive and she’s going to walk back. I think when we talk about transportation and a shuttle service, we’re talking about all ages having accessibility in our town and not just our town, but in South Orange as well.
A lot of seniors don’t drive or don’t want to drive at night. We need better transportation. A lot of middle school, most high school students don’t drive. They need transportation. And that reduces the parking crunch. It reduces the school drop off crunch. We need to focus on how we can make our town more accessible to all ages. In terms of the youth, I think they need to be more involved. I’m endorsed by Climate Revolution NJ. It’s the largest Gen Z organizing force in the state. The work they’ve been doing fighting data centers, preserving green space and West Orange is hugely inspirational. And I think we need to involve Gen Z in our policies and in our meetings. We need to modernize our meetings. I think they can be shorter, they can be more fun, they can be simpler. We don’t need to do all these proclamations. I think we need to modernize the institution of municipal government and focus on municipal government, and bring it into the modern era, and involve these young people because they’re so passionate about the issues they care about, like sustainability and they want to put these passions into action.
John Sullivan:
I do like the name Swamp Trolley. That’s the latest iteration of an ongoing conversation that’s been going on in this community. The last time this was brought forward was by our youth advisory board, and they were seeking grants for people that were disabled, disadvantaged, underprivileged. We have a finite resource of money. We can’t use our tax money to support a party bus driving around the community. It may be better served applying for grants that are available to the elderly, disabled, and underserved. We would need to use the senior bus type of vehicle, an all access vehicle so that the ones who really need the assistance for their transportation would be able to get it.
With respect to our youth, I had reached out to Principal Sanchez and Superintendent Bing and had a Zoom call with him trying to schedule a forum similar to this that would be done and manned by the students. Due to AP exams and end of school activities, that wasn’t able to happen. But I’ve already started the conversation with Principal Sanchez about, once this election’s over, that the three of us here, no matter what the result is, have a forum with the students to discuss our unique experiences. Voter registration is important. So are mentorships and getting our teams involved in different committees and boards, especially in the arts. Thank you.
Question #8: Given the tone of this campaign, how would you work collaboratively with all township committee members? Please share an example of a time when your position on an important issue changed after listening to residents, colleagues, or other elected officials.
Martin Ceperley:
The township committee is, is a five person committee. We need to be listening to each other and our concerns. I could talk about the Parker Avenue bike lane saga that we went through last year. I think we started at a place in town in our town where we didn’t have a single bike lane. Just the idea that we were going to have a bike lane, it was a foreign concept to a lot of people. And parking is always an issue. Parking was allowed on Parker Avenue formerly, even though it was never safe. It is not a wide enough road to have parking if the trucks that are parked there. They blocked the road.
But the residents had become accustomed to that. I think you need to have a discussion now. We have no parking on Parker Avenue and everyone’s getting by fine. I think the township committee, I’ve been impressed with Vic De Luca stepping up and voting yes on that. I think we changed his mind over time through advocacy, through showing up to meetings. The bike bus community, it’s not just about biking the school. It’s a community organizing effort and it takes a lot of voices. It takes 8-year-old girls and boys to show up to township committee and share their experience of what it’s actually like biking around town. Everyone needs to share their experience. So I think that’s the beauty of the township is that we all have such different experiences when we come together, we can change minds. I was impressed with the mayor changing his mind on the bike plan. And I think if we continue these discussions and we lower the temperature, we can work together and really make good progress.
John Sullivan:
The tenor of this election, at least as far as a TC election is concerned, has been troubling. And I have been part of the problem and I’ve acknowledged that, and I’ve reached out to people that I’ve offended and let them know that I made a mistake. I’m not perfect. I talked to Martin actually right before this forum began, and I told him, I hope you don’t take anything personally that is exchanged on Facebook or what have you. I have respect for the two gentlemen that are sitting next to me. The mayor has done a fantastic job in a lot of ways through the years. He’s an icon in our community. And Martin has done splendid work with the bike bus and the bike lanes. And I know unequivocally that whichever of the two of us are elected, and that’s what I’m asking for. I’m just asking for one of your votes. I think we should all vote for two individuals. This idea that’s being discussed online, I don’t think it’s, democratic. I think you have the opportunity to vote for two people. You should. And that once the election’s finished, we’ll coalesce amongst each other and be able to work together as a team.
Vic De Luca:
I think what happens is whatever combination of us wins on June 2nd, we’ll get together and we’ll talk about how we’re going to run together in November. Now, of course, we don’t have a candidate to run against in November, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a responsibility to put out a platform. Now, some of you have been around here know that Fred Profeta and I used to fight like cats and dogs, and then all of a sudden we both won a primary and we ended up on the same ticket in November. And we worked it out. We talked about what things we were going to work on and what do we want to say to folks, and that’s what we did. So you work it out. I mean, elections sometimes get hot. It’s an election.
But the most important thing is you enter the township committee knowing that not one of the five of us has a monopoly on the ideas, but it’s a committee. It’s called a committee for a reason. It’s the oldest form of government in New Jersey. About 150 towns use it, and actually you’re not even called the mayor by state law. You’re called the chair of the committee. So the idea as the chair, like in any chair, you’ve all been chairs of some kind of a committee or a board, is you make sure everybody gets a chance to talk and nobody’s ideas are stupid. And you move forward trying to come out on some resolution. And if you have difficulty, you talk it out and you think it out. Now there’s the rule of three, which is the sort of bottom line. You need three votes to get anything done at the township committee, but that’s not enough. Four vote votes is better, five votes is best — because it’s not group think. It’s compromise. We can get five people together.
I’ll give you a couple examples. Martin mentioned the bike lane. I was not sold on it initially, but I got there and led the effort as chair of the engineering committee. We now have changed the pool fee to the lowest it’s been since 2012. Right, right. And that also took compromise. We had to fundamentally think differently about how the pool was going to be funded. And we did it, we did it as a group. And that’s what we will do. Whoever wins on June 2nd, on June 3rd, we will start the campaign and start figuring out what we want to do.
Concluding Statements:
John Sullivan:
There are two issues that I really wanted and hoped would be raised, and one of them is ICE and what they’ve done to the community at large.
The township has to make a firm stance, pass an ordinance, not simply a resolution, outlining that our police officers will not engage or assist ICE in any way. In addition, provide safe spaces in the community, community rooms like this, churches, even in restaurants. We need to have a more expanded emergency response team. There is one now in place, but we learned on the township committee meeting this week that an individual was kidnapped by ICE right in front of the Park Wood Diner. And his vehicle was left there. And it took multiple calls to the police department to finally have someone come, run the plate, find out where the family was so that they could come get the car.
Now we also need to provide legal representation on an emergency basis. I’ve talked to several attorneys, they’re willing to do some of that work pro bono, but we also need to help the family members that are left behind. There are families that a member is detained and they’re afraid to go home because ICE might be there.
And another thing, the pools — we have to be more equitable with the use of the pools, have pool passes for, and swimming lessons for those who are disabled, elderly, and increased the hours for those lessons. Thank you. One last thing. Please vote for me. Thank you.
Martin Ceperley
I’d like to echo what John said about ICE. I think it’s been good seeing the progress on Town Committee, following the guidelines from SOMA Action. I think SOMA Action’s been encouraging the Town Committee on policy in terms of how we protect our residents from ICE, in terms of how we make safe spaces and how we protect the family members and we provide them resources. We connect them with legal aid and various resources. I’m so inspired by what’s happening at Delaney Hall right now, and I think it’s on everyone’s mind. Springfield Avenue business owners, they need to be trained on how to deal with ICE. We need all township employees, employees at the library, employees at the health department. They all need to be trained on how to deal with ice. They all have to have know your right cards. I think that’s critically important.
I’m running as a community organizer. My whole campaign team is moms at Seth Boyden. The center of gravity in our town is our moms. And I think that’s incredible. And I think we need more moms, more dads to participate in our Town government. I think it’s inaccessible for many people. People are scared to run. We have uncontested elections for years and years and years, and I’m sick of it. I think I expect more people to run next year. We need more voices in town hall. We need new voices, fresh voices. We need, we need new ideas. That Town Hall can be different things. It doesn’t have to be what it was 30 years ago. It can be focused on the next 30 years. So I’m trying to bring a voice of parents maybe that are shut out from current government.
I’m trying to bring a voice to maybe seniors that are, feeling left out of town government. I think more people should be involved with town government. I think we should fight against the Essex County machine politics that we’re seeing where the gubernatorial race determines who’s mayor and who’s not mayor. I think voters are sick of that in terms of all five TC members endorsing a candidate that the voters in Maplewood did not support. So I would hope that I could earn your vote and I’m around. Visit Martin maplewood.com. Come talk to me. I’m around. I’d love to meet you. Thank you.
Vic De Luca:
I’m 1F on the ballot. Please vote for me. You have two votes. I’ve asked for one of those.
I absolutely agree. Elections are about the future and governing is about the future’s. How we’re going to make things better for the next generation, the current generation, the next generation. How is tomorrow going to be better than today? How are we going to work on things? And I must tell you that being on the township committee, you work on a lot of boring things. You’re talking about potholes and you’re talking about something that has to get done. And some of it is very tedious.
We also do some fun things. We go to Eagle Scout Awards and we go to talk to classes and we do proclamations. I have to take a little difference with you about the proclamations because what it does, what the proclamation does is it lifts up the diversity of our community and it tells somebody that you matter.
So those are fun things to do. And so that’s the combination. It is a little bit of a mix there. And then there’s the voice. You have to be a voice. There’s no point in being a township committee person, whether you’re a committee person or the mayor, and you don’t open your mouth when things are wrong. You better speak out, and things are wrong in this country with the president. We have things are a lot better now in New Jersey with the governor we have, but we have to keep them on their toes. And that means using your voice and speaking out. So that’s why I go to Trenton. That’s why I just came back from Atlantic City because I was down there talking to the Lieutenant governor and Dean’s boss, the commissioner of the community affairs. And today I spoke to the Attorney General and I mentioned about the ICE agents coming to town and asked about the masks and all that. And that’s what you have to do. And I put her on notice that we expect some results. So that’s what I will continue to do. I’ll deal with the bread and butter issues here, but also use my voice. Please vote. Victor Luca 1F.
