Three candidates are running for two Maplewood Township Committee seats in 2024: incumbents Nancy Adams and Jamaine Cripe, and Malia Herman. The primary election is on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. The general election takes place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Read all of our Election Coverage here.
Mayor Nancy Adams has served on the Township Committee since 2016, as Deputy Mayor from 2016-18 and as Mayor in 2024. She is running for another term on the Township Committee as part of a team with Deputy Mayor Jamaine Cripe, with whom she ran successfully in 2021. They share the same outlook on key priorities for Maplewood, including:
- environmental sustainability
- sound fiscal practices
- inclusion and support for residents and families, and
- keeping seniors in their home.
Nancy moved to Maplewood in 1989 where she raised five children. She was a proud and active member of the Tuscan PTA, where she restarted their annual theater productions. She has a 34-year history of community service to Maplewood including co-founding the College Hill Neighborhood Association and starting the movement to improve Springfield Avenue and then co-founding the Springfield Avenue Partnership in the early 90s. Ms. Adams has been a member of the Planning Board member since 2009.
Ms. Adams is certified by the National Main Street Center in Downtown Management with a 28-year career in downtown management and revitalization. She is a Board member of Downtown New Jersey, a professional and advocacy organization known statewide in the industry.
Nancy is a past President of the League of Women Voters of Maplewood & S. Orange, and served as a Democratic District Leader from 1992-2000. She provided key support to former Township Committeeman Mickey Stern in the successful launch of the Maplewood Jitney Service in the early 1990s.
During her time on the Township Committee, Nancy has served as Chair of the Engineering, Public Works & Planning, Economic Development, Finance and Code Committees, and she continues her service on the Planning Board. Ms. Adams has also served as liaison on the Environmental Advisory Committee, Historic Preservation Commission, Open Space Trust Fund, Maplewood Memorial Park Conservancy and the Maplewood Village Alliance.
Ms. Adams believes in common-sense and pragmatic governance, characterized by consistency, diligence and integrity. She has sought during her term as Mayor to move township governance to a model where each member plays a more equal role and where the committee serves primarily as a policy-and-goal setting body that encourages leadership by the township administrator and department heads.
Mayor Adams is currently working to create New Jersey’s first stormwater utility in Maplewood, ensuring reliable annual funding essential for infrastructure work. Along with her running mate Jamaine Cripe, she is currently working to make DeHart Park’s fields more fully playable, with a plan to analyze, redesign and renovate the fields and then maintain them with more informed soil management practices and better training of township employees.
During her time on the Township Committee, Mayor Adams has several accomplishments to her credit. She has:
- Ended use of gas leaf blowers, year-round as of January 1, 2023
- Revamped recycling to dual stream, saving over $100,000 in the first year alone
- Eliminated retail single-use plastics practices
- Established use of green infrastructure in road projects
- Led efforts that built a regulation basketball court at DeHart Park
- Increased annual trees planted to 300 street trees and 200 in the parks
- Advocated for historic preservation practices in repairs to township buildings
- Championed efforts to limit building size on residential lots
- Created an annual celebration of local women for Women’s History Month in South Orange-Maplewood
