Three candidates are vying for two seats on the Maplewood Township Committee in the Democratic primary on June 2: Current Mayor Vic De Luca, Planning Board and Hilton Neighborhood Association member John T. Sullivan, and Green Team member and “Bike Bus” dad Martin Ceperley. (No Republicans have filed to run.) Village Green will be covering all three candidates’ kickoff events. De Luca will host one in May (TBD), John Sullivan is hosting an event on April 22 at 7 p.m. at Pallet Brewing Company, 30 Newark Way, and Ceperley hosted an event on April 12 at Artie’s on Newark Way. Below are Ceperley’s comments from his campaign kickoff event:
I’m so glad that you are here today and already bringing a level of excitement and energy to this room that I’ve never seen in local politics. Thank you to Fred [Shandler] and Megan and the crew at Artie’s for hosting us, and thanks to [former Mayor] Frank [McGehee], [former Deputy Mayor] Deb Engel, and Jonathan [Poor] for the warm introductions.
If you haven’t been to this corner of Maplewood before, I encourage you to take a walk after this event! Visit my friends at Pallet Brewing, at Porta Rosa, at Perla, at Wheelhouse, at Corner Slice. I’ve been a parent at Seth Boyden school around the corner for 8 years now and to see these vibrant businesses emerge and make this neighborhood a food destination over the last few years has been nothing short of amazing. It represents the kind of passion and sprit that embodies the Maplewood I know.
My wife Kelly [Quirk Ceperley] and I moved to Maplewood from Manhattan 15 years ago. We chose Maplewood because we wanted to live in a diverse town with creative people, a place where we could find a community, where our children could have the freedom and independence they need to thrive, where we could take the train to get to work.
We knew we found that place in our home on Parker Avenue when our first child Liam was born, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The power was out, the trees were down, but our neighbors were outside helping each other, and we witnessed the community spirit that Maplewood is famous for.
That event secured my belief in the promise of our town and my commitment to giving back to it.
I want to make sure it works for everyone. We deserve an affordable place to live, we deserve public spaces that are vibrant, we want our small businesses to thrive, and we deserve transportation options and streets that are safe enough for people of all ages and abilities to get around.
That commitment led me to the Green Team in 2017, where I worked with the town to expand EV charging and rooftop solar. And it led me to being accidentally elected a District Leader. You can ask my wife Kelly how that one happened.
Living on Parker Avenue, it was commonplace to see car crashes in front of my house, to hear about CHS students getting hit while riding their bikes to school, to see pedestrians unable to safely cross the road. It lit a fire in me – I began advocating for street safety improvements like bike lanes in Maplewood.
I linked up with other advocates like Julia, Rob, Ned, Ken, John & Cynthia. And in 2023 we organized our first ride for safer streets. It was a rainy day and we rode with a police escort from Maplewood Town Hall to Spiotta Park in South Orange. It was the start of something big.
But what I realized is that physical infrastructure alone wasn’t enough, we needed social infrastructure as well. So I started a Bike Bus to Seth Boyden Elementary, and it grew quickly into something I never expected: hundreds of families riding together to five schools across SOMa, a real community moving through the streets with joy.
And last year, after years of community organizing and showing up, we finally got the first bike lanes installed on Parker Avenue. We won. They’re not perfect, but they’re a start.
That fight showed me what’s possible when our community organizes – and how much more we can achieve with the right people in Town Hall. And that’s what brought me here today.
We started this campaign with a slogan and an idea “Move Maplewood Forward.” What does that mean?
Part of it is literally moving us forward, improving transportation in town
Let me see a show of hands:
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How many folks walked here today?
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How many folks biked?
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How many of you took public transit?
When this town was built, that would have been the most common answer. Because we live in what’s called a “Streetcar Suburb”. It was developed in the late 1800s before car ownership was common. We had several trolley lines serving the area, including one right here on Springfield Ave, and one famously known as “The Swamp Trolley”.
Here in Maplewood we have the opposite of the suburban sprawl that’s seen in a typical American town – our high density and small size is an asset to us, and we need to maximize it.
With more density, we need safer transportation options to avoid endless congestion.
Protected bike lanes are a start, but walking also needs to be made much safer in Maplewood. We need pedestrian infrastructure that follows modern best practices. We need physical traffic calming that is proven to be effective, not just paint, signs, and flashing lights.
We need to increase public transit in town beyond the commuter Jitney bus service we have now. We’re already a town centered around our train station, but we need transit to move around within the town.
Our history of streetcars and trolleys proves that we can be a town that supports high-quality transit – we can have a “Restaurant Loop” going down Springfield Avenue, to this area and back to Maplewood Village. People like the folks here at Artie’s need a way to get to work without a car. We need a bus connection with our neighbors in South Orange.
But Moving Maplewood Forward goes beyond how we get around.
It’s about where we live. We need more affordable housing in Maplewood. We have a legal and a moral obligation to build affordable housing, to welcome new residents into the community that we love. Many people that work here in town can’t afford to live here and that’s a huge loss for our community.
Martin Ceperley, Frank McGehee, Jonathan Poor and Deborah Engel. April 12, 2026. Artie’s, 15 Newark Way, Maplewood, NJ.
It’s about supporting our small businesses by getting rid of arcane zoning restrictions that make it burdensome to run a business. Did you know that on Springfield Avenue the town needs to approve what color you can paint your door? Did you know that this restaurant receives a fine from the town every time it hosts an event like this?
It’s about finding ways to increase our tax-base without burdening home owners so that we can make Maplewood more affordable for all of us. We can strengthen our commercial areas by making them more pedestrian-centric destinations to shop amd linger – by filling them with public art, music, and more outdoor dining. Maplewood, after all, is a true destination – not a place you drive through. We see Maplewood Village come alive when we close the roads to cars and fill them with people.
It’s about ensuring Maplewood is a town that supports green, sustainable living not only in words but in practice. It’s about showing our kids how we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions through the way we live our day-to-day lives. It’s about carefully managing our open spaces and stormwater to ensure resiliency in the face of extreme storms that are more common due to the climate catastrophe that we’re collectively facing.
And most of all it’s about you. Part of why I am running is because I want to hear from you, about what you want and what you need from our local government, and I want to give you as much access as possible into how we make these changes together.
I’m running with the Essex County Reform Democrats who are all fighting to make government more accessible, and to help us to turn away from the machine politics and backdoor dealings that have long shaped our local politics.
How I run this campaign is how I’ll serve in the Township Committee – through grassroots community participation, by engaging with media, by using modern tools, by breaking down barriers, by bringing fresh ideas and a problem-solving approach to the challenges the town faces.
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I don’t claim to have all the answers – but I think I have some of the right questions. When we work together constructively with common goals – we can achieve great things.
I’m almost done. We have a special guest here today who I am beyond happy could join us who I’d like to recognize.
I met John [Speck] several years ago at a TC meeting. We both met coincidentally demanding a safer street on Parker Avenue on the very same night.
You may have heard about the terrible crash that John endured recently. It hit really hard in our close-knit community. We were worried about John.
I am so ecstatic at John’s miraculous recovery — I couldn’t be more thrilled that John and Cynthia are able to join us here today
On a final note —
This campaign is not about me — it’s weird to see my name on all these lawn signs around town.
This campaign is about all of us caring about our town and its future and wanting to participate in a new way.
It’s about bringing new energy into how the town runs, and ushering in a new era of grassroots participation in town governance.
When was the last time you saw this kind of energy and passion in a township committee race?
We need more people running for office — and I expect some of you in this room to be running next year. There are 5 seats on this committee, let’s not forget.
Thank you for all the support, It means the world to me that you would consider placing your trust in me.
