Realtor Joseph Menza is leading Councilman Jerome Jewell by just six votes in Tuesday’s runoff election for mayor and three at-large council seats.
Menza, however, was not able to carry his council runningmates, meaning the Democratic committee will still control all but two seats on the seven-member council.
People in the Menza camp are attributing the council defeat to the “Deo vote.” Councilman Frank Deo, who ran with Jewell, seems to have been popular in some of the same districts Menza won.
The fight, which has included a four-way race for mayor in last month’s nonpartisan election, may not be over. Jewell and the Hillside Democratic Committee may contest a handful of provisional ballots, or votes recorded on paper rather than in the voting machine because of discrepancies with the voter rolls.
Deo leads the council race with 1706, while Angela Garretson got 1663 and President Carlisle got 1571.
On the Menza slate, Joseph Puglise got 1529, George Cook III got 1503 and Jean Miller got 1460.
None of the four mayoral candidates got enough votes Tuesday night to win outright, so the top two vote-getters — Jerome Jewell and Joseph Menza — will face off in a run-off election next month.
Joseph Menza with Jean Miller, Joseph Puglise and George Cook.
One is concerned about senior citizens. Another about the youth and schools. And the third about everyone else in between who are finding it harder and harder to keep up with the cost of living in Hillside.
Joseph Menza’s team of Jean Miller, George Cook and Joseph Puglise say they should be Hillsiders’ top choice on Tuesday for new leadership at Township Hall.
Depending on which flier or Column A candidate you listen to at any given moment, the Jerome Jewell team — backed by the Hillside Democratic Committee, which currently controls Township Hall — is both the incumbent team and the challenger team; the continue-the-progress team and the change team.
Jewell, who is finishing up his fourth year as an at-large councilman — a position to which he was first appointed in 2005 — has yet to give a single interview in which he explains his stance on the issues.
He has not returned calls from either the Star-Ledger or The Hillsider.
His running mates also did not return calls for interviews, despite promising they would. One of them, President Carlisle, referred questions about his platform and background to his campaign manager, explaining that he was running as team and did not want to make any unauthorized statements.
Sip Whitaker, Beverly Lynn, and Leonard Dupree with Shelley-Ann Bates, seated.
Two former rivals and father who serves on the township Recreational Advisory Council make up the at-large council team led by mayoral candidate Shelley-Ann Bates.
Former school board president Sip Whitaker, former school board member Beverly Lynn and Compton Terrace resident Leonard Dupree say voters should elect them Tuesday to combat Hillside’s high taxes and its government’s lack of concern for residents.
At-large council candidates Jeffrey Dykes and Noemi Escobar.
One is a quiet, dedicated housewife. The other a career public servant who doesn’t shy from confrontation on the issues dear to him.
What Noemi Escobar and Jeffrey Dykes have in common is that they they think Hillside property taxes are too high, opportunities for youth here are lacking, and Township Hall needs new leadership — which they hope to provide after Tuesday’s non-partisan municipal election.
Shelley-Ann Bates remembers when a good night’s sleep was a commodity in her neighborhood on the north end of Liberty Avenue.
That was two years ago, when the Ranch Bar & Grill was still open and its often riotous clientele liked to take the party outside at all hours of the night. Residents who slept in the homes surrounding the bar, once located on Liberty Avenue between Oakland and Bernard terraces, were desperate for help, Bates said.
“We complained to the the council, to the [Alcoholic Beverage Control] Board, to the police chief, to the fire chief. Everyone pointed fingers but nobody took responsibility for the situation we were forced to live in,” recalls Bates, a Bernard Terrace resident.
Eleven of the 12 at-large council candidates in next week’s municipal election participated in Monday night’s forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, answering questions about how they would stabilize property taxes, bring businesses into Hillside, and improve communication between the council, mayor and the Board of Education.
The four mayoral candidates, meanwhile, are scheduled to appear at their own forum Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the municipal building.
Sandra “Sandy” Cureton, one of 12 at-large council candidates, says she’ll work with anybody at Township Hall to help Hillside.
But until election day on May 12, she’ll be on her own.
Cureton, a 30-year township resident, began her campaign a few months ago on mayoral candidate Andre Daniels’ slate. But on April 20, she announced her independence from “Team Hillside for Hillside.”
The candidate said the break was for a “personal” reason but would not explain her decision. She also said she is not endorsing any other slate and is “not discounting the Daniels slate, either.”
Most members of the Hillside Township Council weren’t too happy with the $41.2 million budget before them on Monday evening. Still, they voted 6-1 to approve it.
2009 Budget Revenues by Category
The finalized spending plan will require Hillside taxpayers to contribute $458,822 (1.77 percent) more than they did in 2008. The tax rate for every $100 of assessed property value will climb a little over six cents, or 2.23 percent, to about $2.862.
Before casting his “yes” vote, Council President John Kulish said that getting to a budget that only modestly raises taxes without cutting any services and employees was a “feat and a half.”
This is second in a series looking at all the campaign literature put out by candidates in this spring’s school board and municipal elections. We’ll take a critical look at the messages and rhetoric and invite readers to comment. Here’s part 1 and part 2.
UPDATE — May 2: Added Andre Daniels’ Web site.
The Internet has become a new battleground for votes among candidates seeking statewide and national offices.
But on a local level — Hillside included — campaigns are still playing catch-up.
Jack Strangfeld and Dimples, center, from The Seeing Eye school visit fifth graders at Calvin Coolidge School.
The fifth-grade students at Calvin Coolidge School eagerly awaited two special visitors on March 17. Stopping by were Mr. Jack Strangfeld and his puppy, Dimples.
Dimples is no ordinary cute puppy. He’s a 1-year- old German Shepherd who will eventually become a guide dog for a person who is visually impaired.
Mr. Strangfeld, representing The Seeing Eye, a Morristown-based dog guide school, spoke with the students about his experiences in working with the puppies.
The students watched a video about the work done by The Seeing Eye, which was founded in 1929 as the first guide dog school in the country.
The students seemed to gain much knowledge, enjoyed the presentation, and were able to make real-life connections to a recently read story, Mom’s Best Friend, a story of a visually impaired mother and her experiences at The Seeing Eye.
UPDATE: No charges have been filed against a male driver shot by Hillside police in an incident early Monday morning, according to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office. Few details released… MORE
STAR-LEDGER: Two Hillside police officers shot a man and a woman during a traffic stop early this morning, according to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office. The shooting happened at around 1:45 a.m. on the corner of Liberty Avenue and Clark Street, said John Holl, a prosecutor’s office spokesman. MORE
Councilwoman Shelley-Ann Bates’ team bested her opponents 3 to 5 times in the number of nominating petitions the mayoral and council candidates turned in last week.
UPDATE: A Hillside business is boasting of good news. Glowpoint says recent restructuring and stock sell-offs has allowed it to pay off its debt.
As township mayoral candidates promise to bring more businesses to Hillside, some businesses already in town are going through uncertain times — and one already has left.
This will be the first in a series looking at all the campaign literature put out by candidates in this spring’s school board and municipal elections. We’ll take a critical look at the messages and rhetoric and invite readers to comment.
First up: Jerome Jewell.
Jewell was the first candidate to mail out literature — and that was before he was officially a candidate for mayor.
The Hillside Democratic Campaign Committee sent out this mailer “from” Councilman Jewell in February, reminding everyone “to never forget” on Black History month. It does not mention Jewell’s candidacy.
The mailer evokes Barack Obama a month after his historic inauguration.
After months of hinting that he wouldn’t seek re-election to his at-large council seat, Frank Deo appears to be in the race after all. Petitions for Deo’s re-election have been circulating throughout town. It appears he’ll run on a slate with school board member Angela Garretson and resident President Carlisle. Mayoral candidate Jerome Jewell tops the ticket, which is endorsed by the Democratic committee.
A 67-year-old former music teacher at an exclusive all-girls preparatory school in Summit has been charged with having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student there.
Hillside resident Warren Brown was arrested at home Tuesday night and charged with first- and second-degree sexual assault, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office and Summit police announced yesterday. READ MORE
In somewhat related news, Democrats in the state Assembly have introduced a 10-bill package to combat Internet crimes against children.
Hillside/Newark Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer discusses the legislation in this video.
UPDATE — April 30 — Sandra “Sandy” Cureton announced April 20 that she would no longer run on the Daniels slate.
Andre Daniels came onto Hillside’s political scene in 2004 — but he wasn’t running for office or supporting a candidate then.
Daniels was with a group of parents seeking to reinstall Hillside’s Pop Warner football program, which had been inactive for eight years. Despite some friction from Township Hall, they persisted.
“When they said we couldn’t start up Pop Warner four years go,” Daniels told a crowd at his mayoral campaign kick-off last Saturday, “We did it.”
Mayor Karen McCoy-Oilver says she knows what everyone is waiting to hear: her decision on whether she will seek re-election off the Hillside Democratic committee line — or whether she’ll endorse one of the candidates seeking to take her place. Or maybe none of the above.
This past weekend she said she’d have an announcement to make regarding the subject “in a week.”
One of the candidates, Andre Daniels, has supported the mayor in her battle against the Township Council, and at one point contemplated running as a council candidate on her ticket.
Jeffrey Dykes, who’s running for council on Daniels’ slate, said whatever the mayor decides to do, “We wish her luck.”
Crews are scheduled to begin work on a $4.2 million project along the highway between mileposts 58.1 and 58.8 near Weequahic Park, a low-lying and heavily traveled stretch that usually floods during heavy rains. The DOT has ranked the stretch among the state’s Top 10 road segments in need of drainage improvements, spokeswoman Erin Phalon said yesterday. . .
The project is scheduled to be completed this fall. No detours are planned, and the department plans to maintain two lanes of traffic in each direction from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays. Single-lane closures may take place overnight and on weekends. MORE
Police Chief Robert Quinlan, however, says Route 22 has more problems than just flooding, including an abandoned bridge used by punks to throw debris at vehicles, and dangerous entrance/exit ramps at Bloy Street.
And while they’re at it, can somebody please fill up all those potholes from the far side of the moon?
When Joseph Menza unsuccessfully ran for mayor four years ago, his big issue was property taxes.
This year, as he makes a second bid for Hillside’s top political office in May’s nonpartisan election, the big issue is still. . . property taxes.
Chances are he won’t sound like a broken record to Hillside voters. Since losing to Mayor Karen McCoy-Oliver, township property taxes have climbed year after year as township spending increased and state aid decreased.
A lot more has also changed — for the worse. The economy is in shambles, the number of home foreclosures in Hillside is rising, and home values have plummeted.
Perhaps the tax issue this time around may convince more voters to pick Menza, the 49-year-old owner of Menza Realty on Liberty Avenue, over the insiders at Township Hall.
Three Hudson County men charged with breaking into a Liberty Avenue video game store were arrested early yesterday after one attempted to flee and another hid to avoid detection. MORE
We had reported about the long lines at Calvin Coolidge on election day in November, but these video interviews went under our radar.
A group called Video the Vote talked to several Hillside voters upset with the 3-hour waiting lines at the Calvin Coolidge voting place. All of them said there should have been more than one voting machine.
If we’re not mistaken, every voting district in Hillside usually gets just one voting machine. Voting places with more than one district get more than one machine.
Voter turnout at Calvin Coolidge is usually abysmal. In the last school board election, less than six months before the presidential election, just 68 people voted on the school budget question. By contrast, almost a thousand peoplevoted at Calvin Coolidge in November — more than any other district in Hillside.
Of course, this presidential election had been hyped up for months as an historic moment. Union County should have expected the large turnout. By the way, Union County Board of Elections Director Dennis Kobitz is a longtime Hillside resident and former elected official.
Video 1: “I don’t understand why there is only one voting booth for such a populated area.”
Video 2: “To have just one booth is just ludicrous.”
Video 3: Senior citizens wait on 3 1/2-hour line. “Very disturbing to me because it’ discourages people not to vote.”
Video 4: Says an elderly lady who had had a hip replaced stood on line from 8 to 10 a.m.
Video 5: Came in at 6 a.m., says he saw 200 or 300 people there. “The process is slow because we should have better accommodations for our senior citizens.”
Video 6: This insinuates that police were intimidating voters. We’ve never heard complaints of Hillside police intimidating people at the polls. Key phrase there is, “at the polls.”
UPDATE: In February, George Cook joined mayoral candidate Joseph Menza’s ticket. Cook, Joe Puglise and Jean Miller will seek the three at-large council seats as a team.
At a Township Council meeting earlier this fall, George Cook III got up to speak at the microphone.
After asking his question — and expecting to get an answer — the council president curtly told him to sit down.
But Township officials will find that this Purce Street resident is not sitting down or shutting up. Last week, Cook, a regular at council meetings, told The Hillsider that he intends to be a candidate for one of the three at-large council seats this spring.
With Election Day six months away, Cook is already the fourth resident to declare his candidacy for May’s nonpartisan election. The others are activist Jeffrey Dykes, running for council; school board member Andre Daniels, who will run with Dykes for a council seat or for mayor; and real estate broker Joseph Menza, who will run for mayor again with his own council slate.
Eleven of the 12 at-large council candidates in next week’s municipal election participated in Monday night’s forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, answering questions about how they would stabilize property taxes, bring businesses into Hillside, and improve communication between the council, mayor and the Board of Education.
Jewell was the first candidate to mail out literature — and that was before he was officially a candidate for mayor. 
