Last week, the library board hosted the first half of its second annual ‘Meet the Candidates’ Night.

Four of the five candidates running for three seats on the Mahwah township council gave introductions and answered five questions at the event.

See the attached videos for candidates' answers to:

• How do you balance the need for ratables with the desire to maintain Mahwah’s character?

Highlights of what they said:

Steve Sbarra

• Believes in creating a real downtown area; there is no downtown character in Mahwah
• Franklin Turnpike has many businesses that have closed down; offer township to new businesses to move in to replace them
• Against two big box stores proposed with Crossroads development, but “out of our hands now”
• Make sure types of businesses that come to town are ones we would want and would shop at

Lisa DiGiulio

• Husband lived in Paramus, moved here to get away from that
• Tool is the Master Plan and the Planning Board; unfortunate that township did not wait for a completed Master Plan before approving Crossroads
• Should fill empty buildings/stores
• Town needs to be properly zoned, “either we’ll be a city, or we’ll be a community”

John Roth

• Each part of town has a different character; diversified
• Community needs to be protected and defended
• Ratables are a livelihood for keeping taxes low in community, but need to make sure we are attracting the right types of ratables, like low-impact data centers, not highly-trafficked ratables that cost the township money because services need to be provided to them
• Need to do a better job attracting low-impact ratables to township; marketing ourselves to corporations

Jonathan Marcus

• Open storefronts and Master Plan are unique opportunities to decide what types of businesses we want to come to Mahwah
• Benefit from corporate businesses here, should try to attract more
• Not against ratables, but against the way Crossroads was passed by township council; would have asked citizens of township what they wanted to see before voting on it
• The way Crossroads was passed was irresponsible; left with litigation that is costing township money, and caveats in the ordinance allowing for the retail shopping development are not allowing for best possible development plan
• Ratables are wonderful, but need to make sure town maintains character

See the candidates answer other questions from the event:

Introductions

Considering the state-mandated 2% tax cap, can you list three areas of expense reduction you would support? Please also discuss any ideas you have for increasing revenue to the township.

What roles do you feel privatization and shared services play in municipal governments today? Do you have any ideas for applying these tactics to Mahwah?

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