South Orange Trustee Deborah Davis Ford announces to a room packed with supporters on Jan. 17 that she will be running for village president in the coming election in May.
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — South Orange should be prepared for a contested election this May, when incumbent village President Sheena Collum will be vying with Trustee Deborah Davis Ford for the position of president.
On Jan. 17, Davis Ford announced to a room full of supporters at Bunny’s in South Orange that, rather than run for re-election as a Board of Trustee member, she would be running for president. Collum told the News-Record on Jan. 21 that she intends to run for re-election as village president.
In her announcement, Davis Ford emphasized her love for South Orange and her belief that everyone belongs in South Orange.
“It’s with a lot of preparation and great enthusiasm — I’m enthusiastic tonight — that I, Deborah Davis Ford, announce my candidacy for the president of the village of South Orange,” she said Jan. 17, discussing how she gained a strong work ethic from her parents who raised her in East Orange and how pleased she has been to have raised her daughter, Rachel Ford, in South Orange. “I love South Orange and my husband and I, when Rachel was 3, were looking for a place to put down our roots, and we looked at many towns, but somehow, we kept being pulled back to South Orange and we made that decision and it’s one of the best decisions we ever made to find a community that would be a great place to raise our child.”
That child is now serving as Davis Ford’s campaign manager.
“This evening is really about celebrating the awesomeness of everything that South Orange has to offer and also a vision of the future for South Orange,” Ford said while introducing her mother. “This really means a lot to me because I remember when my mom … first started her foray into politics and she first ran for trustee and it’s been really incredible and inspiring.”
Davis Ford said she intends to improve how South Orange’s government runs, staying away from glitzy events in favor of bettering village operations. She also expressed some hesitance about the proposed merger of the South Orange and Maplewood fire departments, saying that, if done, it needs to be done correctly.
“The march to shared services is a common theme in communities across the state to create cost savings for communities,” she said. “Our village is in a unique position that supports a healthy budget with the flexibility to make informed decisions for the good of our constituents. While merging resources such as the fire department may appear to be a quick hit, they also have an impact to our ability to have governance over any future changes to those agreements. These changes would directly impact working families and those who protect us.”
Another area where she feels she can make a difference is in creating effective succession plans that help develop talent while retaining institutional knowledge of critical functions.
Davis Ford, who has been a South Orange trustee for 12 years, said she will also draw on her experience as clerk for the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, as that position allowed her “to understand the importance of the county and municipalities working together to benefit all the residents in our town and in the county of Essex.”
The South Orange municipal election will be held May 14. In addition to the election for president, three seats on the Board of Trustees will be open. Davis Ford’s campaign communications director, Moses Oliva, told the News-Record that his candidate is currently in the process of finalizing the three BOT candidates with whom she will run.
The deadline to file a petition with the village clerk to run for office is March 11. For more information about running for public office in South Orange, contact the village Clerk’s Office at 973-378-7715, ext. 1.
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