Primary candidates discuss issues of upcoming election

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — During the last few weeks, the Bloomfield candidates running in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, June 7, were interviewed by The Independent Press. Registered Democrats will have an opportunity to vote for a mayoral candidate and three council candidates. The top vote-getters in each category will run against Republican, and possibly independent, candidates in November.}

The Democratic slate headed by Mayor Michael Venezia is running under the Essex County Democratic Party banner. These candidates were interviewed at Venezia’s Washington Street campaign headquarters; they include incumbents Councilwoman Nina Davis and Councilman Carlos Pomares and newcomer Ted Gamble.

A second slate is headed by Councilman Joseph Lopez and is running under the banner of the Bloomfield Democratic Committee. They were interviewed at the Bloomfield Public Library.

The Lopez slate includes Kathy DeMarino, the current Board of Health vice-president; and newcomers Jo Lewis and Yudi Sobharam. Republicans, running unopposed, were not interviewed for this article.

Stephen DeMarzo, an unaffiliated Democratic candidate and newcomer, is running for a council seat. The former teacher said he has found people very receptive to him on the campaign trail.

“Running for office is my way of giving back to God by helping the residents,” he said.
He acknowledged that his chances at the polls are not very good and, if he won a seat on the council, it would be the biggest upset in Bloomfield history.And although he is not campaigning door-to-door, focusing instead on greeting residents as he walks, he sees things on his tours.

“I noticed one election sign next to a ‘for sale’ sign,” he said. “Who is reaching out to these people?”

DiMarzo said a survey on why Bloomfield residents are moving away should be conducted, in order to “know the reasons and address them.”

He believes the time is right for someone to come along with no political experience.
“I feel I have the incentive and the ability,” he said. “I feel a calling to help Bloomfield.”

Although he has no political baggage, DiMarzo is an avid volunteer and said he stops his car to give money or a sandwich to homeless individuals. Twice a month, he said he goes to Penn Station, in Newark, with food for the homeless. The former teacher has students on his mind, too.

“I’m thinking of a way of getting churches to reach out to the students,” he said. “After a football game at Foley Field, the kids don’t want to go home.”

DiMarzo came to public light about four years ago, with a petition addressing parking-meter concerns on Broad Street. During his interview, he recalled another parking concern with the Bloomfield Parking Authority, when its office was off Broad Street on State Street.

“On State Street, there is one-hour parking,” he said. “But the Bloomfield Parking Authority had parking placards on their cars parked there.”

He complained to the BPA because they were constantly violating parking rules.
“They were going around marking everyone else’s tires,” he said. “Bureaucracy hypocrisy.”

The BPA office, he said, has moved to another location.
DiMarzo is often a speaker during public hearings at council meetings.
“I think some of my ideas are brushing off on the council,” he said. “They might not see as much as me, but they haven’t seen the last of me. Even if I don’t win, I don’t lose.”

On the campaign trail, Venezia, who is seeking his second term, said taxes are always an issue with voters, but most of the concern is about school taxes. Although the council has a good relationship with the school district, he said residents do not understand the council does not control the school budget. He lauds the work his administrations have done with municipal taxes over the last three years, with diminishing increases of $60, $39 and $16.

“The previous administration was never under $100,” he said.
Venezia said 75 percent of Bloomfield homes are being sold at or above asking price and that people moving into apartments fall in love with the affordable town and consider buying a home.

Davis said there was a lot of potential for Bloomfield real estate value to increase with the help of the commitment of Venezia’s slate.

Gamble said people like Bloomfield because it has a small-town feel and an easy commute to New York City. Other communities are not involved with projects as Bloomfield is, he said, citing the Morris Canal Greenway and Lion Gate, where a recreational facility has been proposed by the mayor.

“And Watsessing Park is a destination,” Gamble added, referring to the county park.
“At the end of the day,” Venezia said, “Lion Gate will cost residents $3 million. “We’ve had Rutgers sign on to get this park up and going.”

He said Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. had advised him to wait on the purchase of the Lion Gate site but Venezia did not, saying, “We were in a time crunch with the developer.” The township bonded for $10 million to purchase the site.
Venezia also said improvements to the Bloomfield Public Library and Civic Center would be priorities for his next administration.

Pomares, who is seeking his second term, has led the effort to make the old Morris Canal right-of-way into a recreational area; he said there is still a lot of work to be done on the project. The Morris Canal Greenway includes the establishment of a pocket park near the historic Collins House along the Third River.

Meanwhile Davis, who is seeking a second term, addressed the racial profiling alleged by a recent Seton Hall Law School study. The study has alleged profiling by the Bloomfield Police Department during motor vehicle stops.

Davis said she did not know if the BPD was racially profiling but that, historically, law enforcement agencies have been trained with an implicit bias against “black and brown bodies,” she said.

“There was not enough policy in place in the police department when I first came,” Davis said, adding, “There were not enough eyes on it. I was happy we moved from chief to director. When I speak to officers, they are happier there is more structure.”

Venezia said the town had spent $250,000 on body cameras for the police department and that all officers will have the cameras “in the next six months.”

According to Venezia, the council should not have prevented 2nd Ward Councilman Elias Chalet from participating in a council vote involving Moon Palace, a Bloomfield night spot. Chalet, a Realtor representing the business at the time, voted to fine Moon Palace for a violation.

“We don’t control people,” Venezia said. “Eli had his own agenda.”
Gamble agreed.

“I don’t think you want a government that tells people what to do, to control other members of the council,” he said.

Davis said it was her understanding that Chalet was no longer representing the bar and he did not have a conflict of interest, and she was focused on other council matters at the time.

Pomares also said he did not know about Chalet’s involvement with Moon Palace.
“Hindsight is 20/20 vision,” he said. “It’s hard to say, when your understanding is different that it is now.”

Venezia also defended his replacing Brian Aloia, the former township attorney, without having the legal framework in place to hire a new attorney who would not be a township employee. Aloia was a township employee who had his own firm. Venezia said he had made the change in order to save the town money, and that Assistant Township Attorney Steve Martino had “looked at the process.”

Aloia was replaced by Michael Parlavecchio, an employee of an independent law firm.
Regarding an Open Public Records Act lawsuit the township is pursuing to the New Jersey Supreme Court to prevent a resident from viewing a surveillance recording, Venezia said if it were up to him, he probably would have granted the request.

“That was on Ted Ehrenburg,” he said, referencing the former township administrator. “A lot of things happen day-to-day. The township administrator thought it was the best course of action.”

As to criticism he has received from residents for not answering questions during the public hearing portion of council meetings, Venezia said it has always been his position that if the question is about Bloomfield government, he will answer it.

Venezia said the township has moved ahead dramatically during the last three years.
“The departments are working more efficiently and we made a decision to have the street sweepers privatized,” he said. “There are seven more bodies, some full-time, working for Public Works and the police department is in the process of being accredited.”

The residents of the third ward feel safer he said, and he has a goal of obtaining WiFi for the whole township.

Davis said the Venezia slate is committed to being a “not business as usual” team, one not interested in photo-ops.

“The Bloomfield of 30 to 40 years from now, my children will be proud to say they are from,” she said. “We get out there and do the work.”
Pomares said there is a lot of cynicism nationally in politics that trickles down.
“When people admire what you do but don’t necessarily agree with you,” he said, “it restores confidence in government.”

The Lopez slate said on their campaign trail that residents were concerned with property taxes, public safety and the quality of their drinking water.

Lopez said the township engineer said $3.5 million has been spent on the Bloomfield water system.

“But we’re still getting letters in the mail about the water. Why should we have an issue with water? We want to make water a priority.”
The township engineer is Paul Lasek.

“People are even buying water for their pets,” Sobharam said.
“The issue hasn’t been corrected,” Lewis alleged, saying, “It may need a person with a higher skill set.”

Lewis said she had recently received a letter informing her that she did not have to boil her drinking water. “But different people have different immune systems and health requirements,” she said.

Bloomfield residents did not feel they were getting adequate service for the taxes they pay, she said.

DeMarino said she had met a 90-year-old woman who does yoga and said there is enough done for senior citizens in the township.

Lopez said a recreational center for seniors and young people should be built, possibly at the old Hartz Mountain site where a mixed-use development is now being constructed in the 3rd Ward. The developer had offered the town 2 acres there, he said.
“We want to focus more on the 3rd Ward and see if we can build it,” he said. Park space is at a minimum in the 3rd Ward.”

Sobharam said the conditions of the 3rd Ward have to improve.
“Racial profiling is an issue based on the Seton Hall report,” he said. “It’s accurate on the data I’ve seen.”

Sobharam said has also heard personal stories about racial profiling: “People are getting pulled over for things they didn’t pulled over for before,” he said. “It’s possibly to balance the budget.”

“Giving tickets is an easy target,” Lewis said. “The town has found fault with the Seton Hall project, but it came from the records. You can’t lie about that. Traffic tickets are not a crime. I was given a ticket because my light was dim. I paid it.”

And DeMarino said a lot of residents have a problem with the traffic ticketing in town.
“People parked in front of their homes are being ticketed,” Lopez said. “But the license plate shows that they live there.”

Lopez said residents should be issued warnings to obtain parking permits, and alleged the mayor was pressuring Police Director Sam DeMaio to issue the tickets.
Although the Venezia has hailed a $16 increase in property taxes, Lopez said taxes are high to begin with and $16 only adds to this.

“There’s been a lot of wasteful spending,” he said. “Ted Ehrenburg got a poor evaluation and they gave him a no-show job.”

Ehrenburg was released from his daily employment at Town Hall in June 2015, but received a substantial salary for the next six months. Venezia has publicly said Ehrenburg was helping with matters connected to the Lion Gate project.
Soborham said he thought the township had paid too much for Lion Gate, saying there are already a lot of parks in Bloomfield.

He said the purchase should have gone to referendum, but that the land would have been better utilized as a residential site, pointing to an estimated $800,000 annual loss in tax revenue.

According to Lewis, residents were not thinking about how to pay for a proposed recreational facility at Lion Gate though they will eventually see it on their tax bills.
“The revenue from Lion Gate is gone,” Lopez said. “They purchased the property without a plan.”

Lopez, who served on the Bloomfield Board of Education, said the board had a plan to revitalize Foley Field and it went to referendum. That plan went to referendum twice within a matter of weeks because residents turned the plan down the first time.

Soborham took issue with the hiring of Parlavecchio as township attorney as he is also the attorney for the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders. Soborham said this was a conflict of interest, saying the township got around it by hiring the law firm that employs him.

Lopez also took issue with Venezia for not answering questions from the public, saying, “We want open government” and alleging the mayor wants to “limit free speech.”
“When a resident comes to Town Hall and has a question, it’s an obligation to address it,” Lopez

“It’s rude not to answer,” Soborham said.
DeMarino, treasurer for Venezia’s last campaign, said she does not see the town going in the right direction with him in charge.

Lewis said that, if elected, she would confront the problem of abandoned houses in Bloomfield.

“People said they would support us but they would be leaving Bloomfield,” she said. “They can’t afford it.”