Council Candidate Walsh Looks to Improve Finances, Increase Board Diversity

  John  J. Walsh (“Jack”) is a 20 year resident of Westfield, whose four children were educated in the Westfield schools  and have gone on to college.   Jack grew up in Philadelphia and graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics from St. Joseph’s College (now University) in Philadelphia and  a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law.  He practices maritime law in Manhattan and recently was  cited by the Publication “Best Lawyers* as Lawyer of the year for 2014 in Admiralty and Maritime law.

              Jack was elected twice, in 1996 and 1998, to the Westfield Town Council by the Third Ward.  He was appointed Chairman of the Public Works Committee on the Council which during his tenure, ended the assessment of individual property owners for paving roads and formulated the law correcting the leaf removal problem.  The new law restricted leaves in the streets and their removal to a window of time in the fall.  In addition, he commenced a program to pave roads badly in need of repair. Finally, he devised a system that funds for paving would be divided equally among the four wards assuring that no area of Westfield would be favored over the other.

              He was also the Council’s liaison to the Recreation Commission and introduced the concept of user fees as a way to finance the improvements of our fields which were in bad shape at the time.

               He was one of the Town Council’s liaisons to the Board of Education.

              He coached soccer, basketball and baseball, and for two years was on the Westfield Baseball League Board of Directors.  For 6 years, he taught CCD to St. Helen’s Church  High School students.  He was a Westfield Booster and now is a Booster Advisor

               Jack is concerned with the lack of diversity on the Town’s Boards and Commissions  84% of whose members belong to the party of his opponent.   Although the dominant party in Town, they only represent 24% of the voters.  In addition, Jack is very concerned about the Town’s finances: the normal surplus account, historically at $2 million, and sale of assets account, which had been in his time on Council as high as $5 million,  have been drained to zero, leaving no cushion whatsoever for emergency expenditures for snow removal, hurricane damage, or sewer breakdown.  The Council would have to levy an extraordinary unbudgeted tax for any unforeseen emergencies.

              Jack also wants to reinstate the Belgian Block Curbing Program  -- which was inexplicably discontinued, as it costs the Town nothing with the cost being assessed to the homeowner payable over 5 years. 

              In addition, Jack believes that  the Town ought to be creating a new Recreation Field to handle the explosion in year round sports to take the pressure off the neighbors surrounding Tamaques Park who have to deal with the Park’s dawn to dusk 24/7 usage.

               Finally, Jack has seen too many roads in disrepair, or as one resident called his street “a cornfield.”  Jack would implement a new capital improvement program to bring the streets up to a condition consistent with the quality of our Town.