Each of the five mayoral candidates running in Tuesday’s election has a slate of six ward council candidates and three at-large candidates, but there are also several council candidates running independently.
The candidates who are running with a candidate were profiled briefly in recent weeks. Short profiles of the independent council candidates follow.
Billy Field (Ward A)
A Country Village resident, former Marine and a 25-year resident of Jersey City, Field currently works as a mason for the Jersey City Public Schools. A graduate of Dickinson High School, Field was also a former teacher for adult education there from 1989 to 1992. He was organizer of this year’s “Night out with the Seniors and Children,” a parade in Greenville to take back the streets. He is also an inductee into the Hudson County Hall of Fame.
Geoffrey Elkind (Ward E)
Elkind is a lawyer and a 16-year resident of Jersey City. He is currently the president of the Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association and the 2001 chairperson for the Downtown Coalition of Neighborhood Associations. Geoff serves as a trustee of Temple Beth-El on Kennedy Boulevard. He graduated from New Rochelle High School in New York, holds a B.A. Degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and a J.D. Degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio.
John Jayme (Ward E) Born and raised in Jersey City, Jayme is President of the Lafayette Neighborhood Association. A graduate of Dickinson High School, he is a computer operator with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. He has been a member of the Morris Canal Redevelopment Area Development Coalition, and has lived at his current address on Halladay Street for the past 26 years.
Paul Schaeder (Ward E)
A resident of Jersey City since 1997, Schaeder grew up in Bergenfield. He is a graduate of Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y., and is currently an aide to Mayor Bret Schundler. He is chairman of the board for Golden Door Charter School and is trustee and treasurer of Empower the People. He and a group of education activists recently formed the Jersey City Public Charter School Coalition in Downtown Jersey City.
Omar Barbour (Ward F)
A resident of Jersey City for more than 30 years, Barbour founded AEI, a real estate development firm that specialized in construction and contracting. He owns Salson Hardware and Homecenter. Barbour helped shepherd the Martin Luther King Redevelopment Plan in 1993, which resulted in the newly built MLK Plaza, which includes a supermarket, shops and a new post office. He was past president of the Bergen-Lafayette Merchants Association.
Frances O. Thompson (Ward F)
A past Ward F Councilwoman (1985 to 1989), Thompson is a graduate of Snyder High School, received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Sociology and a Master’s in Public Administration from Rutgers University. She is working on a correspondence Ph.D. in Organizational Management through Capella University in Minnesota. For the past eight years she has served as director of the county’s Office of Minority Women and Business Enterprise.
Cavanaugh Candidates
Two of mayoral candidate Robert Cavanaugh’s council candidates handed in profiles after the deadline two weeks ago. They are:
Russell Lewis (at-Large)
A graduate of Snyder High School, Lewis, a Lafayette resident, is a construction contractor. He is a former board member of the Jersey City Public Library, and a former candidate for a Ward E City Council seat. He was a former aide to Assemblyman Joe Charles and is a board member of the Lafayette/Morris Canal Coalition.
Nora Kallen (Ward E)
An Avalon Cove resident for four-and-a-half years, Kallen is an attorney with a practice specializing in elder law.