While runoff elections might be seen as a kind of playoffs, as in baseball, few candidates are as glad to get into them as baseball players are to get into theirs.
In Bayonne, two council wards will be contested in the June 15 runoff election.
In the 1st Ward, Agnes Gillespie – who has the support of newly reelected Mayor Mark Smith –seeks to defeat Thomas J. Cotter, while in the 3rd Ward, Smith-backed Ray Greaves hopes to beat incumbent Councilman Gary La Pelusa.
“I want to create opportunities to provide more jobs through responsible development that will help stabilize taxes and improve the quality of life here.” – Agnes Gillespie
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Thomas J. Cotter
Born and raised in Bayonne, Cotter attended schools in the 1st Ward before going on to Bayonne High School and later to St. Peter’s College.
A machinist by trade, Cotter serves as president of the Parent Teacher Association at Henry Harris, and received the school’s Caring and Sharing Award this year.
Cotter said one of the biggest issues in the 1st Ward will be the various proposals for raising the Bayonne Bridge, and construction of a natural gas line proposed to run along First Street.
Because Cotter has experience from work at the IMTT chemical plant, he knows a lot about the proposed gas pipe line that is being proposed to pass through the 1st Ward, and he said there are alternative routes – especially through industrial sections of Staten Island and the east side of Bayonne – that can be used rather than running the line down residential First Street.
He said that the combined plans for the gas line and bridge raising almost dash any hopes that the city will ever be able to redevelop the Texaco property at the Southwest corner of Bayonne – primarily for residential. The bridge construction would require the demolition of whole blocks of existing homes in order to provide the space needed for on and off ramps.
Dennis Collins Park, which runs along the south side of First Street, is in serious need of repair. He said the city needs to seek grant money, possibly from the state’s Green Acres program.
As with other candidates throughout the city, Cotter has had an earful of complaints about high taxes, and he understands that this is perhaps the most significant issue he will face citywide if he is elected.
Agnes Gillespie
Gillespie sees herself as an independent voice, but she says she believes Smith is taking the city in the right direction.
She says his plan for reducing the size and cost of government while at the same time increasing the tax base is the right prescription for helping cure what ails the city.
In the past, she was a critic of the slow development at the MOTBY, and is encouraged by Smith’s movement to get new development that will generate jobs in the city.
Raised in a house that has been in her family for four generations, Gillespie says she’s opposed to plans to raise the Bayonne Bridge since the project would likely gut a good portion of the 1st Ward.
In the school system for over 30 years as a teacher and in other roles, Gillespie’s resume reads like a director of Bayonne civic activities. It includes membership and often positions of chair or president of a number of organizations.
“I want this to be an affordable community,” she said. “I want to create opportunities to provide more jobs through responsible development that will help stabilize taxes and improve the quality of life here.”
She said the city needs to provide a place for teenagers that supplies something for them to do, and this will be one of her personal objectives when she is elected.
Gary La Pelusa
Behind in voting in the May 11 election, incumbent Councilman La Pelusa knows he has to get his vote out since he says many of the people who promised to vote for him didn’t come out in the first round and he will be facing an opponent who has a very efficient operation.
A lifelong resident of Bayonne, La Pelusa has a degree in communications from Seton Hall University, but has taken on a career as a local businessman.
He believes in his first four years, he has been a watchdog for the community, someone who has done his best to keep down taxes and to avoid the city getting into even deeper financial straits than it is in.
Some of his successes including helping Bayonne Medical Center stay open when the hospital was on the brink of being closed by a bankruptcy judge. He also takes credit for helping to jettison a deal that would have sold a portion of the former Military Ocean Terminal to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and through his action, the city was open to get a better deal for the same land from PortsAmerica.
He said he still opposes tax abatements for new development and deep discounts for the sale of city land. His record also shows that he supported union labor agreements for anyone doing work for the city or its redevelopment zones.
Ray Greaves
Ray Greaves is a director for the Transit Employees Credit Union and currently serves as an executive officer to the Amalgamated Transit Union N.J. State Council, representing over 7,000 members.
Greaves sees his background in contract negotiations and mediation as a key tool in helping curb costs in the city. He also has a number of contacts in Trenton and in Washington D.C., whom he has lobbied in the past for issues like living wage laws and increased transit funding.
He said one of his chief concerns is providing jobs for people in Bayonne and he will – if elected – work to find ways to provide quality employment.
“I’m running because I like to help people,” he said. “People have always been my priority, and I want to help keep those things that are good about Bayonne, such as its public school system and its services. I want these to be the best they can be.”
The quality of life for residents of Bayonne is one of the areas he intends to focus on, although he said citywide, the overriding issue will be taxes.
“This is a major concern in the city as well as in the 3rd Ward,” he said.