2025 Reorganization Speech
Good evening and Welcome to the Annual 2025 Re-Organization meeting. Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this evening.
I would like to thank all the family members, visitors and friends that have joined us this evening to welcome in a new year for the Borough of Florham Park. Please stay after to enjoy some refreshments and meet and greet all the members of the Council and some of our great employees.
As I begin this New Year as the Mayor of Florham Park, I do not take this honor lightly. This is a labor of love for me. Thank you to my Wife Janet and our children for allowing me the time it takes to be Mayor. My role as Mayor does take time away from family, but they are very understanding of this commitment. Please know that I, along with the Council members, continue to work every day to do our absolute best for all the residents of Florham Park as we move forward together.
As we once again change the calendar to a New Year, I must look back and reflect on Florham Park in 2024. We continue to see growth as a community and some of the expansion has changed the way I remember Florham Park. The Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustment members do their very best to read through all applications, challenge the applicants, and come up with the best plan that we can for our community while still preserving the rights of the land holders. Progress will continue long after the current Council members and I have moved on.
High Density Housing: We as a governing body are in lockstep with respect to the affordable housing issue in this state and particularly in our town. We continue to push State legislators to address how municipalities will be able to continue if the over-building of high-density housing continues throughout what we used to call the suburbs. For those who have not been informed, the Borough of Florham Park, along with every other municipality in the state of New Jersey, is under a new mandate called the 4th Round of Fair Share Housing, formerly known as COAH. Florham Park as a community has not completely met its obligation for the former round of 2015 for affordable housing, yet the State legislators have bestowed upon us an additional 344 units of affordable housing - equaling more than 2500 more residential dwellings here in the Borough of Florham Park from 2025 through 2035.
The reasons the third round of obligations have not yet been completed are based on a host of issues, including lawsuits, NJDEP, and issues with developers. Through all of this I want to convey that the Council and I are not against building more affordable housing in the Borough of Florham Park. We continue to fight against the mandate that brings this high-density building. The ruling states that they must build 20% affordable units and 80% market rate units. A new water well was added a year and half ago, with a cost well more than $5,000,000 and an estimated $13 to $16 million in upgrades are needed to our Sewer plant to continue with this growth of High-density Housing. We as a community just cannot afford this continued growth. With that said, Florham Park has joined one of several possible lawsuits with over 32 other Municipalities currently throughout the State of New Jersey to fight the legislators over the fact that the formula used to come up with the 4th round is flawed, however, the legislators used this flawed formula to create the 4th round beginning January 2025, with more than 100,000 new affordable High Density housing units throughout New Jersey. This new round exempts 62 municipalities in the state of New Jersey. These 62 Municipalities have ZERO requirements / Obligations in the 2025 round of affordable high-density housing.
As I switch gears a little at this point in my address, I would like to take a minute to congratulate Scott Carpenter and Joshua Marshal on their Re-election campaigns and wins this past November.
Applause…
I would also like to Thank Josh for serving as Council President this past year. Josh served and ran several meetings this past year in my absence. I can’t thank him enough for his ongoing service to this great town.
As we look back on 2024 and all that we have accomplished, I must highlight that Florham Park continues to be the best place in New Jersey to live and raise a Family… with that said I believe that everyone in this room would agree.
I can’t forget to mention the 125th anniversary of the Borough of Florham Park, the committee members Suzanne Herold and Councilwomen Kristen Santoro and many other volunteers that helped to have Florham Park remembered on its 125 birthday.
I would also like to thank the members of the Historic preservation commission and particularly Suzanne Herold for all the upgrades and renovations to the Little Red school house. The Historic Commission has done such a great in preserving the landmark. I also must thank the county for all their help in securing the grant money to do all of these updates and renovations.
I cannot convey to our residents how proud I am to be a part of our continued success as we move into 2025, and the governing body continues to work very hard to tell the story of our successes to all the residents of our community.
In this community of volunteers, the accomplishments continue to be realized due to the efforts of so many people. One of the most important factors are all of our dedicated Employees of the Boro of Florham Park. I would like to wish all the best to all our employees and thank them for the job well done. Applause… I also would like to wish at this time my heartfelt appreciation to the staff in Borough Hall, Our Administrator Bill Huyler and our Borough Clerk Danielle Lewis.
Also, kudos to the Police department under the direction of Chief Joseph Orlando, Captain Karl Svenningsen, Lieutenant Dan Bundschuh and all our police officers here tonight for all that they do every day to keep our community safe.
I would also like to thank all the employees of the DPW under the direction of Mike Smith, supervisors Andrew Williams, George Stiner, and Joe Bassolinio. This team of DPW workers are very dedicated to keeping our town looking and running the best as it can. Thank you all for your hard work every day.
Thank you also our Library director Nancy Shah and all the great employees of the library who have taken our Library to a new level. This past summer the Library completed a renovation of the children’s room section. There was a 23% increase in foot traffic and an average of 2,000 more people per month in the Library in 2023. We also dedicated the Library building in memory of John T. Cunningham, a longtime resident and notable author of many books on Florham Park and towns throughout New Jersey.
I would like to recognize the Water department and Sewer departments directed by Mike Sgaramella. Great things are coming this year with updates to the sewer plant as well as the painting of our water towers.
Thank you to our Recreation department and Tammy Verderber for all the great programs offered all year long. Thanks also go to our Construction department, with Construction Official Kevin Guilfoyle and the great staff in that department that continue to work every day to help finish open applications and inspections.
In our engineering department directed by Mike Sgaramella, Mike and his team have successfully paved many roads this past year and almost completed a new Sewer line just off of Park Ave. Thank you, Kayla Kaplin, for all the new tree planting throughout the town and to the entire department for all their hard work.
Our CFO Patrice Visco, her department has continued to bring in a budget that is on time and on budget and I thank her for her hard work.
I would also like to recognize Board secretary Marlene Rawson. Both the Zoning Board and the Planning board have been busy this year and I thank Marlene for keeping the volunteer members moving forward. If there is anyone else, I have missed… I apologize but thank you all for a great job well done.
Thank you to our Volunteers on the Fire Department and First Aid Squad. These are the people who serve on the front line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
I want to thank our Recreation volunteers, from those on the Recreation Committees, coaches, parent coordinators and all others who assist in our many sporting activities here in Florham Park and East Hanover in our joint programs. I would also like to thank all our volunteer board members, commissions and committee members who take time out of their daily lives to serve this Borough in whatever capacity they do to make a difference. I would like all members here this evening to please stand for a round of applause.
Florham Park has continued to chip away at lowering our debt and strives to do the best we can with the very smallest increase in taxes in spite of all the costs that continue to increase year after year. I am very proud of my team on the finance side directed by our CFO Patrice Visco. Applause …. This past fall Moody’s rate exceeded their overall ratings, which means that Borough of Florham Park still has the best bond rating of AAA. Fewer than 3% of the 565 Municipalities in New Jersey have the financial wherewithal and maintain this rating. Thank you to my team members, Patrice Visco, Bill Huyler, Council Liaison Charlie Malone, Councilman Scott Carpenter, Jon Rheinhardt, Ray Sarinelli and all my Council members that worked so hard to achieve this goal. We have a great financial team in place, and we also have an aggressive plan in place as we move forward into the next five plus years.
Finally:
As we begin 2025, I am very hopeful for the future of our Town. I, the Council and our hardworking Borough employees continue to strive to make Florham Park the greatest place to live and work. I would like to stress to each Florham Park resident that they can be confident that these public servants, Council Members, and I, will always do our very best to keep Florham Park the greatest town that we all love and respect.
In closing, I would just like to say I am proud of this Borough and proud to be your Mayor and to serve each and every one of our residents and business partners. We can all look to the future for more amazing things here in our Town. I would like to thank the entire council for their dedication to this Borough and for their continued support as we move forward in 2025.
God bless all our armed forces and retired military and all that may be here this evening. God Bless the Borough of Florham Park and God Bless America as we stand with Israel. Thank you.
Mayor Mark Taylor
To view the 2024 Reorganization message from the Mayor, please visit the following link:
