Democrat Candidate Enters Berkeley Mayoral Race

BERKELEY, NJ — Another candidate has entered the Berkeley Township mayoral race. Local father and community advocate Kia Phua will run for mayor in the upcoming election, the Berkeley Township Democratic Club announced Monday.

Phua, 45, lives in Pinewald with his wife Monique and their four children. One is a senior at Central Regional High School and two attend Clara B. Worth School.

Those who frequent township meetings are likely familiar with Phua, as he is a mainstay at both Township Council and school board meetings. In February, he was the parent who asked the Board of Education about the resignation of Triantafillos Parlapanides, revealing that he was still on the payroll, despite having resigned.

The Berkeley Township Democratic Club describes Phua as a "blue-collar civil servant," employed as a train operator for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) NYC Transit for the past 20 years.

From 2011 to 2018, he also served as a union representative for the 42,000+ member Transport Workers Union, Local 100. In 2016, he was elected as vice-president of Rapid Transit Operations, representing the MTA's train operators, conductors, and tower operators.

Since his move to Berkeley in 2019, Phua has been active in the community, serving on the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Girls Softball League where he is also a coach for two of the teams in town. He said that increasing recreation programs for kids in town is important to him, having served as the committee chairman of Cub Scout Pack 26 and the founder and first scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 119 when he lived in Dunellen. For his service to the scouts and community, the American Legion made Kia an honorary member of the organization.

He is working on bringing back Cub Scout Pack 27 to Berkeley Township after the group was dismantled a few years ago.

“In a township, with hundreds of children attending the four elementary schools in town, the children of our community deserve to have a program available like the Cub Scouts,” Phua said. “We have children participating in Cub Scouts in our neighboring towns in Lacey and Beachwood, but we need our own program in town where other children can participate in as well.”

“Our families here deserve better than what they are receiving at the present time,” Phua said of the recreation programs available.

Phua also served as a board member of the Dunellen Education Foundation and the Dunellen Little League, and a member of the Dunellen Parent-Teacher Organization.

“We deserve more from our elected officials. The community has complained about many different things over the years and the Mayor and Council sit back and point fingers to blame everyone else. We need leadership that is proactive, not reactive, to situations and we need to get the community more involved in government,” Phua said of running for mayor. “I have attended many Council meetings over the past year, and I keep hearing the same complaints brought up repeatedly. I would love to create liaisons with the diverse communities around Berkeley Township to bring in fresh ideas to help build a better government, that listens and works for the people. As Mayor, I would be able to bring a new perspective to government with my vast experience in community affairs and representing people.”

Phua will run against Councilman John Bacchione, who announced his bid for mayor as current Mayor Carmen Amato announced his bid for State Senate. Read more: Berkeley Councilman To Run For Mayor

A Democrat has not served as mayor of Berkeley since before Amato was elected in 2011. However, before his election, a Republican had not been mayor in town for 20 years.