Bernardsville Borough Council Candidate: Jeffrey Hammond

BERNARDSVILLE, NJ —Democrat Jeffrey Hammond is one of the four candidates running for borough council in the contested Bernardsville Borough election being held on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

There are two candidates vying for the four-year mayor seat including: Democratic Councilman Thomas O'Dea, Jr. and Republican Mary Jane Canose.

There are also four candidates vying for two, three-year seats on the Borough Council including: Democrats Jeffrey Hammond and Matthew Marino and Republicans John Donahue and Lloyd Sems.

Jeffrey Hammond

Description:

My wife and I are 26 year residents of Bernardsville, and have raised three children here. I am a surgeon, and was formerly the medical director of the Level 1 Trauma Center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and of their surgical ICU before leaving to work in the medical device and pharmaceutical research industries. Currently, I work in administration at Morristown Medical Center. I graduated from Princeton (for whom I am still an alumni interviewer) and in addition to a medical degree I also have a master's degree in public health and an MBA. I am an avid cyclist (just rode [Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa] RAGBRAI this summer) and enjoy gardening, travel, reading and playing my ukulele.

Why are you running?

Our family has thrived in Bernardsville. We love it here. But the downtown has become a bit stagnant, and there hasn't been enough attention paid to infrastructure such as the roads. We have under-utilized open space that the borough has owned for decades that can be turned into parks. We have become too sleepy. I want to see Bernardsville become a vibrant place with a sense of community that meets the needs of the young and old alike, and be the type of town to which families want to move.

What experience do you have that would help you serving?

As a surgeon, and someone who has worked extensively in public health such as national injury prevention and disaster planning programs, I have a different background than the usual candidate and would like to bring my perspective and skill sets to the Council. I have both a service and a business background. I would like to apply my training in LEAN/6-sigma and understanding of data and analytics to address our budget and debt issues. I have served on the Bernardsville Recreation Committee, the Board of Health and as a trustee for the Somerset Hills Education Foundation (SHEF) so I have been engaged at the ground level and would like to bring those insights to the Council.

What issues would you like to see addressed if elected?

The issues that I, and my running mates Tom O'Dea and Matt Marino, would focus upon conform to what our neighbors in Bernardsville expressed in the borough-wide survey last year. More than 1,100 residents told us that downtown revitalization is their number one issue. My hope is that as we focus on the downtown core we do not forget the periphery of the town. One idea to create a hub-and-spoke effect might be to implement a trolley for Friday night and weekends. The borough should be more walkable (and bike friendly) and we need to work with the Downtown Alliance to sponsor more community activities. We have too many empty storefronts. The answer is not more high-end condos. We need to preserve the character that is Bernardsville while at the same time make it a place that is attractive to business owners to set up shop, and that means better parking, signage and streetscape aesthetics. We'll work with the commercial landlords, but at some point we should consider a vacancy tax. Any realtor will tell you that parks and recreation are a plus for a community and enhance property values. Nervine Pond is an under-utilized gem that has great potential and Moraine Crest, while needing more work, is similar. Finally, our spending needs to be thoughtful and with an eye towards continued debt reduction. I would use my experience in grant writing to pursue external funding for the projects we all want to undertake.

— (If you are a candidate and would like to participate in the profile, please email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com)

(Image provided: Jeffrey Hammond)

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