Brick Township Council Election 2023: Derrick Ambrosino

BRICK, NJ — Election Day 2023 is near, and Brick Township voters will be going to the polls to cast their ballots for candidates at the local, county and state levels.

In Brick, there are eight candidates for the four available four-year terms on the Township Council.

Patch sent a questionnaire to all six candidates seeking their responses. Here are the replies from Derrick Ambrosino. They are unedited except for typographical errors and punctuation.

Your Name: Derrick Ambrosino

Age (as of Election Day): 42

Party Affiliation: Democratic

Campaign Website: Crateteam2023.com

Family: I am a lifelong resident of Brick, being raised here by my parents Onofrio and Susan (who are still residents). I attended Brick public schools, graduated from Brick Township High School, and after leaving for a few years to attend college and start my career within the technology and software industries, I returned with my wife Kat to raise our young family here. Our children — Harper, Portia and Leo — all attend Brick public schools and participate in our youth programs.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you're running for. No, no one from my family currently works in politics or within the government.

Education: Raised in Brick and proud product of Brick Public schools (Drum Point Road Elementary; Lake Riviera Middle School, Brick Township High School) and New Jersey higher education (Rutgers University and Monmouth University).

Occupation: I have worked in various roles in Sales and Sales Management, within the technology sector for the past 20 years, with a focus on cloud-based software and services for the healthcare industry.

Previous or current elected or appointed office: Currently serving as Councilman with the Brick Township Council. Have served in the past as a Commissioner and Assistant Secretary/Treasurer with the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority.

Why are you seeking elective office?

I am running again to keep Brick on the right track. Mayor Lisa Crate is carrying the policies of Mayor John Ducey forward, and I am proud to join her again as we serve our neighbors and keep Brick a great place to live.

I believe that, first and foremost, effective municipal government requires diligent fiscal responsibility, so that we can continue to deliver services that our community needs. I am a strong proponent of supporting our outstanding Police Department, supporting local businesses, providing services to our senior citizens, improving our parks and public spaces and sponsoring the public events (such as SummerFest, Farmers Market and Traders Cove Concerts) that make Brick a fantastic community.

Mayor John Ducey is why I got involved in our town’s government, and Mayor Lisa Crate is why I want to stay involved. It’s critical that our Town has a government that will continue the policy of transparency and the cost-effective approach to delivering services to Brick residents that has been demonstrated over the past 10 years.

Crime has been a concern for months across New Jersey. What do you think should be done at the local level in Brick Township to ease residents’ concerns?

This is a very personal issue for me. My wife and I are raising our three young children in Brick, and my parents have lived here for 40-plus years as well, so I deeply relate to my neighbors in Brick and their concerns about crime.

We have a phenomenally strong police department led by Chief Forrester, and I know my family is safer because of the incredible job they have done and are currently doing to respond to recent crimes. It is circumstances like this when I look back and know that this Town Council, the Ducey Team and our strong Mayor Lisa Crate were right to put priority on ensuring that our Brick Police Department has been both fully funded and significantly expanded over the past 10 years. When we swore-in an additional 5 police officers this year, we were doing what we knew was necessary to position our Brick PD to be well-positioned to keep our streets and our residents safe.

I shudder to think back to 2011, when a previous administration forced our town to accept a horrendous tax increase with the threat of cutting 29 police officers from the payroll. This would have brought our force down to fewer than 100 active officers.

Instead, we have been able to increase our police force steadily to a total of 146 officers during the past decade. Through disciplined fiscal conservatism, we were able to do this while keeping taxes stable. As part of the Crate Team, I will continue this consistent 10-year track record of supporting our men and women in Blue – both fiscally and in spirit.

The township has refurbished its parks and expanded recreation programs for all ages over the last 10 years. What programs or facilities would you like to see brought to Brick Township?

The way we have improved our parks and expanded our recreation programs over the past 10 years has been fantastic! The Crate Team is committed to making Brick an even better place to live, for all residents. Our approach to doing so is to emphasize what makes our town unique. The Jersey Shore remains a desirable destination, and the lifestyle and activities that go along with that are a big part of why our residents choose to live here. Our Town Council plays a role in facilitating that through our great public spaces.

I intend to keep improving our parks and public spaces, and am excited at the coming expansion of the park next to Osbornville School that is made possible by the land we protected from development in Breton Woods. We should continue and expand the “Longest Table '' event that we hosted in September, which Mayor Crate has started, that brought participants from all over town together to break bread and get to know one another over a shared meal.

We will continue to promote programs and events that create this sense of community, or as Mayor Crate likes to say "giving our big town that 'small town' feel."

People persistently complain about property taxes. What do you believe Brick can do at the township level to mitigate the effects of state-mandated increases in the school district property tax levy? If you would make cuts, what township programs would you cut?

As a Councilman, I believe that my most important job is to be a good steward to our residents’ tax dollars. This is the cornerstone of the Crate Team’s core tenets — disciplined fiscal conservatism.

Many of us in Brick are struggling in the face of inflation. It is specifically because of this that the Crate Team fought for a budget that delivered Zero Tax Increase for municipal taxes this year.

It’s plain and simple — we have been able to do this because we have consistently governed well. This has included adamantly rejecting the patronage jobs of previous administrations, and instead working hard to continually do more with less.

Through carefully controlling spending; leveraging county, state and national grant funding whenever possible; and expanding our network of Shared Services agreements we can keep delivering all of our great Township services at a lower cost each year.