Take Five: Chatham Township Committee Candidate Mareza Estevez

CHATHAM, NJ - There are seats opening up on the Chatham Township Committee and Patch caught up with the candidates ahead of the general election this November.

Questionnaires were sent out out to all candidates registered with the County Clerk's Office in the 2019 general election using the email addresses they went on file with. The responses will be posted on the site by those who submitted in the order in which they were received. They will also be included in an election preview wrap.

This Take Five features Mareza Estevez. Her responses to the questions are below and unedited.

1. Why are you running for office?

There can be no argument with Chatham Township’s decades-long success story. By every metric that matters, *Chatham Township is on the right track.* Our record is one of low taxes, fiscal responsibility, protection of property rights, and integrity and transparency in our local government. Mark Hamilton’s and my focus is on keeping Chatham Township on the right track, to ensure that our Township remains a great place to live, raise a family, and retire.

We ask for your vote on Nov. 5 so that we can keep the Township Committee focused on what matters:

1 - Keep Chatham Township Fiscally Responsible. Mark Hamilton and I seek to ensure that municipal taxes remain low. We're grateful to Chatham Township's last four mayors - Curt Ritter, Kevin Sullivan, Nicole Hagner, and Bailey Brower - for their ten-plus years of thoughtful, conservative stewardship, which has produced the fiscal stability that Chatham Township now enjoys. Chatham Township’s municipal tax rate has remained level since 2007, which is unrivaled in the high-tax State of New Jersey.

All four mayors have endorsed Mark Hamilton and me as the leaders to continue this responsible fiscal stewardship for Chatham Township. That includes holding municipal taxes level to benefit *all Township residents, especially our Seniors.* That's why we oppose Township Committee measures that make unnecessary expenditures and bloat government with wasteful initiatives that will increase property taxes and damage our sound financial position.

In contrast, our campaign opponents have staked-out a tired, thought-free position based on a knee-jerk reaction typical of Democrats at the State and national levels: more taxes.

2 - Protect the Property Values of Chatham Township Homeowners. The Township Committee has already begun to look for ways to restrict homeowners' ability to renovate homes to maximize their value. Mark Hamilton and I absolutely reject both the tactic of calling for new taxes, as is the case with proposed Ordinance 2019-14 to fund yet more Affordable Housing through a "developer fee" for any private homeowners in the Township who want to remodel their bathroom or kitchen. This proposed ordinance disguises its full scope with a reference name “development fee” in its title while by its plain terms it actually places an undue hardship on any Township homeowner choosing to make improvements to their own property. *This would hurt every homeowner, especially our Seniors.* The new taxes in proposed Ordinance 2019-14 are just the start.

As is, Chatham Township homeowners already pay significant fees (too many!) for various professional services, permits, and inspections in connection with construction and renovation projects – not including the additional taxes that follow inspection and reassessment. That's why we oppose two ordinances related to Affordable Housing, such as proposed Ordinance 2019-14. That's why we wholly support the Planning Board in its wise determination that proposed Ordinance 2019-14 is inconsistent with the Township’s Master Plan. That's why we oppose slapping what is effectively an additional tax on forward-thinking and sensible homeowners.

Such new taxes are not only unfair and unnecessary, they also discourage what we should all support throughout the community - proud investment by homeowners into their treasured homes. That investment makes our neighborhoods and community as a whole more valuable and a more desirable place to live. Empowering the Township government to selectively gather funds, from a subset of conscientious homeowners (or anyone else), for the express purpose of future use related to the development of the Affordable Housing that outside forces seek to impose on our community is just a bad idea.

It's noteworthy that our campaign opponents have called for “change.” Precisely, what needs to change? Our opponents’ statements augur dark outcomes, such as Chatham Township eroding our hale fiscal position through new taxes under a max-the-tax policy, and undermining homeowners and the value of our homes. In all, our campaign opponents are too far left for most Chatham Township residents. Belying their calls for inclusion, collaboration, and non-partisanship, our opponents and their small cohort of vocal supporters in social media and elsewhere have fomented combative discourse in our community. Theirs is a highly partisan, resentful agenda.

What Mark Hamilton and I stand for would *help all Chatham Township residents, including our Seniors.* Contrary to our opponents’ libelous smear that ours is a far-right position, Mark Hamilton and I are well within the right-of-center mainstream. Our suburban, bucolic community merits protection from unwelcome, high-density urbanization through Affordable Housing mandates. Chatham Township homeowners deserve to have their local government protect their property values.

2. What is the biggest challenge you see facing your community and how will you address it?

Chatham Township faces immediate and ongoing challenges with court-mandated Affordable Housing requirements. Mark Hamilton and I are the leaders to grapple with this mandate in a way that mitigates impacts upon Chatham Township and our schools.

Affordable Housing, however, is only the beginning. Consider one of the Township's main thoroughfares, Southern Boulevard, and its increased, choking traffic, which is driven by growing urbanization all around Chatham Township. Along with higher housing density comes increased demand/ requirements on services, infrastructure, and our top-rated schools, all of which will experience spiking pressure for increasing taxes.

Our campaign opponents would impose even more taxes to support *yet more* Affordable Housing construction with little consideration of Township tax payers and the ensuing negative impacts upon our community, including those to our environment and open space preservation, pressure towards enlarged school budgets to avoid over-crowding, increased strain on infrastructure and municipal services, and aggravated traffic congestion.

To the extent that outside forces have saddled the Township with onerous and unjust Affordable Housing mandates, Mark Hamilton and I will be guided by what’s best for Chatham Township residents’ quality of life, and not by what housing activists from Trenton or developers are pushing.

3. What makes you the right person to vote for as opposed to the other candidate(s)?

It’s evident that our campaign opponents are abjectly tone-deaf to what matters in Chatham Township. If Chatham Township residents had wanted an urban, high density hometown, we would've bought our homes in urban communities such as Jersey City, or in smaller, urbanized municipalities such as Montclair or Maplewood. But instead, we - Chatham Township residents - chose the natural beauty of the Great Swamp and our tree lined streets. We invested in homes in Chatham Township for top-rated schools, our commitment to open spaces, and our community's focus on families and Seniors.

Mark Hamilton and I share an uncompromising commitment to keeping Chatham Township on the right track, consistent with the principles that have made our Township one of the best places in which to live, raise a family, and retire: low taxes, fiscal responsibility, protection of property rights, and integrity and transparency in our local government.

Further, my qualifications to serve on the Township Committee are extensive and offer a stark contrast to our opponents’ asserted qualifications. For more than 25 years, I’ve practiced business immigration law in New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C., initially at top-ranked national law firms, and more recently in-house at publicly traded IT (information technology) and business consulting enterprises that operate globally. My work includes providing legal advice, leading legal compliance operations, and advising on governmental relations for high talent legal immigration.

Mine is a long personal and family tradition of environmentalism and natural resource conservation. Mine is a family devoted to the land, as I hail from a long line of sugar cane farmers in Puerto Rico. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Rutgers University, where I studied Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Ecology, Genetics, Oceanography, Municipal Waste Management, Used Water Treatment, and more. Further, I worked in scientific laboratories to support research in entomology, agricultural soil science, herbicide management, microbiology, and indoor environmental pollution. This substantive foundation is ideal for supporting Chatham Township’s commitment to open space preservation and the protection of our environment.

While at the Rutgers School of Law – Newark, from which I earned a law degree, I spent a lot of time at the in-school legal clinics that provide legal services in the areas of urban law, animal protection, and environmental law. Throughout my legal career I’ve volunteered though pro bono work in family, criminal, and immigration law.

4. What will you do to facilitate communication with the community?

As practicing attorneys for decades, Mark Hamilton and I are deeply steeped in the discipline of active listening. We’re adept at digesting massive volumes of dense, complex information, and making sense of it for advocacy and decision-making. We’re each also astutely practiced in hearing-out a spectrum of views on a given issue, and on understanding that there’s more than one way to see a matter. Mark Hamilton and I listen openly and respectfully to our neighbors’ views.

That’s far more than we can say for our campaign opponents. Consider the shameful “protest” at the Township Committee meeting on September 12th, at which a Township Environmental Commission member (who’s also a spouse of a Township Committee member) turned her back to Township Committee member Karen Swartz as she spoke. Precisely, what was the subject of protest? Our system of representative government, under which Township residents speak on the record at a public hearing? Perhaps. Another subject of protest is the fact that there was a diversity of views on a proposed ordinance to part-ban plastic shopping bags. In a mini-tantrum, the “protester” objected to the fact that there were other views. The so-called protest was a base bully tactic to shame and silence those who disagreed. In a word, despicable. I was present at that Township Committee meeting and directly observed our campaign opponents giggle in mirth as the “protester” engaged in her sophomoric theatrics. There’s Township Committee video footage showing our opponents chortling. To disport when members of our community share their sincerely held views and mock Township residents who speak up makes our opponents wholly unfit for elected public office.

5. What inspires you?

I’m inspired by gratitude. That’s what gets me out of bed every morning.

I love our family, which is comprised of a wonderful husband, two talented teenage boys, two precocious tween girls, and me. We’re blended many ways. We originate from Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico. We're Christian and Jewish. Two of our four kids are adopted. We are all English speakers and Spanish learners; I’m a native Spanish speaker.

I’m grateful that my work engages me in what I love to do. In focusing my legal practice on bringing the best and the brightest to the U.S. lawfully, I feel that I engage in American nation building every day.

I love Chatham Township. Our warm community includes families and Seniors, and is rife with volunteers, including our Fire Department and Rescue Squad. From the natural beauty of the Great Swamp to easy proximity to metropolitan New York, Chatham Township has it all. Our tree lined streets, our community’s focus on families and seniors, and our highly lauded school district are a testament to Chatham Township’s well-earned position as one of the nation’s best suburban communities in which to live and raise a family. We also value Chatham Township’s rank in the top ten safest communities in New Jersey. We’re a family who values the protection of the environment and the conservation of natural resources, so Chatham Township’s commitment to green spaces and investments in open space preservation matter to us. Certainly not least is Chatham Township’s fiscal prudence. In Chatham Township, we’re surrounded by towns that charge the highest property taxes in New Jersey.

And unabashedly, I’m grateful for our country. Our Declaration of Independence states that “[w]e hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness….” Our American foundational values are right: government accountable to “We the People,” equality for every person under the law, and freedoms for all such as speech, assembly, and others. Despite flaws, inexorably ours is a nation that strives to do better by all our citizens in driving in time towards “a more perfect Union…..”

On Nov. 5, we ask that you cast your vote to keep the Township Committee focused on the right track: keeping Chatham Township a great place to live, raise a family, and retire. Vote for Mark Hamilton and me.

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