Hoboken City Council Election Profile: How Cindy Wiegand Answered Our Questions

HOBOKEN, NJ — Ten candidates are running to fill three seats on the Hoboken City Council. You can choose any three council people on Nov. 2. Mayor Ravi Bhalla (who is running for re-election to his seat unopposed) has supported a ticket of three candidates, and seven others are running. (The candidates are listed by slate in this story.)

We'll be featuring candidate profiles in the next two weeks. Below are candidate Cindy Wiegand's answers to the questionnaire.

Hoboken's municipal elections are non-partisan, meaning the elections aren't Republicans vs. Democrats, but various individuals and slates against each other.

Readers should note not just how candidates answer the questions below, but which candidates avoid answering the questions.

Meet Cindy Wiegand

Name: Cindy Wiegand

Campaign website, if any: cindyforhoboken.com

Age as of election day: 43

Party affiliation, even though Hoboken elections are non-partisan: Unaffiliated

Family information (Names, ages, or any details you wish to share): Husband: Chris Wiegand; Children: Bexley (9), Abella (6), Cressida (5)

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? Where?: In-laws are retired public servants (police officer, public school teacher)

Educational background: BA UC Berkeley, MA University of Pennsylvania

Occupation, years of experience: Market research/consumer insights, nearly 20 years

Previous or current elected or appointed offices: None

1. Why are you seeking elected office? (Please keep these answers to 250 words or we may automatically truncate your answer)

I have been a Hoboken resident for nearly a dozen years and am committed to raising my family here. There are great things about Hoboken, but also challenges, many of which are created by government policy. We still grapple with flooding, parking/transportation, escalating cost of living despite assurances from elected officials these will be solved. Meanwhile, city government routinely gets us into messes of its own creation—the Monarch, Northwest redevelopment, Washington St. redesign to highlight a few—and then proceeds to “solve” these messes through a combination of spending even more taxpayer funds, granting favors to well connected entities, etc.

Government can do better for Hoboken; that is why I am running. Hoboken needs more independent voices to advocate for residents and small businesses and to question and facilitate debate and compromise. A true outsider unbeholden to any political party or special interest, I am that voice of reason. Moreover, I am willing to work with anyone if their goal is improving Hoboken’s quality of life in a responsible manner.

I am confident that my professional experience is a skill set missing on City Council. My professional career requires me knowing the right questions to ask and how to turn feedback into actionable solutions. Regardless the issue, a new POV goes a long way to helping to solve what can seem impossible.

It’s time for new voices in City Council that will aggressively put residents’ interests first. I am one of those voices; I am one of those fighters.

2. What is the single most pressing issue facing Hoboken, and how do you think you can help solve it?

Hoboken’s most pressing issue is that our city is land constrained, growing at a rapid pace, and becoming still denser—these facts should be at the center of our policymaking but are not. Issues such as flooding, parking, infrastructure and cost of living cannot be addressed effectively without centering our policies around this inescapable fact. Simply put, there only is so much surface space for parking and development and we have limited permeable surfaces amidst all the brick, steel and concrete.

We cannot manufacture more land, but I am confident that I will help to solve our core challenges that are a function of our land constraint by bringing that fact to the fore and seeking to build policy coalitions and solutions around that fact. For instance, all new development must have developer contributions for water management infrastructure upgrades and must make greater allowances than currently is the case for off street parking (cars and bikes). The city should incentivize private property owners to implement green upgrades to existing properties via municipal property tax incentives, and pursue the separation of storm and waste water in the most flood prone areas to help to alleviate the pressures imposed by Hoboken’s land constraints.

3. Do you believe national political issues are relevant to Hoboken? During the last race, candidates cited their votes in the 2016 election. Are you willing to say for whom you voted in the 2020 presidential election? Do you believe it's relevant or irrelevant, and why?

National political issues are relevant to everyone; however, when it comes to affecting change in Hoboken, too much emphasis is placed on national political matters at the expense of our pressing local issues. Local government affects our everyday — our morning, afternoon and evening. Local government determines whether trash is collected (or not); zoning and development; infrastructure for flooding and in town transit; green space. It is not national government that determines these quality of life issues.

Case in point, many current Hoboken officials are more focused on chasing national climate headlines than solving the city’s immediate flooding issues. Rebuild By Design, whose primary focus is a seawall to buffer against (episodic) Hudson River flooding is a good step but will not adequately address the general storm related problems. An essential component of our flooding problems is the antiquated sewer system and rarely is there discussion about improving our sewers. To be sure, sewers are not as “sexy” as seawalls but contemplating whether sewer and waste water should be separated in the city’s most prone flood areas is a basic nuts and bolts matter that is a paramount local issue and one national politics will not solve.

Those wanting to focus nationally over locally should run for national office. We elected our local officials to be hyper focused on our local issues. And, if successful at the local level, our policies can be a model for other localities. That’s the best way for a local government to have national impact.

4. An issue that often comes up on social media discussion boards is a lack of affordable summer camp options and drop-off recreational options for kids in Hoboken, and a lack of activities for teens, especially compared to other towns, some smaller. In the last few years, parents have said they didn't get enough notice about baseball signups and had to register in Union City for that town's recreation baseball instead of in Hoboken. Specifically, how would you increase low-cost recreation (and not just sports) programming for kids and teens within town, especially over the summer?

I wholeheartedly agree that residents of all ages currently are underserved in terms of recreational opportunities. I also have experienced firsthand the frustration associated with athletic team signup for my children.

When elected I will seek to put in place an easy to navigate, smoothly functioning, online portal for all recreational sign ups to replace the current one which is a mess. Each activity would be listed clearly on the front page of the online portal with the date that signups begin, how many spots are open (if there is a limit) and all signups would be available electronically via the portal or by phone/in-person for those who need those options.

One of my key proposals is for the Recreation Department to be reimagined as a new, not for profit entity. This new not for profit entity would be anchored by city funding in a dollar amount equivalent to what the city Recreation Department receives annually (and would maintain existing sponsorships of teams) but the non-profit nature of the new entity serving the city’s recreation needs would enable it to raise additional funds to be able to offer additional opportunities to residents of all ages. This new structure also would place our recreational opportunities closer to the community as it would have significantly more community input, including in my proposal community members in addition to city officials on its Board. I have multiple additional thoughts on recreation policies on my website’s “policy proposals” section.

5. Some believe that running for local office is only meant as a stepping stone, particularly in Hudson County. Do you plan to someday run for any other political office besides the one you are currently seeking? Why or why not?

I have no other political aspirations than Hoboken City Council. Hoboken is where I am committed to raising my family for the long haul and as a member of our community, it is my desire to bring new ideas to the city to help shape Hoboken and address our most pressing issues. Seeking a seat on City Council is appealing to me because there is no other type of elected office where one is in it together to the degree a local elected official is with his/her constituents. Local office has the greatest effect on daily quality of life and there is no shirking from accountability, as local elected officials encounter their constituents at the supermarket, the park, school, on the street and so forth. Given my professional background in consumer insights, I am intimately familiar with the importance of getting feedback from the people and translating that feedback into solutions that address their needs and desires. The further one rises in elected office, the further one is from the pulse of the people and the less one is able to affect residents’ daily quality of life.

6. What is the best thing about Hoboken, and what is the worst thing?

The best thing about Hoboken is the small-town feel. I am delighted to no end that my mail carrier knows all my family by name and that the pediatrician is only a couple of blocks away (as a mom of three young children, I am a frequent customer). That everything in town is within a walkable distance—where you will no doubt get a smile from someone you know on the street—is another benefit of our small-town vibe.

The worst thing about Hoboken is that we can’t seem to turn that small-town intimacy into efficient local governance. With all Hoboken’s pluses, there is no reason our government cannot be more responsive and transparent. The government is here to serve us, and often it feels as if we are here to serve the government. We need our elected local leaders to work harder at making living in Hoboken the easy choice.

7. What are critical differences between you and other candidates?

I have zero background in politics. I never have run for elected office, nor am I part of any political group or party. My lack of political involvement and predispositions allows me to bring a critical eye to the issues unaffected by special interests and political tribalism. In short, my total lack of political affiliations would make me a true independent voice on City Council seeking solutions that are in the best interest of the city. And City Council could only benefit from an outsider like me.

As a private sector executive in market research and consumer insights, I also bring to the table a demonstrated history of delivering solutions and results for my employers. Results matter in the private sector and I successfully deliver results in my professional career and understand the essential nature of budgets, tradeoffs and the need to work with others who have opinions, personalities, and experiences that differ from one’s own in search of a common goal.

Layered on top of my day job, I am a mom of three, so I am an expert at efficiency, multi-tasking, and conflict mediation. I don’t think City Council meetings resort to hair pulling, but I am prepared to successfully break that up.

I have been supporting our local art scene by putting policy related poetry on my Twitter.

Nobody else running has this talent stack.

Previous Hoboken Patch Election Coverage

• Council Candidate Ian Rintel's Answers To Our Questions
• Hoboken Election: Jim Doyle Replaces Dini Ajmani On Mayor's Slate
  
• Citing 'Toxic' Hoboken Politics, Councilman Won't Run For Mayor
• I'm Running For Re-Election, Announces Mayor

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