Manchester Mayoral Election 2022: Robert Hudak

MANCHESTER,NJ — When voters go to the polls in Manchester Township on Nov. 8, they will be asked to choose the town's mayor.

There are three people seeking the four-year mayoral term: Robert Hudak, Robert Arace and Ken Seda.

Patch asked each candidate to answer questions to give voters information about who they are and their stances on various issues. We are printing their responses in full, unedited except for spelling or punctuation.

Here are the answers for Robert Hudak, who is 46 and lives in the Pine Lake Park section.

Tell voters about your family: I have been married to my wife Ellen for 15 years and have three wonderful children: Michael (14), Andrew (12), and Chrissy(9). My family and I are involved in numerous civic and athletic activities including Little League, travel baseball, competitive dance, Boy Scouts, and serve as a lector at St. Luke’s Church in Toms River.

Tell voters about your education: I hold a master’s degree in public administration from Villanova University, a certification in municipal management also from Villanova University and have undergraduate degrees in both history and political science from Montclair State University. I also teach classes in zoning and land use at Rutgers University.

What is your occupation? I am a licensed professional land use planner by trade with over 20 years’ experience in municipal government, economic development, budgeting, and preserving open space.

Previous elective office, if any: Before being elected Mayor, I served on Manchester Township Council since 2019.

Do you or anyone in your family work for the state, county or local governments? I currently work in local government as deputy township planner for Toms River. My wife currently works in the New Hanover School System as a school social worker and CST team coordinator.

Why are you seeking office?

I am running for mayor to continue the momentum and progress our town has made under our current leadership. I want to continue our efforts to keep taxes the lowest in Ocean County, support local small businesses, and keep our communities’ character. I look forward to working with the Township Council on building upon our successful record and bringing new businesses to town while keeping the rural character of our community.

What do you feel is the most pressing issue facing Manchester, and what do you want to do about it?

I believe the most pressing issue facing Manchester Township is the preservation of Manchester’s small-town charm and natural character. I am accomplishing these goals by combating overdevelopment through purchasing land for open space preservation and updating our Township Master Plan and land use laws to create a sustainable future. This includes both buying land slated for development for open space. In just over a year as mayor, we successfully preserved over 300 acres of open space that prevented over 800 housing units from being built in town and are looking to continue that momentum. Due to our efforts, almost 50 percent of Manchester land is preserved.

Also of concern is our budget. Using creative management and zero-based budgeting techniques, I was able to cut over $2.7 million dollars in wasteful spending for the township's budget. I consolidated positions, including cutting my mayoral staff budget by over $100,000 from the past administration. Unfortunately, fixed costs such as insurance and the cost of fuel have tripled and we have been forced to do more with less. While I hope some of these costs will stabilize, future budgets will require careful evaluation and hard decisions. That is why having experience in management and budgeting that I possess is important to Manchester’s future.

Manchester Township has struggled with trying to attract businesses to help its ratable base and take some pressure off homeowners with property taxes. What do you think Manchester can do to help attract more businesses?

Although it has been a struggle of the town in years past, we were able to make progress on this front. Through the efforts of my Economic Development Advisory Committee, the Planning Board recently approved a pad site at the Whiting Commons Shopping Plaza that includes four new businesses including a soon-to-be-named sit-down restaurant (meaning a restaurant that is open for full service meals). We also timed the auctioning off of our new liquor licenses in conjunction with approvals to incentivize restaurants to locate in Manchester. The Advisory Committee and I met with many of the plaza owners in town about using the state's rehabilitation statutes to help these property owners fill the empty spaces in their shopping centers.

Many issues I hear throughout my dozens of meetings each week with residents is the need for more food amenities. We have made progress on conversations with some bigger food market retailers who are starting to show more legitimate interest and will keep exploring every avenue to provide residents with more options.

The Heritage Minerals site continues to be a sore spot for the town, between illegal ATV operation and trespassers swimming, and the ever-present concerns about part of it being developed. What do you think the township can do to mitigate both concerns?

As mayor, I led the charge to put an end to the pop-up parties and protect residents’ quality of life. The Township Police Department issued over 350 criminal summonses and put an end to this idiotic behavior while bringing in nearly $26,000 in court revenues for the town so far that offset our overhead policing costs. We also worked with JPC&L to add gates to their portions of the site and worked with the owners to install berms to prevent people from easily accessing the site. We are continuously patrolling the area to ensure that the lawbreakers are brought to justice.

As far as the development portion, Hovnanian was victorious against the town in 2003 in a builder’s remedy lawsuit that granted them the ability to develop their site into 2,600 senior units without township interference. This is settled law and was agreed to by the township, development and other parties to the builder’s remedy law site and can not be undone without increasing the number of residential units and taking away the senior designation. I pledge to you that there will NO additional residential development beyond what was already approved. As for the commercial element, there is some flexibility in that we can work with the developer to include food stores, restaurants, and other types of business the town needs.

If you could change one thing about Manchester right now, what would it be?

One of the biggest daunting issues that needs changing is our water and sewer infrastructure. For years, many in positions of power were asleep at the wheel and kicked the can down the road on needed water and sewer upgrades and it has come time to address it head-on. While many of New Jersey’s towns were imposing water restrictions, we were able to construct a water tower that allowed us to keep our promise of no water restrictions this year, but there is much to be done still. After I was appointed mayor, we did a forensic audit of our infrastructure and found that many wells were not being used, were in disrepair, or were working overtime to try and keep up with demand. This is why we created a new utilities department in charge of overseeing the maintenance and upgrades of our system, as well as to utilize our wells that have been idle for years. the township not only is not only improving our water infrastructure but is saving money by keeping the water system solvent for years to come. There has been pressure to sell the system to private water companies over the years. I pledge that I will NOT sell the system since selling the system would result in water rates skyrocketing out of control. The time has come to stop running away from our problems and address them head-on. The time for reactive government is over and we need real leadership which is what I have brought to the helm of Manchester Township.