Morris Township Committee Election 2021: Mark Gyorfy

MORRIS TOWNSHIP, NJ — It won't be long until Morris Township elects members to its Township Committee. Patch has asked local candidates to share their thoughts before the Nov. 2 General Election.

Patch sent out emails to all candidates to the email addresses listed for their campaign provided to the office of the clerk. The responses received will get published between now and Election Day.

Here is the response from Morris Township Committee candidate Mark Gyorfy.

Name: Mark Gyorfy
Age (as of Election Day): 29
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Family: Married to Kelly
Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? No
Education: University of Maryland - College Park
Occupation: Communications Manager
Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office: Deputy Mayor of Morris Township
Campaign website: http://www.markandtara2021.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

I ran for Township Committee three years ago and am running again with Tara Olivo-Moore because I believe Morris Township’s future generations deserve the same opportunities I had while growing up here. Since being sworn-in in 2019, I have worked diligently with my colleagues to focus on proactive governing to find common-sense solutions; governing to not just address our short-term challenges, but to prepare for our long-term future.

I was born and raised here in Morris Township, graduated from Morristown High School, served as a Congressional advisor and bought my first home with my wife not far from the street that I grew up on. I have been a volunteer firefighter for over twelve years and am honored to serve as Morris Township’s Deputy Mayor.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Affordability - I have and will continue to keep Morris Township fiscally responsible to ensure the Township we know and love remains affordable for families and retires alike.

Despite the financial hardships forced upon us last year due to COVID, Township residents continue to have some of the lowest municipal property taxes in the County and State and receive tremendous value for their tax dollars. I have worked to keep our municipal tax rate flat for two out of the last three years by passing responsible budgets that prioritize investments in our municipality while protecting our low tax rates. To support this, I will also continue to prioritize expanding shared services with neighboring municipalities and apply for grants from the state and federal government.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My experiences have had a tremendous impact on the work I do on behalf of residents. Having grown up in Morris Township, served as a volunteer firefighter here for over twelve years, and worked for a member of Congress, my background provides me the opportunity to produce meaningful results for our residents.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Over the past three years, I have worked diligently with my colleagues to make Morris Township a leader in good municipal governance. Key issues I have worked to address include: reinvigorating our communications, introducing land use reform, protecting our local environment, and combatting speeding and traffic in our neighborhoods.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

To address these issues mentioned above, I accomplished the following:

Reinvigorating communications:
• Increase our Municipal Messenger emails to residents
• Create a monthly newsletters for residents
• Issue special reports on COVID and redevelopment projects
• Post educational sessions on important topics to our website
• Make video recordings of Township Committee meetings available on our website
• Expand our presence on social media
• Increase opportunities for public comment

Reforming the land use process
• Introduced a land-use reform initiative providing additional notice and clarity related to land use proposals in the Township in addition to advocating for impactful reforms at the state-level

Protecting our environment:
• Passed Morris Township's single-use plastic bag ban
• Passed an EV charging ordinance requiring charging stations at all future and modified parking facilities
• Passed funding in the 2021 budget funding for EV charging stations at two municipal facilities and the Township's first electric vehicle for its fleet
• Passed an ordinance banning in-ground bamboo planting
• Pushed forward a Township-wide newsletter sent to residents on recycling best-practices
• Published an Op-Ed highlighting the importance of embracing cleaner infrastructure:https://www.dailyrecord.com/st...

Creating safer neighborhoods:
• To address traffic and speeding in our neighborhoods, I established and now Chair the Township's Transportation Advisory Committee, which focuses on encouraging the public to use alternative modes of transportation, including biking and walking to reduce traffic
• Led TAC’s creation of a comprehensive list of infrastructure improvement recommendations for the Township Committee’s consideration based off of resident input from our first Mobility Survey.
• Passed Morris Township’s first Traffic Calming Policy

The best advice ever shared with me was:

While studying in college, my class was encouraged by a guest speaker to seek out challenging situations in our lives rather than avoiding them. Challenging oneself provides the opportunity for personal betterment and allows individuals to use what they have learned from getting through tough challenges so they can have as big an impact on the people and communities they care about most in life.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

Our neighbors have a real choice in this year’s election and Tara Olivo-Moore and I need your support to continue bringing proactive governing to our neighbor’s doorsteps. Both Tara as a nurse and myself as a firefighter have demonstrated that we put the interests of our neighbors ahead of our own. That is the approach we’ll continue together on the Township Committee.

We’ll focus on keeping Morris Township affordable so that young families and retirees alike can afford to live here and stay here. We’ll keep investing in our public infrastructure to better meet the demands of tomorrow. We’ll continue engaging with our neighbors to ensure that all interests and viewpoints have a seat at the table. We’ll challenge the demands of developers and private interests and we’ll keep pushing forward initiatives that keep our streets safe and environment protected.

I was born here, I was raised here, I bought my first home here, and I plan to start my family here. I’m invested in our community for the long haul. Over the past three years, I have governed with this in mind, and I’ll continue working to not only address the needs of our residents today, but to lay the ground work for the needs of the generations of tomorrow.