Two Contested Council Seats in Election [Video]

Paramus voters have just four weeks until they cast ballots in the Nov. 8 municipal election.

Republican Councilwoman Cathy Bentz and Maureen O'Brien are each running for a second three-year term on the Borough Council. They are being challenged by Democrats Maria Elena Bellinger, the longtime coach of the volleyball team, and Joseph Lagana, a lawyer with Secaucus firm Chasan Leyner and Lamparello.

Bentz and O'Brien hope to continue the work they've done in their first terms. In particular, they tout the budget the council passed this year, which didn't increase taxes.

"I just want the opportunity to keep things moving," Bentz said. "I think we've done a good job."

O'Brien said she and Bentz have worked to eliminate waste in municipal government and to change what Bentz called a "credit-card mentality" in Borough Hall. Soon after taking office, they pushed to cut the position of Borough spokesman Keith Furlong.

Over the past three years, many of the Borough's departments have been merged and streamlined, moves Bentz and O'Brien said increased the efficiency of the government. They credited Borough Administrator Joseph D'Arco for coming up with ways for the Council to cut spending.

"I can not tell you how much money he's saved us," O'Brien said.

But Bellinger and Lagana view D'Arco's hiring in 2010 as a mistake. D'Arco came under criticism after former Borough employee Steve Mercer tailed the administrator during his lunch break and discovered D'Arco was using his Borough vehicle to from Washington Township to her home in Bloomfield.

In response, the council approved a new contract for D'Arco that barred him from using the vehicle for personal use. Bellinger and Lagana said the council didn't go far enough in punishing D'Arco.

"I would have done something," Bellinger said. "They didn't do anything."

Bentz and O'Brien said the Council never gave permission for D'Arco to drive the vehicle for personal use, and only learned of D'Arco's actions when Mercer told them at a public meeting. D'Arco didn't deserve to be fired or suspended, O'Brien said, noting the long hours he puts into the job.

"This man is in at 7:30 in the morning," she said. "He doesn't have to start at 7:30 in the morning and I know he doesn't leave until various times at night."

Both Bellinger and Lagana said the current council had put too much of an emphasis on budget cuts at the expense of services and Borough employees. While the 2011 budget didn't increase taxes, five full-time employees and two part-time employees were , in what Bentz called a "last resort" decision.

"Even one layoff is too many if it can possibly be avoided," she said.

While Lagana said stabilizing taxes would be a priority, he said he and Bellinger would show more support to Borough workers and find ways to preserve their jobs.

"We're not using common sense," he said. "Someone who's been in town 25 years, who's not making a high salary—that job may have been saved if we could have looked somewhere else for the money."

Regardless of who is elected Nov. 8, the members of the Council are sure to face another difficult budget season. The economic climate remains difficult, and the Borough faces a $6 million pension payment in 2012.

The new Council will have to figure out a way to make that payment while addressing what each candidate said was a priority: Hiring more police officers. Manpower at the is at its lowest levels in decades.

As always, the stakes are high this coming Election Day. If you haven't registered yet, the deadline to do so is Oct. 18. For information on voter registration, check the Bergen County Board of Elections website.