Ridgewood Village Council Candidate Profile: Denise Pierce Lima

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — While the focus on Nov. 3 will be on the Congressional midterm elections, several North Jersey towns including Ridgewood are seeing contested races for local government.

In Ridgewood, four candidates are running in a non-partisan election for two seats on the five-member Village Council.

Every two years, the council members choose a mayor from among themselves.

New Jersey's voter registration deadline for the election is Oct. 13. Early voting in New Jersey runs from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1.

Those competing for the four seats are:

• Evan Weitz (incumbent)
• Siobhan Winograd (incumbent)
• Hyunju Kwak
• Denise Pierce

Patch is running profiles submitted by candidates via a form. Below are candidate Evan Weitz's biographical details and answers to two questions, verbatim.

Check Ridgewood Patch for the other candidate profiles, and sign up to receive our free newsletter full of daily news each morning here.

Profile: Denise Pierce Lima

Age: 63

Government and volunteer positions: Former Director of the Ridgewood League of Women Voters and Trustee of the Ridgewood Historical Society. Volunteered with Feed the Front Lines providing food for families in need across Bergen County. Attend most Village Council meetings and frequent the Planning Board sessions advocating for residents’ top issues.

Current job: Retired. During my 40-year career I worked for top tier Fortune 100 financing and IT companies, serving as a global corporate strategy and planning leader with experience across 40 countries. I led corporate governance and institutional alignment initiatives, developing the internal structures, policies, and operating standards needed to scale enterprises safely and efficiently, to manage risk, and ensure accountability.

Other volunteerism: I spend time donating and helping animal rescue organizations

Family: Married 36 years, my husband is a Ridgewood graduate

Length of time in town: 21 years

Longer Questions

1. What do you think are the biggest problems facing your electorate right now, and how do you hope to help solve them?

Ridgewood is a non-partisan town, and local government starts with dependable services, responsible planning, and a clear understanding of what residents need every day. Land use and affordable housing changes will have the biggest downstream impact on our infrastructure, which will have an impact on our taxes. During the past four years, our current Council has increased our taxes/budget without any major changes to our services and continues to spend excessively increasing our bond debt to $186M. Many residents are concerned about the affordability of our town and being able to age in place. Having a strong financial background solving complex initiatives, I will bring unique points of view to create opportunities that will address residents’ concerns while being fiscally responsible.

2. Why do you believe you're the most qualified person for the spot?

My strong, diverse background in complex corporate organizations has prepared me to turn complex, loosely defined local issues into actionable plans. I will build successful relationships with the residents, the village manager, and his team to ensure we collaborate to form the right consensus to influence positive change in the community. Also, having negotiated multimillion-dollar contracts, I will assist in providing thorough reviews and inputs to our lawyers to ensure our resolutions, ordinances and third-party bids are scrutinized providing the right level of due diligence. I have a keen ability to ask Socratic inquisitive questions as part of my analytical problem solving. Often, I can be found at Village Council meetings asking questions and advocating for residents.

More About The Race

Each term is four years, with elections held in staggered years. Read about the Village Council here.

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See the New Jersey voter information portal and election timelines here.