Diane Klaif Touts Pedestrian Safety as Major Accomplishment as Councilwoman

The back door to the council chambers at city hall burst open. Two police officers rushed in.

The officers strode quickly to the dais and whispered something into Councilwoman Diane Klaif's ears. Klaif, having recently had knee surgery, grabbed her walking stick and followed the officers out of the chambers.

The Dec. 15 meeting continued undisturbed for several minutes until Klaif came back into the chambers, grabbed her things, whispered something in Mayor Jordan Glatt's ear, and left the meeting with the officers.

It turns out that Klaif's daughter was being taken to Overlook Hospital with a severe stomach ache. Klaif explained the following day that her son had found his sister doubled over on the bathroom floor of the family's home on Ox Bow Lane and decided to call 911 after he couldn't reach either of his parents.

While Klaif's second to last meeting as Ward I councilwoman ended in dramatic style, her two terms on council were productive and rewarding, she says.

"I'm so happy I was a councilperson," she said. "I really am."

Her introduction into public service, however, was an unexpected one.

When former Councilman John Mahr ran for reelection, because of her marketing background, the close family friend asked Klaif to run his campaign.

"I just got hooked," she said. "I got completely hooked."

After being asked to serve on Planning Board by former Mayor Walter Long, Klaif was asked to screen for an open council position vacated by Eric Munoz when he won his bid for state assembly.

At the end of the screening, the parliamentarian said she needed to make sure all three of the people screening were registered Republicans so they could be voted on.

"I was like 'I'm an Independent!'," Klaif laughed.

But that next morning former Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield rang Klaif's doorbell with the change of registration paperwork.

"I had to think, I had to really consider whether I would consider myself a Republican or Democrat," she said. "I knew from running a campaign that it makes more sense to align yourself with a party because then they're behind you and you really can speak to certain party ideals. So I thought about how I had voted over the years and I was very clearly a Republican."

Klaif went on to serve a year as council president in 2006, a year she says was very tough because of a contentious mayoral race between incumbent Jordan Glatt and Councilman Michael Vernotico and because of difficult discussions over turf fields. 

"I decided what I needed to do was to try to bring council back together," she said. "We were so at odds with each other for so many different reasons."

After meetings, Klaif said she used to send e-mails to the council pointing out each meetings strengths and weakness.

"By about halfway through the year we were really pulling together," she said. "But it was tough. It was tough.

"Some people decide that they want to leave a legacy, something that they can point to during their term as president. I decided it wasn't about me, It was about the council. I felt really good that we accomplished that that year," she said.

The one thing she wishes she could have gotten done during her tenure on council: the creation of a dog park. However, she remains hopeful that someday it'll get built.

Klaif decided not to seek reelection this year in order to focus on helping her daughter on the arduous college search and application process. But Klaif says, after taking some time off of course, she'll absolutely be getting involved again. In fact, she's already received multiple requests to sit on committees around town. She also thinks she has a book in her to write.

But the Summit Klaif knew when she first got elected in 2003 is different today, she says.

"The economy has really changed Summit," she says. "People are not volunteering as much as they used to. People are really concerned about their finances and about their future and so they are really paying attention to what happens at city hall because they can see how everything makes an absolute difference on their personal finances and their life.

"The state of the state is in such a dismal situation that we just can't count on any state money," she said. "And so it's all going to come from local and how much more can we take?"

Aside from the budget woes facing the city today, Klaif touts several accomplishments:  The Shade Tree Advisory Committee and the Alternate Modes of Transportation Committee. Two of Klaif's biggest issues as councilwoman were the environment and pedestrian safety, an issue that hits close to home. 

The catalyst for running for council in the first place came from her eldest son Morgan, an Eagle Scout. 

When Morgan was moving up the ranks to become an Eagle, one of the requirements was to go before council and make a comment or ask a question.

Being a middle schooler Morgan knew firsthand the danger he faced everyday trying to walk up Summit Avenue without sidewalks just to get to school. Mayor Walter Long told Morgan that they would walk the street together so he could get a sense of how dangerous it really was.

"He came back here and said 'I promise you that I will get those sidewalks in'," Klaif recalled.

Three of four years went by without any sidewalks.

"I decided 'OK, this is it, I'm going to run for council and I'm going to get this done,'" she said.

So one of Klaif's campaign promises was to improve pedestrian safety, a cause she still believes strongly in today working with residents on the intersection at Mountain Avenue and Ashland Road where a fatal car crash occurred in September and on other safety projects in the city.

And a year and half ago, Morgan finally got his sidewalk.