Take Five: Westfield Council Candidate Rich Bodmer

WESTFIELD, NJ - There are seats opening up on the Westfield Town Council and Patch caught up with the candidates ahead of the general election this November.

Questionnaires were sent out out to all candidates registered with the County Clerk's Office in the 2019 general election using the email addresses they went on file with. The responses will be posted on the site by those who submitted in the order in which they were received. They will also be included in an election preview wrap.

This Take Five features Rich Bodmer. His responses to the questions are below and unedited.

1. Why are you running for office?

I look at the value of our homes as a wheel with three spokes. Spoke one is the school system. Spoke two is the home itself (square footage, location, remodeling, etc.). Spoke three the downtown. So on your wheel, two spokes are undamaged, spoke one: the schools system, spoke two: the home itself. Only these two undamaged spokes are holding the value of your home right now. Spoke three is bent: Our Downtown Westfield. Because of the decaying in Downtown Westfield, our homes are losing value. I do not want to lose any more value in my home. My number one goal is to protect the value of your home and that starts with downtown Westfield or as some call it Down-Turn Westfield.

2. What is the biggest challenge you see facing your community and how will you address it?

The biggest challenge is the 27 vacant storefronts downtown.
To develop a task force to work with Landlords to fill all of the vacant storefronts and vacant office space. Stop spending money on programs such as the artist to paint the walk way under the train tracks. The $70,000 we are going to paying the artist could be spent on our parks and fields for kids. We should invite the kids to create murals and paint these empty areas around town and develop some pride in our community.

3. What makes you the right person to vote for as opposed to the other candidate(s)?

I have been an entrepreneur and successful businessman for over 40 years. I have worked with and represented some of the largest companies such as the New York Times, NASCAR, NFL, Lionel, The CLUBHOUSE, etc. I have been involved in several start-up companies such as Front Street a company whose business model was taking vacant buildings rezoning them to the demands of the community and bring them back to life. The CLUBHOUSE is a perfect example. The building had been closed since the riots in the 60s, and we converted it into New Jerseys top night spot for over 11 years.

4. What will you do to facilitate communication with the community?

I would work with the different organizations and committees and create an online source for everyone to be able to submit ideas and solutions for our town. As part of that program I would work to develop anti-bulling ordnance for online communications. Presently homeowners in Westfield are afraid to speak up or take a position for fear they will be attacked by the keyboard cowards that try to silence our neighbors.

5. What inspires you?

The memory of how beautiful this town was while I grew up here and how much better it could be, is my motivation. The people in this town have and continue to work too hard and too long. They deserve an incredible downtown to shop, go to dinner and enjoy. Isn’t that why we pay so much in taxes for? I keep hearing taxes didn’t go up. I don’t know about the rest of you but my neighbors and mine sure did.

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