Westfield Primary Election 2023: Michael Armento

WESTFIELD, NJ — Westfield's primary election on June 6 has eight candidates running for four open seats on the Town Council.

Republican Michael Armento is one of two candidates running in the uncontested primary for Ward 2.

Other candidates include Democrat Emily L. Root for Ward 1; Democrat Erika J. Vargas Garrison for Ward 2; Democrat Dawn Alicia Nichol-Manning and Republican Michal D. Domogala for Ward 3; and Democrat Scott A. Katz and Republican David William Kiefer for Ward 4.

All of the candidates are running for a four-year seat on the Town Council.

Are you running for office in Westfield? Contact Alexis Tarrazi at alexis.tarrazi@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate's profile and submitting campaign announcements to Westfield Patch.

Michael Armento, MD

Age: 60

Town of residence: Westfield

Position sought: Town Council, Ward 2

Party affiliation: Republican

Family: Children: Michael(26) and Ava(15)

Education:

• BA, Franklin and Marshall
• College, Lancaster, Pa,
• Medical School: MD, UMDNJ-New Jersey
• Medical School, Newark, NJ

Occupation: Physician; Pediatric Physiatrist

Previous or current elected appointed office: None

Campaign website: facebook.com/ArmentoForWestfield

Why are you seeking election to the Town Council?

I am seeking election to the town council due to my concern with the overdevelopment of Westfield. While some development is reasonable and appropriate, the magnitude of One Westfield Place is not consistent with the charm and character of the town. I would be honored to serve as a town council person to ensure that Westfield develops in a manner consistent with its history while progressing into the future.

Balancing the town budget becomes more difficult each year with inflation and the loss of revenue since COVID. How do you plan to address this?

I believe rebuilding a town budget that meets the needs of the town without sacrificing services or raising taxes is essential. As we do with our family budget, we cannot spend in excess of what we bring in. We need to ensure finances are allocated to the essentials first and then to discretionary items. In addition, it is important to maintain a healthy surplus, which has dwindled over the past several years.

Having trust and transparency in the town government is important to residents. How has the town improved on this or how would you improve this?

I think that transparency has been limited by the current majority of the town council. The township took a step backwards when the amount of time that residents were allowed to speak at the town council meetings was cut by 50 percent. In addition, previous administrations maintained a healthy dialogue with the residents during the meetings including letting individual council persons answer questions, which is not occurring presently. In relation to One Westfield Place, when the actual number of residents in support of the project was requested at the meetings, the response from the leadership was “we have received a lot of emails.” The mayor and the town lawyer deemed that a non-binding referendum could not be held so there was no effort to quantify their support. There was a petition with over 2300 signatures that was against the project and a survey performed by TAPinto with over 1400 responses with the majority against the project. But still no numbers were provided regarding support for the project. The details of the project were made known in September, 2022 and subsequently several different groups of concerned residents voiced their issues with the project soon thereafter. The majority leadership had asked for input but when these groups put forth their concerns, they were ignored. This shows a significant lack of transparency. If elected I want the residents of our town to have a voice that is listened to and valued, not ignored!

What other issues do you feel need to be tackled in the town?

In addition to ensuing a balanced budget and transparency, the overdevelopment of our town is a major issue as well as parking and traffic, which are all tied together. The One Westfield Place project will increase traffic by at least 1000 cars per day, mainly during rush hour times. There will be so called traffic mitigation. However, this is basically changing the timing of lights and possibly adding more lights. There will not be more roads! Congestion will undoubtedly increase. Parking will not be improved and parking spots will potentially be less. The mayor indicated at one of the town council meetings, that only 10% of the residents commute and that 10 percent is not a big number. She suggested they Uber or Uber share to the train station. Westfield commuters are a significant part of our community and they should not be an afterthought. We should be striving to improve our parking for the hard working commuters of Westfield. The town council should be working to improve the quality of life in our town, not cause it to worsen.

What sets you apart from the challenging candidates?

I have lived in Westfield for over 29 years and have a great appreciation of the town and care deeply about it. I have been involved with my children’s sports in town, serving as a coach. I was also on the Board of Governors of Nomahegan Swim and Tennis Club for 12 years, serving as president for 5. In these capacities I interacted with many different people and have a good sense of the needs of our residents. As a physician, listening to my patients is of the utmost importance in order for me to properly care for them and I would use my listening skills and ability to interact with people to be an effective town council person and provide the best representation for my ward.

What else would you like to share about yourself or your campaign?

I am very passionate about running for town council and giving my best effort for the job. As a pediatric physiatrist, I work with children with special needs at Children’s Specialized Hospital, where I have been for over 30 years. I strive to provide the best care possible to help my pediatric patients and I can bring this with me to provide the best leadership for our great town to ensure it is the best place to live to raise a family as well as for those in the later years of life.