GOP Candidate In Essex County Ready To Take On DiVincenzo: Op-Ed

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The following op-ed comes courtesy of Adam Kraemer, the Republican Party nominee for Essex County executive in 2022. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site.

I am in an election for county executive in Essex County, as the Republican nominee, but most people don’t know what the county executive does, and the issues facing Essex County are not clearly spelled out in the media. The presumptive political view is that the incumbent of many years, Joseph DiVincenzo Jr., a Democrat, will defeat me in November by a wide margin, as Essex County, New Jersey is one of the “bluest” counties in the United States. However, presumptive wisdom is not what this election or any election should be all about. Elections should be about figuring out what are the issues related to the job being voted on and figuring out who can best address them. The elections in Essex County tend to have a vast number of people who vote on the straight party line. Reflexive party line voting either in the Republican direction or the Democratic direction has its problems.

First, a civic lesson as to what the Essex County executive does. The county executive is the elected official that runs the county government, pursuant to the budget and ordinances of the county commissioners, New Jersey, and federal law: less the areas controlled by the elected clerk, sheriff, surrogate, and register of mortgage and deeds. It employs many people. This responsibility is for a budget of a bit less than a billion dollars for well over eight hundred thousand citizens. The county has a significant role in law enforcement: it runs a correction department and a sheriff’s office, and in conjunction with the state it runs a court and prosecutors office. In addition, it operates many lane miles of roads, numerous parks, a zoo, an arena, a vocational school, and a welfare department (now called the department of family benefits) and has a role in running a community college system. Most of the people of Essex County are busy with their day-to-day lives and don’t focus on what the count does and what the issues are.

Here are the main issues facing the county:

Taxation - Of the over three thousand counties in the United States, Essex is consistently ranked in the top ten for highest taxation – not the top ten percent, but the top ten. The taxes run from about two percent of the value of the property in Milburn to about six percent of the value of your property in Irvington. Part of this high tax rate can be explained by the twenty-plus townships and twenty-plus school districts not doing a good job of sharing services. The county can and should foster more shared services, so the government is more efficient and less costly.

Governance by one party - There has not been any elected official in county government other than a regular Organization Democrat elected to any office in well over a decade. The results are groupthink, cronyism, and nepotism. It also may explain why so few of the many contracts that the count puts out for bid, result in multiple competitive bids being received. Essentially the county chooses its own vendors for reasons that are often political and not in the interest of the taxpayers. In addition, rule by one party goes a long way in explaining why hiring within the government has a strong political component.

Public safety - Essex County: has significant crime issues ranging from homicide, and auto theft, to shoplifting and everything in between. Crime is disparately higher in certain parts of the county, but it impacts all in the county. Currently, the sheriffs and correction officers have been operating on a contract that expired over five years ago. The morale of law enforcement is low. We need to back law enforcement and enable them to help keep us safe. We also need to have better coordination between the various municipal departments, and with state and federal law enforcement entities. People should be safe and feel safe regardless of what part of the county they are in and the county can do a much better job of making that happen.

The social service system - Essex County Division of Family Assistance and Benefits, assists well over one hundred thousand people or more than one in eight people in the county. The question is how to reduce this number by helping individuals to be self-sufficient. People need help and some people may need help for many years, but the percentage of people who need help should be lowered in a humane and compassionate way by enabling self-dependency.

My plan to govern the county is simple. Make Essex County a meritocracy. This means awarding contracts and hiring and promoting people based on their skill set and ability and willpower to get things done. As someone who is running a zero or very low-budget campaign, I will have no political debts due should I win the office. In terms of saving money and shared services, I would work to make a unified 911 system and unified trash collection system across the county. I would evaluate what aspects of county government are needed and shrink what is not needed. My focus would be on public safety and building the tax base, so people have opportunities to help themselves.

These are some of the major issues that our county is facing. As of now, there is no scheduled debate for the county executive race. The people of the county need to see competing visions of Essex County and make an informed decision. If the informed decision matches the conventional political wisdom so, be it. I hope the media covers the race for county executives in a serious way and focuses on the issues and not on personalities and who is leading the polls. I also hope there is at least one serious debate on the issue between myself and the incumbent.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com