Garwood GOP selects council candidates

Garwood GOP selects council candidates


The Garwood GOP has selected Ileen Bocchino Cuccaro and Joseph R. Sarno III as its 2015 nominees for Borough Council. Residing in Garwood for nearly 50 years, where she raised her son, Eric Meyer, Ileen is a well-known realtor for Coldwell Banker, having sold scores of homes in the community. As a businesswoman serving the Garwood community, she has a crucial insight into why people choose to sell their homes in Garwood and why new residents continue to come here. She attended Union County College where she studied urban studies and creative writing.


Joseph Sarno is a proud, lifelong New Jersey resident. He attended Albright College in Reading, Pa., and graduated Cum Laude with a degree in accounting and political science. In college, Sarno also starred as a cross-country and long-distance runner for the track and field team. He currently works at SS&C GlobeOP in Cranford as a senior accountant and has more than nine years of accounting and analytical experience in the Alternative Investment world. His clients have been some of the most reputable financial institutions in the country and his service has been integral in assuring that investors are protected from securities fraud, embezzlement, and other forms of theft.


Garwood GOP Chairman, Jim Mathieu is enthusiastic about Ileen and Joe running for Garwood Borough Council. "I first met each of them when I challenged the Republican Establishment in the 2013 Garwood Republican primary. Ileen and Joe are shining examples of the new type of candidates our party is selecting--people of character who will vote like Republicans. I expect each of them to bring fresh ideas and approaches to keeping Garwood affordable for current and future residents."


To volunteer, contribute or meet the candidates in person, contact Jim Mathieu at 917-626-0207 or email jimmathieu71@gmail.com.

Tax implications run deep for Families that built Garwood

Currently there are a record 19 homes for sale, plus another 8 in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure and another already in auction.

As our taxes continue to recklessly skyrocket we are seeing more and more families that built Garwood forced out simply because they can no longer afford to stay here. Long time residents are seeing their families have to move away as collateral damage to a Democrat run council that thinks is okay to carelessly go about business as usual with our money. As we lose those people that built our town, we will welcome in new families with open arms because along with the best neighbors you can ever hope, the lower property costs make it easier for younger couples to move to our great borough as opposed to the ones next door. This also brings in more children and as we have seen in the recent past, our administration has no capability of preparing for the future. Classrooms are already overcrowded, teachers are unhappy with their expired contracts and the Board of Ed is doubling down on their tax implications to the residents. The stark reality is that as the landscape is changes because of the bad decisions of the past decade, we need to adapt and be willing to elect officials that have experience in the marketplace. People who understand the numbers and know how to work a budget. Our residents can no longer afford the intentions of Council members that cannot see past their own political ideology. If we do not wake up soon, our taxes will be $20,000 per home, we are already close.

Garwood tax increase more than Cranford and Westfield COMBINED per household

The budget proposed by the Garwood Finance Committee is more per household than Westfield and Cranford combined. While Garwood will see an $85 per $100,000 assessed increase, Westfield is at $50 and Cranford at $33. How can a borough of 4200 people see such drastic increases year after year? It is because we have people in charge that have zero real world budget experience. They simply copy and paste from the previous year and add increases. They have no plan, no solution. They push through their pet projects without allowing the people to vote on them and now our small town with a big heart is starting to see the ramifications of their carelessness. The previous blog post shows the breakdown of all the drastic increases that are hitting us, the taxpayers. It’s easy for them to spend our money without consideration of how it impacts our lives. Because of their will for power, greed and stubbornness, we chose a vanity project on which to put the names of politicians that is going to be used by a very small percentage of the Borough’s resident over basic infrastructure like roads, sewers, police, DPW and fire gear are falling into disrepair. Now they expect us to bear the brunt of their ineptitude. We, the taxpayers of Garwood, need to stand up and tell them we have had enough of their reckless spending. Write the local papers, post your comments, and lastly try to attend the council meetings. The latter is the most difficult I know, a 2 ½ hour meeting on a Tuesday night which is painfully boring is not the best way to interact with the community but until things change at the top we have very little choice.


For years they have gotten away with irresponsible increases. The purpose of this blog is to keep people informed and let everyone know the facts without the political spin. The numbers don't lie and we love this town too much to allow it to continue in the direction it's headed.

Garwood NJ, Big heart, big taxes!

Garwood, your taxes are about to skyrocket!

Big heart, big taxes!

Increases to the 2015 Budget include:

• $20,000 for Athletic Field Complex (AFC) Maintenance
• $11,000 for a fence for the Athletic Field
• $33,000 in debt service payments due to the AFC and neglected infrastructure projects*
• $7,000 increase to the Recreation department**
• $17,000 for the Planning Board**
• $11,100 to the Municipal Clerk**
• $23,845 initial cost for computer software
• $20,000 Taxes Raised
• $18,800 in Legal Fees
• $17,000 for pension line items
• $37,000 in Municipal Roof repairs that should be covered in the “surplus”
• Failure of the Finance Committee to understand and prepare for fluctuations in RVSA fees. Even though the fees are flat over the past 5 years, because of this failure we have to pay $90,000

*Not subject to cap is Debt Service; The Finance Committee does NOTHING to control costs. They put out fires and react to situations; they do not plan, foresee, anticipate or control expenditures.

**Items that we spent less than budgeted for last year, yet increased the budget this year.

We are just now beginning to see the ramifications of the excess debt we have taken on for the AFC.

$11,000 for a fence and $33,000 debt increase due to the AFC and neglected infrastructure projects. We were told the cost to maintain the Athletic Complex would be “$2,000”. Actual cost in the 2015 Budget is a 10x increase at: $20,000.

By approving the $3.2 million AFC without putting it up for the people of Garwood to vote on, the council ignored capital expenditures the Borough requires like Police Dispatch computer system, Police Dictaphone system, DPW equipment that is 30+ years old, the 30+ year old fire trucks and lack of a $1M ladder truck to fight fires at The Pointe, St. Anne's Senior housing (which, when opened, is going to create an even bigger drain on resources) and the fire on Second Avenue. There are streets in Garwood that have not been repaved in 40 years, sidewalks falling into disrepair, etc. Now we have to pay for all the items we already needed to borrow money for but hid from the public when the AFC was approved.

In addition, there is no synergy between the municipality and the Board of Education. We work in silos, which creates blown up budgets that hurt us, the taxpayers.  The BOE has already said they are raising taxes an average of $217 per house which may have been avoided with smart collaboration.

Municipal plus Board of Ed and County amounts to over 4% increase in property taxes

The purpose of this blog is to inform the residents of what goes on behind the closed doors of municipal hall because we are too busy with our lives to dig and see why our taxes are going up.


If you have any questions please reach out to us at garwoodgop@gmail.com