Financial experience is talking point

The three candidates running for Essex Fells council each point to their background in finance as reason they are needed steering the borough through an upcoming debt refinancing.

This November, the Republican running mates -- William Bradford Sullivan and incumbent John "Jack" Taylor Jr. -- and lone Democratic challenger Peter N. Schaeffer are vying for two seats on the all-Republican board. The terms are for three years.

"There are dramatic issues facing every town in New Jersey, not just Essex Fells, with the current fiscal crisis and pressure to consolidate," said Schaeffer, a partner of an investment banking firm in New York. "Significant management and financial experience are needed to guide the town through this period."

For the past few years, the council for the 2,000-person borough has used bond-anticipation notes to finance projects, which are a kind of "Band-Aid" until permanent financing is selected, Sullivan said.

The borough council will be refinancing next year, he said.

"With my background in municipal finance, who better than me to be on it?" Sullivan said, about the council.

Sullivan was 9 in 1968, when his father founded Gibraltar Securities, Inc., which evolved into the largest regional brokerage firm in New Jersey, he said. In his summers growing up, from 14 to 18, Sullivan worked at his father's business on the trading desk. He's now a portfolio manager with an investment banking firm.

Schaeffer pointed to his own history managing Bloomingdale's flagship store in New York, a $600 million company with 3,000 employees and, he likes to joke, a security force six times as big as the Essex Fells Police Department.

The Democrat is proposing a referendum to change Essex Fells into a nonpartisan town, so that more qualified candidates can run without having to change parties for fear they won't win otherwise. A borough clerk said the council has been all Republican since at least 2001.

The candidates' views do differ when it comes to consolidating municipal services, such as the police department. Sullivan is adamantly against it, while Schaeffer thinks it should be looked into. Taylor said he's not opposed to the idea as long as it's a well-planned move and not rushed.

Taylor, a certified public accountant, said he would not expect such a move to happen in the next three years. Merging the Essex Fells police with a neighboring municipality's force without losing that small-town feel would not be easy.

"Most of the police in our town know the residents by name," Taylor said. "They do things I can't see other people doing."

Nic Corbett is a reporter with the New Jersey Local News Service. She may be reached at (908) 243-6216 or ncorbett@njlns.com.