BERKELEY – When the two mayoral candidates were asked to discuss what’s important to residents, it’s no surprise that taxes and the development of Route 9 were high on the list. They also discussed other quality of life issues.
Current Mayor Carmen Amato is running for state senate. This year’s race for mayor is between Republican Council President John Bacchione and Democrat Kia Phua.
The make-up of the governing body is all Republican. Each mayoral candidate is also running with a slate of three council candidates, who will be profiled in a future article.
Each candidate was given the same questions. Their answers are being provided here in alphabetical order by last name, edited only for such things as grammar, punctuation and flow.
John Bacchione has been employed in the residential mortgage industry for the past 27 years. He currently works for Loan Depot.
He was a Berkeley School Board member for 2009 through 2011.
“I ran for the Berkeley Township council in November of 2011 and was elected,” he said. “I started on the Berkeley Township Council January 2012. I was elected two more terms to the Berkeley Township Council and I have served for the last 12 years. As part of my council duties, I have been serving as the Berkeley Township Finance Committee Chairman for the last 12 years.”
Additionally, he has been serving on the Berkeley Township Environmental Commission and Berkeley Township Planning Board for the last nine years and the Ocean County Land Trust Fund Committee for the last nine years. “I am a 14-year member of the St. Barnabas Knights of Columbus, former coach of the Berkeley Little League and Berkeley Soccer.”
John Bacchione (Campaign Photo)
“The biggest issue the town is facing is the de-annexation of South Seaside Park. SSP is a big percentage of our property tax base and we can’t afford to lose it. We listened to the petitioner’s argument as to why they feel SSP should de-annex from Berkeley for over five years and I argued every step of the way to keep SSP in Berkeley. Unfortunately, the judge who heard the case did not agree with Berkley’s argument to keep SSP. The case is now in the court of appeals awaiting a court date. Berkeley’s legal team feels strongly that the court of appeals will overturn the lower court’s decision and not allow SSP to de-annex,” he said.
“The re-development of the Town Center is an issue to rid Berkeley of the eye sore on Route 9 and bring tax revenue back to Berkeley. With hard work from the mayor’s administration, Town Council and Berkeley’s professionals the re-developer purchased the front 40 acres of the 140 acres ear-marked for redevelopment. This was a huge achievement since this town center property laid vacant for over 30 years. I intend to continue moving this project forward at a quick pace. I also intend to keep our professionals and administration in constant contact with the re-developer to keep them moving,” he said.
“I intend to keep improving the infrastructure of our community, roads for example and parks. Recreation is a big part of our community and I intend on making sure our parks and park facilities are kept up to date and recreation booming. We built a state of the art turf football and soccer field using Green Acres funding. We worked with NY Met Hall of Famer and local legend Al Leiter in a public/private partnership to improve our Little League complex. We installed new playgrounds at: Butler Beach, Mastapeter Park, Dudley Park and Veterans Park. Made our playgrounds more inclusive with handicapped accessible equipment such as the “We Go Round.” We installed 2 new dog parks in down and 6 pickle ball courts. We installed a new skate park and pump track at Veterans Park. Of course, our summer recreation programs such as summer camp had the best year yet along with our Sounds of Summer concert series.”
“We are proud to have the 2nd lowest overall taxes in Ocean County and one of the lowest in New Jersey. Keeping our community affordable is a top priority. My vision is for more commercial development on our Rt. 9 corridor but not too much to have an adverse traffic impact on Route 9. We are working with the Ocean County Board of Commissioners on the Western Boulevard extension which will provide an alternate to Route 9. I will be sure our town stays safe by making sure we have an adequate number of police officers to protect all parts of our community and make sure that our police officers have the latest equipment to be safe while keeping us and our community safe. I will make sure our volunteer fire members are sufficiently equipped to be safe and efficient when saving lives and property. I will be sure our EMS teams are equipped to do their job safely and effectively.”
“Working with state and county partners the last 12 years, we have preserved over 1,000 acres of open space from development. This is a significant accomplishment in our efforts to slow growth. The largest purchase was the NJ Pulverizing plant, where just a decade ago, a major developer wanted to build 1,200-1,800 homes. WOBM Pit and surrounding property was another big purchase stopping 180 apartment/town homes or 80-120 homes. Recently, the purchase of the Cedar Creek Campground for open space preservation is another victory. We are currently discussing with the county to carve out the Olympic size pool and clubhouse at the campground to add to our township recreation,” he said.
“Lastly, was the recent purchase of the Blackbeard’s Cave parcel. This was a land lease, owned by the Johnson family. Sadly, at the end of the land lease the new owner of Blackbeard’s was forced to shut down due to the pandemic and were unable to extend the lease or purchase the property. By purchasing and cleaning up this property will enable to stop additional multi-family housing from being built.”
Kia Phua has been a train operator for NYC Transit for the past 20 years.
“I am an elected democratic committee member for District 35 in Berkeley Township. Similar to public office, I was a former TWU Vice President, where we advocated for the 42,000+ members in our union for better wages, benefits, and a safe workplace environment,” he said.
“I am a proud union member and was recently endorsed for Mayor of Berkeley Township by the New Jersey AFL-CIO. In Berkeley Township, I am a board member and coach for the Berkeley Girls Softball League. I coached two teams in the spring as well as currently coaching an 8U year-round travel team. Recently, I restarted Cub Scout Pack 27 and head the organization as Cubmaster here in Berkeley Township after it disbanded several years ago. In a township as large as Berkeley, our community deserves to have a youth organization like Cub Scouts available to participate in. Also, in town, I am a member of the Clara B. Worth and Berkeley Township Elementary School Parent-Teacher Associations. On a larger scale, I am a member of the National Organization of Women, NAACP, and the Sierra Club. I also served as a Eucharistic Minister for St. Francis Episcopal Church,” he said.
Kia Phua
“The biggest issue our town is facing is the lack of transparency and action from our elected officials. The current administration claims to have the 2nd lowest taxes in Ocean County, which is a play on the numbers. In actuality, Berkeley Township’s 2022 municipal tax rate of 70.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation is 21st out of 33 municipalities in Ocean County and higher than our neighbors in Lacey, Toms River, Manchester, and Seaside Park. Since the Amato team took office in 2012, taxes have increased by 25.59% with no major services for that increase. This manipulation of the data and lack of real clarity with the taxpayers will not be accepted on my watch. The other major concern is the development of the Beachwood Shopping Center and the traffic in town, especially on Route 9. For the past 12 years, Mayor Amato and his team campaigned on this problem every election cycle and the Center is still an eyesore to this day and traffic is worse than ever. Like clockwork, the mayor and council are coming up with a ‘plan’ for the center which, as history has proven to us, will fade away as soon as the election is over. 12 years is long enough and it’s a shame it’s not resolved yet. My plan to fix the traffic in town is to apply for grants from all aspects of government, from the federal, state, and county. We need to get our fair share of money from other areas of government to help support our needs. The residents of Berkeley are paying more than our fair share in property taxes and as a government, we need to look elsewhere to raise funds. With these funds, we can develop a plan to finally alleviate the traffic along Route 9,” he said.
“As our next mayor, to address the problem with transparency and action, I will provide full transparency and clarity of township activities on the township’s website. The public has a right to review and inspect these items as they see fit,” he said. “Building off the theme of community input, to advance meaningful development for the Beachwood Shopping Center, I will survey the residents to see what they envision the area would become. After that, we will find the right developers to put the plan in place and hold them accountable to ensure the plan is moving along.”
“To breathe new life into our community, I would love to partner with our local school districts to build a community center in Berkeley Township. The YMCA-style community center would include a pool, ice rink, basketball court, fitness center, and turf area for all our residents and community teams to utilize. As mentioned above, we could raise funds from other areas of government with no increase in taxes for the residents of Berkeley Township to build the community center. We currently have ice hockey and swim teams in Central Regional and it is a shame that our children have to travel to use out-of-town facilities. Our local baseball, softball, and soccer teams would love to have a facility to practice in during the winter months and this would also give our families a place to go to for recreation and to build relationships with other members of the community. I would also like to start our own youth basketball league. It’s a shame that our children are forced to wear the Lacey Lions’ name and logo on their uniforms because Berkeley Township does not have our own program available. We deserve better and it’s time for a change in leadership,” he said.
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