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Democratic Slate Includes Marc Garbar, Leandra Galasso for Town Council
UPPER SADDLE RIVER, NJ ,A Democratic ticket led by mayoral candidate Marshall Grupp will be challenging Upper Saddle River’s incumbent Republicans in November’s mayoral and town council election, the candidates announced Tuesday.
Grupp is joined on the USR Forward ticket by council candidates Marc Garbar and Leandra Galasso. Grupp, Garbar and Galasso said they were compelled to run for public office to address the urgent challenges confronting Upper Saddle River as a result of the current mayor and council’s neglect and mismanagement—including the escalating environmental hazards threatening the community from the Apple Ridge and 1 Lake Street developments—and to restore fiscal responsibility, sound financial practices, transparency and accountability to USR’s government.
“USR is in trouble. Our fiscal house is out of order, and the murky math of the municipal budget presented for 2019 makes no sense and literally does not add up,” Grupp said. “Development is occurring without any discernible plan and is presenting grave environmental consequences to our community. Meanwhile, our government operates under a shadow of secrecy, unaccountable and unresponsive to the concerns of residents. I cannot sit on the sidelines while USR declines under the lack of leadership and chronic mismanagement. We need to restore common sense and accountability to our government, and work together toward a shared vision for our future,” Grupp said.
“The mismanagement of our community by our current mayor and a deferential, rubber-stamping council has degraded our quality of life, reduced home values, raised our taxes, prompted a serious and exacerbating environmental crisis and embarrassed our community with absurd responses to complex social issues,” Garbar said. “I can no longer stand by as a silent observer while Upper Saddle River continues on this dangerous trajectory. Residents are angry and frustrated and want change. The decisions we, as residents and tax payers, make today will be affecting not just the town’s future, but our children’s as well. When my kids ask, ‘you knew about all these tragedies going on, but what did you do about it,’ I will be able to answer, ‘I stood up and ran for town council, for you and all the other children in Upper Saddle River,’” Garbar said.
“There is no reason for the families of our community to be worrying about toxins in their water or land, and the mayor and council whose mismanagement and lack of leadership allowed Upper Saddle River to become vulnerable to these environmental hazards must be held accountable,” Galasso said. “The culture of secrecy must also end. Our residents are kept in the dark about town business. We must restore open, transparent and respectful communication between the government and the public and ensure that all Upper Saddle River residents have access to clean land, superior education and a governing body that respects and supports the rights and concerns of all people. Our residents, our taxpayers deserve to have a voice in the decisions that will impact them,” Galasso said.
The campaign officially launches Thursday with a kick-off fundraising event in Upper Saddle River.
Grupp is a good man….and a really good basketball coach….!
Marshall would be a great Mayor of USR. He doesn’t care about the party lines as current establishment built its power around. If elected I am 99% convinced home prices in USR would finally stop falling and maybe, maybe we would have our bucolic way of life back. Maybe it’s not too late.Although so much damage was done over the course of past 8 years!!! Keep your fingers crossed Bergen County and help elect Marshal Grupp as USR Mayor. If not IMHO USR is gone! . And if USR goes so it does Saddle River, Ridgewood, Wyckoff, etc. And yes, unlike current M&C he opposes Toll Brothers committing stormwater runofff pollution violations. Just for this he deserves to be my Mayor!