Council Candidates

Matt Hale for Borough Council

Matt Hale has served Highland Park as a Councilman since 2018. He currently chairs the Borough’s Economic Development Committee where he leads the effort to create and implement our innovative downtown redevelopment plan. In addition, he created the successful “Town Tables” outdoor dining areas and leads our Neighborhood Preservation Program to improve Woodbridge Avenue. He was instrumental in developing Highland Park’s first ever PILOT agreement which led to a new housing development at 31 River Road.

Prior to serving as the chair of the Economic Development Committee, Matt chaired the Borough’s Health and Human Services committee. In this capacity, he was responsible for developing and implementing revisions to Standard Operating Procedures to the Highland Park Police Department around issues of racial and social justice. He was also instrumental in passing the “Fair and Welcoming” Resolution designed to clarify and codify equitable procedures toward immigrants and refugees. As the Council liaison, he fought to ensure full Borough compliance with ADA procedures on disabled access in town buildings.

In his work life, Matt is a tenured professor at Seton Hall University, where he teaches public administration, public policy and nonprofit management classes. Most recently, Matt co-authored Preparing Nonprofit Leaders: Contemporary Perspectives, a book that brings together many of the leading nonprofit scholars to outline the challenges and opportunities facing nonprofits and philanthropies. He is a frequent media commentator on New Jersey and national politics and has been named as one of the 100 most influential New Jersey policy makers by Insider NJ for the past two years.

Matt serves as a board member of Yeshivat Netivot Montessori, a Jewish Day School serving our community. He is an active member of Highland Park’s Conservative Temple Congregation Anshe Emet and serves as the Cubmaster of our local boy scout troop. Matt is married with 3 children aged 9 to 19. He enjoys playing competitive tennis and baseball and far less competitive cycling.

Phil George for Borough Council

I’m asking for your vote because I want to continue working on improving our town’s infrastructure as well as our quality of life in town. I have been involved with life in Highland Park for 25 years. I serve as the Council liaison to the town’s environmental agencies and organizations, including the Environmental Commission, Sustainable Highland Park, the Meadows Trail Volunteers, the Native Plant Sanctuary, the Shade Tree Advisory Committee and the Department of Public Works.

I helped draft one of the first plastic bag prohibition ordinances in the State along with Sustainable Highland Park, meeting with Legislature to discuss the Legislature’s bill and how our ordinance provided real incentives for merchants to “buy in” to this important legislation by including the 10-cent charge by merchants for bags, first in the State. I worked on leading the Borough through implementation of the Water Quality Accountability Act’s requirements and the partnership with Middlesex Water Company to manage, upgrade and modernize the Borough’s water supply. In public works we started the planning and testing process to assess and repair the Borough’s aged sanitary sewer system, and I am currently chairing the Public Works Committee’s working groups on lead water pipe replacement and sidewalk repair.

I have been a long-time advocate for EV’s (Electric Vehicles), sponsoring the first amendments to Borough policies to provide EV charging at Borough offices and phased replacement of the Borough fleet with EV’s. We worked with PSE&G to install a battery storage solar farm on an abandoned landfill in town, which is now in phase 2 microgrid resiliency planning. I proposed and advocated for mandatory EV charging and parking in all new redevelopment long before State law mandated it, and drafted requirements for mandatory resiliency facilities in new development to insure solar powered charging stations in the event of sustained power outages. I personally donated new rechargeable electric equipment to the Meadows Trail Crew, recently supplying the last piece of equipment making the Crew fully electric on our 14-acre riverside sanctuary.

My reasons for running for office again are that with the changing laws imposing infrastructure changes and some significant burdens on municipalities, we need nuts and bolts environmental stewardship along with more agile decision making. I have the practice and experience to put all that to work for Highland Park.

Endorsement by the NJLCV:
https://www.njlcv.org/news/new-jersey-league-conservation-voters-announces-historic-number-endorsements-county-and-local