Council Congratulates Mayor on Honor

At the Bloomingdale Borough Council meeting Tuesday, Councilwoman Linda Shortman congratulated Bloomingdale Mayor Jonathan Dunleavy

Dunleavy will serve on the league for a one-year term, during which he will attend meetings and participate in various committees to develop policies to present at the state and federal government levels. Their recommendations will be derived from the needs of municipalities in areas such as shared services, pension reform, and health insurance reform.  

Dunleavy became a member of the league at the start of his mayoral term in January. He was nominated by Clifton's mayor, James Anzaldi, to serve on the executive committee, and elected by a quorum of mayors at the business meeting held at the conference on Nov. 17.

Dunleavy said he wants to focus on regionalization. 

"My plan is to be fully committed so I can bring many benefits back to Bloomingdale, as well as help all local municipal government," he said. "I want to concentrate on shared services."  

"My hope is to work with the governor's office to help make shared services easier for municipalities by giving incentive to those towns who enter into regionalization of services. This incentive should be in the form of state aid, to entice towns to look at the shared services."

Dunleavy said he will be working with mayors from around the state, as well as the governor's office, state and federal senators, and the state assembly.

Shortman attended the conference, and had praise for what she saw.

At a workshop given by Pompton Lakes Mayor Kathleen Cole about flood risk management and damage reduction, Shortman learned that Pompton Lakes, Riverdale, Wayne and Pequannock feel the best way to address flooding is through a regional approach. She said she would like Bloomingdale to get involved.    

"We all share this river; we all share problems," Shortman said. "It would be great to get on board with the group." 

She also attended a workshop given by purchasing agents about RFPs (request for proposal) and RFQs (request for quotations), as far as when to use them and what should be included in the requests.

Shortman said she got a lot out of the conference.

"It was amazing to be able to have time to interface with our counterparts in Kinnelon, Pompton Lakes and Wanaque, and understand what their problems are and what they do to solve their problems," she said.