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[Editor’s note: In an effort to provide Sun readers and Asbury Park candidates who seek to be elected as the city’s first directly-elected mayor with the most fair and accurate election coverage, the Sun sat down with each of the four mayoral candidates and asked them the same ten questions. No candidates were provided advanced notice of the questions and all interviews were completed prior to the series’ launch on the site.]

Incumbent Councilman John Moor, 63, was elected to the city council in May 2013, seeks a four-year term as the city’s mayor.  He is a 37-year resident of Asbury Park who grew up in Ocean Township and spent the majority of his youth and work life in Asbury Park, which includes 31 years of employment in the city’s public works department. He retired as deputy director of the department in 2011. His wife, Vera, works as a paraprofessional at Bradley Elementary School in the city. The two have one 27-year-old daughter, Christa.

City council elections are being held in November with the general election for the first time this year. Previously, they were held in May. Four residents declared candidacy for the position, they are Campbell, incumbent Councilman John B. Moor, former board of education president Remond Palmer, and resident Harold Suggs. The election takes place Nov. 4.

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What brought you into politics?

I grew up in a family that always gave back, myself and my sisters were taught you give back to the community you live in. So, I’ve always given back. I was on the recreation committee, I was on the quincentennial committee, I was on the bicentennial committee, I was on the canoe race committee raising money for muscular dystrophy, I served on the Asbury Park Board of Education from 1988 to 2000, so 12 years, four years as president and two years as vice president, and just always volunteer to give back to the city.

What is your number one reason for running to be the mayor of Asbury Park?

Again, to give back to the city. The city has done – I love Asbury Park, I think everyone running for the office probably loves Asbury Park. It’s given me and my family – my wife and my daughter – we have lived in this house since 1985 and before that rented. It’s just a great city, why not give back?

Within the first six months of taking office, what would your priorities be to address crime in the city?

To continue with what seems to be successful right now. Deputy Chief [Anthony] Salerno has increased walking patrols, we have reached out to the county sheriff’s, we’ve reached out to the U.S. Marshalls, we’ve reached out for other help, and to continue that. As far as do I have the solution? No. If I had the solution I’d be a gazillionaire. We’re not looking to reinvent the wheel but whatever is working – keep it working, and if there is a section of town where crime is more prevalent, that is where we should put our resources at.

Over the last few months, several residents have spoken during the public participation session about an increased need for jobs in the city, specifically jobs for residents. Do you think it is the city government’s responsibility to ensure residents are employed, and, if so, how do you propose the city increase job opportunities for residents?

I don’t know that it’s the city council’s number one priority to create jobs but when there are job openings in the city, they should go to city residents first, and that has not happened and that’s why the past six months -probably since June – I’ve been voting no on the payroll, just because I think we’ve done a terrible job of hiring Asbury Park residents on jobs that have been open at DPW and other areas, the sewer plant. I think we’ve done a terrible job and that has to be corrected. There are a lot of jobs in the city that could go to Asbury Park residents and have not.

How do you propose the city council work with the Asbury Park School District to increase positive outcomes for Asbury Park students?

We have to all work together, and as everyone keeps saying the school district, but everyone leaves out another key component – we have to work together with the housing authority. Do we just work for the children and forget the seniors? I mean, all three agencies have to work together and all three agencies should work together. Right now, the city and the board of ed have been – we do not have a liaison to the board of education. I would like to have a councilperson be a liaison, I think the board of ed should have a liaison to the council, and we should meet quarterly, at minimum. The same with the housing authority, and it’s got to be a government of inclusion, where everyone is involved and that’s the only way we can solve problems and know of problems. If we don’t have meetings, how do we know what is wrong with the board of education and what they need? What does the housing authority need? We have a lot of inter-local, inter-local meaning inner-city, shared services that we can work with. Right now, with Boston Way being shut down there’s no lights. So, I told the housing authority to reach out to the city – they have the light stanchions they bought from Sandy money, and maybe we can use those over there at night to light it up and prevent crime and people breaking in. But it’s not just the board of ed, it should also be the housing authority.

Over the last ten years, the city has seen a significant increase in redevelopment. Downtown store fronts are no longer empty and beach revenue is at its highest. How do you view the last 10 years of development in Asbury Park? Do you think it should continue along the same track?

The city and the past administration have done a very good job as far as redevelopment in the past ten years – no question about it. Cookman Avenue was empty, the boardwalk was empty, there are still areas in the city that are empty but in past years I think the city gave away too much for free, where right now we are very close to jumping that last hurdle and being home free where we no longer have to almost beg for this and beg for that and give PILOTs [payment in lieu of tax agreements], which are good some times. Money to bring in businesses is good, but we no longer have to beg for that. Asbury Park is back, it’s not, when will it come back? Asbury Park is back and a lot of people in the past have done a great job to move it forward and I want to continue to keep it moving forward in the right direction.

Many residents believe there is a perceived divide between the eastern and western sides of the city, demarcated by the train tracks. How would you characterize this divide and what do you think can or should be done to help bridge the gap between them?

Well, I live on the west side of the railroad tracks and, working for the city for 31 years, I walked every street, I worked on every street. I can understand that feeling and sometimes I agree with that feeling and that’s where it’s got to be a diverse council where people want to work for the entire city not just for the beachfront, not just for Cookman Avenue, it’s got to — it can’t be like Atlantic City, let’s do two blocks and forget about the rest of the city, it’s got to be the entire city, and that’s why I think our ticket is very diverse and we all want the entire city to come back, and that’s Springwood Avenue, that’s Borden, that’s Atkins, that’s Fourth Avenue. Again, I live on the west side of the tracks so I see that is a perception, sometimes it’s true, sometime it’s not true, and sometimes it’s over stated, and sometimes it may be under stated. But to do that, it’s not going to happen overnight but the C.A.N. Community Action Network – everyone is working towards that goal of one city – no more east/west.

PILOT programs, which reduce taxes on new development for a set period of time and are traditionally used to encourage redevlopment, have been used to spur redevelopment in the city. Under what circumstances do you believe PILOTs should continue to be used in Asbury Park?

At this point of the stage, at minimum. Just because, again, we are no longer at the point where – we always want more redevelopment but we’re not Neptune, we’re not Ocean Township where we have 10,000 open acres, we’re 99 or 95 percent built out. There’s very little land available in Asbury Park, but that doesn’t mean if someone is going to re-do a building downtown that we should give them a PILOT program where the rest of the town suffers. So, the PILOTs were good to begin with but I also believe the PILOTs should be consistent. We have 15 PILOTs and each one is different, some, to me, are very good PILOTs for the city and some, to me, are very good PILOTs for the business owners and they are like sweetheart deals. So, they should all be almost the same, one shouldn’t be 15 years, one shouldn’t be 30 years, it should be consistent and if it meant bringing in new business I would have no problem with it, but if it meant bringing in a new business but the PILOT won’t even pay for city services, no. We are past that point and we have to get over that point, the past administration has done a good job bringing back the city so we no longer have to be beggars.

What makes your angriest about Asbury Park?

Many things. One of them is the perception, east/west. One of them is everything takes so damn long. We’ve accomplished a lot without a unified council, we all get along but we didn’t have three votes guaranteed on any one item and it was a 2-2-1 council. The time delays – it’s ridiculous, it’s a year and we don’t have a new website. It’s ridiculous that it took us close to a year to get the state to approve us collecting over $2 million dollars owed to the courts. Some of it’s internal, some of it’s external being the state’s slowing us down so, the one thing I would like – that drives me crazy – that I would like to speed up is making things go a lot smoother and a lot easier. The city right now still is not business friendly, and that drives me crazy. If we have an ordinance that is restricting businesses then we have to change the ordinance, and it’s that simple. But, the slowness in government working and the procrastination of getting things done in a timely fashion.

What makes you happiest about Asbury Park?

I just love the city. I cannot picture growing up anywhere else. I mean, I worked on the boardwalk, I saw every show in the world except The Beatles because they didn’t play there [at Convention Hall]. The people. I know people, north, east, south, west, and I get along with everybody and anybody. We disagree on items and we disagree on issues but everyone knows where John Moor is coming from, John Moor never has a hidden agenda and I always put my cards on the table and deal with it. I love the diverse community. I’m so happy that we raised our family here.

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