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Amy Quinn is making crime reduction and open government a priority in her bid for a spot on the Asbury Park council. The 12-year resident is running on the One Asbury ticket.

Quinn, 36, lives on Deal Lake Drive with Heather Jensen. She has lived in Asbury Park since 2001. She is an attorney with a bachelor’s degree in forensic psychology and a juris doctorate from New York Law School.

Quinn is vice chair of the city’s environmental commission, and has served on that commission for eight years. That group implemented the Rain Garden at the city’s transportation center, as well as the Community Garden at City Hall, and has planted more than 2,000 trees throughout the city.

Quinn was also chair of the Asbury Park Democratic Committee for two years, and vice chair of the Monmouth County Democrats. She also ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for city council in 2009.

Before living in Asbury Park, Quinn lived in Jersey City and worked in Child Protective Services while in Law School, she said.

“I always loved the beach but still wanted to live in a city with an urban, diverse vibe,” she said. “The minute I stepped into Asbury, it felt like I was home.”

Quinn especially enjoys living at the Santander, which offers everything from studio apartments to four-bedroom penthouses with fireplaces, making for a diverse group of residents.

“I didn’t want to live where everyone looks the same and thinks the same,” she said. “As I got to know the town more, I was further impressed with the strong sense of community and the high level of civic involvement here.”

Quinn decided to run for council because she’s unhappy with the way the town has been moving in the past five or six years, she said, particularly due to crime. The election is May 14, and twenty two candidates are on the ballot. All five council seats are up for four year terms.

“When I go to the council meetings, the responses to citizens’ concerns [about crime] were vague,” Quinn said. “Crime is just one example where the community isn’t being utilized. One of One Asbury’s founding tenets is about bringing people back into the fold.”

Her ticket would like to get the city’s “smart, hardworking, innovative and tight knit community” on board for crime reduction, she said. “We’re not afraid of transparency in government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of public participation and collaboration.”

When asked to name the city’s most important issue, Quinn said crime is a major concern.

“One Asbury would like to bring the community and the police department together,” she said.

Her group suggests using more data-driven policing and using technolcogy, community response, and mapping to better understand the high-crime areas of town.

Quinn is part of a project wherein citizens map crimes that are both substantiated and unsubstantiated in the city, and she’s also part of the Lights On Crime Off campaign, she said.

She also would like to see more police walking the streets, and more activities for the city’s youth.

“We need a strong mechanism to ensure our youth are gaining the necessary skills to obtain work in Asbury Park,” she said.

She also recommends “a harder stance on quality of life issues, including proactive code enforcement that will start addressing some of the properties that may be used for illegal purposes or are unsafe,” she said.

In terms of all the problems Asbury Park currently faces, the city needs new leadership with an open and responsive government to address its most important issues, she said.

“If we don’t have that, we won’t have the capability to do anything about issues such as increased crime and taxes, redevelopment, and quality of life issues,” she said.

If elected, Quinn will seek to institute anti-crime initiatives, as well as “a strong, conservative budget committee,” she said.

Quinn served on the city’s budget committee several years ago, she said, and thinks the city should institute another one.

“One Asbury will go through the budget line by line to cut costs,” she said. “I don’t care if it’s as minor as requiring double-sided printing on paper. If there are ways we can safely and intelligently cut costs, we will find them.”

One Asbury will also seek to implement more open interaction with the public, face-to-face and via technology, if elected, she said.

“We’re lucky to already have a tech niche in Asbury,” Quinn said. “I’d like to support and nurture their endeavors.”

Quinn has had trouble finding information on the city’s website or Facebook page, she said.

“My philosophy is that knowledge is power,” she said. “The more information we have and share, the better off we will be.”

If elected, Quinn would also mandate that all the positions on boards and committees be “filled with people who show up to the meetings, which will also get some new blood on boards,” she said. “Our boards and committees should participate in our vision for open government by putting information about their operations and decisions online in a timely manner.”

Quinn also feels redevelopment needs a kick-start. If elected, she and her running mates would examine all of the redevelopment plans, focusing on both the waterfront and Springwood Avenue plans. They also want to incentivize the use of city residents as workers, which would also involve a training plan.

“We have an obligation to ensure that the residents that we are requesting developers to hire have the skills to do jobs,” she said.

Quinn would also seek to put together a strong small-business committee, she said.

“We will make attracting more business to Asbury Park and better supporting the ones that are here a priority by gauging their concerns and working together to come up with initiatives to better serve our businesses,” she said.

 

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