One on One with Mayoral Candidate Ellen Dickson

As a part of a three part series introducing the candidates for Mayor of Summit to Patch readers, Patch sat down with Ellen Dickson the Republican candidate for Mayor who is finishing her second Council term and is looking for a “new challenge.”

Dickson, who has Masters in Business Administration from Babson College has lived in Summit for 18 years and has three children; all of whom graduated from Summit High School. Dickson went on to explain why she chose to leave her Council seat and run for Mayor.

“I am finishing my second term, so I could run for a third term, but we had three candidates who are interested in running. My feeling is that when you have new people who want to enter the political process, you should give them a chance. This gave me the opportunity to run for Mayor. This is an elected office that is very different from Council. I thought that it would be a challenge to try a new role in the city of Summit.”

Dickson went on to explain that she is especially concerned about the national economy, the high level of taxes in Summit, and the financial “pressures that every household is under.” Dickson stated that she tries to be a fiscal conservative, and that “Summit has to make a commitment to hold down taxes.”

“People need to be able to plan for the future. I truly believe that most people move here for the schools. We need to ensure that older people can stay in Summit and younger people can afford to buy in.”

Like Ludden and Vernotico, she also emphasized the importance of shared services noting that utilizing a shared emergency dispatch center in New Providence that could save money for Summit, Berkeley Heights and New Providence.

Dickson expressed that although she has been on “just about every major committee” she has a clear passion for the environment and open space.

“When I first sat on Council, we didn’t have a tree ordinance to protect large trees. I was able to get an ordinance passed.  During this time, we didn’t have good fields for our sports teams.  We approved the turf field over by Washington School, two new turf fields at Glenside, and rebuilt a new field at Wilson school.”

Dickson also stated that if elected, she would want to build a walking path around the Passaic River so that residents could appreciate the beauty of that area. She also mentioned having a canoe or kayak launch from the banks of the Passaic River so that more residents could enjoy the river.

The Councilwoman went on to describe the different elements of her platform. These include sitting on the Planning Board and hosting a Mayor TV show on HomeTowne Television where residents could submit questions that she would answer on the program every few weeks.

Dickson went on to elaborate on this topic, stating that she has “no interest in continuing the contentiousness on Council.”  Dickson also stated that if elected, she wants to create workshops on the Sunshine Law.

“These workshops would further define the Sunshine Law and how it applies to the internet. We need to set guidelines so that we can operate and send emails to each other without worrying about whether we are triggering the Sunshine Law. We have to have a way to communicate; the law in this area is still evolving in terms of email. I don’t think it is understood as well as it should be.”

Despite stating that she is a fiscal conservative, Dickson presented some opportunities to bring revenue into the town. These revolved around helping developers come into the town and getting development projects that would benefit the city approved.

She made mention of a development that will be presented to the Council in November regarding the property that originally held an Infinity dealership that burned to the ground many years ago. The development project will erect several town houses.

“There will also be a new exercise facility on River Road that will be a multi-million dollar operation. This will really help our rateables.  Working to raise revenue will ensure that we don’t have to be so harsh with cutting the city budget.”

A common trend that has surfaced in Summit’s city government is the tension between the county and the local government. Dickson stated that the Council “needs to continue discussion with Governor Christie to decide if we really need County Government.” She went on to express that she feels that local government could operate more efficiently without the influence of the county.

“Any meaningful change has to come from the Governor’s office and the state legislature. I am hoping that Governor Christie will start addressing whether or not we need county government. Honestly in Massachusetts the Governor resolved this problem in a weekend and Massachusetts went from Tax-achusetts to pretty affordable for most middle class families. In an urbanized area like this one, it is hard to say why we need county government.”