PARSIPPANY — Former Parsippany Board of Education member, James Carifi, is proud to announce his candidacy for Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Council. Carifi, a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with a Master’s in Administrative Science, is a 45 year lifelong resident of Parsippany, with a history of dedicated service to his community and a thorough understanding of the variety of issues that residents must face day to day. “With the current administration proposing increasingly large tax increases with little to no accountability, I believe that the residents of Parsippany deserve a representative that will fight to keep their taxes low without affecting the current level of service provided” said Carifi.
As a former BOE member, Carifi recognizes that decisions made by the current administration can potentially have a major impact on the way our school taxes are used and how our children are affected. Carifi has a proven record of delivering promises with the efficiency and thoughtfulness our hardworking taxpayers deserve, especially when it comes to ensuring the security of our children. In fact, he proposed robust security enhancements within our school district and they were implemented with widespread support. Currently, the township provides three Class 3 Special Police Officers. These three officers are tasked with providing school security for each of our ten elementary schools. “In light of current events, I believe that each school should have a dedicated SRO to provide constant security and full coverage throughout our schools. Through attrition and more effective allocation of manpower, this can be accomplished with minimal expense.”
Also, for far too long Town Hall has been used as a tool to reward political allies at the expense of the taxpayer. The days of Chris Christie style political patronage hires are serious drains on tax revenue. To prevent this in the future, Carifi proposes that all township hires have their qualifications made public in addition to having a cost-benefit analysis prepared for the position being created or filled. He will also call for an explanation on why the current Mayor hired unqualified members of his political campaign for his office at close to/or at the salary cap. For example, Carifi will seek an explanation regarding why Soriano increased the level of staff from 3 to 5 in his office excluding seasonal interns who also participated in his campaign. These additional funds would be better utilized in protecting our children within our schools as opposed to being used for gatekeepers for the Mayor. These steps will bring back accountability to the hiring process and prevent similar political jobs from occurring again.
Local taxes are already too high for taxpayers and have proven to be quite the sore point for the current administration. The past two tax increases proposed by Mayor Soriano are far too high and risk pricing out current residents especially with regards to our senior citizens from our community. If elected, Carifi will fight to bring back reasonable fiscal policy to Town Hall and address the poorly constructed budgets that have been proposed. “With my candidacy for Township Council, I expect to bring a unique focus and perspective to the issues that we all face. I believe that with a collaborative approach, and more of a partnership with the Board of Education, smarter management of personnel, and finally accountability to the hiring process in the future, we can move in a direction that is affordable for EVERY Parsippany resident.”
