Morristown Mayor Candidates Clash Over Term Limits, Housing

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Housing, government transparency and term limits were among the key issues Morristown's mayoral candidates discussed at Wednesday's candidate forum. While Tim Dougherty pushed his track record from 11 years as Morristown's mayor, Democratic primary challenger Esperanza Porras-Field alleged a lack of transparency from his administration.

Several disagreements arose during the debate, which the Morristown Area League of Women Voters hosted. (Watch the forum below.)

Term Limits, Transparency

Porras-Field's platform includes creating term limits for Morristown's politicians. During Wednesday's forums, she pushed for official limits to encourage Morristown to develop new leaders and get fresh ideas.

Dougherty, running for a fourth term, said "elections are term limits" and that voters can decide when to take longstanding politicians out of office.

"The voters will cast their votes," Dougherty said. "It’s not a monopoly. I run for office based on my record and will get voted up or down based on my record."

Porras-Field claimed throughout the forum that Dougherty's administration lacks transparency.

"My administration will run an open and transparent government operation," said Porras-Field, who founded Morris County Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce. "My cell phone number and the cell phone numbers of my business administrator, town lawyer, all department heads and other important employees will be available to our residents during regular business hours."

In a question about how much taxpayer money goes toward positions such as town planner, Dougherty said the town only pays the planner $150,000 per year, and they earn the rest of their money through escrow from developers.

But Porras-Field said this information wasn't readily available. She claimed greater transparency could prevent some of the legal disputes between the town and developers.

"You say it’s $150,000, but nobody knows, because it’s a big secret," Porras-Field said. "People need OPRA (Open Public Records Act) requests. That’s a big problem, with everyone suing the town."

Dougherty said that people can find budgetary information and contracts with developers on the town website.

Housing Issues

New Jersey's eviction moratorium will end two months after Gov. Phil Murphy ends the coronavirus state of emergency. When this occurs, the Garden State may see a wave of tenants getting evicted who fell behind financially during the pandemic.

Asked what Morristown will do to help tenants while not overburdening landlords, Dougherty said the town is prepared. Proceeds from the M Station redevelopment project will support eviction-prevention funds.

Porras-Field said, if elected, she would work with nonprofits and other governments to secure funds to prevent evictions.

At Monday's Morris Area Together forum, Porras-Field challenged Dougherty's record on affordable housing.

"How can the mayor claim to be a champion of affordable housing when the average Morristown renter pays almost $3,400 more per year than the state average?" she said Monday. "How can he make these claims?"

Dougherty defended his record Wednesday on affordable housing, saying the town has built 156 units and is on pace for 245.

"The Morristown Housing authority is about to invest 125 million in brick and mortar to redo all of the housing," he said. "I think there’s a misconception that when a new building goes up, there’s no affordable housing. There’s an affordable housing component to every building that goes up."

Election Info

New Jersey's primary election takes place June 8. Dougherty and Porras-Field occupy the Democratic mayoral primary. No candidate filed to run as a Republican.

Dougherty is running on a ticket with Council Members Toshiba Foster and David Silva and Active Community Volunteer Nathan Umbriac.

Watch the forum below:

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