Bloomfield mayoral candidates Jenny Mundell and Ted Gamble showcase views at 2024 candidate forum

Fifty Bloomfield residents gathered in-person and hundreds followed online May 16 as Bloomfield Councilwoman Jenny Mundell and Mayor Ted Gamble joined The Jersey Bee for a conversation about their campaigns in the 2024 Democratic primary for Bloomfield mayor.

The event was held at 23 Skiddoo Cafe and moderated by The Jersey Bee’s executive editor, Simon Galperin.

Here is more about how The Jersey Bee set the rules for the forum and what the candidates said about the issues that were raised.

How we organized the forum

Location

The Jersey Bee started to receive requests to host an event to showcase the candidates for the Democratic mayoral primary in Bloomfield earlier this year. We picked a location in Southern Bloomfield to accessibility for a diverse audience.

Registration

To ensure equal access to the event, attendees needed to complete a two-step process.

In the first step, we asked residents to RSVP for the virtual event, submit questions to the candidates, and request an in-person invitation for them and a guest.

For the second step, we waited to release in-person invitations until at least half requests were from people of color. This is because people of African, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous descent have been historically underrepresented in New Jersey local politics.

To accomplish this, we gave registrants the option to self-identify across a variety of demographics. As a result, in-person attendees approximately matched the demographics of Bloomfield, where only half of residents are white.

In contrast, if we had released in-person invitations on a first come-first serve basis, 80 percent of the in-person guests would have been white, perpetuating historical trends in underrepresentation.

The Jersey Bee did not ask attendee to share their candidate affiliations and supporters of both campaigns were in the room.

Questions

The Jersey Bee questions were informed by more than 150 submissions through the online event registration form, conversations with residents, and our reporting. Questions were not shared with candidates in advance.

Candidates received the same question in rotating order and had thirty seconds to consider their response and three minutes to answer.

Format

The Jersey Bee organized this event as a forum – not a debate – in order to promote a high standard of community dialogue. Candidates were asked to speak from “I” about themselves and their campaigns. They were not able to respond to each other’s comments.

Watch the 2024 Democratic Bloomfield Candidates Forum

Watch the entire 2024 Democratic Bloomfield Candidates Forum here or view highlights below.

Candidate open statements

On citizen participation in government

The Jersey Bee asked: In your role today, how do you approach citizen involvement in local government? How do you respond to resident feedback or prioritize the needs you hear in our community? How would this be reflected in your mayoral administration?

On campaign finance

The Jersey Bee asked: Could you tell us how your campaigns are funded and what role, if any, funders might play in your policy agenda?

What voters should know

Candidates running for office in New Jersey must file financial disclosures with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, allowing the public to see who is funding their campaigns. The Jersey Bee shared each campaign’s fundraising achievements and asked candidates about their relationship with their financial backers.

Ted Gamble’s campaign raised $20,913 from 33 donors with an average donation of $633 per donor. Seven donors gave above $1,000.

Jenny Mundell’s campaign raised $76,815 from 68 donors with an average donation of approximately $1,129 per donors. Thirty-eight donors gave above $1,000.

On former-Mayor Michael Venezia’s influence on local politics

The Jersey Bee asked: If this question arises in your time in office, would you hire Bloomfield’s former mayor and now-Assemblyman Michael Venezia as township administrator?

What voters should know

In 2023, Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia was elected to State Assembly and stepped down from municipal office. But he remains the chair of the Bloomfield Democratic Committee, which oversees the local Democratic party.

In 2021, The Jersey Bee heard that then-Mayor Venezia was pursuing an appointment as the township business administrator from local and state sources. This would have put him in charge of the day-to-day operations of the township while being mayor, something that experts said was unprecedented at the time.

Sources familiar with the issue have shared that Assemblyman Venezia may once again be pursuing the Bloomfield township administrator role now that he is no longer mayor, an appointment that would be made by a vote of the mayor and council. Bloomfield’s township administrator makes upwards of $180,000 per year, plus benefits and pension, and runs the day-to-day operations of municipal government.

Here is how they answered The Jersey Bee’s question.

On overpolicing and non-police approaches to public safety

The Jersey Bee asked: How would your administration respond to the community’s concerns about overpolicing? Would shifting budget priorities to invest in non-police approaches to public safety be a priority for your administration?

What voters should know

Studies on overpolicing

According to local residents, Black and Latino residents have expressed concerns about targeting and mistreatment by Bloomfield police since at least the 1970s. Local and national trends add credit to their claims.

• A 2015 Seton Hall University Law School study suggested that more than 80 percent of those who appeared in Bloomfield municipal court were Black or Latino.
• The Jersey Bee’s analysis of Bloomfield police data in 2020 showed that half of Bloomfield is white, but Black and Latino drivers make up two-thirds of all traffic stops. Bloomfield police officers stopped Black and Latino drivers at twice the rate of white drivers from 2016 to 2020. Ten percent of police officers stopped drivers of color at 3-5 times the rate of white drivers.
• NJ.com’s Force Report showed that a a Black person in Bloomfield was 83 percent more likely to have force used on them than a white person during an arrest in between 2012 and 2016.
• The New Jersey Attorney General’s use of force dashboard shows that Black people in Bloomfield were the targets of police force in nearly two-thirds of arrests where force was used from October 2020 to March 2021.
• Statewide, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office found that state police are more likely to arrest, charge, and use force against Black and Latino drivers from 2018 to 2019.
• Nationally, the Stanford Open Policing Project’s data shows that police interactions with drivers of color are more likely to escalate: Black or Latino drivers stopped by police are more likely to be searched and arrested as white drivers during a stop.

The first time The Jersey Bee highlighted in 2020, the Bloomfield police department held a community forum asking residents to trust that municipal leaders review the community’s concerns about racially disparate traffic stops. Officials mentioned partnering with The Rutgers University Center on Policing to conduct a study.

As of publication, no study has ever been made public.

This was the third time in four years that Bloomfield officials responded to concerns about over-policing in Black and Latino communities by promising to study the issue.

The first time was in 2016 when then-Mayor Michael Venezia told residents gathered at a community meeting that the township had contracted with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement (NOBLE) and National Coalition of Latino Officers (NCLO) to investigate the department and that a report “should be ready in six weeks.”

Ten months later, in March 2017, Venezia said the study was delayed, and the results would “be ready next month.”

Like The Rutgers Center on Policing – no results were ever published. And representatives from NOBLE and NCLO said there never were agreements to have studies conducted.

Commitments to study this issue have also come with police officials dismissing allegations that police target low-income, Black, or Latino communities by suggesting they deploy officers to areas of high crime.

But in February of this year, the federal government ended support for its Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety program, which encouraged police nationwide to use traffic stops as a pretext for reducing crime because the data showed it was ineffective.

Studies from institutions like the Cleveland Medical Center, Vanderbilt Law School, and NYU School of Law study also show no correlation between over-policing and improved public safety outcomes.

Municipal governments continue to embrace “quality of life” policing

Many municipal governments continue to embrace what some may know as a “quality of life” or “broken windows” strategy – focusing on policing low-level, non-violent offenders, presuming this increases public safety by preventing more serious crimes. In 2014, then newly-elected Mayor Michael Venezia told NJ.com, “I’m a big ‘broken windows theory’ guy,” noting that speeding and other “quality of life” issues were the source of many residents’ complaints during his mayoral campaign.

Nearly ten years later, at a March 2024 “Meet the Mayor” event, Bloomfield Police Chief George Ricci said that the township had tripled the number of summonses it issued since he was appointed the year before, 15,000 moving and 35,000 parking summonses in just one year. 

Long-time residents of Bloomfield have told The Jersey Bee that township police have become more professional over the decades. However, concerns persist about their conduct and the disproportionate impact it has on people of color in our community.

Among several incidents that highlight this issue is the November 2020 shooting of Jeffrey Sutton, a Black man, at the corner of Bloomfield Ave and JFK Boulevard in Bloomfield.

Attempting to respond to an alleged car theft, Bloomfield police approached the car Sutton was driving at gunpoint at a red light at a busy intersection. In fear for his life, Sutton fled, and two Bloomfield police officers fired several shots at his car, hitting Sutton three times in the arm.

In their report, four officers claimed Sutton hit or tried to hit them with his car, but bystander video and dispatcher call logs show that was inaccurate. And Bloomfield’s police use of force guidelines prohibit officers from shooting at moving vehicles except in the case of imminent danger of death or bodily injury.

Six months after Sutton was imprisoned, Bloomfield police admitted the officers had not been physically harmed or in imminent danger and five of six charges were dropped against him, all except evading police, which stemmed from Sutton’s fleeing the encounter.

One of the officers who gave false testimony and nearly killed Sutton in violation of the department’s use of force guidelines was Captain Gary Peters, who was promoted to Deputy Chief of Police overseeing day-to-day police operations in 2023.

Budget and accountability

In 2023, the budget for the Bloomfield police department was almost $30 million. The budget for the library, recreation department, health and human services, and public works combined was approximately $9 million, about the same amount Bloomfield paid on loans it owes. Nearly one-third of Bloomfield township employees are police officers.

In 2020, Bloomfield residents called on leaders to review and re-allocate the police budget to programs that increase public safety by investing in non-police alternatives. They also specifically asked for elected officials to do something about overpolicing of communities of color near and around Bloomfield Ave.

In June 2020, Councilwoman Mundell and Mayor Gamble voted for a resolution that stated it was their “duty to usetheir legal and moral authority to protect all members of our community no matter their race or color” and “foster a community free of fear, intimidation and violence and provide equal protection under the law.”

Here’s how they answered The Jersey Bee’s question.

On housing and affordability

The Jersey Bee asked: If elected, how would your administration respond to this cost of living crisis? What would your agenda be for affordable housing, rent control enforcement, or multi-family zoning?

What voters should know

According to real estate website Zillow, the average price to rent an apartment in Bloomfield is $2,250. That’s more than half the monthly income of a typical Bloomfield resident.

Realtor.com reports that the average house on the market earlier this year is $572,000. In addition, residents have to contend with property taxes and maintenance costs.

Like in many places in New Jersey, the cost of housing in Bloomfield is increasingly becoming unaffordable.

Here is how the candidates answered The Jersey Bee’s question.

On climate resiliency

The Jersey Bee asked: Residents want to know how your administration would make our community more resilient to climate change, including things like stormwater management, solar panel installations, or microgrid development. If elected, how would your administration approach the challenges Bloomfield faces with a changing climate?

On economic development

The Jersey Bee asked: Economic development is also a common topic raised by residents. Resident point to a handful of empty storefronts throughout town and in Bloomfield Center. Some want businesses they can walk to and other are looking for businesses that can offer them a fair wage where they live. If elected, what would your administration’s approach be to economic development? What could local entrepreneurs, business owners, and workers expect?

Candidate closing statements