Hi, I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez and I'm here at the Mountainside Elks Lodge today with recent inductee and councilwoman Valerie WS. It is so nice to meet you. Thank you for being here with me today. >> Well, thank you for having me, Gina. >> Of course. I just really want to learn more about you and let your constituents
learn more about you. So, if you don't mind, can you tell me how you found your way to Mountain Side? >> Okay. Well, um I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. 31 years. Loved growing up there. Loved the close-knit community. I grew up in Marine Park, Brooklyn. >> Okay. >> Um my dad had a butcher store there. My
mom had a photography business. I went to school uh graduated Pace University with an accounting degree, went to work for Avon Products Corporation, met my husband there, got married, moved out to New Jersey. And uh we moved out
to New Jersey. Why, you may ask? He says, "Well, when we were dating and Val, my car has been broken into three times, so we're not living in Brooklyn." >> Oh gosh. >> It it was it was a joke. But nonetheless, we came out to Fanwood, New Jersey. Got used to New Jersey, started a family, and uh we needed a bigger
house. So, we were looking around Fanwood Scotch Plains, and there was a house that we just loved in Mountainside. So, we moved to Mountainside in 2002, and I've been here ever since. I've had the pleasure of being here and raising
three children here. >> Oh, wow. >> They all attended the uh the public schools. Uh they were involved in many things, many activities growing up, starting with swim lessons, um micro soccer, te-ball
where the kids are just, you know, standing around looking at butterflies instead of catching the ball. Of course, uh the coaches were great and so sweet and understandable. And then as they got older, they moved on to the more intermediate things like Mountainside youth baseball, Mountainside youth
softball. Uh there were great library programs. Now they're not taking swim lessons. Now they're on swim team. Now they're on dive team. >> Many different activities in town. And um I I became a catechist in the local
church and got involved with that with just volunteering of teaching kids about catechism, God, and all that. >> And uh as my kids grew up even older, now they're teaching the swim lessons. And uh they're teaching swim lessons.
They're um they're teaching the lessons. They're instructors in the pool. and uh one of my oldest child even became an EMT and she volunteered on the mountainside rescue squad. So it's been that's how I
came to Mountainside Family came here and uh we just got involved in many different activities and more and more as I was bringing kids to these activities and wasn't volunteering at that point too much because you're manning three children and a home. I'm
noticing all the people, the coaches, all the people that make all these things come alive. >> Yeah. >> And I says, "Wow, where do they have the time to do this?" >> Well, as my kids grew up, I found some time and I started to volunteer as well.
But before we move on to that, I don't know if you want to break in with any other questions. >> Yeah. No, I think you're doing great because essentially Mountainside has been very good to you. >> Oh, it's it's a great town. It I love it. it's been good to my family and that's why as my kids grew up and got
older and went off to college now I had time >> and then I said oh you know what I'd like to volunteer and do some good >> and that's how I got started on the library board in town >> I had spoken to a few people in town
always talking to the mayor the mayor is at every event imaginable very approachable and I told him how do you get started on one of these things well just let me know you're interested. I let him know know that I was interested. And the next thing you know, few months later, I got a call. There's a spot on
the Mountainside Library. Are you interested? I said, absolutely. So, he appointed me to the spot on the Mountainside Library. And I worked with such great people on the Mountainside Library board. Um, we have a new director. Her name is Tammy Shaw. She's
brilliant. Uh, you have Allison Murphy. She's treasurer. She does. She has a big function on the library. Sure. You learn many things about the library, how it's run. We had to make decisions about staffing, salaries, building
improvements, and >> is there currently an improvement going on? >> I think we were talking about that earlier. Can you talk to me about um the bids that you need to discuss for the the library? >> Yeah. Well, the library um they had a roof issue, so you can't just pick who you want. Um, what I've learned is when
you want to make repairs on your home, you could just pick anybody, >> right? >> When you're dealing with the public offices or public buildings, any of the buildings in Mountainside, you have to go out and you have to solicit bids and you have to get a minimum of three of them. And they have to provide their
quotes on their official letter heads and you could prepare numbers and what you're going to get. And they have to decide, okay, we'll pick one, but another thing, do we even have the money for this? Yeah. >> And so sometimes they uh look to apply for grants for a little bit of help to
uh get some money that will help them repair things quicker. Sometimes we can't get a whole new roof. What could we do in the meantime? The building is old. It's used constantly. We've had some wild storms in town. So things got worn. So right now they are improving on
the roof of the library and they have great updates coming about. uh they want to update the library and make it more modern but just like anything else takes money. So >> very good group of people on the library. I haven't been on that board in
the past year but >> uh I know before I left they're looking to do things in stages which you know and and that's wonderful. And while all that is going on they're still having wonderful programs for children for adults for the kids in school. They have
the robotics uh club. I know they had the early childhood lessons. I used to take my kids to it. It was great. They were like reading sessions. They'd have different speakers come in, read books. >> Uh it was just great. And then they even had as the kids got older, they had
summertime reading programs which really encouraged kids to do their summertime reading. >> I know. I used to love those. >> Yeah. They would get little points. They got a prize at the end. So, it was great. And especially in the summertime, we spent so much time at the mountainside pool. It was a good break
from the sun to go to the summertime library class. >> Yeah. I I mean, I think libraries are so important and I love that that's where you started. And I guess I'm wondering, is that where you had the idea to run for council or or what made you decide, you know what, I think I want to be on
town council. >> I liked the library board a lot and my intention was not to leave them, but to add to it, >> right? And uh I saw that there were um a there was a spot that was vacant and I said, "You know what? How do I throw my name in the hat?" So somebody said, "Oh,
just let us know you're interested." And um we went in front of a committee and there were a few of us that had to interview all at separate times and I wasn't picked uh to be on council the first time and I wasn't disappointed. It's like that's okay. I'm good on the library.
>> And then when there was another opening, they had called up and said, "Are you interested still?" I said, "Yeah, sure. I'm interested. I went and we interviewed again and I got on, but I was thinking, okay, I'm going to stay on library and the council and they're like, "Oh, no, no, no. Now you have to relieve your spot on the library board."
I was a little bit sad about that because I loved the people who I worked with. They were brilliant. >> I saw where the library was going. It's like it's going to be great. They're making all these great updates. Uh they had even Tammy Shaw is brilliant. We ended up joining a consortium and the
consortium is something that's great. >> You get to share library materials with all the nearby libraries making the materials more accessible to the people in town. >> That's awesome. >> So, it was something new. They had never done it before. We had a vote on it.
There was a lot of um lot of meetings about that, but we did make the decision and I just know it was the right decision. >> It was great. So, the library is definitely moving forward uh just with the consortium, with the programs that they offer, with their technology. >> Yeah,
>> it's nice to see it all coming about. So, they're doing great, the library. I miss them, but >> we have other things to deal with on council. >> Absolutely. You're very busy, but you can always stay in touch with them. >> Absolutely. >> I think that's wonderful. I I know that a lot of what we're talking about here
is really, you know, uncompensated work and I wanted to talk to you about the importance of volunteerism and why do you find that such an important factor in like a functioning democracy in in great town politics? Why are volunteers so important?
>> Well, volunteers are the backbone at least I could say from Mountainside. Um, we have a tremendous uh volunteer rescue squad. We have a great volunteer fire department. Uh, just to put it into
perspective. >> And it's because I'm on the committee, so I know the numbers, the rescue squad volunteered over 17,000 hours, addressed 900 calls. >> Wow. >> And these people are not just anybody who walks in and say, "I want to be on
the rescue squad." They're trained. They come in for training, >> right? >> So when other people are at home and they're having their dinners and relaxing, >> you have attendees going to the rescue squad, they're going through training, they're answering calls. And when they're answering calls,
>> they're calming the fears of the patient, >> they're providing care to the patient. >> Yeah. >> And overall just providing safety to them as well. >> Yeah. So 17,000 hours were volunteered,
900 calls were answered, and not every call is Mountainside, right? They're addressing calls in all the nearby towns. I'm not sure if they have all the volunteerism that Mountainside has because we seem to be addressing calls in Scotch Plains, Westfield,
Springfield. We go all over. >> We have a we have great leaders on the Mountainside Rescue Squad. You have Norma Huber, you have Eric Pastor, you have Dominic Duca. They're fantastic. A lot of young people join the squad. There's a lot of people a little bit
older who are on there as well, but I'm so impressed that they attract the young. >> Yeah. I think it's a great environment there and they maintain them >> which I go to some of the meetings and I'm just always shocked they have the young people who they're training they
have to give little presentations and I'm learning a lot when I'm at these presentations. So I kudos to them. I always pat them on the back. I said just keep on doing what you're doing. We are so lucky to have you. And the Mountainside Rescue Squad uh just this
year got a fantastic award, a national award. And that award for was for the best care that they provide. >> What more do you want in town? I mean, they got a national award at the Atlantic City Convention. You have great leaders on it. You're attracting the
youth. >> You're maintaining your group and not everybody is from Mountainside who is on the Mountainside Rescue Squad. >> So, it's a great organization and I'm proud to say my daughter was on it uh for many years until she went away to college. But it's a great group. Even
when they weren't volunteering, you know, I'm going to go hang out there. They would go there. Sometimes they'd have fun. They'd have barbecues. It was really, it created a great camaraderie uh amongst the team. So, kudos to them. But just like the rescue squad, the fire department does a fantastic job.
>> They volunteered 5,000 hours and they've addressed over 350 calls. >> Wow. >> You're really good with these numbers, by the way. You know what? We talk about them at the council meetings and sometimes those things just stand out like wow that's a lot of hours of
volunteering. >> So volunteers, rescue squad, fire department, >> you got great PTOs in town. I mean, they put together our fall festivals and those are great carnivals that are attended to by the kids, but you have so
many adults who's manning the rides, who's doing this, who's doing the spin art, and they're so much fun. And you know, a year without the fall festival can never be, even when it gets rained out, they put it inside. The kids look forward to it.
>> It's a great time. Everything is wonderful. uh volunteer mountainside youth baseball, Mountainside youth softball. Um you have the Elks Club, you have the
Rotary Club, you have the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the Brownies, the Daisies. >> These are all volunteers that come and man these organizations. I was lucky enough to attend one of the uh Boy Scout uh there was a ribbon ceremony that I
went to >> and I had to get up and make a speech. The mayor couldn't make it >> and I just said, "Thank you all the parents because you make this all possible." >> And they're great organizations for the kids. They learned so much. We have so
many Eagle Scouts in town and I know a lot of them usually drop off when they're younger, but in this town they stay. So, I give a lot of credit to all of the volunteers. The volunteers helped to make these programs available to the
residents, young and old. >> I almost think it wouldn't be as good a town without the volunteers. So, we're lucky to have them. But I think in Mountainside, they are the backbone to the success of all the great programs that we have. Even the volunteer coaches, we have the recreation
programs, >> the basketball programs. you know, it's cold in the winter, so all your kids are playing basketball. Oh, all of those coaches, they're volunteers. They're they're all fantastic and they're great with the kids. So, I can say that my
family has had a wonderful experience. Really being a part of all of these programs. So, that's why I think volunteerism is so important. rescue squad, fire department, mountainside youth baseball, the softball, the um the
Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, it's all marvelous. The PTO, all the women that get involved with that, they run such successful programs. Everybody is happy in town with them. So, we're lucky. >> Yeah. I mean, hearing you put all of them together, it's really hard to
imagine what the town might be like without that. I mean, imagine that you didn't have a rescue team, right? >> What would anyone do after 17,000 hours or whatever it was that you were saying? I don't have them memorized like you do, but that's so impressive. And I've always I mean, I respect all volunteers,
but to save someone's life, right, spending all of that time without any compensation, you really want somebody who's dedicated to what they're doing. >> They love that. We're very lucky. And you know what happens is I guess without all that volunteer effort, you know, you
have to pay another ambulance company to take over your town. And I don't know if they're going to be as sweet as our uh rescue squad members because we have great members and uh >> like I said, some of them live in town, some of them don't, but they seem to love the community and we're lucky and
we praise them all the time. >> Yeah, absolutely. I think that's wonderful and I want to keep talking to you. you've you're on so many boards and I want to talk about the committees in just a bit, but I think for now we should enjoy our drinks and take a break. So, we will be back very shortly.
>> If I could go back and change it all, I would. I would. I think I'm going to miss you the most. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Maybe it's just a little woman. If I could go back and change I could go
back and change it all. If I could go back, >> I would. But I can't. >> We are back with Councilwoman Valerie WS and some notes so that I can remember what we're talking about. So, there's so much here that I want to talk to you about. really hoping that we can get
through all of it, but I'd love to ask you to explain to me the difference between something like the planning board that you're on and town committees where I know that you the town council liazes but doesn't necessarily vote on versus the planning board where you do
have much more of an active say and a vote. Can you talk to me about the breakdown between those two things? >> Sure. uh being one of the council members in Mountainside. You you sit on council, but you also are the liaison
for some of the other departments. Um >> I am a liaison to the rescue squad. I go once a month. I try to attend their meetings. I see what's going on. They're usually training or they're doing some kind of a um they're training or they
have one of the people doing uh one of the members, new members doing a presentation. I go there, I sit I usually learn something and I take my notes and a lot of times when we have our council meetings, we have public sessions and private sessions. We all give updates on what the different
committees are doing, what the different groups are doing. So, rescue squad, I'll tell them what went on at one of the uh one of the meetings that I attended. >> Can I ask you if the So, the town council meetings are public, correct? But the like the rescue squad committee
meeting would not be public and that's why those updates are important. >> Yeah, that we have two council meetings a month. One is a working session. >> Okay. >> Okay. And then you have one that is a public session. People can come to both.
>> Um they can But usually we sit in we sit in the big chamber uh when it's the uh when it's a public session and whoever wants to come we'll make our announcement. We'll pass our resolutions and usually the working session is where we're deciding on what we're going to do
with certain resolutions. So by the time that's figured out now we're going to go to the public session and we're going to announce it. And usually each council member will read the resolution out loud. And uh they are recorded so people can watch what's being passed.
So whatever we work on at the working session comes to be at the public session. Got it. Okay. So that's what goes on there. I'm going back to the committees. Rescue squad. I go to the rescue squad uh committee. I go to the I
try to attend the mountainside active retirees meetings. um planning board meetings, they all meet once a month. >> Okay. >> So, uh when we go to the planning board, I think it may have something to do with that. I work for an electrical
contractor. I'm used to looking at plans for buildings, for houses. So, that helps me out because when you're on the planning board, you also have to look at plans and you have to see, okay, they're asking for a variance. Why are they asking for it? And they'll explain. They
usually had their their engineer will come and explain what's going on >> and there has to be a vote >> because to get to the planning board meant that you weren't meeting all of the rules for the for the property that
you're working on. Okay? >> So they went out for a variance. Now we get to vote on it. So for instance, if somebody wanted to put a 20ft fence up, well, you know what? That's not within the rules. Is it a little bit outside the rules? No, it's not even a little bit outside the rules. So you can't have that. And the reason why voting on these
things are so important is because it helps to maintain the look of the town. >> And that's both residential and commercial. >> Residential and commercial. Exactly. So that's why the planning board is so important. Um I enjoy looking at the
plans. Sometimes uh you know things may not look that bad, but neighbors might come and they might complain. We don't want this, we don't want that. So you really have to listen to all sides. You have to look at the reason why they're coming up with making that kind of an improvement. And that's why there's a
vote to see if it's reasonable or not. >> So that's what goes on with the planning board. >> Rescue Squad. I go to their meetings once a month. I find out what they're doing. I take my notes. Mountainside Active Retirees run by a great person, Kim Moria. Um always talking about the
vent the events that they're planning. But what I'm most impressed with is when I go to the mountainside active retirees, the number of people at the meetings. So these are not boring meetings where you're having two or three people come. They must have about 35 to 40 people at these uh meetings.
They're gettogethers. Uh it's not just bingo. It's not that at all. They're just great meetings talking about different activities that are coming about, asking people what they think. So it's nice to see it. And once again, I'm taking notes and I usually take it to
council and I tell them what's going on just as they do when they go to their committees. It's a way for us to get a pulse on what's going on in the town. >> Right. And I think one of the things that they they meet on to give their opinion. I believe you mentioned it was the media project. You're working on the
the town's website and getting the uh retirees input. Can you talk a little bit about that? >> Yeah. Um, we were at a I was attending a Mountainside Active Retirey meeting letting them know what we were doing on council and you know another committee that I'm on happens to be media and we
have one of a great council member on it. Uh, Alex Van Dusen and Donna Pacificico and Glenn Mortimer is in there and we have an outside agency. Once again, it had to be we had to decide who it was going to be. There were a few different companies that came in. We had to decide which one would
give us the most bang for the buck. Very important to always watch the resident dollars. >> So, this one had the best bid. >> This one it it had a good bid, but it was a package. What were you getting for the money? >> So, this one seemed to fit in perfectly with what we wanted.
>> Alex being that he works in tech is great because he's able to help guide us. Don Pacifica was great saying, "Well, wait, our current website doesn't do this. Will the new website do this?" Because it's all about being able to easily navigate in the website, right? you know, people want to pay their taxes
uh through the website, not always having to come into the building. If things are not obvious on the website, what does that mean? More phone calls come into the burrow hall. People who work at Burough Hall are busy, but now they got to answer the phones a lot. So, if things are more obvious on a website, it frees them up to get their job done
and do other things that are necessary in the office. >> Yeah. >> So, that's great. We're very excited about the website. We're working on it. We're hoping to possibly unleash it this year, which of course it will be unleashed this year, but uh we're on it. The old website was good at a time. Now
it's antiquated. So, just like anything else, it needs some refreshing and updating. So, rather than trying to just give it a few new screws, we need a whole new website. And I think it's something that will make the residents very happy. And when we were at the Mountainside Active Retirey meeting and
we spoke about that, I was very impressed to see some of the people who are a little bit older, they're very technical. They want to be involved with what's going to go on on this website. So, they ended up putting together a committee and now this committee is going to give us feedback as to what
they want to see on the website. That makes our jobs a little bit more easier. This way we get to see it and we get to communicate it to the outside uh vendor who is going to have to put the skeleton of this uh website together. >> Yeah. Well, I think that's fantastic and
you know, thank you to the retirees who are putting in the work so that everyone can benefit from it. >> They're great. >> There's so much that we've talked about and so much that you do, >> but I want to ask you, do you have a favorite? Like what what are your favorite things about being on town council if you could narrow it down?
>> Okay. My favorite things about being on Well, >> there is definitely a camaraderie. We're all there for the same reason. We all have the same goal, >> right? >> Let's give the residents the most bang for their buck with their dollar. We never look to waste resident dollars,
resident taxpayer dollars. That's a no no. So, we're always trying to do the best we can with the dollars that we have. And uh you know a lot of the taxpayer money half of it goes to the school another half another portion of that goes to the state. So you're dealing with their money. We got to get
the most bang for the buck. That that's one of >> So essentially you're only dealing with a quarter of taxes that are actually going >> a quarter of the taxpayer funds that come in. Exactly. But we got to make it work as hard as we can for us. So I love that there is a camaraderie.
I also like that when given a problem, we all we we have to figure it out and uh we have to get a resolution to it and sometimes we may have different opinions and those conversations can get quite
heated but at the end of the day we do come out with a resolution that we feel benefits the t the residents as much as possible. >> Yeah. Another great and favorite thing that I love to see is young more young families coming in. I think it's great
and it's also interesting to hear about when the kids grow up and they get married and they move out of town and then you hear, "Oh, they're having kids. They're looking for a house back in Mountainside." It warms my heart because I think they have such great
memories of the town and it's just something that makes you feel really great. Another thing that I'm very impressed with is the amount of participation I see at the Mountainside Active Retiree meetings and at their functions. They
have a senior prom and I attended it this year and it was just wonderful. They it was here at the Elks Club >> and it was set up beautifully and they had music, people were dancing, they had food. It was just a great event. But the number of participants are wonderful.
Yeah, >> they have that. They have great lunchons and sometimes I don't get to attend all of them, but I look at the numbers, >> great participation numbers. So, act mountainside active retirees and they don't call it that for nothing. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> And it's run by a great person. Kim
Moria does a fabulous job. >> I That sounds exciting. Honestly, it makes me want to be a retiree just so that I can join them. >> Well, that's why we got to stay fit. I intend to be a mountainside active retirey person. >> Exactly. Exactly. I There's so much here and again we've talked about how much
work you're doing. You've got a full-time job. You're doing this. It's there's a lot of dedication required when you're essentially volunteering your time to, you know, improve the town that you love so much. Is there a way that we can encourage people to become
volunteers? How if somebody is interested in volunteering for the town, you know, of Mountainside, where would they go? How do they do that? >> Oh, absolutely. Well, it depends what they want to volunteer in. If you want to volunteer and be a coach or be a manager of a team,
>> I would say contact the recreation department, Frank Misella. Um, he runs all of the recreation programs, but you can also contact uh people in the police department. We have a great uh pal uh
police athletic league and my kids were on both teams. Recreation was with Frank Meisella, but if they wanted to do travel teams then they joined the PAL basketball. They have PAL soccer. My kids were on both. And a little bit more
not just competing against the kids in town. Now you're competing against the other town. So it gets a little fiery and it's great. So, I would say if you're interested in volunteering and helping out with sporting activities, call the Mountainside Recreation Department and call the Mountainside
Police Department and tell them what you want to do. They'll set you up with the right people. If you feel like volunteering with uh the with the senior citizens, definitely call up Kim Moria. If you want to volunteer and try to be
helpful with uh the fire department or the rescue squad, you can call up Norma Huber or Eric Pastor. They're reachable. If you call up the uh Mountainside Municipal Building, they will put you in contact with the right people uh for
both rescue squad and fire department. And if you're interested in volunteering with the schools, I would say definitely call up the schools. They always need help. more people the better. And that's what makes Mountainside great are all of these great activities and functions.
And whenever you go to them, you will always Mayor's at a lot of these things. He's always approachable, always has a smile on his face, and he's happy to be at all of these functions. >> Council members are there as well. We love to be there. We love to be in contact with the people. We like to hear
what they have to say, what they're happy with, maybe what they're not happy with, what we need to improve on. It's just good. It's good sounding board. >> Yeah. >> So, it's all great. >> Gosh, Valerie, you are a wealth of knowledge. Thank you so much for sharing everything that you've shared with us. I've enjoyed meeting you and taking the
time today has been a pleasure. So, thank you again. >> Thank you for having me. Anything else? Just contact me. I'll answer whatever I could or I'll steer in the right direction. >> Absolutely. Well, you heard her, guys. This is Councilwoman Valerie WS and this
has been at the Mountainside Elks.