Steven Blaufeder Will Be Garwood's New Councilman

Former council candidate Steven Blaufeder (R) has been chosed to join Garwood council.

At Tuesday night's Garwood council meeting, Sara Todisco (D) nominated Blaufeder from the three nominees the Garwood Republican Party submitted to fill the unexpired term of Victor DeFilippo (R), who recently resigned because of work duties. Todisco's nomination was unanimously approved by council.

Republicans had also nominated 2012 council candidate Michael Martin and Blaufeder's 2011 running mate, Carol Kearney.

Blaufeder owns and manages TT Cycles, a custom motorcycle import/export business in Berkeley Heights. "there is a definite void in communication between borough hall and the local business owners that should be rekindled if we are to keep from having for rent signs popping up." Part of his platform was creating a plan for redeveloping the North and South Avenue business corridors.

Todisco ran against Blaufeder when she won her council seat in the 2011 election. She told Patch she has always found him to be calm and cooperative and looks forward to his presence on council.

"I thnk he’s going to be positive addition to council," Mayor Patricia Quattrocchi (R) told Patch. "He’s a conservative Republican. He's interested in maintaining services to the public as well as cutting costs. He's a small business owner. I think people are going to be surprised by how conservative he is. It'll be interesting."

Quattrocchi also noted that Blaufeder does a lot of charity work as frontman of his band, the Brother John Brown band.

Councilman Jim Mathieu said he was upset by the process in which Democrats chose Blaufeder, saying he felt the discussions should happen in public. Mayor Quattrocchi responded, saying that the process is the process and such public interviewing of the candidates is unheard of. Councilwoman Ann Palmer said she took the time to call each of the candidates herself and ask her questions.

Blaufeder was not in attendance at Tuesday's meeting; Mayor Quattrocchi reported that he and his wife are both sick at the moment.

DeFilippo was elected to council in Nov. 2010 and his three-year term would have ended in December of this year. He resigned on Feb. 12. In a resignation email to Borough Administrator Christina Ariemma, DeFilippo cited a change in his employment, including a change to his hours and duties, as the reason for his exit.

"It was a pleasure to work with all of you," DeFilippo wrote in the email. "I can tell you this was not an easy decision."