About Dennis White     

Last week, the Summit Democrats published a letter from our candidate for Mayor, Eileen Forman Ludden, introducing herself to Summit voters.  This week, we asked Dennis White, our candidate for Council, Ward 2, to do the same.  In the coming weeks, we will ask Eileen and Dennis' fellow candidates, Susan Dillingham Hairston (Council, At Large) and Sandy Bloom (Council, Ward 1) to follow suit.  Please forward this email to your friends and neighbors in Summit:

Dear Summit Neighbor,

As a candidate for Common Council, Ward 2, I've been out walking this summer, meeting fellow residents and hearing what's on their minds.  People almost always talk about why Summit is such a great place to live: friendly neighborhoods, a high-quality school system that nurtures academic, artistic and athletic achievement for all, a city government that does a good job of delivering a broad range of public services and a community with a mix of people with diverse backgrounds.  I agree.  Summit is not perfect, but we have so many assets to build on if we can work together in an open and constructive manner to make Summit even stronger.

I've lived in Summit, on Tulip Street, with my wife Ellen Boylan and three daughters - Rachel, Nora and Claire -- for almost eighteen years.  My mother also lives in town as does my sister and her family, so I've got strong roots in Summit and New Jersey, having been born, raised and educated in this State, with a BA and MBA from Rutgers.  

Over the years I've been involved in the Summit community in a number of ways.  I currently serve as a Commissioner on the Summit Housing Authority.  For many years I was a coach for my daughters' soccer and basketball teams and a regular volunteer for their other school activities. In fact, my two older daughters have gone through the Summit school system and are now in college, so I know first-hand why the quality of our school system is a primary reason for young families to move to Summit.

In many ways, I think my professional background and training have been ideal preparation for Common Council.  I'm now the head of a large corporate foundation, for a Fortune 50 company, having previously worked in my firm's Investment Group, and I also serve on the board of Living Cities, a national community development initiative.  So I have a wide range of relevant experience and training -- I have negotiated complex real estate transactions, financed affordable housing and renewable energy projects, tackled education issues, and worked with local governments nationwide to help revitalize downtown neighborhoods.  My training and practice emphasize a careful analysis of the facts, a thorough review of the financial implications of an issue, and an ability to find common ground to get things done - qualities that I think are important, and maybe missing, from Common Council today.

What do I see as important issues for Summit?  Certainly a laser sharp focus on smart fiscal planning should always be at the top of the agenda.  We need to continue to investigate and push for sharing services with our neighboring towns in ways that control costs without reducing the quality of services that we deliver.  Smart fiscal planning improves affordability, which is vitally important for our older adults and for young families moving to Summit.  And an affordable community helps promote the diverse community that so many people in Summit value.

For the most part, people are happy here. 

Everybody cites our schools, our downtown, our great recreational facilities and accessible transportation as features that make Summit a desirable place to live, raise a family, and hopefully retire.  But I have also heard a growing discomfort with the way Common Council has recently managed the town's business.  We need to return to the good practice of listening to the concerns of residents and providing adequate notice and time for citizens to understand and debate the issues. We need to stop the negative, disrespectful comments we've seen lately in the press about our neighbors, who volunteer their time and energy to serve on the committees and councils that manage the city's affairs. 

So I am running to make Summit even better -- to enhance the strong sense of community that makes this a special place, to continue to drive fiscal responsibility and to improve the civility in our public discourse so that we all can work toward the common goal of making Summit even stronger.

I'd like to hear what's on your mind and how we can move Summit forward.  You can learn more at www.denniswhite.org, email me at DennisForSummit@gmail.com or stop by the Farmer's Market on a Sunday morning to say hello.  I'm often there along with my terrific running mates Eileen Forman Ludden, Sandy Bloom and Susan Hairston.

Sincerely,

A. Dennis White