Union City Mayor Brian Stack and the four other incumbent commissioners were sworn in for another term during a ceremony at the Esther Salas Academy, located at 516 36th St., last night, where he explained why they pushed hard in an uncontested race.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
Union City Board of Education Secretary Justin Mercado served as the emcee for the roughly 45-minute program.
“Today we stand together united as a single community moving forward,” he said during his opening remarks.
Union City Commissioners Lucio Fernandez, Wendy Grullon, Maryury Martinetti, and Celin J. Valdivia were then individually sworn in before Stack.
“Tonight is about all of you and all of Union City. I’m not one for ceremonies,” Stack began, noting he preferred campaigning and campaign organizing at headquarters.
He also noted that the two snowstorms during the campaign, forcing them to close headquarters, made for a memorable, intense campaign in a lot of ways.
“The greatest volunteers in the world come from Union City. Almost 1,000 volunteers!” he exclaimed to applause.
Stack, the urban North Hudson city’s mayor since 2000 now serving in his eighth term (the longest in city history), then laid out why his team ran so hard despite no opposition.
“ … I think one of the things that people talked about is ‘well, you guys are running uncontested in this election.’ And that’s true. But Election Day is our report card. It’s about the work that we’ve done for the last four years and what we’re looking to do for the four years ahead,” he explained.
“And that’s why it’s so important that voters come out and participate in every election in the greatest democracy in the world. We felt very strongly about that. And I want to know if somebody is upset. I want to know if somebody is not happy with what we’re doing in Union City. And that’s important to us because we’re human. And we need to adjust and adapt at times, to change things, if we’re not doing something correctly.”
As far as what comes next, Stack touted their parks and making maintaining them a priority and opening the first senior citizens building in about 30 years this summer, which he hopes to replicate in short order.
“We’re working on another site for another senior building, affordable housing in the Teamster building will be coming soon,” he added.
“You have my commitment we’re focused on the bicycles on the sidewalks. We’re focused on having the bicyclists and those that ride the motorized bicycles use the bicycle lanes in the community,” Stack explained.
He added that he believed in strict enforcement of street safety and parking rules to maintain the quality of life.
“We’re committed to building additional decks. We’re working on two sites right now for two decks that are around 400 spaces on each deck,” Stack asserted, continuing that he expects one deck to come to midtown and the other downtown, without taking anyone’s home.
Stack also acknowledged that a 400-space parking deck typically costs in the neighborhood of $23 to $24 million.
“Those who didn’t come out to vote, we’re going to work twice as hard for the next four years to convince them to come out to vote,” he argued.
Stack concluded by thanking his partner Mercedes for her support and joked that she tries to get him to limit his work hours.
After the ceremony, many in the crowd, which packed the school auditorium to the brim, swarmed him for pictures and to congratulate him.
Stack secured 10,672 votes last Tuesday, with his four commissioners all receiving in the neighborhood of 9,800, according to tallies from the Hudson County Clerk’s Office.
Dignitaries in attendance includes Hudson County Executive Craig Guy, also the chair of the county Democrats, Assemblymen Gabriel Rodriguez and Larry Wainstein (both D-33), and Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner, among many others.