I’m Deb Engel and I am running for At Large County Commissioner.
Essex County residents are facing an affordability emergency that must be treated with urgency. We have redundant municipal services that can be combined for efficiency and taxpayer savings. We need bike lanes, better public transportation options, and to turn pedestrian safety from an oxymoron to a source of community pride. I will improve county communications with residents and municipalities to create more transparency in government and greater access to new and existing services.
Essex County is comprised of 850,000 people with a $900+ million dollar budget. I am someone who promises to answer only to my conscience and the residents of this great county.
I’ll be sharing more about myself, my experiences, and my values in the coming weeks - and I’m looking forward to getting the chance to hear from you about how we can work together to build a better Essex County.
About Deb
I’m a single working mom of three, a former small business owner, and I served for three years on the Maplewood Township Committee, including one year as Deputy Mayor. I have a consistent record of getting things done. I do this by bringing together a diverse set of voices to collaborate on policies, initiatives, and programs that impact our community.
Accomplishments:
Reinvigorated a decade-long stalled project securing the necessary easements to construct a pedestrian pathway connecting Maplewood and South Orange.
Championed a service agreement between Maplewood and South Orange for public health services that provides many of the same benefits as a shared service would.
Created a new Public Information Officer position in Maplewood to better the township’s communications to residents.
Led beautification and activation efforts at Yale Corner, a 100ft by 100ft blacktop used as an urban parklet that included a community asphalt mural created by more than 200 participants of all ages.
Produced holiday pop up shops in three Essex County towns that brought together 75+ businesses and brought back over 100k in gross sales to the local economy and created concept for South Orange’s co-retail incubator.
Founded two brick and mortar incubator spaces: Work and Play, a coworking + childcare space and General Store Cooperative, a co-retail space that combined multiple businesses under one roof.