Glen Ridge Council Advances Plan to Restore Police Chief Position, Approves Vehicle and Salary Ordinances
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At its May 27, 2025 meeting, the Glen Ridge Mayor & Council took the first step toward restoring the borough's police chief position, adopting on first reading an ordinance that creates a police captain rank and sets its salary. Officials described the move as part of a broader plan to bring back the chief title, and a candidate being considered for that role attended the meeting, though the candidate's name was not given.
The council also gave first-reading approval to an ordinance appropriating capital improvement funds for a new police vehicle and various public works projects. In other budget business, the council formally adopted an ordinance adjusting 2025 maximum salaries for non-union employees, including crossing guards and summer staff, to keep the borough in line with state minimum salary requirements; a public hearing on the measure drew no comments. Separately, the council unanimously approved, by a 6-0 vote, a routine resolution authorizing payment of claims, including payments to the Board of Education and to Essex County as tax collector.
Mayor Mans proclaimed the first Friday in June as National Gun Violence Awareness Day in Glen Ridge. Representatives from Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety spoke at the meeting, citing a rise in concealed-carry permits in Essex County from 426 to 6,080 and noting that New Jersey recently lost $35 million in federal funding for gun violence intervention programs.
On planning matters, officials reported that at the prior week's planning board meeting, the town planner and consultants presented proposed changes to the affordable housing section of the borough's master plan to bring it in line with state guidelines; adoption is expected at a planning board meeting that has been rescheduled to early June because of high school graduation. The council also acknowledged the upcoming retirement of longtime building department clerk Deb Henry, who joined the borough in 2008 and moved to the building department in 2012; a new hire is already working alongside her ahead of her departure.
In lighter news, Mayor Mans announced that a Glen Ridge family won the family quiz bowl at a national academic competition in Florida, and Councilor Leovitz reported that the Glen Ridge library will receive the New Jersey Library Association's PR marketing award for its "Your Library, Your Voice" survey campaign, which drew 840 responses from roughly a third of borough households. The mayor also announced that the rescheduled Rhino Run for the middle school will require a closure of Ridgewood Avenue between 9:30 and 12, weather permitting.
What to watch
- Adoption of the updated affordable housing master plan element is expected at a planning board meeting to be held in early June, after being rescheduled due to high school graduation.
- Ridgewood Avenue is set to close Thursday for the rescheduled Rhino Run, weather permitting.