Montclair, NJ – Montclair’s municipal elections aren’t until May 2024, but Councilor at Large Peter Yacobellis has started the conversation early, with an announcement Wednesday that he will be running for mayor of Montclair.
Yacobellis, in a six-minute video, explains his reasons for running, promising to create a “service corps” for Montclair to “connect people with time and talent to give, with the people and organizations who need the support, including the government.” He also stated he will form a slate in the coming months and begin his campaign in the fall.
Yacobellis ran for the first time in the May 2020 election for an At Large Councilor seat and received the most votes of any candidate.
Yacobellis has been a vocal presence on the council and known for being responsive to constituents, including hosting a town hall. He was in favor of an elected school board in Montclair and opposed the Glen Ridge fire services agreement. He has also had to refute conflict of interest allegations and later filed a complaint against those who made them.
Yacobellis serves as the executive director of Out Montclair, which provides year-round community building and educational opportunities for the LGBTQIA+ community in the greater Montclair area, and head of Montclair Pride.
I’m sorry – I can’t get past doing this in a s/s polo shirt…with a chest pocket! A chest pocket on a s/s polo? And from a cursory inspection, someone pressed or iron it.
I can’t vote for this.
Frank, if the choice becomes Yacobellis vs. Spiller, might you throw your hat in? Please?
Hahaha! You are quite funny at times, f. rubacky.
TooBigToFail: I am saving myself to take a run for Board of Education President. I would be great! Think about all I could do. While also having the highest rated show on TV34.
e. dellisanti: ??? I was serious.
I nominate Eileen Birmingham. Probably too busy for a mayoral spot, but maybe on the council?
If I had to choose between the Spiller and Yacobellis, I’d hold my nose and vote for Yacobellis. I just can’t imagine 4 more years of Spiller after this disastrous term. Yikes!
I would vote for Eileen Birmingham with no hesitation. I heard it from a number of others. Go Eileen! Or, I should say: Run Eileen!
f. rubacky: Forgive me for seeing humor where you claim there was none. I don’t know hard and fast rules concerning polo shirts. In inimitable words of Bob Russo: “Lock me up!”
You do realize “None of The Above” is an option? And your conscience will thank you for many years to come.
In light of the school budget, and the push to move money from Pilots to the schools, resulting in a drain on budgets, it’s probably worth asking if he still wants to increase the compensation for the Council (if he wins, likely his ‘slate’) and Mayor, and how much that would be.
So while out gathering signatures for our “Rubacky for BOE!” campaign, neighbors have been wondering if you’ll look into how Memorial Day Weekend went from a being a three-day weekend to a four-day for the schools without many people really noticing. The garbage was still picked up, they’re answering the phones down at city hall, even the private schools are fully operational. What gives? Isn’t summer break just around the corner anyway? I mean, Memorial Day is Monday by federal law, last time I checked.
Maybe the kids who staged the walkout at the high school the other day might want to know, too. Wasn’t taking another day off from learning one of their objections? I mean, learn while the learning’s good, right? Since you’ll have your pulse on the education beat, maybe you can look into it.
TooBigToFail: If it’s anything like Glen Ridge, it’s that we are required to have a minimum number of school days, and we purposefully schedule more than that number, assuming there will be snow days. I think in our case, there were 2 buffer days.
Since we didn’t use any snow days, Tuesday was a day off, and the end of year will be a day earlier.
Had we used more than 2 snow days, breaks would have been shortened to meet the requirement.
TooBigToFail,
I supported the $188MM bond referendum because our buildings and classrooms were in such a state of disrepair. I held my nose when they added all the athletic stuff and gyms funding. How many millions have already been poured into the Woodman/Lewis Athletic Complex? When do the lights go into for Friday Night games? Round 2 where another $120MM is needed?
So what was the first project to be completed this summer? Replacing the Woodman Field synthetic turf. Now this is a field that only the football team can use. And this is the first capital project from there pages of projects they managed to execute. OK, not a surprise. And the grandstands are surely next if they haven’t been done already.
Do you think they could have paired the fanfare with another low-hanging fruit project involving instructional space to show their priorities are not totally skewed? And I won’t even get into the leg and head injuries to 16 year olds on synthetic field that seem more prevalent than with natural turf fields. I hope the district ramped up their liability coverage, too.
And for the unaware, the Council is talking about a substantial capital investment in rebuilding the Clary Anderson Arena (ok, it really is a rink with a roof) for the tons of (ice) skaters. Got some cha-ching burning a hole in our municipal pocket!