To the editor:
We are writing to tell you something about Ray Arroyo. Some may know him as a very nice guy. He is. But he has also been tenacious in helping us resolve a 10-year-old problem we’ve had with a utility installation in our backyard.
My husband, Michael, went to the mayor and council for help seven years ago but got stonewalled. We met Ray last September when he was campaigning for his council seat. Ray immediately took up our problem, brought in an outside consultant to assess the situation, and contacted the engineers with a solution in hand to fix it.
Since it was an installation by the utility company, Ray didn’t believe the borough taxpayers should foot the bill for the remedy. He arranged for a meeting at our house with the utility engineers. All agreed the problem needed to be corrected. Then Ray “lost” his council election. The utility engineers stopped returning his messages, probably writing him, and our problem, off.
Ray came to our house with all the research he had done, and copies of the emails he had sent, in the hope that the next council person would take up our cause. We figured that was that.
When Ray got back on the council, one of the first calls he made was to the utility company. The engineers came back to our home and told us how serious they were about fixing our problem.
Now after 10 years we are confident that our problem really is being addressed. That’s because Ray Arroyo was relentless in correcting the wrong done to us.
When he got back in office he could have ignored us like other elected officials have. But Ray didn’t. He was true to his word. And that speaks volumes about his character.
There is no doubt in our minds that Ray, as our mayor, will be just as committed to each and every one of us in Westwood.
Being an elected official is less about “vision” and buzzwords and more about knowledge, commitment, intelligence and perseverance. That adds up to effectiveness. Ray Arroyo proved to us he’s got all of those qualities He has more than earned Westwood’s vote on Nov. 5.