BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
WESTWOOD, N.J.—Mayor John Birkner Jr. said it was his honor to administer the oath of office to Councilwoman Jodi Murphy Jan. 2—with her son Cooper holding the Bible—as Murphy became the second Democratic woman elected to the council in the past two years.
“I am happy for Jodi, but I am even happier for Westwood as we are so lucky to have someone with the passion, energy, and intellect ready to serve the community we all love so dearly,” Birkner said.
The other Democratic councilwoman is Erin Collins. Republican Beth Dell is the council’s third woman member.
There was an empty seat at the dais, which was set up at the Community Center—that arguably of Democrat James Whelan, who beat two-term incumbent Raymond Arroyo Nov. 6, 2018 but who is blocked from taking the oath of office pending a trial Jan. 28. [See Story, Page 1.]
Whelan and Arroyo both attended the meeting, as did County Executive James Tedesco III; Freeholder Germaine Ortiz; Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi; Julie O’Brien from WEDO, the Women’s Empowerment Democratic Organization (there to honor Murphy); and some 150 others, many there to support the many police, fire, and ambulance corps officials also sworn in.
According to Councilman Emeritus Peter Grefrath, who received plaudits at the meeting for his long career, the reorganization session “was good and very orderly and cordial but the missing chair was very evident.”
Birkner told Pascack Press on Jan. 3 that, with an incomplete council, the event was bittersweet, and praised both Whelan and Arroyo.
Longtime volunteer
joins the council
Murphy, a 20-year resident, is assistant program manager for Westwood for All Ages. She has an undergraduate degree from New York University and has served on the Westwood Recreation Advisory Board, Sustainable Westwood, and the WWRSD Green Team.
She also edited the Forever Young Program newsletter and was PTO co-president for Brookside Elementary School.
She’s starting a three-year term.
“Westwood is a special place to me. My grandparents moved here in 1952 and raised their six children, two of whom still reside in town, including my mother Anne. My son is the fourth generation in Westwood, and I am raising him here,” she told Pascack Press.
She said she has been “an integral component and driving force in the development of programming to improve the lives of Westwood’s senior population. Through Westwood for All Ages, and the Forever Young Program, I have a direct role in making Westwood an age-friendly community.”
She added, “Over the years my view and appreciation for this town has grown and my involvement in the community has continually broadened. Now as a single mom with a child in the school system and involved in town programs, I see things from a unique perspective.”
She praised “an amazing team of department heads and staff in the Borough of Westwood. I want to make sure they have the resources they need to perform to the best of their abilities.”
Asked about her priorities, she singled out transportation, social participation, and outdoor spaces, specifically walkability, for all residents, particularly seniors.
“I want to meet with residents in town, in smaller focus groups, to hear their concerns. I want to make sure that residents in all areas of our town are heard and represented,” she said.
In her speech, she said, “I know I said it was time to leave 2018 in the past, but there is one word that came up several times throughout the campaign, too many times for my liking, and that word is ‘control.’ As council members it is our responsibility to work together to ensure the welfare of Westwood and its residents, provide community leadership, transact Westwood business and manage financial operations as public servants. I think we should all be careful not to confuse leadership with control.”
She added, “I am going to borrow the words of leadership expert Warren Bennis who said, ‘Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. Great leaders possess dazzling social intelligence, a zest for change, and above all, the ability to set their sights on the things that truly merit attention.’”
Based on Bennis’ words, she said, “I think we can all agree that a title alone does not make a person a leader: rather it’s one’s actions, integrity, and ability to cultivate and collaborate to strive towards a common goal.”
Grefrath’s final report
Grefrath, Westwood’s second longest-serving councilman, who left his seat ahead of schedule in part to accommodate a younger replacement—Alyssa Dawson— spoke at the meeting to note Westwood’s 125-year anniversary.
“Now that is a long time. It dwarfs the nearly quarter century I have spent as a member of the Westwood Council. But it seems like yesterday when my daughter, Victoria, was 6 years old and for the first time of nine times she held the Bible for me to take my oath of office”
He noted Alfred Oelkers, who passed away in 2017, had served for 24 years as a Westwood Councilman and that councilmen Jay Sciara and James Sealy are tied for third, serving for 13 years each.
Grefrath said he’d spent more than a third of his life working for Westwood residents, “and now my children have grown up and I am a proud grandfather of two. I am a cancer survivor. So far, so good.”
Dawson, who ran with Arroyo on their “Always Westwood” ticket, now is off the council and is Schepisi’s chief of staff.