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04/12/2019 12:00 AMDemocratic Town Councilman Joe Carfora has announced his intention to run for mayor, citing concerns over declining town infrastructure and looming legal fees.
“I’ve been watching our town slowly decline. The infrastructure is declining,” Carfora said. “I’m tired of our town getting dragged through the mud in the newspapers.”
Carfora, a 3rd District representative on the Town Council, is the second candidate to announce interest. Steve Tracey, a Republican Town Council member, launched his campaign in March. Carfora’s April 10 announcement made him the first Democratic candidate for office.
“Our town needs change, no doubt about that,” Carfora said. “This current administration is running it right to the ground.”
Nine-term Republican mayor Joe Maturo has yet to announce whether or not he will join the race for his job for the November election. He has been the target of several lawsuits during his tenure, including the sexual harassment lawsuit the town settled for $175,000 in September 2018 and a suit regarding his car accident filed in December 2018.
“We’re going to have to finance lawsuit settlements and that’s going to be a lot of money,” Carfora said. “There’s a lot of money in lawsuits that we’re going to be paying out.”
Carfora said that he wants to clean up the town, citing not only the failures in infrastructure but the recent federal investigations into the Board of Education’s budgeting shortfall of $31,736 during the 2015-’16 school year.
“I’m not saying I’m going to be raising taxes by doing all this,” Carfora said. “I just think that our town and our townspeople should get a bigger bang for their buck and they’re not. That’s why I want to run.
“Our town needs change and I think I’m the right guy at the right time to do that,” Carfora said. “I just hate to see our town like this.”