Today’s speaker, Andrew Macurdy, is running for a seat in the New Jersey assembly, district twenty-one, as a Democrat.
Andrew grew up in New Jersey and is a lawyer who has served as federal and state prosecutor in Newark and Jersey City. He then joined the NJ Attorney General’s office where he worked on public safety programs, initiating a program to integrate mental health workers into local police forces. Officers responding to incidents that are more likely to involve mental issues than outright criminal activity can be managed in a much more appropriate and efficient manner by the mental health worker. This reduces the likelihood of violent encounters, keeps the induvial out of the criminal justice system and the courts and gets the individual appropriate help as opposed to exacerbating the situation. This program called ARRIVE Together, has been implemented in Union county as well as many other municipalities in NJ.
The Rotarians raised several issues - Andrew believes in assessing the appropriate data when enacting legislation. This was how he worked to establish ARRIVE Together and he plans to utilize the same approach in proposing legislation if elected. Some of the areas he highlighted as needing attention are transportation, environmental issues, and public safety. Regarding our high taxes, he is a proponent of shared services but admits it will be a challenging task considering how many municipalities NJ has, but a first step can be shared services which allows local control but simply doing the assigned task more economically and efficiently.
We appreciate Andrew sharing his thoughts with us. At our next meeting, we will hear from his opponent, Assemblywoman, Nancy Muñoz.
Mike Katz, Jim Fleischmann, Andrew Macurdy and President David Dietze