On June 3, 2023, West Ward Councilwoman Quantavia Hilbert organized a community meeting at Liberia Restaurant in Orange, NJ. She announced her intention to run for mayor, way ahead of the election in May 2024. She called family and friends for a luncheon to announce her candidacy, and talked about her ideas and the purpose of her running for the mayorship. Mainly, her goal is to let citizens talk and she wants to hear their concerns, to the citizens, so she can be inclusive for residents, not exclusive.
Speakers at the June 3rd event included India Williams, Founder of All About the Spectrum, Charles Barner, and Former Councilman Harold Johnson Jr.
At the event, I was granted an exclusive interview with the newly minted candidate.
Exclusive Interview With Orange Councilwoman Quantavia Hilbert
By Dhiren Shah
Dhiren Shah: Welcome to this interview. You have just announced your mayoral campaign. What is the reason you decide to run for mayor of Orange?
Quantavia Hilbert: The reason I am running for mayor is because I believe our city needs real vision, real representation and real authentic law for the community. I am doing it because of my children’s future, I am doing it because of our economy. Orange is a hidden gem in Essex County, and I want to put us back on the map, and I am running for the job.
DS: You mentioned your passion about being councilwoman.
QH: Yes, I love being councilwoman. I am being grateful for all those who came out to vote that day, but it’s going to take a little more me than being the councilwoman of the West Ward to help the city, to serve the city and get us back on track to lot of views and values that used to be in Orange. I feel like Orange is still working for its identity for the future, and it is up to all of us to get everyone on the board and stand up for Orange.
DS: Twenty years ago, Orange used to be a nice community place, which I don’t think so now. What is your opinion?
QH: I absolutely agree with you. I have a lot of information, a lot of accounts of the other people with the Brown administration and how it was amazing, it was historical and reviving, and we still haven’t touched everything promised all those years ago. The community has to be heard, before the community actually has reformed or reconstructed. It has to say to people, “I feel like living in Orange, it brings me quality of life, brings me happiness.” It’s also about longevity.
DS: If any residents go to City Hall, in your opinion, are their needs addressed easily or is it tough to get them done?
QH: In my personal opinion, I feel that there are questions that do go unanswered. It’s not because of the people inside the office; it’s also about the culture that is in City Hall. I feel like, in order to clean it up or in order to revive positivity and professionalism at City Hall, it has to start from the top. We need good representation, and we need somebody to lead with integrity.
DS: What changes would you like to bring to the city of Orange?
QH: Changes would definitely start with our community, so with the community I am thinking about longevity, success. I want to start mandating that we hire at least 15% of our workforce from Orange. Many communities do that, make sure there is job opportunities, and we make sure that a lot of their financing and taxpayer dollars staying with our community. Also, I think that it is very important that we look at our city plan. Our master plan, I think is outdated. Those might have been 10, 15, 20 years ago, and that is not the need of the community now. So, I believe that we have to revisit what our city planners and developers are proposing for the Orange. Orange needs more than just apartment buildings.
DS: Everyone think that Orange is growing, but how do they accommodate those residents for schooling, sewer, garbage collection, roads, and many other services?
QH: A lot of that falls on the council and the administration, and there needs to be more collaboration. Unfortunately, I don’t see that being an easy task. We need someone who has a vision to make this happen and enforce this thing to happen. We do have issues with our garbage collection contractor. We do have issues with our sewerage and flood lines and flood zones, we are currently rebuilding a PSE&G location to help us with other utilities for the city.
We are talking about manpower, we are talking about the workforce, we need more police officers to keep us safe, we need more firefighters to make sure that those new buildings and new homes we have don’t burn down. We need help with our infrastructure and our fiscal management. If we manage our finances and our funds appropriately, we can do a lot more and prepare for our newcomers and also sustain our current residents.
I also think that another thing which is important is to focus on rent control. Rent control for residents and commercial; we have a lot of empty commercial space that has not been utilized, because a lot of people feel like they cannot afford it, or they feel like that the residents in the area cannot afford it. So, I also want to pay attention to those things to build our economy and make sure that people are not pushed out of their homes.
DS: How would you bring the community to be involved in the city affairs?
QH: Well, I have a really good plan. I can’t tell you all my secrets, Mr. Shah. I hold a lot of events like today, mainly quarterly, and I don’t do the talking, I let the residents do the talking. I have nonprofits coming. They support their resources and our residents said that “Hey, this is what I want in my community.”
We create plans and proposals, bringing them back to my fellow councilmembers. What I will say is I do know that as that as Mayor, there are certain things you can execute to make some of these things happen. I really believe that we have a lot of committees that citizens are volunteering to participate in, but we never take their recommendations. So, I want to make sure that I am empowering residents and our citizens that do volunteer and do their civic duty, and make sure that we are reflecting what everyone wants to see and feel in our community. Right now, the administration picks and chooses who they want to collaborate with, and most of those projects are temporary. It’s nothing with long lasting effect for change. No change whatsoever.
DS: Are you going to pick family and friends for jobs or hire on merit bases?
QH: I do not believe in the nepotism. Family members, absolutely not. I am the only person (in my family) who lives in New Jersey, and all the others have moved. So, on a serious note, I come from a human resources background, a workforce administration background. I have lot of experience in administration. I came across a lot of people and a lot of models to manage a company, to manage an office, to manage an environment with different personalities. We need to hire people with qualifications that help us change things in Orange.
I am not saying that the current people we have in Orange City Hall are not qualified, but I will say that we do need to focus more on traditional roles, focus more on reorganizing, see where we can add more job positions, where we can add more opportunities for promotions and uptrain our staff and bring more people who are going to get the job done for residents and bring a whole new culture.
DS: Thank you very much, and best of wishes on your campaign.
