Lost in Jersey, is meeting the candidates. Welcome to our Montclair election special 2024. Introducing Dr Renee Baskerville, running for mayor of Montclair.
Speaker 2Hi, hi, how are you Good? Thank you so much for coming on to the podcast and we've been talking to all the people the council at large, members and also the mayor candidates. Everyone that goes to vote will see your name on the ballot and we wanted to let people get a little bit more familiar with you, so we wanted we ask everyone to give a little bit of the background, of how you are connected to New Jersey.
Speaker 3I was born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey. I'm the fourth generation of Baskervilles that was born here. My dad was born here and my granddad, Charles Baskerville Sr and Charles Baskerville Jr.
Speaker 2Wow.
Speaker 3Yeah, so I've been a resident here in Montclair, except for when I went to Ohio to go to Oberlin College for undergrad mostly all of my life.
Speaker 2Wow, Amazing. And so do you have. You have a twin sister.
Speaker 3I do, indeed an identical twin sister, and she's my heir and my attorney, so it's really a cool package.
Speaker 1Yeah it is, that's so nice.
Speaker 2You've grown up here, You've you've kind of spent your whole life here.
Speaker 3You lived a little bit away but came back, I came back because there's no place that I would rather be to raise my son, and so when I was married, I decided that, even though we had a lot of options about where we were going to go my then husband was from New Rochelle, new York. He wanted to go there. Then husband was from New Rochelle, new York. He wanted to go there, and pretty much it was a no brainer for me. Because of the school system here, because of the community feel, because of the things that I loved about Montclair, it was really important that I wanted my son to have the same feel. We still had a lot of Baskervilles here, so there was a strong sense of family and, yeah, that's why I returned to Montclair.
Speaker 2And now you're a pediatrician by okay.
Speaker 3So you came back and did you start your you know your office. I went to UMDNJ after I graduated from Oberlin in Ohio with my BS. I came back to Newark, new Jersey. It was then the University of Medicine and Dentistry, and I did my training there, and I did my post-training in pediatrics and adolescent medicine there, and I decided that I wanted to stay in and around Newark for a lot of different reasons, mainly because I felt that everybody should have access to the most amazing, confident physicians, regardless of their ability to pay, and a lot of the patients that I was seeing then were either recipients of Medicaid or no-cade.
Speaker 3We had a lot of people that were migrating from wonderful places, but when they got here they didn't have health care. So it was really important to me to demonstrate that. I met a lot of doctors who appeared not to understand, as I did, that everybody deserves health care. I think that's your birthright, and so that was one of the reasons that I chose to stay in the Newark area. And then I moved out into East Orange and Irvington and became a school physician, and I'm presently in the East Orange School District in the early childhood department, in the enrollment department, and surround myself by beautiful children and families.
Speaker 1Wow, that's wonderful. That's so nice that you're able to do that and have that continuation of your pediatric knowledge and experience and take it to the schools.
Speaker 3Well, I was an educator before I went to med school, I was an educator. I taught at the Mont Clair High School in the Interim II program, which was for students that just needed a little assistance. They didn't have learning difficulties or differences, they just needed help in terms of things like getting to class on time and being able to sit still, and they were not granted the privilege, like some, to move from class to class to class, because these particular students demonstrated that they excelled better if they were in a more contained setting and, it was amazing, all of our students graduated on time. For the year that I was there, I would go and pick them up from their houses sometime and drive them to school and it was like a family, but it was great. I've always been really enthusiastic about education and shaping different policies and things to make sure that all students have equity in education.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, how did that? Now you've been a council member for the fourth ward for, I believe, 12 years. How did you get started in getting interested in becoming part of local government in addition to doing your work?
Speaker 3Before I went on the council, Bob Russo, when he was mayor of Montclair, he placed me on the board of education in Montclair and it was a great fit for me as an educator, as a pediatric and adolescent medicine specialist, as somebody who was driven by data and policy, it was really a good fit for me. So I was there for three years I was a vice president and as I was there I began to understand the importance of people stepping up and filling in the gap where you identify one. So when I left the Board of Education, a lot of neighbors because I was hosting community meetings already at that time I co-founded the Friends of Nishawain in Canterbury Park with my mom, which was a very active group in so many different things and so the neighbors in the fourth ward began to ask me to run for council and I had never thought about it, you know, in fact I'm like, no, I'm not really a politician, I just want to serve and I just want to, you know, fight for those things that we need, make sure that we're getting an equal piece of the pie and just try to make some positive changes. But they sort of insisted. And the first time I ran, in 2008,.
Speaker 3The residents in the fourth ward pretty much ran me and it was a wonderful coming together of community people. I ran against the first time. I ran against maybe four or five amazing activists in the fourth ward during the campaign time. We just grew closer to one another. We assisted each other. It was a strong sense of family. It was a little bit different than some of the things that you're seeing now, but we didn't have the Facebook and Instagram at that time, so I see that that seems to make a little difference.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's making it a little more contentious to have that or in.
Speaker 3No, those things don't make it more contentious.
Speaker 3Okay, those things are available to us and then people choose to either make them work in a very positive and wonderful way to keep people connected, to share information, data and accuracies, or they can use them for mistruths.
Speaker 3They can use them in a way that's more like a town crier type of a way than a unifier. So those things can either be unifying or they can get carried away with people that I call town criers, where the town criers just come in and they see everything that's wrong and they want to make sure to make those powerful public statements about everything that's wrong and then maybe go on off and don't sign up to join the different committees and commissions and don't come in with thoughtful things that could actually be unifying. And I think that that's where I come in, because people that know me know me as a unifier. They know me as the conscience of the board and I think that the bridge builder and so, with all of the different types of communication that we have available with us and with my spirit to bring people together and to make sure that we represent those things, things that I, the values that I think most Montclairians believe in. I think that I'm going to be a perfect fit to become the next mayor of the township.
Speaker 2Rachel, that fits into that question you had earlier that you wanted to ask.
Speaker 1Yeah, I was curious because you have such experience when you were representing the fourth ward and on the council for 12 years. What was the camaraderie and the compromise and the discussions and the civility like back then and what would you bring to the new council to bring that back?
Speaker 3I'm going to answer the first part, yeah, the part about what was it like back then, and I can move into the part about what I will bring moving forward. Is that?
Speaker 1okay, sure, yes.
Speaker 3Back then. Just like everywhere, there's good things, there's bad things. There's things that people agree on and they don't. It depends on the leadership. So I've been on the Council Three terms, while we all worked together and didn't always agree. I never remember having any type of contentiousness that's going on now. I don't remember us calling each other out of names. I don't remember having people come in and sharing their feelings in such a harsh manner back then and I think it has to do with people's perception of who's listening and who's not we made every effort to respond to the communications in a timely fashion and when we voted on something, even if we didn't agree, once you cast the vote, whether it was yay or nay, then that was the vote, that was it.
Speaker 3And even if what you wanted to happen didn't happen, we realized that that's the purpose of having a team of thoughtful people. So whoever had the four votes would achieve whatever it was that they were trying to get and the other people would not. And after that we're like, okay, you know, we go out and have a bite to eat or whatever, because we were like really, and I think that it was a little bit whatever, because we were really. It was, it was a little bit different and we weren't. I thought we were getting along well and it's no comparison to what I see now.
Speaker 2Right, when did you start to see the change start to? Is there a particular issue that started, or did just that personality start to change, or was it some issue that you saw that brought forth this new dynamic? That's somewhat like the airplane dynamic that everybody's yelling on the airplane now. So I have a couple of theories about that right.
Speaker 3So nationally, we see that it's become really popular nationally for people to come out and call people out of their name and ever since we had a certain president in, he seemed to be a little bit more aggressive than some of the other people, a little bit more negative and inciting behaviors that are really not that which I believe in. I noticed that that seemed to trickle down and people seem to think that if it's starting from the top and it's okay and people are cheering that person on, then let's try that everywhere. And so, unfortunately, people in Mont Claire, you know, began to do some of the same things.
Speaker 3And even if they don't support him, they're still affected by it Exactly the behaviors, and I believe that the thought must be like well, if it's working for so-and-so, then and I'm right here just in a small municipality, let me try that, maybe I'll be heard, because if you listen to somebody and the top ranking person, and that is allowing that person to be heard and get tons of votes year after year after year, and so that's what I think happened.
In addition to that, what happened is I noticed that some of the people that came in this is basically a full-time job and you should be here every day, and sometimes you can't, and so sometimes, no matter how great you are with policy and being connected with people and doing the job, you can be the best mayor and the best council members, but if your time does not allow you to be there full time because you have so many things that you're great at and you haven't been able to, you know, work it out such that you're here full time, then you get a lot of things going on too, and that's what I saw happening here too. Some of the council members were extremely busy doing great things all over New Jersey and beyond, traveling different places and doing different things, and so I celebrate them for that. But the problem is somebody has to be in Montclair, new Jersey, and I would like to say some bodies have to be in Montclair, new Jersey. Yeah, this is such a great place for me because now is a good time for me to step up, to be available. You know, have office hours every day and make this a full-time commitment to the community to be in there.
Speaker 3Somebody has to answer. Whether it's good, bad or indifferent, somebody has to be there and be responsible. I'm going to bring a commitment to volunteering as a full-time person, not thinking that I'm going to put in a few hours here and a few hours there to get a job done. We've got a lot of work to do, as you both know.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, curious to ask you also. I was speaking with my sister who had gone to, I believe, the rent control meeting last night and she brought up something that you know. I want to focus a little bit on what you think has been going right, the good things, and what you have accomplished you yourself and also the other council members because we focus so much on what is not working. But there's a reason that everybody wants to live in Montclair. It's not because it's a completely broken system. Things are broken, right, but there are still a lot of great things. That why are?
Speaker 2we know the diversity, you know the school system even though it's got problems, you know there are good things the beautiful parks and you know the facilities that we do have that all need help. We all feel safe and secure.
Speaker 1Yeah, and we're not, we're not moving. We, we did this podcast because we love New Jersey and we love Montclair, so yeah. So the question is okay.
Speaker 2So the question is um, what have you done that you can point to, that you feel has contributed positively to the, to the community?
Speaker 3Okay, in terms of housing, or just in terms of anything?
Speaker 2anything? Yeah, okay, did you of housing or just in terms of anything Anything.
Speaker 3Yeah, okay, as you mentioned affordable housing. So I was going to start there with the fact that I am one of the primary authors of the rent control ordinance. We started talking about that during my tenure on the housing commission. I was on the liaison to the housing commission for 12 years, or actually longer, because I was on the housing commission for the township of Montclair long before I actually became a council person and I was on the housing committee for the NAACP. I started talking about rent control before people thought the township was ready for it and they started saying things like oh Renee, they'll never go for that. You know, don't try that. So we started talking about this a while ago and then, as people began to understand it, it's like everything, the time has to be right, just like now. I think the time is perfect for me to become the next mayor of Montclair. I'm ready to do that service, step up and continue. So that was one of the things that I was very happy about. Some of the other things I was very happy about are that myself, along with Robin Schlager, we made sure that the speed limit was reduced to 25 miles per hour everywhere in Montclair, except for the county streets, right. And so now, when this council is celebrating and clapping, I'm celebrating and clapping with them too, because they were able to get the county streets in, which is really great.
Speaker 3I did a lot of great work with safe streets. Wherever you go around and you see the different streets that have been made a safe way. For example, we have some streets that actually have bike drawings on them. They haven't been actually, you know, just designated for that yet, but we went through and did that. We did things to make some of the streets appear to be more narrow than they were before to cause, you know, traffic calming. So I'm really excited about the traffic calming that I did. We paved more than 55 miles of street during the time that I was on I was on the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission we took care of our 175 acres of open space.
Speaker 3One of the things that I think I really celebrate a lot is that I was responsible for bringing in the first openly LGBTQIA individuals to the Civil Rights Commission, because I served on the Civil Rights Commission for a long time and you know who I mean. You have to have diversity on a Civil Rights Committee, and I looked around and I saw okay, we have racial diversity, we have diversity for religion and ethnicity, and at that time, as far as I knew, there was no one who openly represented the LGBTQIA community, and so I was very aggressively seeking people that can, you know, fill in all the different parts of the community. So that was one of the things that I was able to do.
Speaker 3When I started in 08, and even again under Mayor Jackson, we were working and we accomplished so many things, and it was not important to us to send out lists of everything we did. We wanted to celebrate that, and we know, in this form of government, nothing happens alone, and so if somebody says, or for me to say, I did this and I did that, it sounds good. I could send out emails to everybody and give them a long list of all of those accomplishments, but it's not so because you have to have four votes, and as much as I would like to have maybe accomplished some other things, especially in terms of, you know, housing, in terms of traffic, in terms of infrastructure, it didn't happen, perhaps because I didn't have the four votes, and so you know it takes four To that point.
Speaker 2to that point, what are some of the things that you'd really like to do if you are elected or in? Or let's say, you want to do them but you'd like to get four votes for Sure.
Speaker 3I'd like to get four votes for bringing civility back into the township. In terms of community communications, I'd like to set guidelines for communication that are welcoming and inviting and let people know how valued they are, because I think that if you can get people to understand that they are welcome, that we do want to hear from you, that you do matter, then people will begin to come and, even before the meetings, ask questions. We can answer them in a civil way. We can all talk, and sure we're going to have differences and I love a good debate. I love a good debate as long as it's done in a respectful manner, without being disagreeable. You can disagree, but I don't like the disagreeable where people just get nasty and feel like that the only way that they can be heard is to be nasty. So communication is one of the very large things for me. Also, dealing with infrastructure matters is very important to me.
Speaker 3I had no idea how serious the flooding problem is in Montclair. I knew we had one. I worked really close with Gary Absarney for a while, but during my hiatus, when I was stepping back and looking at things from an outside time, I went all around the town. I talked to a lot of different people got a sense of what was important for them, because if I'm elected, I'm elected to represent the people, and the only way that I can actually represent the people is if I know what it is that they want, and we do that in collaboration. So I went all around town and, starting up on Mountain and beyond, close to our Clifton border, by the mountain train station, those houses are underwater, yeah, and so we got to do something about that. And then it goes all the way down. I was aware of the flooding down by Rosedale in the south end of town because I was representing the 4th Ward and so I was aware of that. But this goes from one end to the next and we need to address it. People are paying taxes, they have beautiful homes, taxes, they have beautiful homes, and then they have water. So I want to work with that.
Speaker 3I'm even thinking possibly about a stormwater utility. I'm not sure, you know, I haven't fully vetted it. I'm not sure everything that's in place. Unfortunately, gary Abzarni, from what I learned at the last council meeting, may not be here, you know when. I would love to possibly be working with him if I get elected, but I'm sure we're going to bring in some other people that'll be able to help us with that also.
Speaker 3Also, I'd like to try to make sure that we move forward and get a grocery store in the Lackawanna Plaza area.
Speaker 3That's really important to me as well. I know that there's still a lot to be ironed out the transportation, the parking, the flooding, for sure but I really would like to see a supermarket and an affordable supermarket where people that are in the neighborhood we have a lot of seniors that are in and around the area and I want them to be able to go and, if they want to get milk, bread and whatever, be able to do that in an affordable manner and maybe not have to do a lot of swiping and different things that you know. Not to say that they are not able to do it, because most of the seniors that I know are quite able, but maybe because they're used to doing something else. It might be nice to nice to offer them something that is familiar to them, because we're bringing things that are no longer familiar. So what can we leave in place or what can we bring in that's going to be familiar to the residents?
Speaker 2All of that was really well said and I appreciate that you go to the council meetings and you see what's going on. Is there an issue that you have seen that you really disagreed with how it was handled by the current council?
Speaker 3You know, it's hard to say because, as I've been, you know, sitting back and one of the things that I've learned during my hiatus is to listen more and to respect the different styles, and so everybody brings a different style to the table. I'm not the type of person, for example, that is going to if someone comes forward and says to me hey, you know, check this, there might be a conflict of interest. I would definitely want to make sure that there was no conflict of interest, and if someone said something from the council and I didn't quite agree with it, I would be the type of person that would say OK, let's sit down and meet, let's have a meeting. The meetings will be open and transparent, but I wouldn't necessarily want to lawyer up, as people say. Really, we're a small town and I think that's one of the things that bothers me. We're six miles long.
Speaker 3And what happens when people are at home watching these meetings? A lot of people are letting their children, and definitely middle school and high school age people watch these, hoping that they will learn a little bit about democracy, the democratic process, and if you see things going on that are not, that, it gets to be hard for me. As my baseline. I always say act and behave as if your children are watching. And then when people, if they can hold on to that thought, maybe things that come out of their mouth and things that they do might be shifted a little bit. I don't know.
Speaker 2Well, that goes back to the original thing that you said about what you would want to do first is you would make it civil.
Speaker 1Yeah, so it's a. It's also interesting that it that we would need guidelines for civility at this point.
Speaker 3Yes, but but you then. So everybody can say that. But I think it's really important and the voters should know that they should look at the people that have a proven track record. I have a proven track record of affirmative results and during the 15 years that I've been in service pretty much even when I was, you know, in situations that made me feel extremely uncomfortable or hurt or whatever I've never been one to act in a way that I thought was like a negative way or casting a poll on others or name calling. And so I think it's important that voters look for people who have a proven track record.
Speaker 3It's okay for people to come up and say I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, but unless you really can see it, you know, then the voters should ask the people tell me the committees and commissions that you served on here and what was the outcome. And then you know, look around, ask around, talk to the people that were on those committees and commissions to find out. It's just so hard unless people really get in there and they understand the magnitude of the job. And it doesn't stop. People call you at night, people text you, first thing, last thing, and so, unless you've really been at least on a committee or commission and you can see okay, so that's what it was like on one committee, this is what it was like on two or three committees and commissions. Then it's really difficult for people to say and people anybody can say, I want this, but I'm from you know, a place where I want to see that you've done something that's going to service the community. I want to see how you're going to respond and I want to look.
Speaker 3When you went up to the council, you know how did you go up? Did you go up in a way that allowed people to feel comfortable responding to you? Did you go up in a way, maybe, that was a little intimidating and threatening and maybe even made the other people who might have wanted to go up feel as though they didn't want to go up because they thought that what they saw before them might be going on with them and so they chose to sit down? I don't want that. If I'm elected under my leadership, I want everybody to feel welcome, whether they're totally opposite of opinion from me. I want them to know that I'm listening, I'm receiving it, and it's just as important for me to hear from people. In fact, I learn more from people who tend to have some differences than if people just keep coming up.
Speaker 3Yes, yes yes, and so I think that's very, very, very important, especially where you're trying to balance smart growth and maintain a lot of the things that give us the authenticity of our township and the things that we value so much.
Speaker 2Well, thank you so much for coming on. I've seen you around town. You know we've lived here over a decade. You know we've seen you, but I've never had an opportunity to sit and talk with you and get to know you. So this has been a really valuable experience for me and I hope for our listeners, and so I appreciate that.
Speaker 3So I'd just like to really quickly ask anyone that's listening, please to vote for me for your next mayor, and I'd like for you to reach out to me if you have questions and concerns, or if you hear things and you want to know. You know more about them, and I have an amazing team together Claire Sushin Anderson, rahoon Williams and Siobhan Gaines.
Speaker 2Before we go, we like to ask people what you love about New Jersey, because we're about New Jersey.
Speaker 3Gosh. Well, new Jersey is a larger area. My real love is Montclair, so something that I love about New Jersey would have to be Montclair, and I love it for the things that people say they want to be. I love the diversity, I love the vitality. We have an energy here in Montclair that is second to me. When you go out, you can feel it, and if you can't, I want to make sure that people can.
Speaker 3I've always felt it and I think, partly because some people don't feel it now, I'm being motivated to get back out there and see what we can do to change it so they do feel that energy, the vitality, and then understand that we're going to do things with integrity, that we are a welcoming community here, all people, all backgrounds, whether you were born in the United States, whether you weren't, and I think that's amazing. You can walk down the streets here in Montclair and be who you want to be without any hesitance. You can love who you want to love without any hesitance. You can have whatever religions you want. You can dress how you want, wrap your head not wrap your head whatever, and I think that's an amazing thing. People take that for granted. I don't take that for granted, and that's what I love most about New Jersey. We've got those things in Montclair. I want to make sure that we strengthen those things. If we're falling short in some of the areas, I want to make sure that we take care of those areas.
Speaker 1Thank you. That's so well said. I really appreciate that and I really am. Like Jeanette said, I'm so glad that you came on and were able to put this out to our listeners and to people on Montclair Local so that they can get a snapshot of who you are and your personality and why you're running and your accomplishments. So we're really grateful. Thank you both. I appreciate you guys. Thank you for your patience. Oh, of course, thank you so much. Thank you, renee. All righty, bye-bye, bye. This podcast is produced by Rachel Martens and Jeanette of Sharian. Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We hope you share this pod with your friends and family and let us know what you think. Check out our website at lostinjerseysite and don't forget to get lost. Thank you.