| Candidate
Information
Professional
Background: Mr.
Bergen is an attorney with Krevsky, Silber & Bergen in
Cranford. He
is serving his 14th term as township attorney for the
Township of Springfield.
Education:
Mr. Bergen is a 1973 graduate from Cranford High
School. He
earned his B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Case
Western Reserve University in 1977 and his J.D. from Seton
Hall School of Law in 1980.
In 2005, he was awarded a Diplomate in Local
Government Law by Rutgers University and the New Jersey
Institute of Local Government Attorneys.
Family
Life: Mr.
Bergen and his wife, Jodi, have lived with their two
children, Stefanie and Ross, in Springfield for the past
21 years. Stefanie
is a college student, and Ross is a junior at Jonathan
Dayton High School.
Government
Experience: While
he has not held an elective office, Mr. Bergen has been
involved with local government for many years.
In addition to serving as the Springfield township
attorney, he has previously served as attorney to the
Springfield Board of Health and the Springfield Rent
Leveling Board.
Clubs
and Organizations: Mr.
Bergen is a longtime member and twice past-president of
the Cranford Rotary Club. He
also served for many years as the President of the Union
County Legal Services Corp. and currently is vice
president of Central Jersey Legal Services (combined from
Union, Mercer and Middlesex counties).
Mr. Bergen also serves as an Associate Editor of
the Municipal Law Review, published by the ILGA.
Major
Campaign
Issues:
As a long-time local government official, it is
clear that the most urgent issue facing New Jersey
continues to be local property taxes.
While there was substantial progress made during
the past year, we must continue to find progressive
methods of funding our local governments and schools,
while keeping in mind that it is our seniors on fixed
incomes, renters and middle-class families that bear the
brunt of this problem, and therefore it is those persons,
not the wealthy, on whom relief must be focused.
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