BOONTON TOWNSHIP -- An $11 million renovation of town hall is fueling a contested race here for the township committee.

Republican incumbent Thomas SanFilippo Jr., a detective with the Jersey City police department, will face Democrat Ray Menard, a retired union president and stage director for the New York City Opera, in Tuesday's election. At stake is a seat on the five-member governing board in the town of 4,400 people.

Menard is seeking to become the first Democrat in memory to win a spot on the currently all-Republican committee. He said he'd bring fresh thinking and years of administrative experience to a panel that let the town hall project get too big. SanFilippo touts four straight years of flat municipal tax rates and upgrades to town parks and facilities during his three years in office.

Here's a look at the two contenders ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Boonton Township election: Meet the candidates

SanFilippo, 43, is seeking a second term. A township resident for 13 years, he began his law enforcement career with the Morris County Sheriff's Office in 2003. He joined the Jersey City force in 2008 as a patrol officer before being promoted to detective in 2017. He's also served on the Boonton Township Planning Board.

"My whole career has always been about public service," he said. His priority, he added, is "keeping the character and the history of the town, not having overdevelopment like a lot of these towns ... and making acquisitions of land to preserve that. Half our town is preserved farmland and that's what gives it its character."

Menard, 69, moved to Boonton Township 14 years ago. His resume includes nine years as stage director and artistic administrator for the New York City Opera and almost 35 years as production stage manager at New York's Metropolitan Opera. He is also past president and treasurer of the American Guild of Musical Artists, a union representing 7,000 singers, dancers and staging staff around the U.S. He cited his work helping the union and opera navigate pandemic lockdowns.

"There are hundreds of people on stage, in the pit stage, hands building the big scenery," he said. "I'm accustomed to pulling large groups of people together toward a common goal and developing and realizing an artistic vision, which is not that different from realizing a commercial vision or any other kind of vision." Menard also serves on the board of the Morris County School of Technology in Denville.

The town hall project

Menard said the management of the municipal building expansion helped convince him to enter the race. The committee approved the project earlier this year, saying renovations were desperately needed to the building on Powerville Road, parts of which are almost a century old.

Menard said the committee should have gotten more public input and questioned why the town needs a new building that will be 6.000 square feet larger and more expensive than the recently renovated town hall in neighboring Mountain Lakes.

At committee meetings, "We would ask questions, we wouldn't get answers, and I just felt that, you know, it was just too rubber-stamped," he said.

SanFilippo said the repairs and upgrades were needed at a building that hadn't been renovated since the 1950s. The police department, in particular, was cramped and didn't have the space to meet modern standards for securing evidence, storing equipment and other needs.

The building will expand in part to accommodate a bigger municipal courtroom, which will bring in revenue for the town by serving other municipalities in the area, SanFilippo added. As for the cost comparison, he said construction costs have gone up significantly since Mountain Lakes began its project four years ago.

Boonton Township will issue a $9.5 million bond to cover the project. But it's not expected to raise taxpayers' bills because borrowing costs will be covered by tax revenues from the TerrAscend cannabis farm off Old Denville Road. Menard said that assumes the farm will maintain the same level of revenues. In any event, the TerrAscend project was advertised to local residents as a way to lower taxes, he said, not as a "piggy bank for capital projects."

Experience vs. a new voice

In addition to the township's stable tax rate, SanFilippo said he's proud of a record that also includes new basketball and pickleball courts at Leonard Park and improved parking at the town's RVA Fields.

"The town is run very well. It's fiscally responsible," he said. "We're spending just enough to maintain what we have and upgrade what needs to be upgraded. I think people are happy."

But Menard said the town hall project was emblematic of a leadership that could use a fresh voice. He faulted the committee for failing to coordinate with the township school board, which proposed a $15 million bond referendum for repairs at the Rockaway Valley School at the same time. Voters rejected the referendum in the spring.

"There's no other voice," he said. "It's a place where we do it the way we've always done it, and I think that there's no innovation when there's no other point of view."

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