Millburn Candidate Profile For 2025 Town Committee Election: Jamie Serruto

MILLBURN, NJ — The Millburn Town Committee race is hitting the home stretch, with four candidates competing for two open seats in 2025.

Incumbents Annette Romano and Michael Cohen, both Democrats, face a challenge from Republican candidates Jamie Serruto and Kris Heinrichs.

Patch reached out to each candidate with the same set of questions. Jamie Serruto’s replies follow below. Learn more about his campaign here, and see his social media campaign page here.

Learn more about voting in Millburn’s upcoming election here.

>> Are you a candidate seeking an elected office in Essex County? Send campaign updates to eric.kiefer@patch.com

PATCH: What background or professional experience qualifies you for the job?

JAMIE SERRUTO: As a lifelong resident of Millburn-Short Hills with deep family roots here—over 20 family members have graduated from Millburn High School—I understand our community from the ground up. I'm a proud MHS alum who served as Class President.

My public service began early when, as a high school senior, I was elected as the youngest-ever member of the Millburn Board of Education. This experience taught me how to balance competing interests while always prioritizing residents' needs.

I graduated from Fordham University and work as a strategic public affairs consultant, giving me insight into how government policy affects local communities. My ongoing dedication to public service includes:

• Earning the rank of Eagle Scout
• Currently serving as President of the Millburn-Short Hills Fourth of July Committee
• Membership in the Sons of the American Legion and volunteering as Assistant Dean of Communications for the American Legion Jersey Boys State program
• Serving on St. Rose of Lima's Parish Pastoral Council and community ministries

I also volunteer extensively for community events like Winterwalk, Snowflake Stroll, Rocktoberfest and Memorial Day parades, and support youth development through Boy Scouts leadership roles.

This combination of early political experience, professional policy expertise, and deep community involvement has prepared me to serve effectively on the Township Committee.

PATCH: What is your campaign platform? What are your priorities if elected?

JAMIE SERRUTO: Our campaign platform includes:

Stop the Dump and Stop More Reckless Overdevelopment – We need to manage the reckless overdevelopment that was rubber-stamped through the 2021 Fair Share Housing agreement, complying with Trenton's overdevelopment agenda without fighting for our residents. Moving forward, we will put guardrails in place to prevent any future sweetheart deals related to our municipal, taxpayer-owned properties. We will also continue the fight to prevent the 75-unit, income-segregated high-density housing development from being built on the toxic DPW Recycling site next to the middle school.

Actively Manage Crime Prevention – The Vote for Millburn team of Frank Saccomandi and Ben Stoller pushed hard to ensure that our Police Department took more proactive steps to prevent vehicle theft and home burglaries. This has resulted in a 60% reduction in vehicle theft and 40% reduction in home burglaries. We intend to go further and allocate more resources to crime prevention, such as hiring more police as needed and adding technology that will give our police officers the information they need to catch potential crimes before they occur.

Pedestrian Safety – We will integrate pedestrian and traffic safety into a comprehensive public safety strategy. There are several very dangerous pedestrian crossings that require major changes such as adding lights, moving sidewalk access and providing crossing guards. Examples that we will target include: Glen Avenue and Lackawanna near the Library, the 85 Woodland project being built, and the entirety of Old Short Hills Road. Construction should not create traffic and pedestrian hazards as, for example, the 85 Woodland project has.

Develop a Long-Term Strategic Plan – We will put in place a long-term strategic plan for how our town should evolve. We will design processes to ensure current and future township committees adhere to the long-term goals for our town, set by elected officials alongside our community members. Our town has lurched from project to project, with no vision, no priorities and little respect for our taxpayers. Pet projects come out of the blue and are given priority over things like building a long-overdue Firehouse. We hear a lot about flood mitigation but the problems have not been solved for the long term. We received a recent grant of $500K to refurbish a pump station that still has useful life remaining, yet Millburn taxpayers send $50 million a year to the county for very little in return. We have given away taxpayer money for a construction project for an entity that we don't own or manage. Special interests have taken priority over the residents.

Support the Commission Referendum – We support the Charter Study Referendum that is on the ballot, which will examine our form of government—the first step toward non-partisan elections. Local issues have nothing to do with national ones, and we would like to see our Township Committee free from partisan distractions, and totally focused on you, the Millburn residents, property owners and businesses.

We were inspired to run for Township Committee after seeing the positive changes implemented by Frank Saccomandi and Ben Stoller as part of the Vote for Millburn platform. Their leadership brought renewed focus to public safety, responsible development and community-driven governance, reinforcing the importance of fresh perspectives in township leadership.

But the job is not done. We're not out of the woods yet—not by a long shot. Continued progress requires more change and more new leadership.

We have a deep love of this community, we welcome all residents, property owners and businesses, old and new, into the process of governing our town. Millburn Short Hills has a very bright future and we encourage your active participation in shaping it.

We hope to earn your vote on or before Election Day, Tuesday, November 4th. You will find us on Line A on the ballot and we would be honored to serve you on the Millburn Township Committee.

PATCH: What is one thing that always makes you smile when you think about Millburn?

JAMIE SERRUTO: Taylor Park and the amazing community that comes together for so many great events! For example, on July 4th we have festivities and fireworks—a great opportunity to come together as a town while celebrating our country. Rocktoberfest is another example of an amazing, first-class effort to bring our community together to support our excellent schools. I look forward to the Millburn 250 celebration that will bring together our entire community, the state and the country to celebrate the founding of the United States.