Platform

Residents-First

In his time on council, Antonio has made sure to put the needs of residents first. At the heart of his work is the recognition that the governing body is determined by the residents of East Rutherford, not vice-versa. All that the Council does should have impact on residents front-of-mind.

Antonio has lived by that creedo. In 2024, he took control of East Rutherford Grantwriting and began to work with county, state and federal stakeholders to bring money back to the Borough. That led to $4 million in grants for parks, police safety equipment, senior trips and transportation, and other tax-relief efforts. In response to Federal SNAP cuts in 2025, Antonio also began weekly food drives. Despite SNAP being re-instated, the borough continued food drives and outreach to those in need as it recognized an area where it could help residents directly.

Community and Affordability

By building a community-first Borough, we can represent the needs of all of our residents. Children of working-class parents, Antonio knows that it isn’t right to constantly raise the tax burden on families just because we can. In 2023 as President of the East Rutherford Board of Education, Antonio launched free, universal pre-K for all residents. This program, fully funded by state aid, allows for all children of East Rutherford to receive a quality education. This program saved parents tens of thousands of dollars as they no longer had to pay private daycare.

On council, Antonio always looks for alternate revenue sources to keep taxes low. He makes sure to maintain the same quality of service from our DPW, Police, Fire and EMS while offsetting costs with grants, shared services and facilities rentals. Every dollar counts when it comes to making sure that our residents are able to stay in their homes.

Transparency

Building proper feedback loops to accept public input means nothing if we are not transparent on our decisions. As East Rutherford Board of Education President, Antonio led the effort to livestream Board meetings.

On Council, Antonio launched Coffee with a Councilman for residents to bring up concerns in a more low-key setting. He’s also brought county and federal representatives to town events such as the Fall Festival to allow residents to meet and ask questions of their representatives. Working with Councilman DeRosa, Antonio has also published videos and updates to social media to make sure that residents are kept in the loop about what goes own in town.

Antonio believes that the only way to move East Rutherford forward is to do so together.