Politics & Government

Meet Bob Keller: Parsippany Council Candidate

Robert 'Bob' Keller will run against Louis A. Valori, Robert J. Peluso, Bob Crawford and Mihir Oza.

Parsippany Patch has reached out to local candidates to find out more about them. Check out Parsippany Patch's Election Hub for information on all candidates. Here is information from J. Robert “Bob” Keller.

  • Keller has lived in Lake Parsippany for 35 years
  • Party Line: Democrat
  • Age: 61
  • Family: Married to wife, Connie, for nearly 40 years.  Two sons: Jonathan, age 26 and Michael, age 20
  • What is your education background?  BA from California State University
  • Why do you think you are qualified for this position?    I believe more important than my career history is my history of service to those around me.  Those organizations are listed below.  Rest assured that if an organization is listed, I put my all into it.  I don’t believe in memberships in name only.  If you’re a part of an organization, then participate in the goals of that organization.  I would offer no less dedication to serving on Council.  For many others, Council has been shown to be a warm-up bench before moving on to other positions.   My only ambition is to serve you on Council and be the best at that as I can be.   My career involved working for some of the world’s largest companies including Procter & Gamble, Amerada Hess and Royal Dutch Shell.  My last position was with Standard & Poors, a subsidiary of the McGraw-Hill Companies, where I served as Executive Editor and followed the oil and gas industry.  In many of those positions I was responsible for staff and departmental budgeting
  • Why are you running for this elected office?    Connie and I have spent nearly all of our married life in Parsippany.  We relocated to New Jersey from our hometown, Pittsburgh, PA, and lived in Rockaway for three years before deciding that Parsippany would be the place that we would settle and buy our first home.  When we started thinking about family and a larger home, we knew we had to stay in Parsippany.  We found our second, and current, home just three blocks away from the first.  We liked the things we saw in Parsippany – an active and growing park system, a school system that was very well-regarded and great services from the town, i.e. water, sewer, trash collection, snow plowing, etc.  But Parsippany, like all of the communities around us, has grown.  Some of that growth has been good, and, of course, some not so much.  Much of the direction of that growth lies in the hands of our Administration, including the Council.  Council must be able to recognize the needs of the community and must be able to keep pace as those needs change.  I’m in a unique position having started my life in Parsippany as a near-newlywed buying our first home. 
  • What are the three issues that most concern you? The cost of living in Parsippany, Ensuring the quality of life that we all desire is maintained and Preparing Parsippany for our children’s future.
  • Explain your proposed approach to managing these issues. 
  • The cost of living increasing is a forgone conclusion.  Towns, just like businesses and families have, for the most part, only two ways of managing those increases:  increase revenue and/or decrease expenses.  I think many possibilities exist in both of these areas that haven’t yet been explored.  For example:  we need to increase the tax base.  A lot of out office and commercial space is vacant right now.  Those businesses are not coming back as we knew them.  Their operation styles have evolved and changed. I would like to explore re-purposing some of that space by offering limited retail and small professional office space in some of the larger, empty office parks.  The infrastructure is already in place to support this – roads, parking, utilities, etc.  And best of all, it does not require destruction of any of our open space!  This could help shift the tax burden back to Parsippany’s businesses and away from its residents.  Also, incentives could be explored to renovate our office and commercial buildings to make them more attractive to businesses shopping for space.
  • We have a great mix of neighborhoods across Parsippany and each of them deserves the same attention from the town to ensure that their integrity and safety is ensured.  The easy answer is to say we need more police on the street.  That may be true, but that costs money.  We have one of the most highly recognized police forces in the nation, but it’s currently understaffed.  If we really want what we say we want – clean, safe neighborhoods, then we have to be prepared to bear the cost.  My ideas as stated above for increasing tax revenues from our business sector is designed to provide that revenue.
  • I’m not wistfully looking to make Parsippany what it once was.  That’s irresponsible and unrealistic.  But, we can take the best from our heritage and build and improve on it to make it even better for our future.  For example: Our system of parks and playgrounds is one of the best in the county.  I would work to ensure that we only improve that system by maintaining them, perhaps with shared services from our Board of Education.  Both the town and the school system would benefit.
  • Have you held elected office before? Please provide details of what position and for how long.  Not elected office, but I have been a member of the Planning Board since 1996 and currently serve as Vice Chairman of the Board as well as Chairman of the minor Site Plan Committee of the Planning Board.
  • What organizations do you belong to? I am a member of the Lake Parsippany Volunteer Fire Co., Inc. for 31 years.  Served as its president for 13 years and have held the offices of vice president, secretary, financial secretary and am currently a trustee. I am an active member of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Parsippany, a past president of the Club and a past president of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Parsippany Foundation.  I was named Kiwanian of the Year in 2000 and am a George F. Hixson Fellowship recipient.  I hold the Tablet of Honor, the highest award that can be presented to an active Kiwanis member. I am a member of the Morris County Multi-Organ Transplant support group and actively support the NJ Sharing Network. I am a Certified Lay Servant with the United Methodist Church and am currently the Lay Leader of the Parsippany United Methodist Church
  • Campaign and Websites: www.NelsonforMayor.com and https://www.facebook.com/BobKellerForParsippany
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    Editor's Note: Patch will be posting these candidate questionnaires in the order that they are received back. For candidates who have not heard from Patch, please contact Kim@patch.com.


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