Today, Wilda Diaz announced she is running for re-election as Mayor of Perth Amboy. She is running for a fourth term with wat she calls an undisputed record of accomplishment as Mayor that has put Perth Amboy at the forefront of fiscal responsibility, job creation, development and community investment.  She is running with two recognized local leaders as her running mates; Junior Iglesia and Bernadette Falcon-Lopez who are running to become members of the City Council of the City of Perth Amboy.

“I’m proud of all the many achievements of our administration. We have focused our work on making sure our City’s resources are used to help our community directly,” stated Mayor Diaz.

She specifically highlights the following accomplishments:

1. “Our aggressive response to help Perth Amboy residents during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Thousands of Perth Amboy residents have been pushed to their limits, financially and health wise. One of our first missions was to ensure that every family had enough to eat. You can’t stay healthy if you don’t eat, and you can’t buy enough food to eat right if you’ve lost your job. We’ve worked in partnership with community organizations to provide thousands and thousands of free meals and groceries per week to any Perth Amboy resident who needs help. Between the schools and our community efforts, Perth Amboy has distributed over 250,000 meals, so far, this year.

Further, she said she has instituted an aggressive coronavirus safety education program including strong social media messaging and electronic signs throughout the town reminding people to wear a mask and to social distance.  “Our fight to end this pandemic is far from over, and I am committed to continue to provide the support and necessary vital services that residents will need during the pandemic,” the mayor said.

2. Second, our commitment to fiscal responsibility and discipline allows our City to create a surplus, or “rainy-day fund”, in the city budget. This surplus has allowed us to continue to provide necessary vital services to residents during the pandemic and to aid our small business owners with grants to use in order to prepare for re-opening during this crisis. Fiscal responsibility is about making sure we have the funds to help citizens when needed. I am committed to continue doing so during this crisis.
3. Third, is “our development of brownfields, formerly polluted sites that we have been developed into tax paying, and job creating businesses. We’ve reclaimed sites that no one said could be developed including hundreds of union jobs, and long-term local living wage jobs for city residents.”

“Understand, though, I’m not running on what I’ve done, but on what needs to be done to make sure we come back stronger from this pandemic.

“We need to be prepared for a second wave of the coronavirus which will tax us even more than the current wave. We have already begun preparing for this. This will impact us like no other crisis before us. We need to ensure that people have food, housing and utilities during the coming months. We need to be ready and we need steady and responsible leadership in our City Council to do so.

“That is why I am glad that two community leaders have accepted the challenge of public service and are running for City Council with me.”

Junior Iglesia, a public school teacher for 12 years, is Vice Chair of the Board of Education and Chair of the BOE Finance Committee. He also serves as the Perth Amboy Board of Education’s Urban Schools Delegate. Heavily involved is his community, Junior was co-founder and served as Vice Chair of the Perth Amboy Soccer Club. Mr. Iglesia was, also, Secretary of the Perth Amboy Democratic Organization. He holds a master’s degree in childhood education.

Pastor Bernadette Falcon Lopez is Senior Pastor at God’s Armies Ministries of New Jersey. As Program Director of the Center for Support Success & Prosperity, “Pastor Berny”, as she is affectionately known, provides services for the homeless and those in danger of being homeless, as well as entitlement program assistance and job readiness and self-sufficiency programs.  She, also, provides mentorship, educational, employment, parenting classes, financial literacy and soft skills for pregnant and parenting youth.

As a member of the Perth Amboy Police Chaplaincy, she is trained in suicide prevention awareness, domestic violence awareness, crime scene response and preparedness.  She is Coordinator of the Perth Amboy Domestic Violence Response Team.

Mayor Diaz is the first woman elected Mayor of the City of Perth Amboy, the first Puerto Rican female Mayor in the USA, and the longest serving female Mayor in NJ of a city above 30K citizens.