For Immediate Release

Montclair, NJ- State Senate candidate in the 34th Legislative District, Scott Pollack issued the following statement calling for the four municipalities comprising the district to spend their American Rescue Plan funds to improve police-community relations, and provide additional economic opportunity for the regions most disadvantaged residents.

The four municipalities comprising the 34th Legislative District received funding allocations as follows:

1. Clifton- 28,569,984.51
2. East Orange- 36,714,803.72
3. Montclair- 3,788,227.02
4. Orange- 3,001,092.31

“Municipalities in LD34 and across New Jersey received a one-time windfall from the federal government, and I call on those municipalities as well as our county governments to use those funds to better the lives of our most disadvantaged residents and implement programs to improve relations between community members and their police departments”, stated Pollack. “These funds, especially those received by Clifton and East Orange have the potential to have a real impact on improving people’s lives and I’d like to see them do just not that, not go to political patronage projects or making up for years of financial mismanagement by our local governments.”

“I would like to see a substantial portion of these funds allocated to improving training our police officers receive, and in police departments investing in community outreach programs. This, combined with my prior call that police officers live in the municipality they serve will begin to restore the trust in our police departments and minimize police shootings”, continued Pollack. “These funds should also be allocated in part, to improving economic opportunity for our most disadvantage residents through increased access to school choice and career training and apprenticeship programs. This will create a base of skilled workers to fill the needs of New Jersey manufacturers who currently have job openings but lack the skilled workforce to fill those positions.”

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