Business View Magazine - June 2016 133
base. I think it’s worth noting that the East Orange Golf
Course is not situated within the municipal boundaries
of our four square-mile city. It’s situated on land that
the City of East Orange owns in the Livingston/Short
Hills area of Essex County. The Short Hills zip code is
one of the most affluent zip codes in the country. So,
there’s no way, we’re not going to make money on that
asset in that location. These investments we’re mak-
ing are truly affecting and transforming people’s lives
on a day-to-day basis.”
Taylor talks about other ways in which his administra-
tion is attempting to serve the residents of the city.
“We are fighting every day for working families,” he
says. “In 2014, we became the fourth city in the state
and the eighth city in the country to adopt a paid sick
leave ordinance. And we’re the only city to date, to my
knowledge, to have done so with the support of our
local Chamber of Commerce. We were able to cre-
ate that strategic relationship to convince business
owners that it made good economic and good health
sense to provide this benefit for working families.”
East Orange has approximately 980 city employees,
about half of whom are represented by the Commu-
nications Workers of America. “This year,” Taylor says,
“we were able to ratify a contract with our local CWA
union, wherein we were, and to my knowledge, are,
the first city in the state and nation to implement a
$15-an-hour wage for our municipal workers and the
only one to do it within the collective bargaining pro-
cess. A lot of cities and states are doing it through or-
dinances subject to the availability of funds, or they’re
issuing statements and resolutions trying to convince
and persuade the private sector to pay workers a liv-
able wage. In East Orange, we’re providing that livable
wage for our largest employee union - many of whom
live in the city they work in.”
Public safety is also a source of pride for the city’s new
mayor. “Our crime rate, today, is about as low, if not
lower than it was in 1967 - and that’s when the city
East Orange Golf Course
