West New York doc kicks off campaign for mayor and recall drive!

by Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal

Conner Jay/The Jersey Journal – West New York doctor Felix Roque kicked off his bid for mayor this morning -more than two years before the election in 2011.

The next election for commissioners in West New York is more than two years away, but it’s never too early to get started as far as Dr. Felix E. Roque is concerned.

Plus, there’s work to get done now, said Roque, a Cuban-born doctor and Army Reservist, at a breakfast meeting of more than 300 supporters this morning at the Schuetzen Park catering hall in North Bergen.

Roque, 52, announced he’s gunning for the position of mayor — which the five elected commissioners select — and will immediately start collecting petition signatures to recall incumbent Silverio “Sal” Vega.

A West New York resident for more than three decades, Roque said he represents the people dissatisfied with higher taxes, a growing deficit and quality of life issues such as potholes and filthy streets.

Promising to end municipal incompetence, waste and abuse, Roque, who has a pain relief practice on 60th Street in West New York, compared the township to a patient who needs surgery, not a “political bandage.”

“There is an absence of leadership and resolve in the hall and this has to a decline in municipal government,” Roque said. “Mr. Vega is a career politician riding on the success of Congressman Albio Sires.”

In a phone interview this afternoon, Vega said he has complete confidence in the town’s Police Department, Department of Public Works and award-winning school system.

As far as the town’s tax levy and potential budget gap, Vega said those figures won’t be known until the state announces financial aid figures.

A spokesman for Vega described an attempt to recall the mayor as “divisive” and “highly unlikely to succeed.”

“A recall is very difficult to deliver and I dont think it would be in the best interests of West New York,” Vega added. “We have an election cycle and the next one is in 2011. I respect anyone who wants to run for office then.”