Hornik, LaRocca, Marder seek mayor, council posts

MARLBORO - The first candidates to announce their intention to run for the offices of mayor and Township Council this year have come forward.

The Marlboro Reform Democratic Club announced this week that Jonathan Hornik, 37, will run for a four-year term as mayor and that Frank LaRocca, 43, and Randi Marder, 36, will run for four-year terms on the council.

At present, the mayor's position is held by Republican Robert Kleinberg, who is in the final year of his first term.

The two council seats that will be up for grabs in the November election are presently held by Republicans Patricia Morelli and Joseph Pernice.

The other members of the council are Republicans Jeff Cantor, Steve Rosenthal and Rosa Tragni.

Hornik is a founding member of the Marlboro Reform Democratic Club and a lifelong resident of Marlboro.

He said, "Our platform is to first and foremost restore balance to Marlboro's current one-party government so that we can work to stabilize taxes and improve services to Marlboro's families, particularly its children and seniors.

"It has been far too long since any major capital improvements were made to the township for the benefit of all residents.

"We need a senior center, new and improved athletic fields for football, soccer and baseball, and new and innovative programs for our teens and seniors in which to participate.

"We will work toward developing a workable economic development plan to attract tax ratables so as to shift more of the tax burden away from homeowners," he said.

"In this environment where municipal corruption continues to be a serious problem, it is particularly troublesome that Marlboro - which is ground zero for the current corruption scandals - has a government that is completely controlled by one party without any checks and balances whatsoever; 16 years of Republican control of the mayor's office is long enough. It's time for a change and for a fresh approach," Hornik said.

According to information provided by the Marlboro Reform Democratic Club, Hornik graduated with honors from the University of Delaware with a bachelor's degree in economics and obtained his juris doctor from Brooklyn Law School and has been a practicing attorney in New York and New Jersey.

He currently serves as vice president and general counsel to a private company in North Jersey.

Hornik serves as a Marlboro youth soccer and Little League baseball coach and is an active member of the Marlboro Jewish Center. He and his wife, Daryl, have three children, Ethan, 8, Olivia, 5, and Sophia, 2 months.

His late father, Saul, was a three-term mayor in Marlboro in the 1980s.

LaRocca has been living in Mon-mouth County since 1980 and has been a resident of Marlboro for seven years. LaRocca is a graduate of William Pat-erson University and Pace University School of Law; he is an attorney practicing in family law with offices in Bergen County and Marlboro.

LaRocca is active in the Marlboro Pop Warner youth football program.

Marder moved to Marlboro from Brooklyn, N.Y., when she was 6 years old. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and a former sales and marketing executive. Marder and her husband, Steve, are the parents of two children, Rosie, 6, and Abbie, 1.