News and Updates
August 8, 2025: Mayor Chris Tamburro Seeks Re-Election to the Verona Township Council
Verona, NJ: Dr. Christopher Tamburro has announced his campaign for re-election to the Verona Township Council in the November 4, 2025 nonpartisan municipal election. Tamburro was first elected to the Township Council in 2021 and has served as the mayor since 2023.
“Over the last four years, the Township Council, working as a team with administration, department heads, and outside experts, has made great strides in meeting the evolving needs of our community,” notes Tamburro. “Given another four-year term, I will ensure that Verona is in an even better position in 2029.”
During his term, the Council has addressed many longstanding and acute issues that were threatening the resilience, safety, and security of the community. The Township revised the master plan and started efforts to update the zoning code to meet current and future needs. They addressed stormwater management and flood mitigation including making commonsense revisions to the tree removal ordinance. The Council worked to bring Township drinking water wells back online after state and federal agencies changed regulations pertaining to permissible levels of water contaminants. They thoughtfully assessed road reconstruction needs and used the opportunity to install updated water mains and leak detection systems.
The governing body constructed an accessible playground for which installation had been delayed for several years, renovated dilapidated tennis courts into a pickleball and tennis facility, and recently broke ground on the much-needed renovation of Everett Field. The Council invested in training and equipment for the police department which expands law enforcement capabilities and continues to build positive community relations. The Township is currently making deliberate efforts to address the problem of critical deficiencies in public safety infrastructure and to close the revenue gap at the Verona Community Pool.
Tamburro has worked deliberately to balance the significant needs of the Township with affordability for residents. He poses thought-provoking questions to department heads on operational budgeting, staffing needs, and long-term planning. As Mayor, he has collaborated with the Township administration to ensure that all non-emergent capital fund requests are presented in one plan so that the Council can debate the merits of proposals and set fiscal priorities. This past year, he worked with the township manager to remove over $750,000 of projects from the year’s capital spending plan. He has fought against unreasonable fee increases, championed shared services agreements like the shared municipal court with North Caldwell and Essex Fells which has saved the Township hundreds of thousands of dollars in personnel and operational costs.
Tamburro has worked to expand government transparency by providing detailed context and information to the public on agenda items during council meetings. He has successfully called for more documents and records to be easily accessible online to the public, which in the short-run resulted in better posting of information and in the long-run has resulted in investment into a modern records management system that will aid in this goal. He encourages public participation and feedback, often meeting with and calling individual residents and responding to comments in real time during public meetings. His calls for more frequent and detailed official communication from the Township have helped to result in expanded resident engagement.
As a Township Council and Planning Board member, Tamburro actively rejects overdevelopment in favor of smart and reasonable projects. He has leveraged his negotiations experience to suggest strategies to reduce the number of units and bedroom counts in pending developments to limit the impact on our schools and maintain the quality of life for all residents. He has committed to voting against any ordinance change that allows expanded multi-family development and accessory dwelling units in existing residential zones.
A township resident for 15 years, Tamburro offers a vision for Verona that maintains its small-town character and community spirit while planning for future challenges and changing social, political, and economic climates. “We must work together to preserve the Verona community that we know and love, which requires us to not just respond to immediate concerns but also be proactive by anticipating and planning for new challenges. Circumstances have forced us to address issues of the past and present, but we must really look to the future,” observed Tamburro.
“Such strategic planning requires councilmembers to possess diverse experiences that they can leverage for the good of the community,” he continued. A long-time public servant, Tamburro has been a high school economics, law, politics, and history teacher in Verona for 17 years. He is EMT certified and has been a member of the Verona Rescue Squad since 2009. Chris was appointed a deputy emergency management coordinator for the Township in 2016, and has worked on Verona’s disaster planning, mitigation, response, and recovery efforts.
Tamburro brings to Verona his 10 years of experience as a consultant in labor relations, contract negotiations, and analysis of public budgets. He is an adjunct lecturer at Caldwell University on matters of public and private administration, mentoring doctoral candidates in the educational leadership program on policy development and implementation. Hi biographical record has been published in the 2025 edition of Who’s Who in America.
Tamburro invites all those interested in learning more about Chris’ platform or connecting with him to visit christamburro.com, at facebook.com/tamburroforcouncil, and Instagram.com/tamburroforcouncil.