March 3, 2025 • 38 mins
How does a local mayor make things happen? And what drives someone to take on that responsibility?
In this episode of No Wrong Choices, we explore the career journey of Mayor John Labrosse, who has led Hackensack, NJ since 2013. From his unconventional path—starting in the seafood business and coaching youth sports—to stepping into public service, Mayor Labrosse shares how he found himself at the heart of his community’s transformation.
He takes us behind the scenes of running a small city, balancing leadership with a full-time job, and navigating the real challenges of local government. Plus, he reveals how lessons from coaching, construction, and even working in Little Italy shaped his ability to lead.
Key Highlights:
- The Unlikely Path to Public Office – How a youth coach and longtime community member became mayor
- Inside Local Government – What a mayor really does in a council-manager system
- Building a Community Legacy – The urban renewal of Hackensack and lessons in city leadership
- How to Get Involved – Advice for those looking to make an impact in their own community
Whether you're interested in leadership, politics, or the power of civic engagement, Mayor Labrosse’s journey is a fascinating look at what it means to step up and serve.
🎧 Listen now on your favorite podcast platform!
To discover more episodes or connect with us:
- website: https://www.nowrongchoices.com/
- instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nowrongchoicespod/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/no-wrong-choices-podcast/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nowrongchoices
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086704773105
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Larry Samuels (00:02):
How does a local mayor make things happen and
what drives somebody to take onthat responsibility?
We'll explore the answers tothose questions and beyond
during this episode of no WrongChoices.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
I'm Larry Samuels, soon to bejoined by Tushar Saxena and
Larry Shea.
Before they step in, please besure to like and follow our show
(00:24):
.
Where you're listening rightnow.
Your support enables us to keepbringing these great journey
stories to life.
Now let's get started.
This episode features the mayorof Hackensack, New Jersey, John
LaBrasse Tushar.
As a native, a resident andcitizen of Hackensack, you are
undoubtedly the right person toset up this conversation, so
(00:47):
take it away, Thank you verymuch there, larry, sam.
Tushar Saxena (00:50):
So yeah, full disclosure.
I have been living in the cityof Hackensack for 15 years.
I have seen this place kind ofgrow from, grow from where the
main street was a one road, wasa one way street, to now where
it is a two-way street andthere's been a huge amount of
urban renewal in this city, soto speak.
(01:10):
So part of this town is verysuburban, a lot of family homes,
and then part of it, as I liketo say, a lot of big buildings,
a lot of urban space.
So this town really has kind oftwo personalities to it and, to
be quite honest, I never reallytook a lot of interest in what
that meant in terms ofHackensack City.
(01:32):
So who runs it?
Now, the odd thing is is thateven though John LaBrasse is the
mayor, he really isn't the guyin charge, which is really
really cool, and you get to kindof see that journey as what it
means to be a mayor on the very,very basic level of running a
city Right.
So running a city basically isit runs the gamut, for whether
(01:53):
you run a city like New York oryou run a small city like like a
Hackensack, new Jersey,everybody has different,
different challenges, and someof the challenges are very much
the same.
Larry Shea (02:04):
Yeah, speaking of full disclosure, I was not on
this episode, but I'm sorry.
No wonder it was so good, Iknew you were going to say that.
No, I'm sorry.
I was not there, though,because it sounds like you guys
had a good time.
I don't know what a mayor does.
I mean, let's be perfectlyfrank about it, and I do think
there is a difference betweenHackensack, new Jersey, and,
(02:24):
like a New York City mayor orLos Angeles, but you're the face
of the community just the same.
And I think he really spellsout what it is that his job is
and kind of gets to the crux ofthe biscuit about hey, here's
what I do every day and this ishow we get things done, and it
sounded like you guys had a lotof fun, so a really good listen
(02:45):
and I learned a lot, absolutely.
Larry Samuels (02:47):
And I will tease everybody with this.
He spent some time in LittleItaly in New York, where he
learned how to be a politician,so stay tuned for that.
So, with no further ado, hereis Mayor John LaBrasse.
Now joining no Wrong Choices isMayor John Labrosse of
Hackensack, new Jersey.
Mayor Labrosse has been inoffice since 2013 and recently
(03:10):
announced that he'll be seekinga fourth term later this year.
Mayor Labrosse, thank you somuch for joining us.
Mayor John Labrosse (03:16):
Oh, you're welcome.
It's great to be here, guys.
Tushar Saxena (03:18):
All right.
So, mayor Labrosse, I am TusharSaxena.
I actually live in new jersey,full disclosure.
I live in Hackensack, NewJersey.
This is the guy who runs mytown.
He's doing a great job.
So, mayor, first question,before we ask you what you do
for a living is would you preferto be referred to as mr mayor,
mayor john Labrosse or justjohn?
Mayor John Labrosse (03:40):
john works for me.
Guys, let's go with perfect,perfect, all right.
Tushar Saxena (03:43):
So, john, first question right off the bat is
what exactly is it that you do?
Mayor John Labrosse (03:48):
Well, I actually have two jobs.
One, obviously, is the mayor ofHackensack and I am also a
safety specialist at HackensackUniversity Medical Center here
in Hackensack, which is quite alarge place 8,000 employees.
So it keeps me busy.
That keeps you pretty busy.
Larry Samuels (04:03):
Absolutely so, Mayor.
Before we go back to thebeginning, just to paint a
picture, what is the role of amayor in a town like Hackensack,
New Jersey?
Mayor John Labrosse (04:14):
Well, it's funny because there's all
different types of governmentthroughout the land, especially
in cities.
We have what's called a councilmanager form of government.
So we have a city council whichconsists of five.
It's actually called a councilmanager form of government.
So we have a city council whichconsists of five.
It's actually called a weekform of mayor.
It's like a part-time position,I guess you would call it.
The city is basically run by acity manager, but we make all
(04:35):
the laws and you know we makethe rules and the laws that
govern Hackensack and we'reinvolved with a lot of different
things redevelopment, stufflike that.
We, you know that's all on thecouncil.
That former government's beenaround, I think, since 1923.
There's only about six or sevenmunicipalities in the state of
New Jersey that use it.
But I like it because it'snonpartisan, which means you
(04:59):
don't run as a Democrat orRepublican or an independent.
Oh, interesting, yeah, we allrun.
However, you know, you just run.
It doesn't matter what you are.
Your job Exactly.
And the mayor is actually notvoted on by the public.
The mayor is voted on by thecouncil once the election is
over, and actually I was electedat first in 2009 as the
(05:20):
councilman.
I sat there with four years, Iwas the only one to get in.
And then 2013, we, 2013, I, I,we ran a new ticket slate of
people and, uh, we swept thatyear and I've been going ever
since.
Tushar Saxena (05:33):
Yeah, you've been sweeping ever since the guys
what 15 and 0, I believe.
Um.
So, john, uh, I guess I'll,I'll, I'll ask this before I
actually ask you.
You know, what kind of what didyou want to do, as you know,
when you were younger?
I guess the question is, youknow, does it matter whether
you're a Republican or aDemocrat on the mayoral level?
I?
Mayor John Labrosse (05:51):
don't think so.
I mean I would like to see alllocal governments be nonpartisan
, because it forces people towork together.
Nothing's better than havingDemocrats and Republicans on the
same council working together.
You know you get differentpoints of views and even whether
you're all Republicans orDemocrats, you're not going to
get along on everything.
So I just think it suits thepublic better.
(06:14):
I think the public, it's fairto the public to have people
from each side of the aisle onyour council.
Think about it the House, orthe Senate, was all one.
Tushar Saxena (06:23):
Yeah, exactly.
Oh it'd be great, perfectexample.
Larry Samuels (06:30):
We'd be living in much simpler times.
There's no question about that,right, right.
So, john, take us back to thebeginning.
Who was a young John LaBrasse,and I guess my follow-up to that
would be the people that yougrew up with.
Would they be surprised thatthere's a mayor in front of your
name today?
Mayor John Labrosse (06:42):
Yeah, it's funny because I actually I was
born in Jersey, raised in Jersey, moved.
My mother was divorced when Iwas eight or nine Well, actually
when I was four, but when I waseight or nine she remarried and
I lived here in Hackensack atthat time and we moved to
Scottsdale, arizona, which backin the day was, like you know,
here I am a nine-year-old littleboy moving to the westmost
(07:04):
western town with cowboys andhorses.
Tushar Saxena (07:08):
It must have felt like being on another planet
right oh it was great, it was atrip.
Mayor John Labrosse (07:12):
I mean literally when I moved to
Scottsdale the horses still hadto ride away on the road and
that makes me sound like I'm 150years old, but that was back in
the 60s or maybe early, yeah,early sixties.
So yeah, it was a trip and uhspent my time out there and went
to high school out there,graduated high school, was
(07:33):
supposed to go to Arizona state,but I decided I had a brother
who lived here still and uh,instead of going to college back
there, I uh out there, I packedmy bags, packed my car and
drove cross-country and movedback to New Jersey.
I've pretty much been here eversince.
Tushar Saxena (07:51):
So, after you come back to the East Coast,
saying essentially that you didnot bother going to college,
what was the next step for you,john?
So then, what did you then getinto at that point?
Mayor John Labrosse (08:01):
Well, my brother's wife's family was in
the seafood business and endedup working in the seafood
business for years, had my ownseafood place for a while.
I've worn a lot of differenthats and I think that helps me
as a mayor, I've been a chef,I've worked in the seafood
business, I've been in trades inconstruction, so I've done a
(08:24):
lot of different things in mylife and I really have learned
from, you know, was able to takea little bit of everything from
all those different trades tohelp me along the way.
Larry Samuels (08:33):
What did you when you were a chef?
What were you making?
What's your expertise?
Mayor John Labrosse (08:37):
I was the saute chef at a place called the
Finn and Claw, which is nowSeasons Restaurant up in
Washington Township, New Jersey.
Worked at a couple othersmaller places.
My brother-in-law had a placein New Milford, but the best
place to ever work was thislittle clam bar in downtown
Little Italy called LittleCharlie's.
It was famous at the time andwas a lot of characters, if you
(09:00):
know what I mean.
Moving in and out of that place.
Larry Samuels (09:02):
I can't imagine.
I can't imagine.
Yeah, it was good.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:06):
The famous line I got from Charlie, who was
my boss, was you don't hearanything, you don't say anything
.
Tushar Saxena (09:11):
You don't know nothing.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:13):
Exactly.
Larry Samuels (09:14):
When was that?
Was that 80s, early 80s, 70s?
Tushar Saxena (09:17):
Early 80s.
Larry Samuels (09:17):
Early 80s.
What a great time in New.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:19):
York and I actually have two kids.
Larry Samuels (09:21):
What an interesting time in New.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:22):
York.
You guys are familiar with SanGennaro Feast.
Larry Samuels (09:25):
I'm sure, of course.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:25):
Absolutely.
I had a clam stand, a seafoodstand, in San Gennaro for eight
years and that was a trip,another learning experience
along the way, I'm sure youweren't seeing anything or
hearing anything there either.
No, no, no no, yeah, I couldoffline, I could tell you some
really good stories about that.
Larry Samuels (09:43):
That was crazy.
Yeah, you probably learned alot about politics at that time
too.
That was probably how youstarted to get your street
smarts about you, if that is theright way to put it.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:51):
Fine line between what goes on back then,
over there, and politics ingeneral, fine line between the
two.
Tushar Saxena (09:57):
So what prompted you to want to go into politics?
To be more of a bigger part ofthe community.
To be more of a bigger part ofthe community.
Mayor John Labrosse (10:03):
So it was back.
You know I work at the hospital, but the hospital was building
a new cancer center and therewas a developer's agreement.
A lot of my friends werefiremen at the time.
There was a developer'sagreement that included getting
rid of eight of our firemen whowere EMT trained firemen.
Basically, they were theambulance service for the city.
(10:23):
There were a lot of peopleagainst it in the city and when
I say a lot, I mean a lot.
There were lawn signseverywhere called Save the Eight
because they didn't want theseeight guys fired.
But they ended up getting ridof them and taking over the
ambulance service.
But while doing that, going toall these meetings, people were
(10:44):
nudging me oh, you should runfor city council.
I didn't have a political bonein my body, really, but I get
nudged and nudged.
And I talked to my wife andsaid you know what, maybe I
should do this.
And we put a ticket together.
There were five of us and, likeI said before, I was the only
one to get on.
So I sat there with my fouropponents for four years.
But I had a lot of support fromthe public because they liked
(11:08):
what I did during the Save theEight campaign.
So I did my four years there.
We put another ticket togetherin 2013, and that's when I was
elected as mayor and that wasthe start of it.
Larry Samuels (11:19):
So you've been around, you're working, you've
been in the area for a long time, you know the people.
But is there a process you gothrough to, to prepare yourself
to, to run an election, to todevelop the chop, so to speak,
to to win?
Mayor John Labrosse (11:35):
Yeah, it was.
Yeah.
When you first start I mean, wecertainly weren't seasoned
veterans at this, but there's alot of work.
There's a lot of.
In order to run, you have toget petitions signed, which is
about 400.
You have to go out and getliterally get 400 people to sign
for you just to be able to run,which is, you know, it's a
little bit of a task.
When you're first starting,that's a lot easier now because
(11:56):
we have a base, but when you'restarting out it's not.
It's not that easy, but we wereable to do it.
And uh, you know, thank God forthat, save the eight campaign,
cause that really, really Ithink uh was the thing that got
me in on that first run.
Larry Samuels (12:12):
Is there beyond that, like knowing that you're
going to be doing a lot ofpublic speaking, assuming that
you're going to be doing debatesand things of that nature, like
is that, can you learn thatstuff?
Or or was it all second natureand natural?
Mayor John Labrosse (12:26):
Yeah Well, you kind of thrown it to the
fire.
You know it's uh, I was never apublic speaker before but I
found I felt pretty comfortabledoing it in most places.
I uh I don't have an issue ofspeaking in public and uh, it's,
you kind of get to have funwith it, Like you guys I'm sure
with with you know, when you'reinterviewing people, you know it
becomes enjoyable after a whileand you know when you're
(12:47):
dealing with the public.
You can have a lot of fun withit.
Tushar Saxena (12:49):
So when you say your first time around you had
to get 400 signatures, what doesthat mean?
You're knocking on doors.
You're talking to folks.
What's that process like?
Mayor John Labrosse (12:58):
Yeah, back then it was.
You know a lot of phone callshey, I'm running for office.
We just signed our petitions.
Tushar Saxena (13:04):
You know there was five phone calls that you
have to make before you gotsignature number one.
Mayor John Labrosse (13:14):
Uh was, it wasn't that many.
You know I, I spent a lot of.
I was a youth coach in town for15 plus years, three different
sports, so it was very visiblein the name in the community
Right.
Um, that was also a big plusfor getting elected the first
time.
I mean half the people you knowI've coached hundreds and
hundreds of kids in this townthrough the years and was a huge
help.
So I coached football, Icoached baseball and I coached
wrestling, especially wrestling.
(13:35):
Both my boys were wrestlers.
So, and in each sport you guys,I know you guys are involved
with sports.
I know you guys, I think youwork for one of the sports
networks, don't you?
Tushar Saxena (13:46):
Yeah, Well, I'm over at CBS and for many years
we Larry Larry Samuels and I,one of our co-hosts, who's not
here with us today we actuallyhosted a sports show at Sirius
radio for many years.
So yeah we're, we're pretty,we're pretty much ingrained in
the, in the sports culture, forsure.
Mayor John Labrosse (14:03):
Yeah, so you pretty much ingrained in the
in the sports culture, for sure.
Tushar Saxena (14:07):
Yeah, so you know how passionate parents are
about sports.
Mayor John Labrosse (14:08):
Oh, my god, way too passionate sometimes,
whether it's whether it'skindergarten or in college, if
your kids in the sport, uh, youknow you're, you're in, uh neck
deep with them.
So, uh, yeah, that was a bighelp for me, um, but it's a lot
of work.
There's a lot of door-to-door.
The campaigning is a lot ofwork.
I mean you wear out your doorto door.
The campaigning is a lot ofwork.
I mean you wear out your shoes.
I mean Hackensack's not thatbig of a town as far as walking
goes.
We try to walk the whole cityand you know there's a good
(14:32):
month or two of campaigningwhere you just every night
walking, every weekend walking,knocking on doors, introducing
yourself to people, you know,asking them what their issues
are, and that really is the bestway to do it.
You got to get out there andmeet the people.
Tushar Saxena (14:47):
So, John, when you're first beginning this
journey into now, you know,being into politics, you
mentioned a moment ago that youknow you were a youth coach.
You coached a number ofdifferent teams and got to know
the community that way.
How important was it for you tohave not only that, your own
profile amongst the community,but for you to get to know the
community.
How important was it for you tohave that kind of experience,
(15:10):
that life experience, before youreally entered this venue?
Mayor John Labrosse (15:13):
Well, I can honestly say, of all the things
I really, really enjoyed themost in my life, it was coaching
kids and, of course, beingcompetitive.
We had some architects put out,some great athletes, some great
teams for sure, especiallyespecially football, wrestling
baseball as well.
Tushar Saxena (15:31):
but high school's right down the street from me.
Mayor John Labrosse (15:32):
Absolutely, yeah yeah, and you know you're,
I've always lived by the ruleyour high school is only as good
as your junior sports teams.
Um, it's, it's a great feelingto uh get kids to a another
level, bring them, you know,bring up their, how good they
are.
And another thing is you don'twrite it.
You know one thing I learned isnever write off a kid.
A lot of coaches do that andyou never know what they're.
(15:54):
You know what they're going togrow up to be and how good
they're going to be, and I'veseen kids that I thought would
not be that good end up beingthe, you know, the star of the
high school football team.
So you know you never writeanybody off and you treat
everybody fairly and, uh, youknow everybody gets their shot
and, uh, I really enjoyedcoaching.
If I could do it all over again, I would.
Larry Samuels (16:13):
So you get into office and you know, as we're
coming out of a political season, I'm thinking about, uh, the
letter that Joe Biden left forDonald Trump at his desk
afterwards, Like, is there apassing of the baton from one
administration to the next?
You know what happens in mayorland, so what?
Mayor John Labrosse (16:34):
happened in my mayor land is the day our
first day in we basically openedup the cash drawer for the city
and found out.
Tushar Saxena (16:42):
It was empty.
Mayor John Labrosse (16:43):
No, I wish it was just empty.
And we were $33 million in debtwhich I didn't know about, and
I was a councilman for fouryears.
So you know, I was never never,you know given privy to the
information and it was quite ashock.
So we we had to do some quickscrambling.
But I have a deputy mayor whowas a brilliant lady, very smart
(17:04):
, very good with numbers.
She was actually an aerospaceengineer back in the day when
there were very few women inthat field probably a handful
and, yeah, very smart, and weput together a program on how to
pay this off.
But we also knew we were goingto have to bring revenue into
the city somehow.
Now Hackensack, back in the daylet's go back to the 50s, 60s
(17:28):
and 70s was where the countyseat.
We were the shopping mecca ofBergen County.
There were no malls.
Malls didn't exist.
Malls came in in the mid-70sand right here we had the Bergen
Mall, right outside ofHackensack and Paramus, and when
the malls came it really hurtnot just Hackensack but almost
all the downtowns in BergenCounty and most of them
(17:53):
recovered pretty quickly, but wedidn't.
There were some things.
I don't know if you're familiarwith Main Street, but Main
Street was made into a one-waystreet which is not conducive to
shopping.
It's not conducive to anythingexcept getting out of town
really.
And we knew we had to changeall that and we put a program
(18:15):
together.
We made it a two-way again, weredid the streetscape sidewalks,
we separated the sewers.
All this took a lot of moneyand a lot of it was based on
redevelopment A lot of theseapartment buildings, you see,
you see River Road, down thatarea and down by Fashini Park,
(18:42):
and we put about 3,000 newcitizens in the downtown area
already.
So that's a big plus for us.
There's a program the state putout to help downtowns like
Hackensack, who were strugglingfor years.
I mean, I'll put it this wayTwelve years ago Hackensack was
not even safe to walk thedowntown.
(19:02):
Yeah, at five o'clock at nightthe businesses closed, the
shades came down.
Uh, you'd have anywhere from 50to 100 homeless people on the
street every night.
You know camping out and youknow just didn't not belonging
there.
We found that other towns, whenthey had a homeless person,
would put them in a cop car anddrop them off on Main Street.
In Hackensack, oh, wow.
(19:23):
That's how bad it was.
And we put an end to all that.
We came up with this initiativecalled the Quality of Life
Initiative, working with theBergen County Shelter, and we
were able to get a lot of thosepeople, some help off the
streets, and it was a a blessingand it's, you know, haven't
really seen that problem since,and now when I go down main
street, even at six, seven inthe morning, I see people
(19:44):
jogging, walking their dogs.
You know the coffee shops areopen and business is brisk.
So it's a.
It's a totally different vibefrom from a decade ago all right
.
Tushar Saxena (19:55):
So, mr mayor, um, and I will attest you know I
have been, I've now lived inHackensack for about almost 15
years at this point, so I haveseen the tremendous, the
tremendous change that'shappened.
And I got to admit I was not.
I was not happy when we changedthe main street to a two way
street.
I've just been so used to itgoing one way.
It was easier for me that way.
But I agree, now it makes somuch more sense the other way.
(20:17):
It makes sense having MainStreet be a two-way street.
It makes 100% sense.
My question to you, I guess, isthis when you now put together
and now as a mayor, youobviously have to put together a
team, as you said, the town'snot run by a mayor, the city's
not run by a mayor, it's run bya city council.
So, when you put together ateam, are you looking for as you
(20:41):
mentioned a moment ago, one ofthe members of your team is, you
know, is great with numbers.
So, if you're putting togetherthat type of account, that type
of a group, are you looking forpeople who are able to do one
thing very well they do, thisperson does one thing very well
something to kind of augment sothat where the the sum of the
parts make the whole that muchbetter.
Mayor John Labrosse (21:00):
Yeah, that's a great question We've
had.
We've had some differentplayers on the council through
the through the last fourcouncils and the one thing I've
learned is everybody has theirplace.
You know, a couple of guys werelike me.
There were coaches for years.
Right now there's there's twoon the council.
One was a soccer guy, the otherone was an athletic director in
(21:25):
high school, so he's got a lotof sports experience, the
financing part and all that.
You know.
I mentioned the deputy mayor.
That's hers and she really islike the kingpin and driving
force with the redevelopment.
But yeah, you want to have amix of people and we all do
different things and I almostlaugh because being a mayor for
(21:46):
me is almost like, you know, I'mlike the lead singer in a rock
band, right, right.
So that's you know, I'm likethe front guy, but I think it's
more.
It's a personality thing andjust being able to get after've
got to have thick skin.
I'll tell you that much becauseyou put up with a lot of stuff
sometimes, but you've got to beable to listen to people and
(22:08):
digest what they're actuallysaying to you and look at things
from their point of view,because these are taxpayers and
they have their rights and theyhave the right to express their
feelings.
When they come to a councilmeeting, we try to address
everything we can.
What's the hardest part of thejob.
There's a lot of name,especially, I'm going to say,
since COVID and some of thenonsense that's gone on in the
(22:30):
country for the last few years.
Things have, people havechanged.
I've noticed people havechanged a lot, especially with
the social media as it is now.
But yeah, it's been a crazyride.
I mean, it's something I neverin my life, you know, I don't
know if it's ever happened toyou guys, but you end up in a
(22:50):
position sometimes you're like,wow, how'd I get here?
But I've enjoyed it, it's good.
What I really enjoy is, youknow, like I said, I said with
the, with the kids, coaching thekids, and you see them as they
grow and get better.
I see that with the city aswell.
And, uh, of all the things, Ithink that's probably helped me
the most to be the mayor isprobably the coaching, cause you
have to deal with a lot ofdifferent people.
Tushar Saxena (23:11):
You've obviously seen Hackensack now as a I would
say uh, uh, say the least, as alongtime resident.
You've seen change.
You've seen changes and you'veobviously been part of that
major change.
What do you take the most pridein at this point?
The change that has happened inthe city that you've seen over
these years.
Mayor John Labrosse (23:31):
Well, the best part for me is you always
want to be proud of where youlive and knowing what Hackensack
was like back in the day whenit was a vibrant downtown, um,
and then seeing it kind of fallby the wayside and being able to
bring that back in today'sworld because the malls are
still there, you know.
(23:52):
So we were able to do this with.
You know the malls people stillgo shopping all the time to the
mall, but it's a different,different type of downtown now
with a lot of people living onit.
People walk the streets.
They're not getting in theircar and leaving to go get
something.
They can buy stuff right on.
They can go out to eat or go tothe pubs or whatever, and I
(24:13):
really enjoy it.
I enjoy going downtown myself.
I wish more people would usedowntown.
Tushar Saxena (24:19):
Which is your favorite spot downtown?
Mayor John Labrosse (24:21):
uh, my favorite restaurant.
Uh, I don't want any hurtanybody's feelings, but that
would go.
That would go with casualbottom.
My buddy benny owns it.
Tushar Saxena (24:30):
Oh, I love that place.
Yes, absolutely love that placea great little vibe.
Mayor John Labrosse (24:34):
Uh, he has that place.
He has a place in new milford,and there's also a vietnamese
place called Pho Saigon, which Ilove.
So but they're all good.
We've got Churro Pot.
We've got some greatrestaurants downtown and it's
it's a lot different than it was.
You could have the bestsandwich.
Tushar Saxena (24:50):
One of the best sandwich places in Bergen County
is right here in Hackensack.
Yes, absolutely.
Mayor John Labrosse (24:56):
What are you talking about?
Yeah, exactly, the number one.
Yeah, absolutely.
Larry Samuels (25:01):
What are you talking about?
Yeah, exactly the number one.
What's it like when you walkinto those places?
You know, I live in a condo inNew York City and I've been
approached multiple times to runfor the board and every single
time I say thank you whilerunning in the opposite
direction, because the lastthing I want is, when I come
home at the end of the day, isfor somebody to approach me and
say hey, I'm having this problem.
(25:21):
I really don't want to hearthat, I just want to go home.
So I imagine, being the mayorof a town, no matter where you
go, you must always be on Like,are you able to disconnect from
the job?
And I guess, do you want todisconnect from the job ever?
Mayor John Labrosse (25:40):
Yeah, well, you got to have some downtime
and you know what'll happenYou'll crash and burn.
But uh, yeah, and it's, it's,it's even a little, you know, a
little twist on working at thehospital with as many employees
we have.
You know, I get people.
Can you hand me their parkingticket?
Can you fix this?
Can you do that?
Can you do this?
And you know, and, uh, you know, tell them, no, I can't fix it
(26:02):
if you parked illegally.
That's your problem.
I get parking tickets, for god'ssake, and I'm the mayor, so you
know, pay pay your, pay yourticket type of deal, but uh,
yeah, you get it.
This morning I had an issue Ihave every morning.
I have a safety meeting at 8 30and somebody brought up that a
manhole cover was off down onatlantic street and uh, you know
, thank god they saw it, becauseI called the city manager, he
(26:24):
called the dpw and I wentreplaced the the manhole cover.
Somebody could have beeninjured.
But uh, yeah, you get stufflike that all the time.
You get.
You know, we get uh nixlealerts as well, which all the
citizens have access to let youknow what's going on in the town
, if there's a power outage orif there's street closures,
whatever, and that helps a lotbecause it goes out and it stops
(26:47):
a lot of calls from coming in.
Tushar Saxena (26:49):
Obviously, you take a great deal of pride in
civic service at this point.
Obviously, you've been a mayorfor so long You've been on the
city council.
You take a great deal.
You have been a pillar of thecommunity in terms of being a
coach as well, so you take agreat deal of pride in being
civically involved.
How do you see that in terms ofthe younger generation in
Hackensack?
Do you still see that?
Mayor John Labrosse (27:11):
It's changed.
I think the demographicschanged in Hackensack a bit.
You know we're a population offorty to 50 000.
You know that fluctuates.
Um, it's like I look at thesports programs today, a lot of
the numbers are down, whichconcerns me when it's going back
to sports like baseball, forinstance.
We just have five, six hundredkids in our program.
(27:33):
Now you're in the 200s.
But other sports have now comeout that are, you know, a lot of
kids are doing year-round stuff, club stuff, and they focus on
one sport.
Years ago everybody played two,three sports.
So things have changed.
But we still have some strongprograms.
But we could be doing betterthere, absolutely.
Tushar Saxena (27:54):
What advice do you have, let's say, to someone
who wants to get involved theway you have in their community
and eventually kind of move upthe ladder?
I mean, is there a realblueprint for how to do this?
Is there a real map to do this?
Mayor John Labrosse (28:12):
Well, what we do.
We have a lot of differentboards in town.
We have zoning board, we haveplanning board, we have
environmental commissions.
We have a lot of different.
You know we have planning board.
Um, we have environmentalcommissions.
We have a lot of different.
You know, we have shade treecommission.
I mean numerous library boards.
So we try to steer people whowant to get involved and want to
volunteer into those boards andget them on boards and and and.
From there we kind of keep aneye on who's you know who's
(28:34):
doing good and who's doing what.
Um, you know, our, ourelection's coming this May and
this is definitely my last one,because I'm getting up there and
I'm pretty much you know.
Tushar Saxena (28:47):
Yeah, but you know how everything runs at this
point, come on.
Mayor John Labrosse (28:50):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you always want to finishthe job and we're just about
done.
So I know this next four yearsis crucial to get to the point.
We need to get to the moneycoming.
The revenue coming in fromthese new buildings is
substantial, but we've also goneout and done close to $80
million worth of infrastructurework for the city, which nobody
(29:12):
was doing it, yeah, andespecially sewer work and sewer
separation work especially sewerwork and sewer separation work.
So we built a new recreationcenter.
We're in the middle of startingbids for the indoor sports
facility, which would be theonly one of its kind in Bergen
County, more than a fullfootball soccer field indoor
facility, kind of like a bubbledown by Johnson Park.
(29:36):
We're putting the money to gooduse, let's put it that way, and
this is all being paid forthrough redevelopment, through
the money that's coming in.
Tushar Saxena (29:46):
Are you happy with what your legacy will be,
regardless of what happens inMay?
Are you happy what your legacywill be?
Larry Samuels (29:52):
Yeah, I could leave today and I'd be proud of
what I've done absolutely.
Mayor John Labrosse (30:01):
What do you consider to be your greatest
achievement?
Just the main street.
I redeveloped my main streetand the vibe we've created
downtown, you know, probablywould be my greatest achievement
, Though for me personally, youknow I'm still going to hang in
with the coaching thing.
Tushar Saxena (30:20):
Is that what's gonna be next after you, after
you finally call it a careerwith this?
You're gonna go back tocoaching well, I have uh six
grandkids.
Mayor John Labrosse (30:26):
Three of them are wrestling right now,
wow, coach them you got a wholeteam right there.
Well, both both my sons arecoaches now, so I'm gonna kind
of take a back seat.
I'll be.
I'll be standing next to himduring a wrestling match and
yell something out, and my sonwill look at me like what are
you doing?
I say, hey, you learned fromthe best.
Yeah, exactly.
Larry Samuels (30:45):
That's what you're supposed to be doing.
Mayor John Labrosse (30:46):
That is exactly what your role is at
this point we have we have a lotof fun with the sport.
Larry Samuels (30:51):
I have one last question for you, which which is
sort of a random one.
When, when I think about amayor, I think about ribbon
cutting ceremonies and I thinkabout kissing babies and things
of that nature, Is there a funthing, a random memory that you
have from being mayor that kindof falls into that fun, crazy
(31:17):
thing you got to do because ofthe role that you were in.
Mayor John Labrosse (31:20):
Well, the ribbon cuttings are great.
We've done a ton of ribboncuttings in town because we've
opened so many new businesses,so they're always fun.
And I wasn't even mayor yet.
But my favorite moment inpolitics was at a debate,
because the group I was withback in 2009 to 13 used to
rotate the mayor's positionevery year.
Tushar Saxena (31:42):
How did that work ?
Mayor John Labrosse (31:42):
Which to me yeah to me was like made no
sense because nobody knew whothe mayor was, right, right.
So here we are in a debate andsomebody asked do you plan, if
you win, do you plan on rotatingthe mayor?
And I said absolutely not.
And they said why not?
And I explained why.
And then I I looked in theaudience and I said everybody up
(32:04):
on this panel please be quiet.
I said the lady in the blue,blue blouse there.
I said who's the mayor inHackensack right now?
And it wasn't me.
Yet she had no idea I go.
Anybody in the room know who themayor is.
There's like 200 people in theroom.
Nobody knew who the mayor was.
So I was blown away.
I just reinforced that it'simportant to have whether it's
(32:24):
mayor or whoever it is thatfigurehead.
You've got to have that personthere and you've got to.
You know people know that I'mthe mayor.
So that's important Not for me,but it's important that they
know who their mayor is.
And that was probably my catchmoment.
That was like stuck with methrough the years.
I always enjoy telling thatstory.
Tushar Saxena (32:45):
So, John, then what's that piece of advice you
want to give to someone whowants to kind of follow that
path?
What is that?
If someone wants to becivically involved, not just in
Hackensack, but just in generalin their own communities, what
is that piece of advice?
Mayor John Labrosse (32:59):
What should they do?
Well, number one you have thatpassion to do it.
Just like anything else in life.
If you don't have a passion forit, don't bother doing it.
You have to have a passion todo it.
You want to be able to helppeople.
You've got to love yourcommunity.
You've got to have a drivingforce behind you.
In my case, it was bringingHackasack back from being a
horrible downtown to a greatdowntown again, and we've done
(33:24):
that.
Yeah, you've got to have thickskin, all right, but you don't
need.
Like I said, I didn't go tocollege.
I'm a blue-collar worker,always have been in the trades,
and anybody can do it.
If I can, you know, anybody cando it.
If I could do it, anybody coulddo it.
Guys, that's the way I look atit.
All right, here's a guy whogrew up in the seafood business,
(33:45):
you know, was a carpenter, wasa painter, did all kinds of
different things, was a chef.
And here I am, you know, mayorof a town of 50,000 people.
So anything's possible if youput your mind to it.
Don't let anybody.
Larry Samuels (34:03):
Well, and with that, it's a perfect campaign
setup for Mayor John LaBrasse2025.
John, it's such great advice.
It's so interesting to seeinside of a local community in
this way, which I don't thinkwe've really had the chance to
do before.
So, you know, thank you for thetime that you gave us and good
(34:27):
luck.
Tushar Saxena (34:28):
Appreciate it.
You got my vote, Mayor.
I think you've done a hell of ajob with the town.
Mayor John Labrosse (34:32):
Thanks.
Tushar Saxena (34:32):
Appreciate it, guys.
Larry Samuels (34:34):
So that was Mayor John LaBras such an interesting
character.
In a way, it sort of felt likehe was right out of central
casting.
Larry Shea is the outsider whowasn't in this conversation.
What are your takeaways as alistener?
Larry Shea (34:51):
You guys did a great job on that one.
I didn't realize you could havea second job as the mayor.
I thought that was aprerequisite, right.
Like oh no, we're electing you,but you know he went through the
election process.
It's a little different.
I get it.
So he's allowed to have asecond job.
Pretty cool.
I love the fact that he's justdone so many different jobs and
(35:12):
I really think that helps him asmayor because he's able to kind
of put himself in the situationof his constituents and that
matters right.
You need to understand whatthey're going through to get
these jobs done.
So I thought that was veryinteresting and coaching helped
him manage people right.
He talked about coaching.
He referred to it a couple oftimes, so I thought that was
(35:34):
really interesting.
I could totally see that howyou're guiding people and
getting them onto your team andgetting them to think the way
you want to think to get thingsdone, because ultimately that's
what it's about to make Tushar'sworld better in Hackensack, new
Jersey.
Mayor John Labrosse (35:46):
Isn't that what we're all responsible for
doing?
Tushar Saxena (35:51):
We just have to get a better nickname for this
town, that's the only thing weneed the sack.
Larry Shea (35:56):
Oh my God.
And the last thing I'd say ishey, he's a wrestler, so he
knows how to grapple right.
So something to be said forthat.
He knows how to get the jobdone, get down in the trenches
and get it done.
I love that.
Tushar Saxena (36:09):
The one thing and I'm very happy he said this
when I asked him this questionwas on a granular level it does
not matter if you're aRepublican or a Democrat when it
comes to running a city,because what is your actual
responsibility as a mayor and asa member of a town council?
You want to make sure that theroads are paved, that the
(36:33):
streetlights are on, that crimeis kept at a minimum.
These are the very basic things, like the very basic
infrastructure, that we all livein a city together.
So it doesn't really matter ifyou're a Republican or a
Democrat in that sense.
Right, because Democrats andRepublicans use the roads,
democrats and Republicans usethe sewers, democrats and
Republicans use the sidewalks.
(36:53):
So there's no way to really saywell, you know, I only want to
make it work for one person, notfor another party.
We all have to work together.
I kind of love the idea that.
You know, in some senses yourun as a team, you don't run as
a party.
At least in Hackensack that'show it works.
So you vote for this X team torun the city or the other team
(37:14):
to run the city.
It's not John LaProsse Democrator John LaProsse Republican in
that sense.
So in that way it's very, veryegalitarian.
Larry Samuels (37:27):
And I'm very much a believer and supporter of
that that type of government.
Now for sure.
I thought it was interestinghow his job was to depoliticize
things rather than the opposite.
One of my key takeaways wasabout being able to separate
from the job, and I made acomment during the episode that
they've asked me to run for mybuilding board multiple times,
and every time they say it, Ifind a new way to say no.
(37:50):
I try to do it as respectfullyand thoughtfully as possible,
because when I come home I donot want to deal with complaints
and as the mayor of a town likethat, I mean, you're on all the
time and he made it sound notso bad, et cetera, et cetera.
But it's clear that he loves it.
It's who he is.
He's been coaching, he works inthe local hospital Like this is
(38:12):
who he is, he is doing exactlywhat he should be and
everybody's really lucky thatthey've got him on the job.
Tushar Saxena (38:18):
Now, for those who don't know, hackensack
actually is the capital ofBergen County, where I live.
So I live in the capital cityof Bergen County.
So that means there's a lot ofresponsibility here, and I
enjoyed the fact that he saidhey, look, you know, if you want
to get involved in your localgovernment, part of it is just
making yourself known, right,you got to go out there and say,
hey, I want to kind of be partof, I want to be part of the
(38:40):
solution, rather than, you know,always complaining when you go
to, when you go to city councilmeetings.
Be part of the solution, andthat's a good way to get
everyone involved in theircommunity.
That's probably the best way tocontinue to try and maintain a
positive move forward for anycommunity.
Larry Samuels (38:56):
Absolutely Well.
It's very clear that they havefigured all of that out, and I
do have to throw this in beforewe break for today and I feel
like we somehow failed by notbringing up the Hackensack Bulls
and Monty Brewster, so I'mgoing to throw that in, right
now.
Mayor John Labrosse (39:12):
We have to get that in there somewhere.
Larry Samuels (39:15):
Long live Monty Brewster and the Hackensack
Bulls.
So with that, mayor JohnLaBrasse, thank you so much for
joining us and good luck withyour upcoming election that's
being held this May.
We also thank you for joiningus.
If this episode made you thinkof someone who could be a great
guest, please send us a notethrough the contact page of our
website at norongchoicescom.
(39:37):
While you're there, pleasecheck out our blog for a deeper
look into each of our guests andepisodes, as mentioned at the
start.
Don't forget to like and followus on your favorite podcast
platform and to connect with uson social media.
You can find us on LinkedIn,instagram, facebook, youtube,
tiktok and X.
Your support helps us to keepbringing these incredible
(39:59):
stories to life.
On behalf of Larry Shea, tusharSaxena and me, larry Samuels,
thank you again for joining us.
We'll be back next week withanother inspiring episode of no
Wrong Choices.
How does a local mayor make things happen and
what drives somebody to take onthat responsibility?
We'll explore the answers tothose questions and beyond
during this episode of no WrongChoices.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
I'm Larry Samuels, soon to bejoined by Tushar Saxena and
Larry Shea.
Before they step in, please besure to like and follow our show
(00:24):
.
Where you're listening rightnow.
Your support enables us to keepbringing these great journey
stories to life.
Now let's get started.
This episode features the mayorof Hackensack, New Jersey, John
LaBrasse Tushar.
As a native, a resident andcitizen of Hackensack, you are
undoubtedly the right person toset up this conversation, so
(00:47):
take it away, Thank you verymuch there, larry, sam.
Tushar Saxena (00:50):
So yeah, full disclosure.
I have been living in the cityof Hackensack for 15 years.
I have seen this place kind ofgrow from, grow from where the
main street was a one road, wasa one way street, to now where
it is a two-way street andthere's been a huge amount of
urban renewal in this city, soto speak.
(01:10):
So part of this town is verysuburban, a lot of family homes,
and then part of it, as I liketo say, a lot of big buildings,
a lot of urban space.
So this town really has kind oftwo personalities to it and, to
be quite honest, I never reallytook a lot of interest in what
that meant in terms ofHackensack City.
(01:32):
So who runs it?
Now, the odd thing is is thateven though John LaBrasse is the
mayor, he really isn't the guyin charge, which is really
really cool, and you get to kindof see that journey as what it
means to be a mayor on the very,very basic level of running a
city Right.
So running a city basically isit runs the gamut, for whether
(01:53):
you run a city like New York oryou run a small city like like a
Hackensack, new Jersey,everybody has different,
different challenges, and someof the challenges are very much
the same.
Larry Shea (02:04):
Yeah, speaking of full disclosure, I was not on
this episode, but I'm sorry.
No wonder it was so good, Iknew you were going to say that.
No, I'm sorry.
I was not there, though,because it sounds like you guys
had a good time.
I don't know what a mayor does.
I mean, let's be perfectlyfrank about it, and I do think
there is a difference betweenHackensack, new Jersey, and,
(02:24):
like a New York City mayor orLos Angeles, but you're the face
of the community just the same.
And I think he really spellsout what it is that his job is
and kind of gets to the crux ofthe biscuit about hey, here's
what I do every day and this ishow we get things done, and it
sounded like you guys had a lotof fun, so a really good listen
(02:45):
and I learned a lot, absolutely.
Larry Samuels (02:47):
And I will tease everybody with this.
He spent some time in LittleItaly in New York, where he
learned how to be a politician,so stay tuned for that.
So, with no further ado, hereis Mayor John LaBrasse.
Now joining no Wrong Choices isMayor John Labrosse of
Hackensack, new Jersey.
Mayor Labrosse has been inoffice since 2013 and recently
(03:10):
announced that he'll be seekinga fourth term later this year.
Mayor Labrosse, thank you somuch for joining us.
Mayor John Labrosse (03:16):
Oh, you're welcome.
It's great to be here, guys.
Tushar Saxena (03:18):
All right.
So, mayor Labrosse, I am TusharSaxena.
I actually live in new jersey,full disclosure.
I live in Hackensack, NewJersey.
This is the guy who runs mytown.
He's doing a great job.
So, mayor, first question,before we ask you what you do
for a living is would you preferto be referred to as mr mayor,
mayor john Labrosse or justjohn?
Mayor John Labrosse (03:40):
john works for me.
Guys, let's go with perfect,perfect, all right.
Tushar Saxena (03:43):
So, john, first question right off the bat is
what exactly is it that you do?
Mayor John Labrosse (03:48):
Well, I actually have two jobs.
One, obviously, is the mayor ofHackensack and I am also a
safety specialist at HackensackUniversity Medical Center here
in Hackensack, which is quite alarge place 8,000 employees.
So it keeps me busy.
That keeps you pretty busy.
Larry Samuels (04:03):
Absolutely so, Mayor.
Before we go back to thebeginning, just to paint a
picture, what is the role of amayor in a town like Hackensack,
New Jersey?
Mayor John Labrosse (04:14):
Well, it's funny because there's all
different types of governmentthroughout the land, especially
in cities.
We have what's called a councilmanager form of government.
So we have a city council whichconsists of five.
It's actually called a councilmanager form of government.
So we have a city council whichconsists of five.
It's actually called a weekform of mayor.
It's like a part-time position,I guess you would call it.
The city is basically run by acity manager, but we make all
(04:35):
the laws and you know we makethe rules and the laws that
govern Hackensack and we'reinvolved with a lot of different
things redevelopment, stufflike that.
We, you know that's all on thecouncil.
That former government's beenaround, I think, since 1923.
There's only about six or sevenmunicipalities in the state of
New Jersey that use it.
But I like it because it'snonpartisan, which means you
(04:59):
don't run as a Democrat orRepublican or an independent.
Oh, interesting, yeah, we allrun.
However, you know, you just run.
It doesn't matter what you are.
Your job Exactly.
And the mayor is actually notvoted on by the public.
The mayor is voted on by thecouncil once the election is
over, and actually I was electedat first in 2009 as the
(05:20):
councilman.
I sat there with four years, Iwas the only one to get in.
And then 2013, we, 2013, I, I,we ran a new ticket slate of
people and, uh, we swept thatyear and I've been going ever
since.
Tushar Saxena (05:33):
Yeah, you've been sweeping ever since the guys
what 15 and 0, I believe.
Um.
So, john, uh, I guess I'll,I'll, I'll ask this before I
actually ask you.
You know, what kind of what didyou want to do, as you know,
when you were younger?
I guess the question is, youknow, does it matter whether
you're a Republican or aDemocrat on the mayoral level?
I?
Mayor John Labrosse (05:51):
don't think so.
I mean I would like to see alllocal governments be nonpartisan
, because it forces people towork together.
Nothing's better than havingDemocrats and Republicans on the
same council working together.
You know you get differentpoints of views and even whether
you're all Republicans orDemocrats, you're not going to
get along on everything.
So I just think it suits thepublic better.
(06:14):
I think the public, it's fairto the public to have people
from each side of the aisle onyour council.
Think about it the House, orthe Senate, was all one.
Tushar Saxena (06:23):
Yeah, exactly.
Oh it'd be great, perfectexample.
Larry Samuels (06:30):
We'd be living in much simpler times.
There's no question about that,right, right.
So, john, take us back to thebeginning.
Who was a young John LaBrasse,and I guess my follow-up to that
would be the people that yougrew up with.
Would they be surprised thatthere's a mayor in front of your
name today?
Mayor John Labrosse (06:42):
Yeah, it's funny because I actually I was
born in Jersey, raised in Jersey, moved.
My mother was divorced when Iwas eight or nine Well, actually
when I was four, but when I waseight or nine she remarried and
I lived here in Hackensack atthat time and we moved to
Scottsdale, arizona, which backin the day was, like you know,
here I am a nine-year-old littleboy moving to the westmost
(07:04):
western town with cowboys andhorses.
Tushar Saxena (07:08):
It must have felt like being on another planet
right oh it was great, it was atrip.
Mayor John Labrosse (07:12):
I mean literally when I moved to
Scottsdale the horses still hadto ride away on the road and
that makes me sound like I'm 150years old, but that was back in
the 60s or maybe early, yeah,early sixties.
So yeah, it was a trip and uhspent my time out there and went
to high school out there,graduated high school, was
(07:33):
supposed to go to Arizona state,but I decided I had a brother
who lived here still and uh,instead of going to college back
there, I uh out there, I packedmy bags, packed my car and
drove cross-country and movedback to New Jersey.
I've pretty much been here eversince.
Tushar Saxena (07:51):
So, after you come back to the East Coast,
saying essentially that you didnot bother going to college,
what was the next step for you,john?
So then, what did you then getinto at that point?
Mayor John Labrosse (08:01):
Well, my brother's wife's family was in
the seafood business and endedup working in the seafood
business for years, had my ownseafood place for a while.
I've worn a lot of differenthats and I think that helps me
as a mayor, I've been a chef,I've worked in the seafood
business, I've been in trades inconstruction, so I've done a
(08:24):
lot of different things in mylife and I really have learned
from, you know, was able to takea little bit of everything from
all those different trades tohelp me along the way.
Larry Samuels (08:33):
What did you when you were a chef?
What were you making?
What's your expertise?
Mayor John Labrosse (08:37):
I was the saute chef at a place called the
Finn and Claw, which is nowSeasons Restaurant up in
Washington Township, New Jersey.
Worked at a couple othersmaller places.
My brother-in-law had a placein New Milford, but the best
place to ever work was thislittle clam bar in downtown
Little Italy called LittleCharlie's.
It was famous at the time andwas a lot of characters, if you
(09:00):
know what I mean.
Moving in and out of that place.
Larry Samuels (09:02):
I can't imagine.
I can't imagine.
Yeah, it was good.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:06):
The famous line I got from Charlie, who was
my boss, was you don't hearanything, you don't say anything
.
Tushar Saxena (09:11):
You don't know nothing.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:13):
Exactly.
Larry Samuels (09:14):
When was that?
Was that 80s, early 80s, 70s?
Tushar Saxena (09:17):
Early 80s.
Larry Samuels (09:17):
Early 80s.
What a great time in New.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:19):
York and I actually have two kids.
Larry Samuels (09:21):
What an interesting time in New.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:22):
York.
You guys are familiar with SanGennaro Feast.
Larry Samuels (09:25):
I'm sure, of course.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:25):
Absolutely.
I had a clam stand, a seafoodstand, in San Gennaro for eight
years and that was a trip,another learning experience
along the way, I'm sure youweren't seeing anything or
hearing anything there either.
No, no, no no, yeah, I couldoffline, I could tell you some
really good stories about that.
Larry Samuels (09:43):
That was crazy.
Yeah, you probably learned alot about politics at that time
too.
That was probably how youstarted to get your street
smarts about you, if that is theright way to put it.
Mayor John Labrosse (09:51):
Fine line between what goes on back then,
over there, and politics ingeneral, fine line between the
two.
Tushar Saxena (09:57):
So what prompted you to want to go into politics?
To be more of a bigger part ofthe community.
To be more of a bigger part ofthe community.
Mayor John Labrosse (10:03):
So it was back.
You know I work at the hospital, but the hospital was building
a new cancer center and therewas a developer's agreement.
A lot of my friends werefiremen at the time.
There was a developer'sagreement that included getting
rid of eight of our firemen whowere EMT trained firemen.
Basically, they were theambulance service for the city.
(10:23):
There were a lot of peopleagainst it in the city and when
I say a lot, I mean a lot.
There were lawn signseverywhere called Save the Eight
because they didn't want theseeight guys fired.
But they ended up getting ridof them and taking over the
ambulance service.
But while doing that, going toall these meetings, people were
(10:44):
nudging me oh, you should runfor city council.
I didn't have a political bonein my body, really, but I get
nudged and nudged.
And I talked to my wife andsaid you know what, maybe I
should do this.
And we put a ticket together.
There were five of us and, likeI said before, I was the only
one to get on.
So I sat there with my fouropponents for four years.
But I had a lot of support fromthe public because they liked
(11:08):
what I did during the Save theEight campaign.
So I did my four years there.
We put another ticket togetherin 2013, and that's when I was
elected as mayor and that wasthe start of it.
Larry Samuels (11:19):
So you've been around, you're working, you've
been in the area for a long time, you know the people.
But is there a process you gothrough to, to prepare yourself
to, to run an election, to todevelop the chop, so to speak,
to to win?
Mayor John Labrosse (11:35):
Yeah, it was.
Yeah.
When you first start I mean, wecertainly weren't seasoned
veterans at this, but there's alot of work.
There's a lot of.
In order to run, you have toget petitions signed, which is
about 400.
You have to go out and getliterally get 400 people to sign
for you just to be able to run,which is, you know, it's a
little bit of a task.
When you're first starting,that's a lot easier now because
(11:56):
we have a base, but when you'restarting out it's not.
It's not that easy, but we wereable to do it.
And uh, you know, thank God forthat, save the eight campaign,
cause that really, really Ithink uh was the thing that got
me in on that first run.
Larry Samuels (12:12):
Is there beyond that, like knowing that you're
going to be doing a lot ofpublic speaking, assuming that
you're going to be doing debatesand things of that nature, like
is that, can you learn thatstuff?
Or or was it all second natureand natural?
Mayor John Labrosse (12:26):
Yeah Well, you kind of thrown it to the
fire.
You know it's uh, I was never apublic speaker before but I
found I felt pretty comfortabledoing it in most places.
I uh I don't have an issue ofspeaking in public and uh, it's,
you kind of get to have funwith it, Like you guys I'm sure
with with you know, when you'reinterviewing people, you know it
becomes enjoyable after a whileand you know when you're
(12:47):
dealing with the public.
You can have a lot of fun withit.
Tushar Saxena (12:49):
So when you say your first time around you had
to get 400 signatures, what doesthat mean?
You're knocking on doors.
You're talking to folks.
What's that process like?
Mayor John Labrosse (12:58):
Yeah, back then it was.
You know a lot of phone callshey, I'm running for office.
We just signed our petitions.
Tushar Saxena (13:04):
You know there was five phone calls that you
have to make before you gotsignature number one.
Mayor John Labrosse (13:14):
Uh was, it wasn't that many.
You know I, I spent a lot of.
I was a youth coach in town for15 plus years, three different
sports, so it was very visiblein the name in the community
Right.
Um, that was also a big plusfor getting elected the first
time.
I mean half the people you knowI've coached hundreds and
hundreds of kids in this townthrough the years and was a huge
help.
So I coached football, Icoached baseball and I coached
wrestling, especially wrestling.
(13:35):
Both my boys were wrestlers.
So, and in each sport you guys,I know you guys are involved
with sports.
I know you guys, I think youwork for one of the sports
networks, don't you?
Tushar Saxena (13:46):
Yeah, Well, I'm over at CBS and for many years
we Larry Larry Samuels and I,one of our co-hosts, who's not
here with us today we actuallyhosted a sports show at Sirius
radio for many years.
So yeah we're, we're pretty,we're pretty much ingrained in
the, in the sports culture, forsure.
Mayor John Labrosse (14:03):
Yeah, so you pretty much ingrained in the
in the sports culture, for sure.
Tushar Saxena (14:07):
Yeah, so you know how passionate parents are
about sports.
Mayor John Labrosse (14:08):
Oh, my god, way too passionate sometimes,
whether it's whether it'skindergarten or in college, if
your kids in the sport, uh, youknow you're, you're in, uh neck
deep with them.
So, uh, yeah, that was a bighelp for me, um, but it's a lot
of work.
There's a lot of door-to-door.
The campaigning is a lot ofwork.
I mean you wear out your doorto door.
The campaigning is a lot ofwork.
I mean you wear out your shoes.
I mean Hackensack's not thatbig of a town as far as walking
goes.
We try to walk the whole cityand you know there's a good
(14:32):
month or two of campaigningwhere you just every night
walking, every weekend walking,knocking on doors, introducing
yourself to people, you know,asking them what their issues
are, and that really is the bestway to do it.
You got to get out there andmeet the people.
Tushar Saxena (14:47):
So, John, when you're first beginning this
journey into now, you know,being into politics, you
mentioned a moment ago that youknow you were a youth coach.
You coached a number ofdifferent teams and got to know
the community that way.
How important was it for you tohave not only that, your own
profile amongst the community,but for you to get to know the
community.
How important was it for you tohave that kind of experience,
(15:10):
that life experience, before youreally entered this venue?
Mayor John Labrosse (15:13):
Well, I can honestly say, of all the things
I really, really enjoyed themost in my life, it was coaching
kids and, of course, beingcompetitive.
We had some architects put out,some great athletes, some great
teams for sure, especiallyespecially football, wrestling
baseball as well.
Tushar Saxena (15:31):
but high school's right down the street from me.
Mayor John Labrosse (15:32):
Absolutely, yeah yeah, and you know you're,
I've always lived by the ruleyour high school is only as good
as your junior sports teams.
Um, it's, it's a great feelingto uh get kids to a another
level, bring them, you know,bring up their, how good they
are.
And another thing is you don'twrite it.
You know one thing I learned isnever write off a kid.
A lot of coaches do that andyou never know what they're.
(15:54):
You know what they're going togrow up to be and how good
they're going to be, and I'veseen kids that I thought would
not be that good end up beingthe, you know, the star of the
high school football team.
So you know you never writeanybody off and you treat
everybody fairly and, uh, youknow everybody gets their shot
and, uh, I really enjoyedcoaching.
If I could do it all over again, I would.
Larry Samuels (16:13):
So you get into office and you know, as we're
coming out of a political season, I'm thinking about, uh, the
letter that Joe Biden left forDonald Trump at his desk
afterwards, Like, is there apassing of the baton from one
administration to the next?
You know what happens in mayorland, so what?
Mayor John Labrosse (16:34):
happened in my mayor land is the day our
first day in we basically openedup the cash drawer for the city
and found out.
Tushar Saxena (16:42):
It was empty.
Mayor John Labrosse (16:43):
No, I wish it was just empty.
And we were $33 million in debtwhich I didn't know about, and
I was a councilman for fouryears.
So you know, I was never never,you know given privy to the
information and it was quite ashock.
So we we had to do some quickscrambling.
But I have a deputy mayor whowas a brilliant lady, very smart
(17:04):
, very good with numbers.
She was actually an aerospaceengineer back in the day when
there were very few women inthat field probably a handful
and, yeah, very smart, and weput together a program on how to
pay this off.
But we also knew we were goingto have to bring revenue into
the city somehow.
Now Hackensack, back in the daylet's go back to the 50s, 60s
(17:28):
and 70s was where the countyseat.
We were the shopping mecca ofBergen County.
There were no malls.
Malls didn't exist.
Malls came in in the mid-70sand right here we had the Bergen
Mall, right outside ofHackensack and Paramus, and when
the malls came it really hurtnot just Hackensack but almost
all the downtowns in BergenCounty and most of them
(17:53):
recovered pretty quickly, but wedidn't.
There were some things.
I don't know if you're familiarwith Main Street, but Main
Street was made into a one-waystreet which is not conducive to
shopping.
It's not conducive to anythingexcept getting out of town
really.
And we knew we had to changeall that and we put a program
(18:15):
together.
We made it a two-way again, weredid the streetscape sidewalks,
we separated the sewers.
All this took a lot of moneyand a lot of it was based on
redevelopment A lot of theseapartment buildings, you see,
you see River Road, down thatarea and down by Fashini Park,
(18:42):
and we put about 3,000 newcitizens in the downtown area
already.
So that's a big plus for us.
There's a program the state putout to help downtowns like
Hackensack, who were strugglingfor years.
I mean, I'll put it this wayTwelve years ago Hackensack was
not even safe to walk thedowntown.
(19:02):
Yeah, at five o'clock at nightthe businesses closed, the
shades came down.
Uh, you'd have anywhere from 50to 100 homeless people on the
street every night.
You know camping out and youknow just didn't not belonging
there.
We found that other towns, whenthey had a homeless person,
would put them in a cop car anddrop them off on Main Street.
In Hackensack, oh, wow.
(19:23):
That's how bad it was.
And we put an end to all that.
We came up with this initiativecalled the Quality of Life
Initiative, working with theBergen County Shelter, and we
were able to get a lot of thosepeople, some help off the
streets, and it was a a blessingand it's, you know, haven't
really seen that problem since,and now when I go down main
street, even at six, seven inthe morning, I see people
(19:44):
jogging, walking their dogs.
You know the coffee shops areopen and business is brisk.
So it's a.
It's a totally different vibefrom from a decade ago all right
.
Tushar Saxena (19:55):
So, mr mayor, um, and I will attest you know I
have been, I've now lived inHackensack for about almost 15
years at this point, so I haveseen the tremendous, the
tremendous change that'shappened.
And I got to admit I was not.
I was not happy when we changedthe main street to a two way
street.
I've just been so used to itgoing one way.
It was easier for me that way.
But I agree, now it makes somuch more sense the other way.
(20:17):
It makes sense having MainStreet be a two-way street.
It makes 100% sense.
My question to you, I guess, isthis when you now put together
and now as a mayor, youobviously have to put together a
team, as you said, the town'snot run by a mayor, the city's
not run by a mayor, it's run bya city council.
So, when you put together ateam, are you looking for as you
(20:41):
mentioned a moment ago, one ofthe members of your team is, you
know, is great with numbers.
So, if you're putting togetherthat type of account, that type
of a group, are you looking forpeople who are able to do one
thing very well they do, thisperson does one thing very well
something to kind of augment sothat where the the sum of the
parts make the whole that muchbetter.
Mayor John Labrosse (21:00):
Yeah, that's a great question We've
had.
We've had some differentplayers on the council through
the through the last fourcouncils and the one thing I've
learned is everybody has theirplace.
You know, a couple of guys werelike me.
There were coaches for years.
Right now there's there's twoon the council.
One was a soccer guy, the otherone was an athletic director in
(21:25):
high school, so he's got a lotof sports experience, the
financing part and all that.
You know.
I mentioned the deputy mayor.
That's hers and she really islike the kingpin and driving
force with the redevelopment.
But yeah, you want to have amix of people and we all do
different things and I almostlaugh because being a mayor for
(21:46):
me is almost like, you know, I'mlike the lead singer in a rock
band, right, right.
So that's you know, I'm likethe front guy, but I think it's
more.
It's a personality thing andjust being able to get after've
got to have thick skin.
I'll tell you that much becauseyou put up with a lot of stuff
sometimes, but you've got to beable to listen to people and
(22:08):
digest what they're actuallysaying to you and look at things
from their point of view,because these are taxpayers and
they have their rights and theyhave the right to express their
feelings.
When they come to a councilmeeting, we try to address
everything we can.
What's the hardest part of thejob.
There's a lot of name,especially, I'm going to say,
since COVID and some of thenonsense that's gone on in the
(22:30):
country for the last few years.
Things have, people havechanged.
I've noticed people havechanged a lot, especially with
the social media as it is now.
But yeah, it's been a crazyride.
I mean, it's something I neverin my life, you know, I don't
know if it's ever happened toyou guys, but you end up in a
(22:50):
position sometimes you're like,wow, how'd I get here?
But I've enjoyed it, it's good.
What I really enjoy is, youknow, like I said, I said with
the, with the kids, coaching thekids, and you see them as they
grow and get better.
I see that with the city aswell.
And, uh, of all the things, Ithink that's probably helped me
the most to be the mayor isprobably the coaching, cause you
have to deal with a lot ofdifferent people.
Tushar Saxena (23:11):
You've obviously seen Hackensack now as a I would
say uh, uh, say the least, as alongtime resident.
You've seen change.
You've seen changes and you'veobviously been part of that
major change.
What do you take the most pridein at this point?
The change that has happened inthe city that you've seen over
these years.
Mayor John Labrosse (23:31):
Well, the best part for me is you always
want to be proud of where youlive and knowing what Hackensack
was like back in the day whenit was a vibrant downtown, um,
and then seeing it kind of fallby the wayside and being able to
bring that back in today'sworld because the malls are
still there, you know.
(23:52):
So we were able to do this with.
You know the malls people stillgo shopping all the time to the
mall, but it's a different,different type of downtown now
with a lot of people living onit.
People walk the streets.
They're not getting in theircar and leaving to go get
something.
They can buy stuff right on.
They can go out to eat or go tothe pubs or whatever, and I
(24:13):
really enjoy it.
I enjoy going downtown myself.
I wish more people would usedowntown.
Tushar Saxena (24:19):
Which is your favorite spot downtown?
Mayor John Labrosse (24:21):
uh, my favorite restaurant.
Uh, I don't want any hurtanybody's feelings, but that
would go.
That would go with casualbottom.
My buddy benny owns it.
Tushar Saxena (24:30):
Oh, I love that place.
Yes, absolutely love that placea great little vibe.
Mayor John Labrosse (24:34):
Uh, he has that place.
He has a place in new milford,and there's also a vietnamese
place called Pho Saigon, which Ilove.
So but they're all good.
We've got Churro Pot.
We've got some greatrestaurants downtown and it's
it's a lot different than it was.
You could have the bestsandwich.
Tushar Saxena (24:50):
One of the best sandwich places in Bergen County
is right here in Hackensack.
Yes, absolutely.
Mayor John Labrosse (24:56):
What are you talking about?
Yeah, exactly, the number one.
Yeah, absolutely.
Larry Samuels (25:01):
What are you talking about?
Yeah, exactly the number one.
What's it like when you walkinto those places?
You know, I live in a condo inNew York City and I've been
approached multiple times to runfor the board and every single
time I say thank you whilerunning in the opposite
direction, because the lastthing I want is, when I come
home at the end of the day, isfor somebody to approach me and
say hey, I'm having this problem.
(25:21):
I really don't want to hearthat, I just want to go home.
So I imagine, being the mayorof a town, no matter where you
go, you must always be on Like,are you able to disconnect from
the job?
And I guess, do you want todisconnect from the job ever?
Mayor John Labrosse (25:40):
Yeah, well, you got to have some downtime
and you know what'll happenYou'll crash and burn.
But uh, yeah, and it's, it's,it's even a little, you know, a
little twist on working at thehospital with as many employees
we have.
You know, I get people.
Can you hand me their parkingticket?
Can you fix this?
Can you do that?
Can you do this?
And you know, and, uh, you know, tell them, no, I can't fix it
(26:02):
if you parked illegally.
That's your problem.
I get parking tickets, for god'ssake, and I'm the mayor, so you
know, pay pay your, pay yourticket type of deal, but uh,
yeah, you get it.
This morning I had an issue Ihave every morning.
I have a safety meeting at 8 30and somebody brought up that a
manhole cover was off down onatlantic street and uh, you know
, thank god they saw it, becauseI called the city manager, he
(26:24):
called the dpw and I wentreplaced the the manhole cover.
Somebody could have beeninjured.
But uh, yeah, you get stufflike that all the time.
You get.
You know, we get uh nixlealerts as well, which all the
citizens have access to let youknow what's going on in the town
, if there's a power outage orif there's street closures,
whatever, and that helps a lotbecause it goes out and it stops
(26:47):
a lot of calls from coming in.
Tushar Saxena (26:49):
Obviously, you take a great deal of pride in
civic service at this point.
Obviously, you've been a mayorfor so long You've been on the
city council.
You take a great deal.
You have been a pillar of thecommunity in terms of being a
coach as well, so you take agreat deal of pride in being
civically involved.
How do you see that in terms ofthe younger generation in
Hackensack?
Do you still see that?
Mayor John Labrosse (27:11):
It's changed.
I think the demographicschanged in Hackensack a bit.
You know we're a population offorty to 50 000.
You know that fluctuates.
Um, it's like I look at thesports programs today, a lot of
the numbers are down, whichconcerns me when it's going back
to sports like baseball, forinstance.
We just have five, six hundredkids in our program.
(27:33):
Now you're in the 200s.
But other sports have now comeout that are, you know, a lot of
kids are doing year-round stuff, club stuff, and they focus on
one sport.
Years ago everybody played two,three sports.
So things have changed.
But we still have some strongprograms.
But we could be doing betterthere, absolutely.
Tushar Saxena (27:54):
What advice do you have, let's say, to someone
who wants to get involved theway you have in their community
and eventually kind of move upthe ladder?
I mean, is there a realblueprint for how to do this?
Is there a real map to do this?
Mayor John Labrosse (28:12):
Well, what we do.
We have a lot of differentboards in town.
We have zoning board, we haveplanning board, we have
environmental commissions.
We have a lot of different.
You know we have planning board.
Um, we have environmentalcommissions.
We have a lot of different.
You know, we have shade treecommission.
I mean numerous library boards.
So we try to steer people whowant to get involved and want to
volunteer into those boards andget them on boards and and and.
From there we kind of keep aneye on who's you know who's
(28:34):
doing good and who's doing what.
Um, you know, our, ourelection's coming this May and
this is definitely my last one,because I'm getting up there and
I'm pretty much you know.
Tushar Saxena (28:47):
Yeah, but you know how everything runs at this
point, come on.
Mayor John Labrosse (28:50):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you always want to finishthe job and we're just about
done.
So I know this next four yearsis crucial to get to the point.
We need to get to the moneycoming.
The revenue coming in fromthese new buildings is
substantial, but we've also goneout and done close to $80
million worth of infrastructurework for the city, which nobody
(29:12):
was doing it, yeah, andespecially sewer work and sewer
separation work especially sewerwork and sewer separation work.
So we built a new recreationcenter.
We're in the middle of startingbids for the indoor sports
facility, which would be theonly one of its kind in Bergen
County, more than a fullfootball soccer field indoor
facility, kind of like a bubbledown by Johnson Park.
(29:36):
We're putting the money to gooduse, let's put it that way, and
this is all being paid forthrough redevelopment, through
the money that's coming in.
Tushar Saxena (29:46):
Are you happy with what your legacy will be,
regardless of what happens inMay?
Are you happy what your legacywill be?
Larry Samuels (29:52):
Yeah, I could leave today and I'd be proud of
what I've done absolutely.
Mayor John Labrosse (30:01):
What do you consider to be your greatest
achievement?
Just the main street.
I redeveloped my main streetand the vibe we've created
downtown, you know, probablywould be my greatest achievement
, Though for me personally, youknow I'm still going to hang in
with the coaching thing.
Tushar Saxena (30:20):
Is that what's gonna be next after you, after
you finally call it a careerwith this?
You're gonna go back tocoaching well, I have uh six
grandkids.
Mayor John Labrosse (30:26):
Three of them are wrestling right now,
wow, coach them you got a wholeteam right there.
Well, both both my sons arecoaches now, so I'm gonna kind
of take a back seat.
I'll be.
I'll be standing next to himduring a wrestling match and
yell something out, and my sonwill look at me like what are
you doing?
I say, hey, you learned fromthe best.
Yeah, exactly.
Larry Samuels (30:45):
That's what you're supposed to be doing.
Mayor John Labrosse (30:46):
That is exactly what your role is at
this point we have we have a lotof fun with the sport.
Larry Samuels (30:51):
I have one last question for you, which which is
sort of a random one.
When, when I think about amayor, I think about ribbon
cutting ceremonies and I thinkabout kissing babies and things
of that nature, Is there a funthing, a random memory that you
have from being mayor that kindof falls into that fun, crazy
(31:17):
thing you got to do because ofthe role that you were in.
Mayor John Labrosse (31:20):
Well, the ribbon cuttings are great.
We've done a ton of ribboncuttings in town because we've
opened so many new businesses,so they're always fun.
And I wasn't even mayor yet.
But my favorite moment inpolitics was at a debate,
because the group I was withback in 2009 to 13 used to
rotate the mayor's positionevery year.
Tushar Saxena (31:42):
How did that work ?
Mayor John Labrosse (31:42):
Which to me yeah to me was like made no
sense because nobody knew whothe mayor was, right, right.
So here we are in a debate andsomebody asked do you plan, if
you win, do you plan on rotatingthe mayor?
And I said absolutely not.
And they said why not?
And I explained why.
And then I I looked in theaudience and I said everybody up
(32:04):
on this panel please be quiet.
I said the lady in the blue,blue blouse there.
I said who's the mayor inHackensack right now?
And it wasn't me.
Yet she had no idea I go.
Anybody in the room know who themayor is.
There's like 200 people in theroom.
Nobody knew who the mayor was.
So I was blown away.
I just reinforced that it'simportant to have whether it's
(32:24):
mayor or whoever it is thatfigurehead.
You've got to have that personthere and you've got to.
You know people know that I'mthe mayor.
So that's important Not for me,but it's important that they
know who their mayor is.
And that was probably my catchmoment.
That was like stuck with methrough the years.
I always enjoy telling thatstory.
Tushar Saxena (32:45):
So, John, then what's that piece of advice you
want to give to someone whowants to kind of follow that
path?
What is that?
If someone wants to becivically involved, not just in
Hackensack, but just in generalin their own communities, what
is that piece of advice?
Mayor John Labrosse (32:59):
What should they do?
Well, number one you have thatpassion to do it.
Just like anything else in life.
If you don't have a passion forit, don't bother doing it.
You have to have a passion todo it.
You want to be able to helppeople.
You've got to love yourcommunity.
You've got to have a drivingforce behind you.
In my case, it was bringingHackasack back from being a
horrible downtown to a greatdowntown again, and we've done
(33:24):
that.
Yeah, you've got to have thickskin, all right, but you don't
need.
Like I said, I didn't go tocollege.
I'm a blue-collar worker,always have been in the trades,
and anybody can do it.
If I can, you know, anybody cando it.
If I could do it, anybody coulddo it.
Guys, that's the way I look atit.
All right, here's a guy whogrew up in the seafood business,
(33:45):
you know, was a carpenter, wasa painter, did all kinds of
different things, was a chef.
And here I am, you know, mayorof a town of 50,000 people.
So anything's possible if youput your mind to it.
Don't let anybody.
Larry Samuels (34:03):
Well, and with that, it's a perfect campaign
setup for Mayor John LaBrasse2025.
John, it's such great advice.
It's so interesting to seeinside of a local community in
this way, which I don't thinkwe've really had the chance to
do before.
So, you know, thank you for thetime that you gave us and good
(34:27):
luck.
Tushar Saxena (34:28):
Appreciate it.
You got my vote, Mayor.
I think you've done a hell of ajob with the town.
Mayor John Labrosse (34:32):
Thanks.
Tushar Saxena (34:32):
Appreciate it, guys.
Larry Samuels (34:34):
So that was Mayor John LaBras such an interesting
character.
In a way, it sort of felt likehe was right out of central
casting.
Larry Shea is the outsider whowasn't in this conversation.
What are your takeaways as alistener?
Larry Shea (34:51):
You guys did a great job on that one.
I didn't realize you could havea second job as the mayor.
I thought that was aprerequisite, right.
Like oh no, we're electing you,but you know he went through the
election process.
It's a little different.
I get it.
So he's allowed to have asecond job.
Pretty cool.
I love the fact that he's justdone so many different jobs and
(35:12):
I really think that helps him asmayor because he's able to kind
of put himself in the situationof his constituents and that
matters right.
You need to understand whatthey're going through to get
these jobs done.
So I thought that was veryinteresting and coaching helped
him manage people right.
He talked about coaching.
He referred to it a couple oftimes, so I thought that was
(35:34):
really interesting.
I could totally see that howyou're guiding people and
getting them onto your team andgetting them to think the way
you want to think to get thingsdone, because ultimately that's
what it's about to make Tushar'sworld better in Hackensack, new
Jersey.
Mayor John Labrosse (35:46):
Isn't that what we're all responsible for
doing?
Tushar Saxena (35:51):
We just have to get a better nickname for this
town, that's the only thing weneed the sack.
Larry Shea (35:56):
Oh my God.
And the last thing I'd say ishey, he's a wrestler, so he
knows how to grapple right.
So something to be said forthat.
He knows how to get the jobdone, get down in the trenches
and get it done.
I love that.
Tushar Saxena (36:09):
The one thing and I'm very happy he said this
when I asked him this questionwas on a granular level it does
not matter if you're aRepublican or a Democrat when it
comes to running a city,because what is your actual
responsibility as a mayor and asa member of a town council?
You want to make sure that theroads are paved, that the
(36:33):
streetlights are on, that crimeis kept at a minimum.
These are the very basic things, like the very basic
infrastructure, that we all livein a city together.
So it doesn't really matter ifyou're a Republican or a
Democrat in that sense.
Right, because Democrats andRepublicans use the roads,
democrats and Republicans usethe sewers, democrats and
Republicans use the sidewalks.
(36:53):
So there's no way to really saywell, you know, I only want to
make it work for one person, notfor another party.
We all have to work together.
I kind of love the idea that.
You know, in some senses yourun as a team, you don't run as
a party.
At least in Hackensack that'show it works.
So you vote for this X team torun the city or the other team
(37:14):
to run the city.
It's not John LaProsse Democrator John LaProsse Republican in
that sense.
So in that way it's very, veryegalitarian.
Larry Samuels (37:27):
And I'm very much a believer and supporter of
that that type of government.
Now for sure.
I thought it was interestinghow his job was to depoliticize
things rather than the opposite.
One of my key takeaways wasabout being able to separate
from the job, and I made acomment during the episode that
they've asked me to run for mybuilding board multiple times,
and every time they say it, Ifind a new way to say no.
(37:50):
I try to do it as respectfullyand thoughtfully as possible,
because when I come home I donot want to deal with complaints
and as the mayor of a town likethat, I mean, you're on all the
time and he made it sound notso bad, et cetera, et cetera.
But it's clear that he loves it.
It's who he is.
He's been coaching, he works inthe local hospital Like this is
(38:12):
who he is, he is doing exactlywhat he should be and
everybody's really lucky thatthey've got him on the job.
Tushar Saxena (38:18):
Now, for those who don't know, hackensack
actually is the capital ofBergen County, where I live.
So I live in the capital cityof Bergen County.
So that means there's a lot ofresponsibility here, and I
enjoyed the fact that he saidhey, look, you know, if you want
to get involved in your localgovernment, part of it is just
making yourself known, right,you got to go out there and say,
hey, I want to kind of be partof, I want to be part of the
(38:40):
solution, rather than, you know,always complaining when you go
to, when you go to city councilmeetings.
Be part of the solution, andthat's a good way to get
everyone involved in theircommunity.
That's probably the best way tocontinue to try and maintain a
positive move forward for anycommunity.
Larry Samuels (38:56):
Absolutely Well.
It's very clear that they havefigured all of that out, and I
do have to throw this in beforewe break for today and I feel
like we somehow failed by notbringing up the Hackensack Bulls
and Monty Brewster, so I'mgoing to throw that in, right
now.
Mayor John Labrosse (39:12):
We have to get that in there somewhere.
Larry Samuels (39:15):
Long live Monty Brewster and the Hackensack
Bulls.
So with that, mayor JohnLaBrasse, thank you so much for
joining us and good luck withyour upcoming election that's
being held this May.
We also thank you for joiningus.
If this episode made you thinkof someone who could be a great
guest, please send us a notethrough the contact page of our
website at norongchoicescom.
(39:37):
While you're there, pleasecheck out our blog for a deeper
look into each of our guests andepisodes, as mentioned at the
start.
Don't forget to like and followus on your favorite podcast
platform and to connect with uson social media.
You can find us on LinkedIn,instagram, facebook, youtube,
tiktok and X.
Your support helps us to keepbringing these incredible
(39:59):
stories to life.
On behalf of Larry Shea, tusharSaxena and me, larry Samuels,
thank you again for joining us.
We'll be back next week withanother inspiring episode of no
Wrong Choices.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com