Blog

Alex appointed to serve on Newark’s Information Technology Transition Team

I was excited and humbled to be asked to help provide Newark with guidance, ideas and energy to help them plan for future IT innovations. It's a great opportunity to help a great city, and a chance to help create meaningful connections between Newark and South Orange. You can read the press release from the Village below: On Wednesday, Newark Mayor-elect Ras Baraka announced his transition team for the City. Village President Alex Torpey was asked to serve on the mayor-elect’s Information Technology transition subcommittee, bringing to the table his range of experience with technology deployments in South Orange as well his private sector experience as a partner of Veracity Media, the digital consulting firm he founded.   “I’m humbled to be asked to join so many other local leaders in helping continue to move Newark forward. I think we all know that the future of any of our communities in New Jersey is reliant on more cooperation and collaboration across municipal boundaries. We all have a lot to learn from each other, and I’m excited for the opportunity to be part of that process for the City of Newark. And strengtheningSouth Orange's relationship with Newark, especially from an IT...



May 12th 2014 Board of Trustees Summary

You can find the latest summary from our Board meetings here! Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions!



Videos from Belfast Technology Conference

Watch below, the panel: How are cities like Belfast more and more embracing a culture of innovation? Watch Kainos's Tom Gray chair a discussion with then Mayor of Belfast Mairtin O Muilleor, Martin Reilly; Mayor of Derry, Mike Savage; Mayor of Halifax, Canada, and Alex Torpey; Mayor of South Orange, NJ. 


From the Village - April 17th 2014 Board of Trustees Summary

After our own internal discussions and agreement from the Board that the more ways that we can help summarize and share information about what happens during the Board meetings the better, my administration will now be releasing a short summary of the prior Board meeting after each one. These summaries aren't the official record, but rather one sustainable, institutionalized place (rather than having it written by one particular elected official), where people can go to get information on what happened in the last Board meeting. Check it out on the South Orange website.



Meet your Future Village Presidents

One of the most important things a public servant can do is help inspire those who will one day replace them. Even though we've been hard at work in town, with a budget that’ll include what’s likely to be the lowest tax increase since the 1990s, the groundbreaking with Jonathan Rose Companies on the 215 rental unit, 533 parking space, LEED-silver mixed-use project on Third and Valley, getting a $340k grant for the Fire Department and $150k for the library and so much more, investment in our future is still a top priority, and not just from a budgeting perspective. This was more clear to me than ever this past December, when I was speaking to classes at South Mountain elementary. A third grade student asked whether a woman could be mayor. After explaining that fortunately people are much more open minded than they used to be about politics, and that with hard work and the right motivations, anyone can be anything, I was inspired by the reaction from the young girl, who clearly from this moment forward was determined to hold public office. In recognition of this student's interest in civics participation, I began the "Village President For A Day" program in...