Former Byram Township Mayor Is a Candidate for His Old Position

BYRAM — Former Byram Township Mayor Eskil 'Skip' Danielson has announced his candidacy for the office of Mayor in the upcoming election.

The 42-year resident of Byram Township has been involved in civic activity and public service for most of his life, but he emphasizes that he is not a politician. He said, “Politicians make many promises...so you will re-elect them. Knowledgeable government practitioners will only promise to keep the true needs of community and the taxpayers in mind at all times and paramount in all decisions despite a possible negative impact on re-election.”

Danielson’s professional background is law enforcement. He came to Byram in 1971 and served as chief of police from 1971 to 1993. He has graduate degrees from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and University of Virginia through the FBI National Academy. He has taught at the County College of Morris.

During the 1980s he campaigned for changing Byram’s system of government to the non-partisan, council-manager form specified by the Faulkner Act. He was fired from his job five times for doing so, but was reinstated every time.

In 2002, observing the Byram Township Council’s inability to make a decision on the need to make improvements to Route 206, he responded to a request to run for Mayor. He was re-elected in 2005 and in 2007 was joined by two council members who had similar views. The Route 206 improvement project has been under way for many months, with much public frustration.

In 2009 he found budgeting conditions that were causing unauthorized use of nearly a million dollars of the taxpayers’ money. He brought that to the attention of the responsible parties and with state intervention the problem was addressed and rectified.

“Under a ‘politician,’ it may never have been addressed.” he said.

Danielson left office in 2009; however, he attends nearly every Council meeting, often expressing his opinions in the public participation points on the agenda. He attends Planning Board meetings as well. He is critical of the current Township administration for, in his opinion, inadequately attending to the health of the Township’s business community. He says, “Byram has a reputation of being unfriendly to business and commercial development. This has got to change.”

Danielson will be running against incumbent Mayor James Oscovitch and Councilman Carlos Luaces in the November 2013 election.