Our Safety,
Our Community,
Our Alpine!


Vote Faisel Hussein for Mayor of Alpine



Welcoming in a New Mayor to Alpine!



This year marks a historical transition for our Alpine Borough as we experience passing the torch from one generation to the next.


In January 2027, I, Faisel Hussein, intend to be sworn in as the next Mayor of Alpine, and will work judiciously to achieve our community’s desire for a new era of transparency, inclusiveness, and vision.


With a central post office, minimal commercialization, private sanitation and other quaint attributes, our borough has nurtured a strong sense of community while preserving significant natural landscapes (Alpine is one of the few towns to receive the prestigious Steering Tree City recognition).


For over four decades, my family has called Alpine “home.” I am delighted that my parents, siblings, and children continue to cherish our quaint surroundings.


In the recent past, our community has been experiencing significant and rapid change including through large-scale real estate developments:

  • The Summit in Alpine, located on Closter Dock Road, is the first townhome real estate development in our borough. This is a historical shift in that it is the first time multi-family complexes and townhouses have been permitted in Alpine.

  • In addition, the Lily Pond Estates, also on Closter Dock Road, are expected to add 40 new dwelling units with 138 new people including 36 children (representing a potential increase of 25% in Alpine School enrollment.)


Many concerns related to such developments have surfaced including increased traffic, impact on our school system, water drainage and potential flooding, uprooting of trees, and others. Many of these items remain unaddressed or open (see Sept 16, 2025 Alpine Planning Board Minutes).








My Involvement



Increases in theft and burglaries during COVID-19, prompted a group of concerned residents to request a meeting with the Alpine Mayor and leadership including the council member serving as Police Commissioner. During the discussion, residents expressed significant concerns and requested for improvements in security. Pushback from leadership was significant and instead of identifying tangible next steps towards improvement, boro leadership recommended residents to "get a dog". There was no desire to embrace forms of modern technology e.g., IR sensors, motion detection, CCTV, drones, AI license plate readers, etc.


Lack of responsiveness motivated me to become more involved in the overall safety and concerns of our community. Since then, I have been active in engaging our elected officials, voicing issues in community safety meetings, attending boro budget planning meetings and presenting questions in council meetings however, unfortunately, most questions continue to go unanswered and the tone leadership utilizes during these interactions remains unnecessarily hostile.


Faisel Hussein public comments and questions
Response to questions

Audio provided from official Alpine Borough Mayor & Council meeting recording.







Leadershiip Approaches



Alpine Borough is characterized as a "weak mayor-strong council" system (NJSA 40A:60-1) which means that council members are responsible for voting on items (note: mayor can vote in the case of a tie). Council members possess full control over drafting, amending, and approving the municipal budget. Council members also set the strategic vision and policy agenda for the municipality.



Current Approach



Under current leadership, the municipal governance style can be described as autocratic and condescending. This approach dissuades average citizens from actively participating in the Alpine Borough not because of lack of interest rather, because they don't want to deal with the level of unnecessary hostility and fear of potential backlash.


Typical response to a public question proffered at a meeting is often, "comment is noted" or "question has been noted" with no answer provided. The current mayor simply ignores the request and moves onto the next topic. And, if one attempts to request further clarity or information, response given by the Mayor is unnecessarily hostile. Note the Mayor's response to his own council member:

YouTube: Council member asks Mayor a question


The current autocratic style of leadership effectively creates a closed-knit system resulting in “more of the same”. This approach limits perspective, knowledge sharing, and incorporation of best practices. As a result, the current system has resulted in poor decisioning.


Some examples include:


Today, the residents of Alpine are dealing with large real estate developments and upheavals on Closter Dock Rd. A better outcome would have been for boro leadership to negotiate a "win-win" scenario for the residents + borough + real estate developers. After many years, and significant tax payer resources, the residents of Alpine have to still contend with increased safety concerns, continued land upheaval, multi-year real estate developments, increased flooding, and growing strains on municipal infrastructure.


Today, the residents of Alpine have lost out on recreational facilities (e.g., tennis courts, circuit training track, pool facilities, etc.) that once were available. A better outcome would have been for boro leadership to structure public-private partnerships (or other investment vehicles) to rehabilitate and keep the activities viable.


Today, the residents of Alpine have lost out on the historic community church. A better outcome would have been for boro leadership to facilitate community engagement and save the church in conjunction with a community hall.


Today, the residents of Alpine still have no common area to enjoy a coffee together. A better outcome would have been for boro leadership to place a coffee cart and barista in the Borough Hall. Not only would residents, staff and employees benefit but the opportunity would allow local brewers to showcase talent and students to earn some extra cash.



Note: Autocratic leadership style has resulted in several lawsuits involving the Borough of Alpine. Some of those cases include lawsuits against the Borough brought by police officers.







New Approach



My path forward is to incorporate a broader approach that is strategic in nature and proactive. Such an approach must be community-focused and inclusive. Our entire boro consists of some 600 homes and 1,700 people. I believe that with proper leadership, we can be a more close knit community with shared interests that also leads to become a SAFER environment.


In order to achieve this, we must be fiscally responsible and proactive to ensure that residents do not have to fund unnecessary costs (e.g., 2x septic coverage, etc.) and that we do not incurr high costs that can result from costly failures due to inaction.


With your support, I would like to change the culture of Alpine’s leadership from stonewalling and reactionary ordinances to a culture of inclusiveness and proactive planning.







Transparency



A shift in governance mindset can be facilitated greatly through increased transparency. Antiquated means of communication and interaction with the boro, especially when dealing with elected officials, limits information exchange, free flow of ideas, inclusiveness, and fails to address concerns which many people may concurrently share e.g., safety and infrastructure are often cited issues that many neighbors are concerned about. I intend to significantly increase transparency and ease of communication though implementation of basic technology items, some examples include:


  1. Official email accounts for each elected member (e.g., council and mayor) to enable direct interaction and record keeping.
  2. Virtual participation for regular municipal governance meetings to facilitate interaction for those unable to attend in-person and solicit more feedback.
  3. ​Official social media account to increase community participation and activity planning.
  4. More information in the municipal budget with links detailing on how funding relates to the boro’s master plan.
  5. Others




Safety & INfrastructure



As mentioned, safety and infrastructure are two issues which neighbors have expressed time and again to me. Upgrading our safety infrastructure can be done through several cost-effective technologies (e.g., smart lighting, IR motion detection, etc.) that can be utilized in conjunction with our police department and public works.

With regard to overall infrastructure, we can access more grant funding and incorporate the use of public-private partnerships to upgrade our community.

In addition, I intend to provide timelines with milestones for municipal projects.

Some potential areas of interest include:

  1. CCTV, IR drones, community watch, AI assisted license plate readers, and other forms of technology to help improve the safety of our neighborhood.
  2. Sidewalks, rail-guards and road crossings - especially near our school and boro pathways - are either in disrepair or non-existent. Addressing these basic safety infrastructure issues is important.
  3. Long-term structural issues resulting from increased levels of flooding result include erosion and property damage. Intensity of flooding has not abated and, instead, appears to continue to worsen over time. We must devise a thoughtful approach on how best to address infrastructure upgrades in a cost-effective manner.
  4. Alpine Swim Club has had the same changing/shower facilities for over 30 years and no pool heater (historically, the facility used to have two tennis courts.) There is ample opportunity to rehabilitate the swim club and make it economically viable through a partnership approach.
  5. During tenure of the old administration, the Alpine Church was sold however, with appropriate municipal leadership, there can be an opportunity to create a joint community facility that will benefit our entire neighborhood.
  6. A proposed walking track has been in process for years and this fiscal cycle received a $51k budget allocation. I intend to provide a clear timeline on when ground breaking will occur on this desired initiative and complete it expeditiously.
  7. Several streets are either poorly lit or not lit at all. With current technology, implementing a low-cost, low-power program is achievable.

Above examples along with other potential initiatives (e.g., dog park, etc.) should be identified though an active feedback loop and then coordinated in a holistic manner to benefit our entire community.





Modern Governance



Several borough ordinances are outdated and/or overly punitive which causes significant headache and financial costs for average everyday citizens trying to live and improve their respective homes. Updating these regulations and streamlining borough transactions will greatly improve quality of life for citizens.


For example:


  1. Alpine’s septic code is twice (2x) more onerous than that of the State of NJ (note: when I asked the prior health inspector why this was the case, the answer I received was highly unsatisfactory.)
  2. Soil movement, even to fill eroded areas, requires permitting, fees, approvals, etc.
  3. Establishing term limits to empower our community to attract new talent, gain new ideas, refresh motivation, and achieve a higher level of civic engagement.


Another important item is to incorporate beneficial new ordinances. For example, requiring a large-scale real estate development to include a traffic impact study, school impact statement, municipal services study, etc. and to have qualified professionals provide potential remedies before permitting is completed and ground breaking commences is prudent. As denoted above, much of this information is not available for the Lilly Pond Estates development project.


I also believe in term limits for elected politicians. By imposing finite durations, our community benefits from new ideas, motivation, and a level of enthusiasm that typically dissipates with the passage of time. Our collective effort will automatically shift towards helping establish a robust pipeline of potential future leaders that are actively involved and acutely aware of the issues which our community faces.





As the next Mayor of Alpine, I intend to unite our community of ~1,700 people and allocate our resources on positive improvements benefiting the entire neighborhood resulting in better safety and a stronger sense of community. Increasing transparency and proactively seeking input from neighbors will greatly help our community to be more inclusive, safer and more effective.








“If it’s important to my neighbor,

it's important to me”











Faisel Hussein





Faisel possesses extensive governmental experience and brings with him over 25 years of having advised municipal entities, sovereign entities, and government supported organizations


Select examples include:

City of Los Angeles

State of Texas / Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)

Province of Ontario (Canada)

State of South Carolina

Jacksonville (Florida) Electric Authority

Government of Pakistan Ministry of Privatisation

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Others


Faisel attended Horace Mann High School. He graduated Emory University with Mortar Board National Honors, and completed his MBA at NYU where he was a Stern Scholar. Faisel was also a Visiting Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China


Faisel is a Sarbanes Oxley Qualified Financial Expert and a Member of the Economic Club of New York



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