“I live here, and I want to improve the city where I live,” he said. “At the same time, the citizens of Hamilton, they deserve a different way of management in city hall. We need to grow some population, bring a lot of small business. That’s what people need here.”
“I think I can do a lot better than what they’re doing, right now,” Batista said. “I’d try to improve the safety program, including bringing more police officers, more detectives, more firefighters.”
Also, “I think we have to get back on track, this town,” he said. “If you see the property values, we’ve got to increase them. There’s a lot of things we can do here.”
Batista, 57, is originally from the Dominican Republic. He came to the United States in 1984 and lived in New Jersey until late 2008, when he moved here. He owns Batista Auto Repair LLC and Batista Business Consulting & Tax Service LLC.
Prior to that, he was president and CEO of both Jeinka Wholesale and Jeinka Construction, both in New Jersey.
He said he would make city departments more citizen-friendly, with people there helping residents and business people by giving advice to make their efforts easier, when getting, for example, permits from city government.
While in New Jersey, he helped campaign for the state’s former governor, Jon Corzine, and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, both Democrats.
Among things he says he would change if elected to the city’s highest voter-chosen post are:
- "We need to get the city back on track," he said. Among things he would use are incentive programs for businesses, as well as more public transportation. He advocates for light rail, public buses and bike lanes.
- Working closely with Hamilton's board of education to improve the graduation rate.
- Creating better programs for people with drug addictions.
- Hiring more city residents through city-paid contracts.
- Improving housing affordability and housing rehabs.
- Repairing and adding lighting "to all alleyways and streets."
- Providing day care for children ages 3-5.
- Crating a vocational rehabilitation for city residents.
- Creating a home-loan program through local banks.
- Reviewing and reorganizing all city departments, particularly the health department.
- Including more city residents in decisions by city governments.
He is married to Carmen Batista and they have two adult daughters: Jennifer and Olinka.
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