In Morris Plains, a McDonald’s controversy sets the stage for a mayoral showdown

By Michael Lovito

Both candidates for Morris Plains mayor say they’re focused on tackling affordability, getting a handle on development, and fixing the borough’s traffic issues.

Who will voters trust to solve those problems?

That’s the question that will be answered on Nov. 3, 2026, when borough residents either will give Jason Karr a third consecutive term as Morris Plains’ chief executive or hand Councilwoman Nancy Verga a promotion to the mayor’s seat.

Karr has been a fixture in Morris Plains politics since his election to the borough council in 2007. The Democrat succeeded longtime Mayor Frank Dreutzler, a Republican, in 2018 and won reelection in 2022.

But Karr’s vote to approve the controversial McDonald’s drive through planned for Speedwell Avenue resulted in the Morris Plains Democratic Committee declining to endorse him for a third term in favor of Verga, who entered the Democratic primary to unseat Karr back in March.

Taking the hint, Karr decided to run as an Independent, setting up an unusual electoral dynamic in which Democrats will only be able to maintain their hold on the mayor’s office by defeating the man who won it for them after three decades of Republican control.

PRIORITIES

Karr and Verga both emphasize affordability as campaign issues.

“Everybody seems to be getting crushed with any kind of expense,” Karr said. “I’ll try to keep taxes low, keep our infrastructure up to date and modern, continue to lower our debt and make us economically stable.”

Verga agreed that affordability was becoming an issue in Morris Plains but aserted this was due in part to a lack of “community vision” that has made it difficult for the borough to plan ahead.

“I know we have a master plan that was reevaluated or reexamined in 2018, but I don’t think it clearly articulates a vision in such a way that we can identify what our priorities are and inform our funding decisions,” Verga said.

Revisiting the master plan is another priority of Verga’s. She said many changes to the plan, set to be renewed in 2028, will become clearer when residents provide their input next year. But she already knows she’d like to see traffic and circulation, sustainability, and parks and public spaces plans added to the framework, so the borough will be able to “grow sustainably and continue getting revenue and ratables.”

Karr agreed the master plan should include better traffic calming measures and the “green streets initiative” adopted by the council this month, and that Morris Plains should focus on maintaining “open space rather than high-density housing and apartments.” He also suggested the nature of some business districts could be revisited as well.

“We’re pretty much built out, but we still need our business districts and business zones so that the entire tax burden is not on the residents of Morris Plains,” Karr said. “So, maybe enhancing some of those areas and looking to improve some of those areas could be incorporated into the master plan.”

A DIFFERENCE IN APPROACH

At the Morris Plains mayoral debate earlier this month, Verga was critical of Karr for what she claimed was a lack of transparency in the borough’s budget process. To remedy this, Verga said that, if elected mayor, she would sit down with each council member at the beginning of year and ask what their goals and priorities are.

“A lot of the time the council is hearing different things from residents than the mayor is,” Verga said. “So, I think engaging with the council on that should happen before we even start to talk about the budget.”

She also said she would push for the budget to be presented in a way that council members and residents “who don’t have an accounting background” can understand, and for department heads to present their budgets publicly.

Karr gave no indication that he intends to change the budget process. But he did say he wants to hold more meet-the-mayor events so borough government can be more responsive to residents’ concerns.

“There are a lot of questions that come up that, if I’d know about them sooner, we probably could have addressed them sooner,” Karr said.

Verga said that, as a retiree, she believes that she holds the edge when it comes to such availability. Invoking Frank Dreutzler, Verga said she envisions serving in a “twofer” capacity by devoting workdays to responsibilities often allocated to a business administrator in other municipalities, while handling more traditional mayoral business after hours.

“Mayor Frank, he did a great job for so long driving around, finding issues that needed to be addressed, talking to residents, talking to staff during the workday,” Verga said. “So, we need to look at our governance model and figure out how we can provide better accountability.”

THE LOOMING ARCHES

While both candidates confirmed that the proposed McDonald’s on Speedwell Avenue has been a popular topic of conversation on voters’ doorsteps, they disputed the notion that it was the marquee issue of the election.

“I would say it’s a subset of Morris Plains that has really strong feelings about those decisions,” Verga said, npoting she voted against the ordinance allowing drive throughs in the borough.

“I think what drives a lot of people is the feeling that they don’t feel comfortable with how decisions have been made, and they want to see different leadership that goes about making decisions a different way.”

Karr, who has said that a McDonald’s would not be his first choice for the Speedwell site but has defended his decision to vote for the project, said that he thought traffic seemed to be a more pressing concern for most voters.

“Once (the McDonald’s issue) gets kind of explained, people understand it,” Karr said. “Some others don’t but everybody’s entitled to an opinion, and we welcome everybody’s opinion.”

CLEARING THINGS UP

And yet, the McDonald’s project seems to be at the root of at least two questions that residents have raised regarding both candidates.

At October’s borough council meeting, residents questioned Karr about his campaign’s financial filings, which show that he received a $1,500 contribution from Sills, Cummis, and Gross, the law firm representing McDonald’s application for the Speedwell site.

At the meeting and in an interview with Morristown Green, Karr said he had hired a “third-party consultant” to handle his campaign’s fundraising, and that the donation was made without his knowledge.

“I did not realize the checks were coming in, and that’s probably my fault for not putting guardrails up for that,” Karr said. “I’m going to make good on it. We’re looking into donations now to see if there’s something that can be rectified.”

The filings also show that Karr received donations from the Morris Republican Victory Pact, the election committee of Republican County Commissioner Tayfun Selen, and conservative radio host Bill Spadea. Despite these donations and posts from the Morris Plains Republican Club Facebook page praising his campaign, Karr said he has not sought nor formally been endorsed by the Republican Party, which did not nominate a candidate for mayor.

Verga has not been immune to scrutiny from voters, either. Earlier this month, a Morristown Green reader disputing her claim that she opposed the inclusion of drive throughs in the master plan — given that she was part of the council business development committee that reviewed non-residential zoning and suggested drive through restaurants could be permitted in Morris Plains.

Verga said the re-zoning suggestions made by that committee in 2021 were a “brainstorm,” not “a final recommendation or endorsement of these uses,” and that the council “received limited information about how recommendations were being evaluated” by the planning board.

She said that her 2023 vote against adopting the revised master plan was not based on any one specific use, but rather upon her “concerns about the process that produced the ordinance.” The proposed zoning changes, she contended, had not “been sufficiently researched, explained or vetted with the public.”

“The subsequent application for a two-lane drive-through on Speedwell Avenue reinforced why I believed these zoning changes deserved greater scrutiny,” Verga said.

ABOUT THE CANDIDATES

Verga, a 27-year resident of Morris Plains, is a retired corporate communications professional and consultant. As a member of the council, she chairs the finance committee, and previously chaired the public health, sanitation, and sewers, public safety, and ordinance and public utilities committees. Prior to her 2019 council election, Verga chaired the Morris Plains Municipal Alliance, an anti-drug and alcohol abuse organization.

Karr, a 55-year resident of Morris Plains, works as a machine operator for the Morristown Department of Public Works. Prior to his council election in 2008, Karr volunteered as a member of the Morris Minute Men EMS service.

Two council seats also are being contested: Incumbent Art Bruhn Jr. and Sheryl McNichol for the GOP against Democrats Lee Lusardi Connor and Rosaria DeNova.