Marco Navarro: Candidate Profile for LD 37 General Assembly Election:

Paramedic and Military Veteran Targets Affordability, Public Service Reform, and Term Limits

Marco Navarro, the Republican challenger running alongside Andrew Meehan in New Jersey's 37th Legislative District (LD 37) General Assembly race, is campaigning on a message of affordability and government accountability. A public service veteran, Navarro is focusing his platform on reforming emergency services, strengthening career education, and imposing term limits on long-serving legislators.

In an exclusive interview with TownSqaure, Navarro shared his core values, detailed his policy goals, and outlined his approach to legislative service.

Core Message: Affordability and Accountability

Navarro attributes New Jersey's high cost of living to the long tenure of the opposition party. He emphasizes that after decades of control, the current leadership’s "record speaks for itself."

His foundational promise is to reverse this trend by prioritizing the reduction of the tax burden: “We’re the ones running to make New Jersey a better state, more affordable, and especially have to work really hard to bring those property taxes down. If the other states nearby have lower to no property tax, why can’t we?”

Professional Background and Local Service

Navarro is originally from Hudson County and currently resides in Bergen County. His professional career is defined by public service:

• Military Service: He served in the military as a reservist for six years, from 2008 to 2014.

• Emergency Services: Following his high school graduation, he dedicated over 15 years to emergency services, beginning as a police dispatcher and moving into EMT and paramedicine. He notably served in one of New Jersey's busiest 911 systems in Union City.

• Local Politics: Navarro began his political career in 2019. He was elected as a Board of Education Trustee in Bogota through a write-in campaign, and he has also run for Council twice. He cites his successful involvement in a mayoral campaign that elected the first female mayor by a narrow six votes as a historic moment.

Navarro has over a decade's worth of experience in emergency medicine and 911 systems. He currently works four different EMS jobs. Source: Navarro & Meehan for NJ Assembly Facebook

Policy Focus: Reforming Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

Drawing directly on his years as a paramedic, Navarro identifies two major, interrelated issues facing first responders:

1. The Affordability Crisis: Navarro works for four different places to pay his mortgage, stating that approximately 95% of EMS personnel in the state must hold at least two jobs because their pay is well below what it should be, given the training and education required. He advocates for an increase in pay and benefits to match the value of police and fire departments, which would aid in employee retention.

2. Essential Service Status: A major policy goal is to declare EMS an essential first responder service in New Jersey. Currently, municipalities, counties, and the state are not legally responsible for providing ambulance service. Granting essential status would:

   • Legally require municipalities and counties to provide services (including set response times and equipment).

   • Open up opportunities for state and federal grants, which currently are only available to volunteer EMS corps, leaving agencies like Union City unable to access critical funding.
     

Regarding Mental Health and Trauma, Navarro believes employers must take a more proactive approach to combat burnout. Instead of waiting for personnel to ask for help, he suggests the initiative should come from the employer, ensuring supervisors check in with staff after difficult calls (e.g., cardiac arrests or incidents involving children).

Shared Services and Regionalization

Navarro is highly critical of the current system where hospitals are contracted to provide 911 services but often prioritize transports that offer better insurance reimbursement (Medicaid/Medicare) over emergency calls. This leads to ambulances being dispatched from distant locations, causing unacceptable response times.

He supports "joint services" but advocates for regionalization, where smaller towns (like those in South Bergen) would join forces to create a dedicated, shared EMS service, rather than relying on hospital contracts or broad, slow county expansion efforts. He also notes similar discussions are starting for fire department services, and that generalized shared services are being discussed for departments like DPW and Parks in smaller municipalities.

Education and Workforce Development

Navarro maintains an “old school mentality,” advocating for schools to focus on academics and life skills. He believes the state must bring back vocational and technical education to prepare students for high-income careers that don't require a college degree.

• Career and Technical Education (CTE): He praises the recent opening of a new CTE building in Bogota offering subjects like automotive, computer science/cyber security, and culinary arts, noting the high student demand. He points out that professions like plumbers, electricians, and contractors often make over six figures without a college degree.
  

For his legislative approach to education, he pledges to work one-on-one with the 10 municipalities in his district, personally meeting with Boards of Education and superintendents to understand their specific, local needs, contrasting this with the current incumbents' approach.

Ethics, Accountability, and Term Limits

Navarro identifies the lack of term limits as a major barrier to good governance, arguing that it allows public office to become “personal property” and enables corruption.

• Term Limits: He strongly advocates for term limits, citing examples of officials who have served for 25 to 30 years. He proposes a maximum of:

  • Three terms of two years (six years total) for State Assemblymen.

  • Two terms of three years (six years total) for State Senators.

  • Three terms of two years (six years total) for local Board of Education positions.

  • Three terms for city council and two terms of mayor

  • Two terms for the Board of Commissioners

• OPRA Reform: To increase government transparency, Navarro believes the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) laws need to be reformed. He argues that current laws are too broad, allowing officials to deny requests by labeling them as "overly broad," which stifles public access to information.

• School Safety: He supports layered security measures, including buzzed, two-stage lobbies with protective casing, increasing the number of Class III police officers (retirees) in plain clothes, and ensuring 1-2 security guards per door at dismissal and arrival times.
  

Public Health and Veterans' Support

Navarro, who serves on the Bogota Board of Health, highlights the public health issue of high insurance costs, advocating for opening the market to more competition to drive down prices for private and public sector employees.

As a former Marine, Navarro expressed deep sadness over the sight of veterans struggling with homelessness and substance abuse. While he acknowledges the federal VA system needs to be run by veterans, he proposes state-level initiatives to address the crisis:

• Increase veteran housing and services.

• Push the state government to contract with more local clinics and urgent cares to provide easier access to care, noting that the current handful of VA hospitals are too far and often inaccessible to many veterans across the state.
  

  
  

Campaign Outlook and Legislative Approach

When asked about his most immediate legislative priority, Navarro stated it was not a single bill, but rather providing a foundational push for the Republican gubernatorial platform focused on affordability. He views his primary responsibility as working with other Republican legislators as a team to "push what we need to do for this state," acknowledging that he cannot achieve his goals alone. He noted that beyond working as a team on the broader party platform, his personal, most pressing goals remain declaring EMS an essential service and achieving term limits to restore fairness to the political system.