Taxes Top Priority for Deputy Mayor

Chatham Township Deputy Mayor Robert Gallop tells a story about a man he met when he was "knocking on doors" running for his first term on the Chatham Township Committee in 2007.

"He told me that he had raised his family in Chatham, he had put his kids through college in Chatham, he had worked his whole life in Chatham, and now that he was ready to retire he was leaving Chatham because he couldn't afford the taxes here," Gallop said.

That moment crystalized Gallop's top priority for his time in local government: to control taxes and to control spending. He said he plans to do the same if he is elected to a third term on the committee.

Gallop is currently in his last year of his second three-year term on the committee and has served as deputy mayor for the last three years. He lives in the township with his wife and three children, all of whom attend school in the School District of the Chathams.

Gallop earned a bachelor's degree at Syracuse University in Television, Radio and Film and in Political Science. His law degree is from the University of George Washington. He currently works as a trial attorney at  O'Toole Fernandez Weiner Van Lieu in Verona.