{"id":3329,"date":"2016-12-05T19:27:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T00:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=3329"},"modified":"2016-12-05T19:27:34","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T00:27:34","slug":"longtime-ocean-county-legislator-freeholder-mayor-dies-at-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2016\/12\/longtime-ocean-county-legislator-freeholder-mayor-dies-at-87\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime Ocean County Legislator, Freeholder, Mayor Dies at 87"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leonard<\/a>

Leonard T. Connors (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ocean County officials were remembering a man who they said \u201cpoured over\u201d proposed legislation and put his constituents first.<\/p>\n

Leonard T. Connors served as an Ocean County freeholder, state senator and \u2013 for nearly a half century \u2013 mayor of Surf City. He won re-election in Surf City last year, but decided against serving into 2016, which have been his 50th year in office. Connors died Sunday at the age of 87.<\/p>\n

Connors\u00a0began serving as mayor of Surf City in 1966. He successfully ran for a seat on the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholder and began serving the first of two terms on the Board in 1977. He was elected a New Jersey State Senator in 1981.<\/p>\n

\u201cSen. Connors passing is a great loss to Ocean County,\u201d said Ocean County Freeholder Director John P. Kelly. \u201cHe was a man who cared about the people of this County. He would directly help people solve problems no matter how large or small. He did that on the County level, the state level and locally in Surf City as its Mayor for many decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly said Connors crafted state and county legislation that has had a lasting positive effect on Ocean County residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1978 he was among the founders of Ocean County\u2019s first Commission for Handicapped Persons. He also served on various County councils and Commissions,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cHe will be remembered as a man who put Ocean County first no matter what elected position he held. Here in Ocean County is where he felt most comfortable and could do the most good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeholder Joseph H. Vicari said a number of Connors\u2019 bills benefitted seniors and veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Sen. Connors that sponsored the Senior Citizen Property Tax Freeze,\u201d said Vicari, who serves as chairman of Ocean County Senior Services. \u201cLen knew Ocean County well and he made certain the legislation he supported was beneficial. If it negatively impacted Ocean County he didn\u2019t support it. He was a gentleman and a man of great integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeholder Deputy Director Gerry P. Little, a fellow Surf City resident who served as Chief of Staff for Connors and the 9th\u00a0Legislative District from 1984 until 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cLen would get to his legislative office early each morning and spend the morning and afternoon with his constituents,\u201d Little said. \u201cHe had an open door policy. Appointment or not, Len would spend time with everyone that came in and help them resolve whatever issue they may have had. He offered them a cup of coffee and give them the old \u2018Connors charm.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe truly put people first and foremost,\u201d Little said. \u201cFor Len, that\u2019s what it was all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little recalled the standoff in the mid-1980s when then Gov. Thomas Kean and the state Department of Environmental Protection decided to place hundreds of barrels of radon contaminated soil in the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township.<\/p>\n

\u201cSen. Connors along with then Assemblymen Chris Connors and Jeff Moran, myself and the former Mayor of Jackson Township stood in the path of a convoy of trucks from North Jersey and turned them away,\u201d Little said. \u201cI remember the conversation he had with Gov. Kean. Len told him \u2013 \u2018you do what you have to do and I\u2019ll do what I have to do.'\u201d<\/p>\n

Little said that in Trenton, Connors was a respected maverick and voted on legislation based upon its impact on Ocean County.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis favorite saying was if it\u2019s not good for Ocean County, it\u2019s not good for New Jersey and he would oppose any bills that would not meet that standard,\u201d Little said.<\/p>\n

Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. said Connors introduced him to Ocean County government and the two ran together for seats on the county freeholder board in 1979, the first time Bartlett ran for county office.<\/p>\n

Bartlett called Connors \u201cone of the most knowledgeable people\u201d he has ever met.<\/p>\n

\u201cLen had a real knack for just knowing the issues. It was innate,\u201d Bartlett said.<\/p>\n

He said\u00a0Connors\u00a0\u201cwas a gentleman and a statesman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe married his childhood sweetheart Lorraine and he was so very proud of his two sons,\u201d Bartlett said. \u201cLeonard T. Connors Jr. worked in law enforcement and his son Chris followed in his dad\u2019s footsteps and is now state Senator in the 9th\u00a0Legislative District.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little said\u00a0that each Friday afternoon, Connors and his wife would enjoy a weekly food-shopping trip to the grocery store in Manahawkin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was instantly recognizable and would hold court, if you will, with the citizens every week,\u201d Little said. \u201cPeople would go knowing Len would be there and he would keep them informed of what was going on around the state. That half hour trip would turn into a hour and half but he enjoyed it every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ocean County Freeholder Virginia E. Haines said Connors\u00a0was known for reading proposed legislation front to back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s often a criticism of elected officials at federal and state levels that they don\u2019t read proposed bills in their entirety,\u201d Haines said. \u201cLen poured over legislation. He analyzed what was prepared by the Senate staff. Sometimes the information was a half inch thick and he read it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he cared about how he voted on matters, he cared most about how he could help resolve problems for people whether with state agencies like motor vehicles, the DEP, human services or locally,\u201d she said. \u201cServing his constituents in Ocean County was his priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ocean County officials were remembering a man who they said \u201cpoured over\u201d proposed legislation and put his constituents first. Leonard T. Connors served as an Ocean County freeholder, state senator and \u2013 for nearly a half century \u2013 mayor of Surf City. He won re-election in Surf City last year, but decided against serving into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,15],"tags":[29,955,20,32],"class_list":["post-3329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-ocean-county","tag-lavallette-nj-news","tag-leonard-t-connors","tag-seaside-heights-nj-news","tag-seaside-park-nj-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Screen-Shot-2016-12-05-at-7.24.15-PM.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-RH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}