Bernie Platt, Cherry Hill mayor for nine years, will not seek reelection

Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt announced Friday that he would not run for reelection in November, likely bringing to an end the political career of one of South Jersey's longest-serving local politicians.

Platt, a 77-year-old funeral director, said that his latest run of nine years as mayor will be enough and that after speaking with his family, he decided it was time to step aside.

"I don't think I'll be running [for political office] again, but I don't know what's on the horizon," he said. "It's been a great honor the residents of Cherry Hill have given me."

Known for his mild manner, Platt stood out in a region where brutal, no-holds-barred politics are the norm.

His political career stretches back to the late 1970s, when he served as mayor of Cherry Hill for a year and a half. From then on he moved in and out of local politics, serving stints on the Township Council and the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders, always a part of the powerful county Democratic organization but not one to stay quiet when he felt the need to speak up.

"He's number-one Cherry Hill, and sometimes it ruffles feathers politically," Collingswood Mayor Jim Maley said. "It's taking care of the family, first and foremost, and that's what Bernie's always done."

That was evident in a recent dustup with Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr., who angered Platt when he e-mailed him and other mayors suggesting how they should handle questions from reporters about plans to create a regionalized police force.

"No one speaks for me. I speak for myself," Platt said in January.

With Platt stepping down, Camden County Democrats have until April 11 to set a ticket for the June primary. Potential candidates include Cherry Hill Council President Dave Fleisher, county Freeholder Jeff Nash, and Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt, according to a source in the party. Fleisher, Nash, and Lampitt did not return phone calls for comment.

Platt was well-known in Cherry Hill through the funeral home he founded and his involvement in a plethora of civic and Jewish organizations.

He took a four-year absence from politics beginning in the late 1990s, but in 2002 he again ran for mayor. Susan Bass Levin, who had left office earlier that year, had been a popular mayor and later was a high-ranking official in the Corzine administration and with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She was known as much for her clashes with the South Jersey Democratic establishment as for her plans to build a new library and turn the old Garden State Park racetrack into a town center.

Platt had a different style. For most of the last decade, he maintained a genial presence around town hall, though some criticized his extended winter trips to Florida as inappropriate for a full-time mayor.

"I've known Bernie for several decades," said George H. Norcross III, chairman of Cooper University Hospital and a Democratic Party power broker. "He's probably the last of the elder statesmen to serve in office."

Early in Platt's administration, Cherry Hill saw an economic boom with the racetrack development and the expansion of Cherry Hill Mall.

But Platt's support of the expansion of chain stores and shopping centers in Cherry Hill rubbed some residents the wrong way.

The Garden State Park project, originally sold by Bass Levin as the quaint town center Cherry Hill had always lacked, went in a different direction under Platt's administration.

"It's morphed into a big-box-store mall. If you look behind it, there's lots of unfinished condos," said Cherry Hill resident Bob Shinn, a regular critic of the mayor. "Some of the unfortunate things tend to stand out more than the positive."

Property taxes rose sharply under Platt, a fairly common scenario across New Jersey in the 2000s and one that has fallen under steady criticism since the economic downturn.

And in 2009, Cherry Hill's top code inspector, Anthony Saccomanno, was arrested for taking bribes from a building inspector to help the firm hold onto its $240,000-a-year contract with the township. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 21/2 years in prison.

Two years before Saccomanno was arrested, Platt and the town council had passed a law forbidding professional services firms seeking work with the township from making political donations.

Even among Platt's detractors, there is a general admiration for his environmental initiatives, which proved popular in the Democratic-leaning, largely middle-class suburb.

In recent years, Platt modernized the township's curbside recycling program, through which coupons are doled out on the basis of how many cans and newspapers residents can cram into their blue bins. He also worked to cut the town's carbon emissions, setting Cherry Hill as a model for many of the surrounding suburbs.

Platt, who grew up on farms around West Chester before moving to Cherry Hill with his wife and young family in the 1960s, said he'd always had an interest in the environment.

"I can see what it would do for my grandchildren," he said. "You have to look out for future generations."