A Note From Brendan

BRENDAN W. GILL represents all 22 towns of Essex County as Commissioner-At-Large on the Essex County Board of Commissioners. He was elected to his first term as District 5 Commissioner in 2011 and then elected Commissioner At-Large in 2014. Brendan is a lifelong resident of Essex County, born in Belleville and raised in Montclair, where he lives and is raising his own family. He is a graduate of the Montclair public school system, where his father, Dan Gill, taught middle school for more than 50 years.

During his tenure on the Essex County Board of Commissioners, Commissioner Gill has served as president of the Board and president of the New Jersey Association of Counties, and has established himself as an accessible and responsive legislator who is known for his open-door policy and has prioritized issues of health, safety and quality of life.

Most notably, Commissioner Gill was an early and leading proponent of the Essex Hudson Greenway, the single largest conservation project in New Jersey history, which will transform an abandon rail line spanning eight communities from Montclair to Jersey City into New Jersey’s newest state park-- providing bike trails, walking paths and outdoor recreation for one of New Jersey’s most densely populated and developed areas.

Commissioner Gill also chairs Essex County’s Anti-Gun Violence Committee. Under his leadership, in 2015, Essex County passed an ordinance requiring vendors who sell firearms to Essex County to prove that they work only with reputable dealers, and to provide information about their policies regarding their sale of assault weapons to civilians; limiting their sale of products like armor-piercing bullets to law enforcement and the military; commitment to combating illegal gun trafficking and gun violence; and how they ensure that the gun dealers they work with require permits to purchase firearms.

Commissioner Gill has also led efforts to ban smoking in county parks, to adopt best practices to ensure the security and integrity of Essex County’s elections, and to improve traffic and pedestrian safety. He chairs Essex County’s annual Irish American heritage celebration, which recognizes the dignitaries of the county’s three St. Patrick’s Day parades.

He has received many awards and recognitions for his work, including honors from the New Jersey Association of Counties, The New Jersey Conference of Mayors, and the Montclair NAACP.

Commissioner Gill is the chairman of the Montclair Democratic Committee and serves on the New Jersey Bike/Walk Coalition. He is a weekly panelist on WOR's NJ NOW public affairs program and is a member and generous supporter of the NAACP, Seton Hall University Alumni Association, St. Teresa of Calcutta Church in Montclair, Blue Wave NJ, Toni's Kitchen and NJ Policy Perspective.

Professionally, Brendan Gill is the founder and CEO of The BGill Group, a public affairs and strategic communications firm based in Montclair. He served as the architect of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s historic, 2017 election, as state director for U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, senior advisor to U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, district director for U.S. Congressmen Bill Pascrell and Steve Rothman, chief of staff to Assemblyman Peter Eagler, and communications director for the New Jersey Department of Transportation under two commissioners.

Commissioner Gill is a graduate of Seton Hall University. He and his wife, Alixon Collazos-Gill, have two children, Gabriel and Kristen.

“I am very proud to be part of running a county that invests in our parks, recreation and infrastructure, that built a model for a local Covid-19 response in bringing our testing and vaccination sites online, and that accomplishes these things while being fiscally responsible for our taxpayers. I am also very proud of the policies we’ve enacted to protect women’s reproductive rights, to shield our communities from gun violence, and to serve and support the unique needs of all of Essex County’s many diverse communities."

----Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill