For over 35 years, the Summit Housing Authority has provided housing to low and moderate income families in well maintained and attractive properties.
The mission of the Housing Authority of the City of Summit is to provide safe, affordable and decent housing to low and moderate income families and seniors. All funding for the Summit Housing Authority comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The taxpayers of Summit do not fund public housing through municipal taxes.
The Summit Affordable Housing Corporation (SAHC) is a non-profit organization affiliated with the Summit Housing Authority, whose mission is to identify emerging housing and community development resources and to develop affordable housing in the City of Summit.
The tax assessor is responsible for determining the value of all real estate in the city. These assessments are updated on a regular basis in what is known as a re-valuation. Many factors go into assessing the value of a home or business, including its location, the size of the structure and its features, including renovations, and the neighborhood in which it is located.
While the assessor determines the value of the property, the office does not collect the taxes. That is done by the tax collector's office.
Patricia Spychala is currently serving as part-time deputy tax assessor.
The mayor, who serves a four-year term, is the chief elected official and is responsible for appointing other key officials, including the police chief and the board of education. The mayor cannot vote at Common Council meetings except to break ties, although he or she has the right to speak at the council meetings.
The current mayor is Ellen Dickson.
The tax collector's office bills and collects taxes and sewer charges, and curb and sidewalk assessments. The office also enforces timely payments by taxpayers, delivers delinquency notices and calculates interest on delinquencies. Additionally, all requests for municipal lien searches are conducted by the tax collector's office.
The tax collector is Mary L. Testori.
The deputy tax collector is Juliet Ruggiero.
The Treasurer's office administers the financial affairs of the city, including purchasing, general accounting, salary and benefits administration, investments, preparation of bond issues as well as doing the accounting on all city capital projects.
The current chief financial officer/city treasurer is Ronald Angelo.
The Summit Health Department is in charge of a wide range of health-related issues, and is also home to the Office of Vital Statistics, which certifies marriage, birth and death certificates, and the Animal Licensing Office.
Health Department programs include:
- Community health education
- Participation in local health fairs
- Emergency management functions for public health issues
Public health nursing services:
- Infant and preschool children program (well baby clinic)
- Childhood lead poisoning prevention and abatement program
- School immunization audits
- Adult immunization program (influenza)
- Tuberculosis control
- Sexually transmitted diseases
- Cancer screening program
- Diabetes services
- Cardiovascular disease screening program
- Communicable and infectious disease epidemiology
- Animal licensing
- Rabies and zoonosis control
Environmental health programs and activities:
- Recreational bathing, campgrounds, youth camps
- Restaurant and food service inspections
- Public health nuisances, wild animal issues, insect and rodent control, animal bite investigations
- Radon and lead poisoning abatement
- Cross connections, hospital-school-nursery school - sanitation; air, water, noise and solid waste pollution, indoor air quality issues
- Dumping, property maintenance
- Lack of heat complaints
- Infectious and communicable disease investigations, epidemiological investigations, West Nile Virus surveillance, noxious growths, odor complaints, potable water
- Tobacco Age of Sale enforcement
The Summit Health Department shares a health director with nearby Westfield. The current acting director and health officer is Megan Avallone.