In August 1997, due to personal debt, then-Mayor David J. Dwork shot and killed himself in the town's mayoral offices. There were also unverified allegations of corruption. Dwork was memorialized with a tree dedicated to him at the site of the Mahwah Public Library. Dwork was succeeded by Richard J. Martel, then a township council member, who served for 14 years until his own death, of natural causes, on March 7, 2011. Martel himself was succeeded by Council President John DaPuzzo as acting mayor.