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- At last night’s City Council Caucus, Jersey City’s assistant business administrator John Mercer gave a presentation on the proposed “green” ordinances that first surfaced in the middle of last month on a Council agenda. The four proposals will be back on the agenda at Wednesday’s Council meeting. One of the proposals would refund money to developers who meet LEED building standards, an idea that Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano questioned. He wondered why the city couldn’t just force developers to meet LEED standards. Also at the Caucus meeting, lobbying firm Patton Boggs pressed the city to give it a 6-month, $90k contract to help bring federal stimulus money to JC. “At the end of the day we know that we’re judged on our ability to bring home the bacon,” lobbyist Ed Newberry said.

- As we reported yesterday, Bret Schundler has given up on returning to the mayor’s office this year, citing his personal finances and the tough economy. The Insider argues that Lou Manzo is most likely to pick up votes that might have gone to Schundler (or Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop, if he had chosen to run).

- The Journal reports on a meeting last week between the Communipaw Avenue Block Association (CABA), JCPD representatives and elected officials where residents aired their concerns about crime in the Lafayette neighborhood. CABA is pushing for surveillance cameras and more cops on foot patrol in the area. Unfortunately, the paper muddies its look at this important issue by toying with crime stats in a way that doesn’t make sense — again. In two successive paragraphs, it uses crime stats with different parameters to quantify what’s happening on the ground. First, it uses overall crime numbers from the East District, because Lafayette falls in that district. Guess what else does? Oh, right, all of downtown, where crime is much lower than much of the rest of the city. Then the paper swings the wholly opposite way and uses homicide stats in Ward F — not only an almost completely different part of the city than the East District, but again, a geographic area that includes much more than the neighborhood being written about. The paper would have been better off leaving the stats out instead of trying to force square pegs into round holes.

- At a meeting over the weekend, several dozen progressive activists took part in a training session on lobbying members of Congress. The event, put together by MoveOn.org and Wellstone Action, was part of the “now what?” effort on the part of progressives to push their agendas through D.C. now that Barack Obama has been elected. Today, the group plans on presenting U.S. Rep. Albio Sires a petition signed by about 3,500 HudCo residents urging swift passage of Obama’s stimulus package.

- Earl Morgan shares the story of Kimberly Galarza, who has faced a tough life by any means but seems to have her life back on track. What’s more, she was one of 20 chosen by the Urban League to take a three-day trip to D.C. to attend the People’s Inaugural Ball.

- There was a brief brush fire under the light rail tracks on the border of JC and Hoboken yesterday, apparently caused by homeless people trying to stay warm. Here’s hoping that as the temperatures drop this week, those without homes will be able to get to — and get into — shelters for essential warmth.

In statewide news:

- Gov. Corzine’s state of the state address is today. Yesterday, he said: “My job tomorrow is to properly acknowledge the challenges [facing the state], but also speak to the fact that much is going well.”

- In a blow to transparency, a New Jersey appeals court yesterday reversed a lower court ruling requiring emails between Gov. Corzine and his ex-girlfriend, union leader Carla Katz, to be made public and authorizing a judge to inspect the communications. The three-judge appeals panel said the emails are covered by executive privilege, which allows officials to withhold certain information in the interest of governing.

- A representative from the state’s Economic Development Authority stopped by HudCo last week to talk about what’s out there for businesses as part of Gov. Corzine’s recent stimulus plan. Among the incentives: Businesses that have been up and running in NJ for at least two years can receive a grant of up to $3K for each full-timer they hire before Jan. 1, 2011. $50 million is available for that program on a first-come, first-served basis. The EDA is also guaranteeing lines of credit up to $250,000 for established businesses, and giving up to $1 million grants to cover up to 7 percent of construction and renovation projects.

- The EPA will begin a $45 million cleanup of the lower Passaic River near Newark Bay next year with the dredging of 40,000 cubic yards of toxin-filled sediment.