The Jersey City Independent "

Wednesday night’s City Council meeting saw the passage into law of eight new city ordinances, the introduction of two ordinances and not all that much else, policy-wise, but it was still quite a show. The meeting was relatively quick, wrapping up after only about an hour and a half. Ward B Councilwoman Mary Spinello was the only member absent.

First Reads

Two new ordinances were brought out on Wednesday, and both are standard tedious city business. First, Ordinance 09-010 would create six new designated parking spaces for handicapped residents and eliminate two such spots. Second, Ordinance 09-011 would amend an earlier ordinance that calls for the sale of a swath of land near the Tonnele Circle to the NJ Department of Transportation (DOT). Essentially, the DOT realized that part of the land they had purchased from the city had already been seized by the state via eminent domain. This brings the total cost of the sale to DOT down by $70,000 for a grand total of $482,716.

Green Bills

The council voted 8-0 on the second read of eight ordinances, including four “green” initiatives designed to make the city more environmentally-friendly. (Read all eight ordinances here.) These initiatives, which we’ve written about previously, will implement green building standards as well as green purchasing standards — both for general “products and materials” such as office supplies and for vehicles. All four initiatives passed with no discussion or public comment, but Council President Mariano Vega did praise the efforts. “I’m proud of this administration,” he said, adding that the bills illustrate the increasingly-popular sentiment that “we must be more responsible with our resources.”

From Morris Canal to Canal Crossing, Redux

Another ordinance passed into law on Wednesday was the amendment of the Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan to create the Canal Crossing Redevelopment Plan Area. A proposed amendment to this bill that would have increased the height limit on buildings located on two of the blocks in the area provided some heated moments at the last council meeting before failing to pass. Members of the council, which split 4-4 on the amendment vote two weeks ago, did their best to mend fences this week.

“I was never against the redevelopment plan,” said Ward D Councilman Bill Gaughan, who introduced the failed amendment with Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano. “I only felt we could make it better.” He said it “was never my intent to disregard” the wishes of Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson or her ward’s residents, many of whom opposed the extra height. He added, though, that he hopes the plan “may be tweaked” as it moves further along.

Richardson, for her part, thanked her council colleagues who deferred to her judgment and helped defeat the amendment.

Vega, one member who deferred to Richardson, said that the proposed amendment was just “causing too much division.” He said that although he generally believes in high-density and higher-rise development around transit hubs, he also believes that community voices need to be heard.

At-Large Councilwoman Willie Flood, who voted in favor of the amendment last time, regaled the council and the public audience with her story of going to meet the area residents who opposed the amendment. Although she apparently couldn’t quite remember the details of the encounter, she beamed with pride when she said that she would now defer to the residents’ wishes. The problem with that was that the amendment was already dead and buried.

But Flood apparently didn’t get the memo.

As City Clerk Robert Byrne prepared to enter the 8-0 vote in favor of the original redevelopment plan into the record, Flood interrupted, forcefully saying she wanted to change her vote to “No,” because that’s what the people wanted. It was only after Byrne explained to her that they had already voted — two weeks ago — on the amendment and now were voting on the original plan, with the lower height limits, that she settled down and accepted her original “Yes” vote.

But she didn’t stay quiet for long. Just a few moments later, she launched into a campaign-style speech from the dais that admonished her fellow councilmembers for referring to the ward they represent as “their ward” or “my ward.” “It’s the peoples’ ward,” Flood said, to several “uh-huhs” from the audience, adding that she always deferred to the will of the people, which — and now we come full circle — was why she went and met with the concerned citizens of Ward F about the amendment.

With the matter of Canal Crossing settled, nearly half of the 35 or so members of the public in the Council Chambers headed off into the night.

Meet the Other New Ordinances

The council voted into law three other ordinances on Wednesday, all of which we outlined two weeks back.

The Southwest corner of Academy St. and Baldwin Ave. is now also known as Frank Roman Way — Lipski, Gaughan and Vega all gave Roman props as they passed this one into law.

The city also terminated a tax abatement with Laidlaw Properties Urban Renewal for a property in the Heights. There was discussion about what would happen if the company came back to the city with another request for a new abatement after not having paid the money they owed for this one. Let’s just say they might have a harder time getting approved.

Lastly, the city approved a deal to lease — at a discount — 116 parking spots along Columbus Drive from the Parking Authority in order to provide parking perks for city employees who work at 30 Montgomery St. As we said two weeks ago, this deal — while arguably small potatoes — stinks. It subsidizes a high-impact, high-pollution mode of transit in an area rife with excellent public transit, and also deprives the Parking Authority of nearly $75,000 of potential revenue a year. It’s ironic that on an evening when Council President Vega grandstanded and gave the administration a pat on the back for being so environmentally progressive by passing the green initiatives, the council can still, without any discussion, pass an ordinance that is so regressive.

Booting at the Bank



Tim Carlen was first up in the public comment portion of the meeting. The branch manager and vice president of the new-ish Chase Bank branch in the 50 Columbus building wanted to bring up the “real serious issue” of parking around his branch. He said that customers were popping into the bank for quick business only to come out and find their cars with boots, tickets and massive fines. “People come back into our branch ranting and raving,” Carlen said. He proposed that the permit parking outside his branch along Columbus Ave. be changed to metered spots, which city business administrator Brian O’Reilly said “sounds like a good idea.”

Upon hearing that folks were being booted in his ward, Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop immediately questioned O’Reilly about what happened to the Parking Authority reform ordinance that was supposed to be back on the council agenda this week. Last week, the bill — which would, among other things, make it illegal for the authority to boot automobiles on the first offense — was withdrawn so as to give Gaughan a couple more weeks to study it. O’Reilly promised that the bill would be on the agenda at the next council meeting, but also told Fulop that the Chase situation didn’t have much to do with Fulop’s legislation.

Fulop seemed to bristle at that suggestion, though, and asked Carlen directly if customers were being booted on first offense. Carlen said they were, but O’Reilly warned to not simply take the word of these customers. “There are three sides to every story — both sides, and the truth,” he said.

The matter was resolved — at least for the moment — by calls for a meeting between all interested parties to come up with a solution.

Odds and Ends



The massive 121-125 Newark Ave. complex at the corner of Grove St. is finally being put up for sale. Bidding starts at $2.5 million, and the auction will be held on Feb. 26 at 10 am in the City Council Caucus Room.

The city awarded a no-bid contract to Global Electric Motorcars, a division of Chrysler, to provide electric cars to the JCPD. The contract to buy four cars is for $47,652.96, and will be funded by a $50,000 grant from HudCo’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. Too bad the city didn’t get in on the act a few years ago when the company donated 2,000 of the vehicles to municipalities across the country. Vega pointed out that this purchase, while a step in the right direction, was no panacea to the world’s environmental problems since it still relies on the old electrical grid to power the clean cars. “We’re plugging a clean car into a dirty system,” he said.

A resolution that would have increased the Affordable Housing Trust Fund award to Webb-Washington Community Development Corporation by $243,000 for its Fred W. Martin Complex on Martin Luther King Dr. was withdrawn. The plan that was approved was for a multi-family low-income housing facility. But unbeknownst to the city, the project was recently altered to include 10 housing units for physically disabled residents. The city withdrew the ordinance so as to make sure all the ducks were in a row for a much different kind of development project, much to the dismay of Lavern Washington. After O’Reilly told her that “the administration would support special needs housing,” but took the ordinance off this week’s agenda to get everything straight, she barked “Eyewitness News!” and stormed from the podium, grumbling about “politics” and “election time.”

T&M Associates was awarded a contract of up to $47,000 to work on the JC Gateways Beautification Phase 2 Project — ie, those new-ish signs and maps and such at various entry points to the city.

The city settled a breach-of-contract lawsuit brought by BET Engineering Consultants, to the tune of $89,600.02.

We all know by now that Ward C Councilman Steve Lipski is a die-hard music fan after his mishaps during a Grateful Dead cover band show in D.C. But who knew he was a man of letters as well? Lipski, fresh off of his public announcement that he isn’t running for re-election, commemorated the life of “John Updike, prolific novelist” during the council’s opening moment of silence.

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