The Jersey City Independent "

photo by Steve Gold

“We have an agenda we can get through pretty quickly,” city clerk Robert Byrne said as he kicked off Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

Despite facing two minor setbacks right off the bat — At-Large Councilman Peter Brennan took a moment to do a little election-year congratulating of Mayor Healy for being named a recipient of a NJ Green Building Council award and the city’s photographer took a few minutes to snap the current council’s official photo — Byrne turned out to be pretty spot-on. The meeting clocked in at just a pinch over 1 hour 10 minutes.

Spinello Steps Down

photo by Steve Gold

Turned out there was a good reason for the city shutterbug to take the official portrait: Wednesday was Mary Spinello’s last council meeting as Ward B Councilwoman. She is stepping down to head up the Jersey City Parking Authority, and will no longer be a council member on April 1.

Spinello, who is currently a deputy executive director at the Jersey City Incinerator Authority, was first elected to the council in 2005, and was not running for reelection this year. Corporation counsel Bill Matsikoudis says Spinello had to step down because at the Parking Authority she’ll be the director and a policy maker, whereas at the Incinerator Authority she was classified as an employee.

Platitudes flowed from her fellow council members as they all said their goodbyes.

It’s been a pleasure … we wish you well … this is a loss to me and this entire City Council … you’ve been more than a colleague, you’ve been a friend.

The niceties quickly turned into campaigning when council president Mariano Vega said there’s been “change you can see in this city.” We’re not sure what that really has to do with Spinello, but we do know it is Team Healy’s campaign slogan.

As she was presented with flowers, the departing councilwoman tearfully thanked the “group of friends” on the council, saying she’d probably be back in City Hall soon enough to discuss parking issues.

“We applaud her service to the residents of her ward and to the entire city,” Mayor Healy said in a statement. “She is a highly educated woman who lives in Jersey City and who will lead one of our busy, autonomous agencies.”

Once her seat is vacated on April 1, the City Council will have 30 days to appoint a replacement — 42 days before the municipal election.

Healy spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill says the mayor knows who he wants in the Ward B seat.

“The mayor would like to see Phil Kenny appointed as the councilman, but of course, it is the decision of the City Council,” she tells JCI. “Phil Kenny has lived in Ward B his entire life, and for the past 10 years has been working for the betterment of the ward as a civic leader.”

Kenny, of course, is running for the seat on Mayor Healy’s ticket, a fact that irks at least one council member.

“It’s absolutely imperative that we choose someone who’s not running this May,” Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop tells JCI. “It gives them an advantage and a head start.”

Resolution on Pension Deferral Passes

photo by Steve Gold

The council passed a resolution to apply to the local finance board in order to defer $14.8 million in payments to pension funds this year. The move came just nine days after the state bill allowing municipalities to do so passed both houses in Trenton, and six weeks after the city introduced a budget that counted on the deferral.

“The city does not have to do this,” council gadfly Yvonne Balcer said as she lodged her objection to the resolution. “It’s a choice.”

Calling the deferral “wholly wrong,” she said the debt obligations will all “come down and crash on people” with huge tax increases, as is currently happening in Hoboken and West New York.

She argued that the pension deferral was largely an election-year stunt. Mayor Healy “wants to say taxes aren’t up” in the middle of a campaign, she said.

Fulop, who had issued a press release denouncing the move earlier in the day, also spoke out against the plan, saying it was the “height of irresponsibility” and an “election-year situation.” He cast the lone “no” vote, saying that the council and city administration were engaging in “fear tactics” by threatening a tax hike if the resolution didn’t pass.

Vega defended the deferral, though, saying that there “would have truly been a tax increase this year” had the city not participated in the program.

Fulop tells JCI that the root of the problem is that the city budget was introduced seven months late and city services were instead funded via temporary appropriations at each council meeting throughout the year.

“The budget is meaningless by the time it comes to us,” he says. “The money has already been spent; there’s nothing to cut.”

When asked about other ways the city could try to make up the $14.8 million deficit that opting out of the deferral program would have created, Fulop says the city “could look to trim more pork” by exploring the consolidation of departments or sharing services with neighboring cities or the county.

“None of that was explored because the budget was seven months late,” he reiterates.

The city’s application still must be approved by the local finance board before becoming official. The next meeting of that body is scheduled for April 8.

Heights Residents Talk Traffic

One of the first reads, Ordinance 09-032, was created to help alleviate what several residents of the Heights’ Western Slope call a traffic nightmare.

As part of construction being done on Truck Route 1&9, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) changed the traffic patterns in the neighborhood, and up-in-arms residents have been fighting to have some of the changes reversed.

Richard Young, who has been spearheading the activism (and who says he was recently threatened for doing so) stressed the “urgency of the situation,” a point echoed by neighborhood resident Jigar Patel. The traffic pattern needs to be fixed “before someone becomes a statistic on the news,” Patel said.

The traffic problem “has gotten beyond our control,” Carlton Avenue resident Christina Ventimilla said. She urged the council to not only change Liberty Avenue back but to also fix her street, which was changed by the DOT from a one-way to a two-way street. She said she no longer allows her nine-year-old son to even walk to the corner store unaccompanied because of the increased traffic.

“[The street] has become a mini Manhattan Avenue,” she said. “This is not what I signed up for.”

Unfortunately for Ventimilla, in its current incarnation, the ordinance doesn’t address her street. It will only reverse the direction of Liberty Avenue between Carlton Avenue and Lake Street from being one-way south to one-way north.

Calling Young a “champion of justice for [his] neighborhood,” Vega thanked him for speaking up. Meanwhile, Byrne assured Patel that the council would unanimously approve the ordnance in two weeks.

The Other First Reads

There were 10 first-read ordinances in addition to the one tackling traffic in the Heights detailed above. You can read them all here.

* Ordinance 09-033 will designate seven additional reserved parking spaces for disabled citizens in front of residences.

* Ordinance 09-034 will approve a 30-year tax abatement for the developer AHM Associates for a project at 320, 324, and 328 Duncan Ave. This is the site of the former A. Harry Moore public housing towers, which are in the process of being demolished to make way for a mixed-income low-rise development.

The new project is slated to include a total of 60 units: seven will be for low-income residents, 42 will be set aside for moderate-income residents, and 11 will be market-rate units.

The city projects that it will collect service charges totaling $159,045 over the 30 years instead of tax revenues and that the project will create about 70 construction jobs and three permanent jobs.

* Ordinance 09-035 will create a deed of easement and a maintenance agreement between the city and developer MEPT Journal Square for parts of the plaza area at Journal Square. In other words, the city is allowing the developer to occupy and use land it owns at the Square, and the developer is agreeing to maintain the property.

* Ordinance 09-036 also creates a deed of easement, but this one goes the other way. This ordinance calls on developer K. Hovnanian to provide the city with a deed of easement for property it owns at the 77 Hudson development near Exchange Place. As part of the terms of the Planning Board’s approval of the project, the developer is required to widen Greene Street and construct a sidewalk between Grand and Sussex Streets, and this easement will make the portions of the street and sidewalk that actually fall on K. Hovnanian property public rights of way.

* Ordinance 09-037 will name Pine Street between Communipaw Avenue and the light rail tracks after the homeless advocate Joseph Del Monte, who recently died. Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson said she’d like the normal 20-day waiting period to be waived once this law is passed in order for it to be completed by Del Monte’s birthday, April 15. Vega concurred and said he’d like the same to be done for Ordinance 09-042 (see below).

* Ordinance 09-038 will authorize the city to either purchase or take via eminent domain 32.52 acres of privately-owned land on the PJP Landfill site off of Sip Avenue under the Pulaski Skyway. The land will be used to create a 30-acre park.

In a separately passed resolution, the city authorized a grant application to the Port Authority to help fund the acquisition of this property.

* Ordinance 09-039 is similar to 09-038. It will authorize the city to either purchase or take via eminent domain approximately 20 acres of land at 13-15 Linden Ave. East to provide a new home for the Jersey City Incinerator Authority and the Department of Public Works. The agencies are currently housed at a site on Route 440 that is included in the redevelopment plan on the former Honeywell site (now known as the Bayfront Redevelopment Plan).

15 Linden Ave. East is currently home to Liberty Self Storage, and 13 Linden Ave. East is home to a junk car lot which Liberty purchased in June 2007. It is unclear if Liberty is interested in selling either lot, and calls to a Liberty representative were not returned as of press time.

* Ordinance 09-040 will authorize the sale of the parcel of land known as the Old Colony site at Route 440 and Communipaw Avenue from the city to Hudson County for $1.4 million. The county wants the land in order to increase open space.

* Ordinance 09-041 will allow the city to convey a few locations that fall within the Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan to the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA). The JCRA will pay the city $1.35 million for 72 and 74 Maple St., 268 Pine St. and 81 Monitor St., which are currently not in use.

* Ordinance 09-042 will name the intersection of Grove and York Streets after the Church of the Nazarene, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary next month.

Second Reads

The council unanimously passed four ordinances into law on Wednesday. There was little objection from the public to the new ordinances, which you can read more about here.

Odds and Ends

* The old Passaic Hose Engine Company headquarters at 14 Bright St. and the empty lot next to it were sold for $705,000 at a public auction held on March 19. The firehouse, which was once coveted by J City Theater for use as an arts space, is now the property of Pierre and Barbara Hohenberg. Dr. Hohenberg is the senior vice provost for research at New York University. He tells JCI that he has no intention to do anything drastic to the property. “It will be used as a personal residence for me and/or members of my immediate family,” he says.

* Residents Shirley Harthouse and June Jones were dismayed that representatives from NJ Transit were not present at this week’s Jersey City Mobility 2050 meeting. They both expressed the need for better bus service in Greenville and Bergen-Lafayette.

* Jones also lamented the way the US Postal Service was treating former customers of its now-closed Lafayette branch on Pacific Avenue. She told the council that persons who rented PO boxes at that branch, who have been moved to new branches, are having their box numbers changed and being forced to pay an additional deposit for keys.

* The city approved two resolutions to allow the JCPD to apply for extra funding. The first will let the department file for additional funding under the Department of Justice’s COPS program, which was recently reinstated by President Obama after not being funded during the Bush administration. The city hopes that money from this program could assist with the cost of 40 newly-hired officers. The JCPD will also apply for a $197,935 grant from the state attorney general under the Safe and Secure Communities program. The city hopes this money will absorb some of the cost of eight officer salaries.

* The Jersey City Employment and Training Program (JCETP) got a $4,480,445 boost from grant money received by the city to help “youth and adults who face serious barriers to employment.” The city also increased the funding for its Building Trades Apprenticeship Program, which JCETP runs, by $20,000.

* The city awarded a $3,175,800 contract to Green Construction, Inc. for the renovation project at Hamilton Park. The process has been a long and contentious one thus far, with several bidders lodging objections to the bidding process and creating the need for a re-bid. However, with this contract awarded on Wednesday, the project seems to have momentum again.

* What else did the city agree to pay for on Wednesday?
- A five year lease extension with the US Army for the Police Academy facility at Caven Point ($288,211.20)
- Professional consulting engineering services ($150,000)
- Refunds/credits to settle tax appeals filed by property owners ($90,246.26)
- Computer maintenance and support for the JCPD’s new communication center ($85,000)
- Boiler and HVAC maintenance ($60,000)
- Panasonic Tough Books ($21,452)
- Maintenance on the JCPD radio system ($17,992.96)
- Boundary and Topographic surveys at Riverview Fisk Park and Summit Cornelison Park ($14,900)
- One year of digitizing and tracking foreclosures and pre-foreclosures ($10,640)

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