The Jersey City Independent "

At last night’s mayoral forum put on by the Heights Coalition, a group comprising ten neighborhood and local associations, the five candidates for mayor appeared on the same stage for the first time this campaign season. In answering the six questions posed to them, the candidates sounded some differences in policy and in approach to fixing the city’s problems. Here’s our quick and dirty guide to the positions and ideas they laid out last night.

Crime & Criminal Justice

Mayor Healy: Said the city was in “the vanguard” when it came to “stopping the flow of illegal guns.” Touted his gun buyback program, an increase in surveillance cameras around the city, and the legislation enacted by the city to limit individuals to the purchase of one handgun per month. That legislation was struck down by a court after the city was sued by a local gun shop and the National Rifle Association (NRA), but a higher court has said it will hear the city’s appeal of that ruling. “You can judge the job you’re doing by the enemies you make,” he said. “The NRA is a sworn enemy of this city.”

Dan Levin: Talked about the need to have more cops walking the beat and called for community policing, a strategy that emphasizes community interaction and support to help control crime. Said he would push for more enforcement of traffic violations, both for quality of life reasons and also because people stopped for traffic violations are sometimes fugitives. Also called for community recreation centers to be in place citywide in order to give young people alternatives to crime.

Lou Manzo: Criticized Healy’s gun buyback program for allowing felons to turn in broken guns and receive money to purchase new ones. Also called for community policing, and stressed the need for job opportunities for Jersey City’s youth.

L. Harvey Smith: Said that the crime problem can’t be solved by “just putting people in jail.” Called for problem-oriented policing, a strategy similar to community policing that also calls for the identification and analysis of specific problems and includes public/private partnerships. Talked mostly about prevention of crime by addressing social ills. Would work to reduce recidivism by implementing the Second Chance program, a crime and drug rehab program. Called for additional social services, including prisoner re-entry programs, drug rehab programs and job-training programs. Ridiculed the gun buyback program, which he admitted he supported at the time, as getting mostly old guns. “Jesse James used one of them,” he quipped.

Phil Webb: Called for a “holistic approach” to crime fighting and emphasized his credentials as the only cop on the stage. Also called for more social services, saying that crime will persist even with more cops on the force if the underlying social problems are not addressed. Still, he said the JCPD needed to increase its force by 300 cops. Noted that the social programs of DARE, Second Chance and Ready, Willing and Able all had left the city.

Tax Abatements and Property Taxes

Healy: Said abatements — “the most misunderstood concept out there” — “have been demonized” but are “good tools” for the city to use. Noted that abatements were good for the city since the city keeps all the money from the PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) payments. Said the city has used abatements “judiciously.” Said he had fought to get a hotel tax for the city, adding that a number of new “world-class” hotels had opened under his tenure. Claimed that new construction would dry up if not for abatements. Called claims that Jersey City could be facing a huge property tax increase (a la Hoboken and West New York) a “scare tactic.”

Levin: Said the city will indeed be facing a Hoboken-sized tax increase soon. Criticized the city’s practice of filling budget holes with one-time revenues from PILOT payments, legal settlements or the sale of city-owned property. “After 20 years, if we don’t understand tax abatements, will we ever?” he asked.

Manzo: Said the problem is not the abatements themselves, but the lack of a coherent policy to guide their implementation. Said he would create such a policy to make sure abatements were doled out fairly.

Smith: Stressed the need to plan city budgets ahead of time and pass them on time. Said he would not approve any tax abatement renewals.

Webb: Came out against abatements. “I don’t understand why we have to have tax abatements at all,” he said. “[They] are not working for us.”

Education

Healy: Said that Jersey City’s schools needed improvement, but were generally doing better. Pointed to McNair Academic High School as the best in the state, and said some charter schools were doing good work on the elementary level.

Levin: Focused on the schools’ administration, noting that a KPMG audit found weak internal controls and millions in what it called “questionable” expenses on the school board, including now-infamous overseas trips. Said that the underlying problems pointed out in that audit had not been fixed, and argued that the BOE needs new leadership, and is made up of too many former politicians and not enough regular citizens. Called for more school choice, in the form of charter schools and non-traditional schools.

Manzo: Stressed the need to focus money and effort on reaching children early and successfully teaching them how to read. Said he’d create two new high schools in the city: a performing arts high school and a trade & technology high school, to give kids an alternative to college-track high schools.

Smith: Held up the Harlem Children’s Zone as an example of what Jersey City should be doing. The community-based organization offers education, social-service and community-building programs to children and families, and has been hailed as a successful model for breaking patterns of intergenerational poverty through education and empowerment.

Webb: Said there were too many education jobs in the city that didn’t deal directly with students. Criticized the lack of computer science classes in middle schools. Discussed the disparity in education achievement between whites, blacks and Hispanics.

Mass Transit

Healy: Stressed the importance of mass transit to the city. Said that he’s pushing to expand the light rail across Route 440 to the Hackensack River. Touted the Jersey City Mobility 2050 plan, a long-term transit planning study currently near completion. Called jitney buses “the wave of the future.”

Levin: Said the city failed to be proactive in dealing with bus route closures in the Heights and elsewhere. Noted that city officials and the mayor have city cars and dedicated parking spots on valuable land, and thus don’t understand the needs of the transit-riding public.

Manzo: Called for the establishment of a municipal transit authority to run the bus system.

Smith: Talked about the many areas of the city where bus routes have been eliminated. Said the city should use stimulus money to “reinvest in transportation.” Called for a more energy efficient fleet of buses.

Webb: Said that town hall meetings should be held between bus companies, the city and residents to discuss line closures and changes.

Open Space

Healy: Touted his administration’s record on park upkeep and rehab. Called for the creation of one park in each ward over the next four years. Said that all the city’s pocket parks should be rehabilitated. Stressed his connections in Trenton and D.C. as essential to finding state and federal grant money to fund the parks master plan.

Levin: Said the city’s parks master plan ignored citizen input. Called it a “very frustrating process” and said that parks decisions should involve more local input. Called for a city tax to help fund the preservation of open space.

Manzo: Touted his record in helping preserve the 6th Street Embankment. Echoed Levin’s call for more community involvement in parks decisions. Said he would commit city money to finance and implement the parks master plan if all state, federal and private resources were exhausted. Called for a parks commission to oversee the implementation of the master plan.

Smith: Also touted his record in helping preserve the Embankment, as well as his role in helping to rehab Webb Park in Ward F.

Webb: Echoed Levin and Manzo’s calls for more community involvement. Said the gap in park maintenance needed to be closed, and cited Bayside and Audubon Parks as ones that had been particularly neglected.

Housing Codes/Zoning/Construction

Healy: Stressed the need for Jersey City to be “business friendly” and “remove the obstacles” to doing business. Said the city had been too successful in luring home and business owners, and that the construction permitting office had become “overwhelmed.” Said code enforcement was a “double-edged sword” as the city tries to balance enforcing the laws and being business friendly. “The power to issue a summons is the power to put someone out of business,” he said.

Levin: Pointed to the “intertwining relationships” between city boards and political leaders as the source of inefficiency. Would set up an audit review process for all construction code approvals. Called for opening up all commission boards to members of the public and increased citizen participation.

Manzo: Called the offices involved in code enforcement and approvals “totally dysfunctional.” Echoed Levin’s call for an audit of these agencies. Said cookie-cutter homes shouldn’t be allowed in Jersey City. “We have to preserve the character of the neighborhoods,” he said.

Smith: Called for a streamlining of the housing boards to make them more efficient. Said the “aesthetic value of Jersey City is very important” and that cookie-cutter homes shouldn’t be allowed.

Webb: Said that an “efficiency audit” should be done of all city departments. Said the zoning board “serves at the pleasure of the mayor, and is a reflection of that.” Criticized the application of spot zoning to get around zoning laws on the books.

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