The Jersey City Independent "

Wednesday’s City Council meeting began with a formal swearing-in ceremony for newly-appointed Ward B Councilman Phil Kenny, who had a sizeable crowd of family and supporters there to cheer him on.

He thanked Mayor Healy and his new colleagues on the council for appointing him after former councilwoman Mary Spinello stepped down, and for making the transition “as pleasant and smooth as possible.” Kenny’s appointment was criticized by some, since he is running for the Ward B seat on the mayor’s ticket in next month’s municipal election. He made sure to give a shout out to his Team Healy mates, and let everyone know that he’d continue “delivering the change that we can see.”

The main policy topics at Kenny’s first meeting as councilman were chromium cleanup in Ward F and animal control oversight. A substantial chunk of the meeting was also spent honoring a few individuals for their service to the city.

In all, seven ordinances were introduced, two were tabled, and 11 were passed into law during the nearly three hour meeting. All nine council members were in attendance — at least at the beginning of the meeting. Ward E councilman Steven Fulop left for Passover after the first-read ordinances were introduced. City clerk Robert Byrne noted that they’d failed to notice the conflict when drafting this year’s meeting schedule.

Entertainment Ordinance Tabled

A first-read ordinance that seeks to rework the city’s existing entertainment ordinance brought a number of local bar and restaurant owners out to the meeting. Iron Monkey owner Stephen McIntyre told JCI prior to the meeting that a number of Jersey City restaurant owners had met the previous night to work on creating a formal association, partly in response to this legislation.

The ordinance (09-047) has two sets of goals. It separates entertainment licenses and the rules that apply to them into two categories (nightclub and restaurant), and it increases the yearly fees for the licenses, in some cases doubling them. The fees were upped, according to a memo from assistant corporation counsel Carmine Scarpa, “to account for the anticipated increase in enforcement activities that will be required.”

Restaurant and bar owners say the legislation would also create what effectively amounts to a 10 pm curfew on all nightclubs and live music.

The new language in the ordinance would do the following:

* Create a 50 decibel (dB) restriction for sound emanating from all venues with nightclub entertainment licenses from 10 pm to close, and a 65 dB restriction for all these venues from noon to 10 pm.
* Create a 45 dB restriction for sound emanating from all establishments with restaurant entertainment licenses from 10 pm to close, and a 55 dB restriction for these establishments from noon to 10 pm.

According to the Acoustical Society of America, 40 dB is the approximate sound level of a “soft stereo in residence,” while the approximate sound of human speech is 50-70 dB.

Not enough people involved in the industry were consulted in the drafting of the ordinance, Council president Mariano Vega said as the council tabled the legislation. He suggested that the appropriate committee set up a meeting with all stakeholders to revisit the restrictions.

“It is in our best interests right now to withdraw it,” Vega said. With that, the restauranteurs exited en masse — between them and Kenny’s posse, the meeting lost about 50 spectators within the first half hour.

Food Truck Ordinance Tabled

Another ordinance on the agenda but not introduced on Wednesday would change the legislation governing “itinerant eating and drinking establishments,” more commonly known as food trucks and food carts.

As we reported in February, the issue bubbled up to the surface after a truck operated near New Jersey City University by Gus Papathanasis and his son Billy was shut down by police for violating the seldom-enforced city law that says food trucks cannot “remain in any location for a period exceeding twenty (20) minutes during a four-hour period.”

The Papathanasis’ truck was allowed to return to its spot not long after they came to a City Council meeting to discuss their plight, but the city said it also wanted to fix the legislation. This revised ordinance would have exempted the hours between 11 am-2 pm from the time limit.

Journal Square resident Abdul Kader Manzoor told the council that the revised legislation should also allow an exemption for evening hours — perhaps from 5-8 pm or 7-10 pm. City business administrator Brian O’Reilly said he’d look into it, but that he couldn’t “make any promises.”

Animal Control Oversight

As we reported last week, Fulop is pushing for increased oversight of the city’s Animal Control division in the wake of embarrassing revelations that officers dumped at least one domesticated cat in the wild area of Lincoln Park rather than take it to a shelter or animal hospital.

Two Fulop-sponsored ordinances (09-049 and 09-051) were introduced on Wednesday, despite four of his colleagues saying they had “concerns” and “issues” with the two pieces of legislation.

The ordinances would create an Animal Control Commission made up of 19 members, and an Animal Control Ombudsman, both with the hopes of increasing oversight and accountability of the division. The commission would oversee the division, while the ombudsman, which would be housed in the Mayor’s Action Bureau, would field resident complaints about the division.

Six people spoke in favor of the ordinances, including Diana Jeffrey, the attorney representing Morgan Metius, the owner of one cat that was dumped in the park.

“There are no controls, no transparency, no accountability” in the Animal Control office, Jeffrey said. “There is no supervision and there are no checks and balances.”

That point was echoed by Companion Animal Trust’s Carol McNichol, who said Animal Control was “not performing up to the standards of what the community needs.” In addition to expressing her support for the ordinances, McNichol also pushed the council to give municipal endorsement to her organization’s Trap, Neuter and Release program, which helps control the feral cat population.

Hudson Animal Advocates founder David Norman said that it was about time Animal Control faces scrutiny, and turned the “change you can see” campaign slogan being used by six council members around on them.

“That is not change we can see,” he said as he detailed four instances of failures at Animal Control. “That is more of the same.”

The commission and the ombudsman proposed in Fulop’s ordinances aren’t new, although recent events have certainly put more public spotlight on Animal Control. They were previously recommended by an ad hoc committee created three years ago to look into a conflict between Animal Control and the Liberty Humane Society.

The legislation will be up for a final vote at the next council meeting.

Chromium Concerns

Members of the community group GRACO (Garfield, Randolph, Arlington, Clerk, Claremont, Carteret, and Ocean) staged a protest outside City Hall prior to the council meeting, and several expressed their concerns about the city’s settlement with PPG Industries to clean up a chromium-contaminated site at the meeting as well.

As we’ve reported, residents and advocates are concerned about, among other things, the lack of specificity in the proposed settlement.

GRACO president Felicia Collis told the council that she’d been “a little disappointed to not see” most of them at the April 30 public hearing on the settlement. (Ward A councilman Michael Sottolano and Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson were the only members to attend.) Vega told her that all council members were briefed on the meeting.

Collis also read from a 2005 report by former DEP employee Zoe Kelman, which charged the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Chromium Workgroup with failing to consider the work of scientific experts and failing to examine whether state chromium cleanup standards were adequately protective.

Collis used the report to claim that the standards in the settlement are “below par,” a point the city’s lead attorney Bill Matsikoudis debated. He said that report was issued before former DEP head Lisa Jackson issued her memo on chromium standards, which he says are the most stringent in the country. Jackson’s standards call for soil contaminated by chromium in excess of 20 parts-per-million (ppm) to be excavated to a depth of 20 feet, and they currently guide the settlement. But as we noted last week, if those standards change, so will the agreement.

Collis said the city should demand a full excavation, and also address the effect chromium contamination will have on the groundwater.

Matsikoudis said the city would do so.

“The chromium below 20 feet clearly has to be addressed,” he said, as does the potential contamination of groundwater.

Two area residents, Jillian Allen and Teresa Patterson, said they would not have purchased their homes in the area near Garfield Avenue if they’d known the extent of the contamination, and Randolph Avenue resident Severn Willis criticized the $1 million the city is receiving from PPG in the agreement as inadequate.

“You can’t even build a park — unless its the size of a shoebox — for $1 million,” he said, suggesting instead that PPG should be forced to pay at least $1 million for each of the 19 years that have passed since the 1990 administrative consent order (ACO) first mandated the company clean up the Garfield Avenue site.

Matsikoudis, saying the 1990 ACO’s “failure” was the impetus behind the lawsuit that eventually begat this settlement, said that he fought for more money from PPG but came up short. He said the city would try to get more money from the multi-billion dollar company as negotiations continue, but that it wasn’t at the top of his list.

“Money is not our number one priority,” he said. “Health and safety is.”

‘This Must be Great Guy Night’

Two men were honored by the council on Wednesday for their service to the community.

One of the ordinances signed into law — 09-037 — dedicates the section of Pine Street between Communipaw Avenue and the light rail to Deacon Joseph Del Monte, an advocate for the homeless who died earlier this year. His son, Robert Del Monte, was there to thank the council for the dedication.

“It’s a great honor and tribute to my father,” he said. The council members all remembered Del Monte with warm tributes, calling him a “man of the community” and “a great man for Jersey City.”

Ward C councilman Steve Lipski said that he “grew to love and admire” Del Monte, and that his passing caused a “tremendous loss in my own life.”

Vega waxed poetic as he recalled Del Monte’s role in setting up an impromptu shelter in Vega’s office for residents displaced by a fire many years ago.

“Sometimes angels come into your life and you don’t know from where they come,” he said.

Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson, who was instrumental in the ordinance’s introduction and passage, told Del Monte’s family that the city would have the signs installed on what would have been the deacon’s 79th birthday, April 15.

Next up for kudos was Alfred J. Rinn. “This must be great guy night,” Lipski quipped as Rinn approached the podium. The former Marine and former JCPD detective was presented with a flag from a fellow Marine, and the council thanked him for his service to the country and the city.

“What can one say when you’re sitting here looking at a living legend,” Ward A councilman Michael Sottolano said of Rinn, who at 91 is believed to be the oldest employee in state government.

Rinn, who was accompanied by his wife and daughter, said he was “so grateful to everybody, and so happy for my family being here.”

Second Reads

The other ten second-read ordinances (read about them here) all passed into law by an 8-0 vote with no public comment. But that didn’t stop the council from commenting on some of them.

On Ordinance 09-032, which reversed some traffic changes made by the state Department of Transportation that have apparently wreaked havoc in the Western Slope of the Heights, Ward D Councilman Bill Gaughan admitted that Carlton Avenue — which was not addressed in the ordinance — was still an issue, and that public meetings on the traffic problems would continue.

Another ordinance passed into law was 09-038, which calls for the acquisition “by purchase or condemnation” of land on the former PJP landfill site along the Hackensack River to turn it into parkland.

Kenny, the newly-minted councilman in that ward, said a community meeting should be set up before going forward with specific park plans, but that he was proud the project was being pushed along. Gaughan agreed, noting the site had been the subject of too much litigation and procrastination.

“I’m old enough to remember smoking landfills,” Vega said of the site. He said he was pleased that people would be able to fish there soon and “possibly swim” if the river gets clean enough. He said it was clear proof that the Healy administration was creating — and there’s that line again — “change we can see.”

Other First Reads

Other than those mentioned above, five ordinances were introduced on Wednesday.

* Ordinance 09-044 adds five additional reserved parking spots for disabled residents in locales around the city.

* Ordinance 09-045 changes the titles of four municipal positions, in accordance with the state Civil Service Commission, which recently standardized the titles.

1. “Sanitary Inspector” becomes “Registered Environmental Health Specialist, Public Health”

2. “Senior Sanitary Inspector” becomes “Senior Registered Environmental Health Specialist, Public Health”

3. “Principal Sanitary Inspector” becomes “Principal Registered Environmental Health Specialist, Public Health”

4. “Chief Sanitary Inspector” becomes “Chief Registered Environmental Health Specialist, Public Health”

The pay of these positions remains the same.

* Ordinance 09-046 adds three properties to the city’s open space inventory: 174 and 176 Brunswick St. and 285 Ogden Ave. The purpose of the ordinance is to codify these properties as parks — the Brunswick Street property is the home of the Brunswick Community Garden, and the Ogden Avenue property abuts Riverview Fisk Park. Vega said that, as currently deeded, the properties “had the potential to be sold inadvertently,” and that this ordinance aims to make sure they are kept as gardens.

* Ordinance 09-048 calls on the city to officially vacate Wilks Street in order to make way for a plaza that will serve as an entry to the new development at Journal Square. One Journal Square, as the project is known, will feature two residential towers, approximately 70,000 square feet of retail space and a parking garage with close to 700 spaces.

* Ordinance 09-050 puts into motion the second phase — many years off at this point — of the development of the chromium-contaminated site on Garfield Avenue that falls inside the Canal Crossing Redevelopment Plan. The ordinance authorizes the city to transfer the property (which has the addresses of 880 and 884 Garfield Ave., 2 Dakota St., and 70 Carteret Ave.) to the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA), which will designate a redeveloper and oversee the project. The JCRA will pay the city between $9.5 and $15 million for the property in phases as the remediation and redevelopment of the site occurs.

Odds and Ends

* The city, via a trio of resolutions, gave the developer MEPT Journal Square Tower North Urban Renewal a 1.5 month extension on $2 million in pre-payments it owes as part of its tax abatement agreement. The developer was due to pay on March 31 — that date has been bumped back to May 15.

* The city extended its contract with the law firm Reed Smith, LLP, which is working with the city to obtain federal funding for the preservation of the 6th Street Embankment. Both Lipski and Richardson abstained from this vote, noting that the whole Embankment affair had been going on too long. The amended contract total is $40,000, up from $15,000 previously.

* The city contracted with the law firm Nee, Beacham and Gantner to represent the city, Mayor Healy and former JCPD chief Robert Troy in a suit filed against them by police officer Valerie Montone. Montone’s suit alleges that she is being kept at one point on the promotions list intentionally. Richardson abstained from this vote as well, saying “we should not be involved in this lawsuit.”

* The city authorized five organizations’ grant applications to the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Authority. The Central Avenue Special Improvement District request is for $92,700, the Journal Square Special Improvement District is asking for $673,000, the McGinley Square Special Improvement District hopes to receive $72,336, the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District’s request is $160,000, and the Community Partnerships in Hotel Employment program — run by Women Rising, is asking for $247,500.

* The city authorized In Rem Foreclosure proceedings on 21 properties that have large amounts of property tax and interest owed.

* The city will open a new senior nutrition center at the Lafayette Living Center (436 Pacific Ave.), and will pay the $11,257 to create the new site.

What else did the city agree to purchase on Wednesday?
* $4.3 million in street resurfacing.
* $258,500.45 for a wireless WAN enhancement network.
* $150,000 for a three-month contract extension on security guard services.
* Up to $60,000 worth of “light repairs” to the city’s vehicle fleet.
* $40,000 in additional funding for Muller Bohlin Associates, which assists the city with pursuing grants.
* $36,296 for one year’s worth of radio repair for the Fire Department.
* $35,000 for a contract extension to former Gov. Jim Florio’s law firm “to represent and advise the city on pending and future environmental litigation.”
* $33,600 for site licenses and data conversion for IAPro, an internal affairs software program used by the JCPD.
* $29,965 for the relocation of the JCPD’s computer-aided dispatch and records management systems to the new Public Safety Communications Center.
* $16,000 for a one-year contract to a doctor who will advise the council’s committee for the disabled on new and existing applications for disabled parking permits.
* $15,000 in real estate appraisal to asses “the fair market value” of property.

MORE: Read the first-read and second-read ordinances, as well as the resolutions and the entire meeting agenda.

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