The Jersey City Independent "

Editor’s note: It’s not every day an editor gets a message from his music writer saying he’s working on a writeup of a City Council caucus meeting. But, alas, these are indeed strange days in Jersey City, and I found myself in just that situation today. So, without further ado, here’s Zac Clark’s take on this morning’s meeting.

I woke from a fitted slumber this morning to my landlord calling me to ask if my building was on fire. After I wiped the sleep from my eyes and took a cursory look and sniff about my pad I realized that no, in fact there was no fire. Turns out that construction of the new sidewalks going on below my place had set off an alarm.

After I assured the JCFD there was no cause for alarm I turned to Facebook and Twitter for a look at what was happening in my world. Dan Levin was calling for a meet up at the morning’s Council Caucus meeting.

JC Council Caucus meeting 10 am today, City Hall — while the public cannot speak, a presence can speak for us – come by starting at 9:30 am.

Inspired by my fellow journalists about town I decided to go and make my presence known.

As I reached the steps of City Hall, I met with Levin. He introduced me to a few other local politicians, including Andrew Hubsch. We entered the council caucus room with several other concerned locals and city officials. Let me take a second to say that while I am no stranger to political intrigue, expose is not exactly my forte — that said, I’ll just stick with the facts.

As the meeting came to order, Vega immediately took action for his defense and issued a statement saying he had no intention of resigning his spot as council president.

As Vega attempted to move things forward, Ward E councilman Steven Fulop made a response to the statement, calling for a mass resignation of all city officials entangled in the federal corruption scandal. He touched on his four years with the council and spoke about the discord between him and his colleagues over ethical issues in that time, recounting various pieces of legislation that were voted down 8-1. “The list goes on, and the comments you made at each of those meetings was that I was not a team player, which today I look at as a compliment,” he said.

It was a bold move by the councilman that was met with silence. Dead silence. Vega ignored the statement and moved forward with the “Business of the Day.” Needless to say, it was as awkward as a 7th grade dance there for a few minutes.

As the caucus wore on, I could see that there was going to be no more talk of the scandal swirling around. However, I did find a few things that happened after to be a little strange.

There was a motion to move Wednesday’s regular council meeting to the normal 6 pm start time. Currently, the council is meeting on a summer schedule, with meeting start times of 10 am. Given the corruption probe, the move to reinstate normal hours was pitched as a way to give the many locals who can’t make it during the day a chance to speak out; a chance for the working class to put its hands into the political stew and give it a stir.

This was also shot down by nearly every member of the council, by either not speaking up, by saying that it was of no import what time it took place or by claiming there would be more participation by the senior citizen community at the earlier start time. Fulop once again was a lonely voice noting that 10 am meetings keep those who have day jobs from participating.

Reached by telephone later in the day, Fulop said it seemed like the council was avoiding any potential confrontation by not changing the meeting time. If they’d have set a 6 pm meeting, “there would be more people involved and more people coming out — the common residents,” he said. “And that’s not what they want.”

He added: “As unbelievable as it is, it seems that their approach is going to be pretend as if nothing happened and continue with business as usual.”

The meeting was a “disappointment, but not [a] surprise,” Hubsch said afterwards. Levin expressed concern that the public trust had been breached. They both urged as many people to come to Wednesday’s meeting as well. Anyone who likes may sign up for time and is given five minutes to speak (contact the City Clerk’s office to do so — 201-547-5150). I think there’s a lot to be said in five minutes.

Will that silence prove later to be damning?

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