Assembly Speaker Suspends L. Harvey Smith’s Pay and Benefits

By • Jul 29th, 2009 • Category: Blog, News, Politics

Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. says he has suspended the salary and benefits of the three Assembly members facing corruption charges — L. Harvey Smith, Joe Vas and Daniel Van Pelt.

“Any member charged with criminal activity is incapable of effectively attending to their constitutional duties and should not be entitled to taxpayer-paid compensation while the charges are pending. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for services that cannot be effectively rendered,” Roberts says in a statement.

Smith, who is set to leave the Assembly in November after deciding not to seek re-election, was charged last week with taking $15,000 in bribes from a purported developer to help get approvals from officials at the state Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection for development projects. The alleged payments came both during his unsuccessful 2009 run for Jersey City mayor and after. He has maintained his innocence and resisted calls for him to step down; a call echoed by Roberts today.

“I repeat my call for Assemblymen Smith, Vas and Van Pelt to do the right thing and resign,” he says. “Their failure to step down is a disservice to their constituents and the Assembly, so this extraordinary step is necessary.”

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is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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  • Alb

    Someone who says s/he’s a Dickinson alumni has posted elsewhere about how it was not really clear what L. Harvey Smith was doing when he was “crisis intervention teacher” at Dickinson.

    Anyhow, here’s a brief that the Jersey City Independent posted here in January about the relationship between the local Democratic party and Dickinson:

    “The vice-chairman of the Jersey City Democratic Committee was arrested last week on charges of stealing equipment from Dickinson High School. Patrick McCarthy, along with fellow custodian Benjamin Smith, are charged with stealing $1,321 of equipment from the school between Dec. 23, 2008 and Jan. 12. Mayor Healy stepped up to defend McCarthy (but apparently not Smith). “The scant information we have received is that Mr. McCarthy has a plausible explanation and a very reasonable defense for this charge,” Healy says.”

    http://www.jerseycityindependent.com/2009/01/28/wednesday-morning-news-roundup-8/

    That article links to this Jersey Journal article:

    http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jerseycity/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1233127521204150.xml&coll=3

    It seems to me that, if prosecutors could and would follow up all leads relating to Dickinson, maybe we’d find that the local political machine plays a role in making Dickinson worse than it really has to be.

  • http://www.jerseycityindependent.com Jon Whiten

    Alb-

    Perhaps you are on to something about Dickinson. But from a wider perspective, of course the political machine plays a role with making Jersey City schools worse than they need to be. Look at the bloated budget, the patronage appointments, etc. — it is a huge topic ripe for further exploration for sure.

  • NON

    How long ago was L. Harvey Smith at Dickinson?

    Way to conflate two completely unrelated issues.

    Oh, and hi alb! xoxoxo!