The Jersey City Independent "

Wednesday’s city council meeting, clocking in at a slim hour and forty-five minutes, saw very little controversy. What action there was came not from the three first read ordinances, six second reads and 41 resolutions on the agenda, but from the appearance of a local union leader.

The Chuck Carol Show

H.K. “Chuck” Carol, president of the Jersey City Public Employees Local #246, approached the podium during the public hearing portion of the meeting backed by applause from most of the 40 or so community members assembled in the audience. Carol told the council that he was on hand to “promote a dialogue” about furloughs for city employees; the Department of Administration has applied for state approval for 12 furlough days over six months as part of a plan to close this year’s budget gap. The furloughs would affect all of the city’s departments, with the exceptions of Police and Fire.

Carol complained that the proposed furloughs would “negatively [impact] the delivery of services for a woefully small savings.” When he remarked that a letter addressing this issue he’d sent to each council member was returned only by Ward E councilman Steven Fulop, Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson told Carol that she did not respond to the letter because she had never received any word from the administration that furloughs were being planned.

Carol’s remarks to the council certainly did create a conversation; city business administrator Brian O’Reilly found himself in the hotseat, answering pointed questions about the furloughs and other more general budget issues. Fulop took the opportunity to beat the drum on the issue of timeliness, something he made much of in the last fiscal year when the budget was introduced just over ten months late. O’Reilly told the council that he plans to submit a budget for council approval within 30 days. Responding to additional comments and suggestions from Richardson, At-Large councilman Mariano Vega* and Ward A councilman Michael Sottolano, a somewhat ruffled O’Reilly “challenge[d] the council” to recommend to his office any cuts they see fit, using last year’s budget “as a baseline.”

Because the furloughs are a purely administrative matter, the council will not have the opportunity to vote on the issue. However, council president Peter Brennan stated that he would set up a subcommittee of the council to advise the Department of Administration on the furloughs and other budget cuts.

The union that Carol heads comprises 650 of the city’s non-supervisory employees in white-collar positions.

Cash for Jobs

In passing three resolutions on Wednesday, the council authorized the city to contribute a total of $6 million to the nearly $90 million pot that is being used to lure the New York-based Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) to the western shores of the Hudson. As a result of the incentives being provided by the city, county and state, DTCC will move 1,600 jobs to a Jersey City facility in 2013. Five million of the city’s contribution comes from its Recovery Zone Facility Bond Allocation (RZBA), leaving another $5 million for other projects in the city.

Although there were no comments about the bill at the council meeting, there was some discussion at Monday’s caucus. Richardson emphasized that she would like to see the remainder of the RZBA funds put to use to attract another retail bank to her ward, where she says it is “needed.” She also stated her hope that “we see some of this money.”

But Vega* and Brennan were enthusiastic about the measure, both saying they expected the city to benefit from DTCC’s move. Deputy mayor Rosemary McFadden echoed those statements at the caucus, calling attention to hotel stays, parking, and employees who might move their homes to Jersey City as potential sources of revenue. Business administrator Brian O’Reilly called the agreement with DTCC “one of the biggest accomplishments [he's] had as a 24-year employee.”

First Reads

All three first read ordinances passed unanimously without comment from the council. Vega* was absent for the first vote, but arrived in time for the second. The first ordinance introduced on Wednesday created a position of Technical Assistant 3 in the Fire Department to be held by Libertad Pabon. The second reserved parking spots for the disabled at 14 locations around the city, and the third repealed the parking prohibition on the west side of Sullivan Drive between Lembeck and Bartholdi Avenues in the Greenville section and implemented a no-parking rule during street cleaning hours on both sides of that block.

Odds and Ends

* The six second read ordinances passed unanimously with minimal comment from the public. Linda Regan thanked the council for honoring crossing guard Susan Stavar by naming the corner of Grand Street and Marin Boulevard in her honor. Charles Turner made his second council meeting appearance in a row to ask the purpose of the three ordinances that vacate paper streets and a city water main easement in preparation for construction of the Van Leer Place development in the industrial section of Downtown. An ordinance introduced last week that would appropriate $4.6 million to the Parking Authority for a capital purchase of the property at 392 Central Avenue was missing from this week’s agenda. You can read about the other ordinances here.

* Like the first and second read ordinances, all 41 resolutions on the council agenda passed unanimously with little comment.

* Missing from the agenda this week was a revised itinerant vendors ordinance, which city attorney Bill Matsikoudis told the council he was working on back at the first council meeting of September. However, at Monday’s caucus Matsikoudis shared a memo with the council that contained two proposed solutions to the issue: one would extend the time food trucks are permitted to stay at a given location; the other would designate specific locations around the city where they could operate and possibly auction those spots off. However, as Matsikoudis stated in the memo, “neither solution will be without its share of critics.” As such, he asked the council to form a subcommittee to look into the issue and recommend the best way to move forward in revising the ordinance within 60 days.

* Eleven resolutions were passed that authorize changes to agreements with developers of affordable housing that will allow the owners of those properties to charge their tenants a fixed base rent. Previously, owners of these homes — all of which are two-family homes in which the owner is required to live — were mandated to charge rent based on their tenants’ income. Division of Community Development director Darice Toon justified the change to the council at Monday’s caucus by explaining that these landlords are finding it difficult to meet their loan obligations as the incomes of their tenants are falling. At the request of the council, the changes to the policy will be implemented incrementally beginning after the first of the new year.

* The council directed the Planning Board to determine whether a lot at the corner of Cambridge and North Streets should be designated an area in need of rehabilitation.

* Alberto Anton was appointed as a civic member of the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation.

* Lifelong Jersey City resident and longtime P.S. #8 principal Charles Trefurt was honored on the occasion of that school being named after him.

* The city will apply for a grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection to conduct a planning study for a proposed trolley system that would run from the Liberty State Park light rail station to the historic train terminal in the park. As the director of the city’s Department of Planning Bob Cotter explained at Monday’s caucus, the trolley would repurpose old cars from the Newark subway system.

* The city accepted several grants: $1.9 million from the federal Brownfields Economic Development Initiative for the Tramz Hotel at Liberty Harbor North; $1.2 million from the county Open Space Trust Fund for the expansion of Berry Lane Park and another $100,000 for improvements to Columbia Park; nearly $242,000 from the county Department of Health and Human Services for educational and preventative substance abuse programs — the city and its sub-grantees will match the county’s contribution with over $60,000 in cash and the remainder coming from in-kind contributions; nearly $36,000 from the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety will cover overtime expenses for police officers and radar equipment to promote education and enforcement related to pedestrian safety, aggressive and drunk driving; last but not least, a grant for $3,000 from the state Department of Health and Senior Services was accepted for health service programs for senior citizens.

* A reimbursement from the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority was accepted to fund the salary of the city’s transportation planner and related expenses.

* A dispute among the city, Travelers Indemnity Company and Gulf Insurance Company regarding those insurance companies’ obligation to cover certain claims was settled when the city accepted a total of $195,000 from the two companies.

* Over $5.2 million in emergency appropriations were approved for the fiscal year 2010 budget to increase eight line items and create four others.

* The council authorized an agreement with New Jersey Transit (NJT) to enter onto a small piece of property that the city owns near the Wittpenn Bridge in Kearny where NJT is working on a road improvement project. Similar agreements were authorized that will allow PPG Industries to enter 824 and 880 Garfield Avenue in order to perform environmental testing and remediation work.

* The city extended an agreement with the county that allows them to access city-owned property at the new Hudson County Plaza to install traffic signals.

* The city declared that all conditions on the 2003 sale of 18-20 Park Street have been complied with and thus removed further restrictions on the sale of the property.

* A contract with Official Payments was authorized for the provision of services that will allow the Tax Collector to accept credit card payments. This service will be funded by convenience fees to be paid by the taxpayer; the city will incur no cost related to this contract.

* Real estate taxes totaling just over $7,000 were canceled for an improper assessment at 786 Tonnele Avenue.

* A discharge-of-mortgage certificate was authorized for the property at 150 Bidwell Avenue.

* A closed caucus was scheduled for November 10 to discuss matters related to the 6th Street Embankment.

* Two street closings were authorized: Grand Street between Greene at Washington Streets on Saturday, October 31 for a street market hosted by the Historic Paulus Hook Association; and Fleet Street from Oakland to Baldwin Avenues — the block where the Hudson County Democratic Organization’s (HCDO) headquarters is located — on November 3, Election Day.

What are we buying?

The council approved the following purchases on Wednesday:

* Nearly $21,000 to Dietrich Neumahr for four police dogs.

* Over $19,000 to RMD Instruments for lead identification and test equipment.

* Up to $10,000 to Nowell, Amoroso, Klein & Bierman for legal representation for Chief Animal Control Officer Joseph Frank in a defamation lawsuit brought by Nicole Dawson.

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