The Jersey City Independent "

All photos: Steve Gold

After the last regularly scheduled City Council meeting was canceled due to snow, we predicted that this Wednesday’s meeting would be one for the books. And boy, were we right.

With two dense agendas’ worth of contentious legislation to get through and the scheduled budget hearing, the meeting came very close to topping five hours. All nine council members were present to consider 20 first read ordinances, three second-reads and 18 resolutions. But once again, the proposed municipal budget was the star of the show, drawing a rowdy crowd of 500 or so to the council chambers — dozens of whom spoke to protest the likely hefty tax hike.

Budget Fracas Reaches Fever Pitch

Nearly four hours of Wednesday’s meeting were accounted for by a public hearing on the proposed municipal budget, during which 34 people addressed the council — none of them well-wishers. In many ways this portion of the meeting was a rehash of the budget brouhaha that dominated the Jan. 27 council meeting, only with louder responses from the assembled community members.

Among Wednesday’s speakers were distressed homeowners pleading with the council to consider declining home values and difficult economic circumstances before approving a tax increase, angry taxpayers berating the council for what they called rampant corruption and wasteful patronage, and even children from the city’s youth recreation soccer league asking to have their coach — a temporary employee who was laid off this month — reinstated.

Esther Wintner, who made a splash at the Jan. 27 meeting with a rousing tirade that had the audience on its feet, delivered the drama a second time on Wednesday, taking particular aim at Ward B councilman David Donnelly and promising to lead a movement “limb by limb, door by door, ward by ward” to recall council members if any tax increase is approved. She also told the council that the community is organizing to lobby state legislators in Trenton to place a cap on municipal property tax increases.

Amy Ertel later presented the council with what she said were over 2,000 petition signatures in support of the move (you can see the petition online here).

“Most of you did not get elected by more than 2,000 votes,” she quipped, referring to Jersey City’s notoriously low turnout in municipal elections — less than 25 percent of Jersey City’s registered voters cast a ballot in the May 2009 election.

A few other speakers, including Andrew Velwest, picked up the theme of voter turnout and cast the blame for rising taxes back at the citizens. “The citizens of Jersey City as a whole are either ignorant or apathetic,” said Velwest as he made a personal vow to spend “two hours of every week … finding anyone who can do this job better.”

Phil Rivo echoed Velwest’s sentiment: “As easy as it is to come here and feel good about yelling at these nine people, if you show up and vote you can vote them out.” He also upbraided the council for what he called a “lack of empathy” for the plight of citizens caught in financial dire straits.

Several of the speakers bemoaned what they perceive as a lack of services provided by the city, asking the council where their tax dollars are being spent. India Square business leader Raju Patel complained bitterly about the $80,000 per year in “extra taxes” he says he spends for a membership in his local Special Improvement District, which makes available services he says the city should be providing as part of its regular operations.

On the issue of services, Teresa Patterson addressed her representative, Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson, directly: “You’re asking me to give you more tax money, property taxes, and I live in the filthiest ward in the city?” Patterson suggested that Ward F residents “should pay no taxes,” saying that her neighborhood has “no services.”

Good-government activist and 2009 mayoral candidate Dan Levin reminded the council that Mayor Healy told JCI during his reelection campaign that a tax increase “[wasn't] in the cards,” promising he would “do everything possible to keep taxes stable.” Levin returned to a theme he hammered on during the 2009 election and before: a structured approach to budgeting with an emphasis on long-term planning. He asked the council to consider “immediate rigorous cost-cutting initiatives that do not reduce services to the Jersey City public and do not have long-term negative financial repercussions” and called for a “five-year financial master plan” with an independent budget commission to oversee the planning process.

Wrapping up the public hearing on the budget, with a drastically thinner crowd behind her than the first speaker had, perennial budget watchdog and local media personality Mia Scanga called the attention of the council to a “quick comparison” she made between the current fiscal year’s budget and the one for the 2005 fiscal year. She made note of some eyebrow-raising increases in certain line items, including what she called a “startling” 76 percent increase in the amount of revenue to be raised by taxes and similarly large increases in salary and wage line items for certain departments. She also remarked on a change in the Municipal Utilities Authority’s payments to the city, which she said have fallen by $10 million since 2005 while sewage rates charged to residents have steadily risen.

City business administrator Brian O’Reilly, when asked by a resident, stated that with additional budget cuts made in recent weeks, the tax increase currently proposed is between 20 and 23 percent, or $640 for every $100,000 of assessed property value. This is a significant drop from the estimated $800 per $100,000 increase that was expected when the budget was introduced at the Jan. 13 council meeting.

A vote on the budget may happen as early as the next council meeting on Mar. 10, but whenever it happens, it will be no less than eight months late, since the 2010 fiscal year began on July 1, 2009. In the absence of an approved budget, the city funds the majority of its operating expenses with emergency temporary appropriations, which the council routinely approves by resolution. The appropriations approved on Wednesday bring this fiscal year’s running total to $446.1 million, meaning the lion’s share of the $508 million budget that residents showed up to protest this week has already been spent. And once again, Ward E councilman Fulop cast the lone vote against doing so.

Tramz Hotel Dustup Gets Bigger and Badder

At the Dec. 16 council meeting, a first read ordinance that would have granted an $8 million loan to the Tramz Hotel Group was withdrawn from the agenda at the request of some council members. Tramz was seeking the loan in order to perform environmental remediation on a site at the southern end of Marin Boulevard, where they intend to build a 310-room Hilton hotel. In October, the project received a $1.9 million grant from the federal Brownfields Economic Development Initiative.

The loan would have been made under the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program, which permits municipalities to assume the role of guarantor on loans to private developers. If a Section 108 loan is not repaid, the guaranteeing municipality could lose portions of its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds.

Tramz CEO Tarrunumn Murad received a cool reception from the council back in December. Ward E councilman Steven Fulop and Ward D councilman Bill Gaughan expressed grave concerns about the project, with Fulop doubtful that the project would be able to secure financing for construction costs in a tight credit market and Gaughan wary of jeopardizing CDBG money that could go to other projects. The council asked for a revised ordinance to include a stipulation that Murad obtain a letter of credit for the project.

In a memo released on Feb. 3, city attorney Bill Matsikoudis informed the council that Tramz is doing the council’s request one better: instead of obtaining a letter of credit, Tramz decided to set aside $1.25 million of its own money in a dedicated account to provide additional security on the loan; under the previous arrangement, $1 million of the $8 million loan would have been used to establish this security reserve. The memo also makes reference to a Jan. 5 appraisal on the hotel site valuing the property at “over $50 million.” Matsikoudis assured the council that “the city’s interest should be adequately protected.”

The majority of the council seemed to agree, casting a 7-2 vote for introduction. Gaughan, who voted in favor of the ordinance, told JCI that he was satisfied by the additional security posted: “They did come up with additional funds and we saw some additional financial statements, and I thought it was worth introduction.”

Fulop was joined in voting no by Ward B councilman David Donnelly, who says he is still not convinced that the developer is creditworthy enough for the city to justify the risk. “This project’s been on the books for a while now,” he told JCI. “They weren’t able to build the hotel in good times; now we’re in bad times … I’m just not sure that this group can go forward.”

While Fulop is still in doubt of the project’s creditworthiness, he also says “the appraisal is not credible.” The property is as yet undeveloped and in need of environmental remediation, leading Fulop to believe that the appraised value is inflated. Speaking to JCI, he noted that the adjacent Flintkote property, which was sold with an attached approval for a tax-abated condominium building, sold “at height of market” for $25 million, half the appraised value of the Tramz site.

Matsikoudis defends the appraisal, pointing out that it “was prepared for use by the developer’s lender,” which he says would not have an interest in an inflated property value on the site. The council has requested a second appraisal, which Matsikoudis says should occur “in the next two weeks.” This timeline was confirmed by Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Rosemary McFadden.

Fulop also raised ethical questions about the deal, pointing to a $1,500 contribution made by Murad in March 2009 to the campaign of Mayor Healy’s council candidates. In addition, JCI has found that Murad gave $2,600 to the 2009 Healy for Mayor campaign in May 2007, and another $1,000 to the Healy-led Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) in November of that year. Although these contributions were made before a redeveloper pay-to-play ordinance was enacted in September, Fulop says that granting the loan to a developer who made campaign contributions is “wrong on its face.”

Resident Chi Chi Lin agreed. Addressing the council during the budget hearing, he said that “those who received a donation [from the developer] should excuse themselves from the matter.”

When Fulop said that all sitting council members except himself had received campaign cash from Tramz, Donnelly interjected to point out that he did not run for election to obtain his seat and did not take any campaign donations. Fulop quickly turned the junior councilman’s remark back on him, saying, “Councilman Donnelly wishes to clarify; he was not on the council at the time, he was working in the Mayor’s office.”

Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson, who like almost all other members of the council was elected in 2009 as part of Mayor Healy’s slate, took umbrage to Fulop’s implication of underhanded dealings. Just before the close of business for the evening, Richardson told Fulop that his remark “was out of order” and asked for an apology. Fulop gave Richardson a personal apology, saying her voting “track record” backs up her commitment to upholding ethical standards of governance.

A Slight Reform of Board Benefits

Legislation pushed by Fulop to strip Jersey City Incinerator Authority (JCIA) and Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) board members of health insurance benefits did not muster the necessary votes to pass at Wednesday’s meeting, but a set proposed by the Healy administration that would slightly alter the benefits did.

Fulop’s two ordinances would have explicitly forbidden both agencies from providing any kind of health coverage to its board members, starting June 1. In a Feb. 18 letter to the council, Mayor Healy formally came out against the proposal.

“While I am sensitive to the need to cut costs where reasonable and conscionable,” he wrote, “I do not believe it is wise to eliminate the health benefits for JCIA and MUA board members, as it has been provided for decades.”

Instead, Healy proposed making the board members pay 20 percent of the costs, which are currently covered entirely by the agencies. His ordinances would go into effect June 1, and they would also limit the benefits to just the board member, as opposed to their family members.

“While the original ordinances, by cutting all benefits, would save the two agencies a combined total of $287,569,” Healy said in another letter, “the compromise ordinances would still result in a significant savings for the agencies, in the amount of $155,294.”

Fulop’s ordinances both received four votes in favor, four against, and one abstention. Ward C councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez, Brennan and Donnelly voted against both. Gaughan voted no on the JCIA ordinance and abstained on the MUA one, since his daughter Eileen is chair of that board. Similarly, At-Large councilwoman Willie Flood voted no on the MUA ordinance and abstained on the JCIA one, since her husband Phil is the chair of that board.

Meanwhile, the council fell into line behind both Healy’s ordinances, which were introduced by 6-2-1 votes, with Fulop and Richardson voting against both and Gaughan and Flood once again trading abstentions.

In an interesting wrinkle, if the Healy ordinances fail to pass on second read, the benefits may automatically be stripped. In the opinion of the city’s top lawyer, the agencies do not have the legal authority to provide the benefits, since the ordinance governing the boards forbids “compensation.”

While the JCIA’s attorney has argued that the health benefits shouldn’t be deemed “compensation,” the city’s corporation counsel disagrees. “Accordingly, it is my opinion that board members should not receive the benefits unless the city code is amended to explicitly allow them,” Bill Matsikoudis wrote in a Feb. 18 legal opinion.

“If the City Council takes no action by not passing either ordinance, it is my opinion that we will have to ask the JCIA and MUA to discontinue granting health benefits,” he wrote, while adding it was out of his jurisdiction to decide whether providing the benefits — or any other compensation, for that matter — was “appropriate.” That is “strictly a policy decision for the City Council and mayor,” he concludes.

City Car Policy Won’t Change

An ordinance introduced by Fulop to force more city-owned cars to be identified as such was also shot down by the council, with Flood joining him in voting for the bill.

The legislation changed the existing city code regarding the vehicles to mandate that all city vehicles assigned to employees (except for certain police cars) read, in letters at least three inches high, on each side: “CITY OF JERSEY CITY. FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY.” Currently, any vehicle “exempted by the mayor and business administrator” can avoid having the identification on it.

Fulop’s failed ordinance is tied up in a larger fight over city-owned cars, who has them and how they are used. The Healy administration, for its part, said late last week that it was reducing the number of vehicles assigned to employees by 20 percent. But Fulop is pushing for tighter regulation of the fleet.

At Tuesday’s caucus, for example, Fulop suggested that under the current ordinance governing city-owned vehicles, City Council members are not entitled to cars that they can take home. Fulop is one of three council members who doesn’t use a city-owned car. Brennan and Flood use vehicles owned by Hudson County (as At-Large councilman Mariano Vega* also did prior to being suspended from his position as director of the county Department of Parks, Engineering and Planning following his July corruption arrest). The rest of the gang, including Vega*, the self-proclaimed leader of Jersey City’s green movement, drive city-owned SUVs. (The Ford Explorer and the Jeep Liberty are the council choice de rigueur.)

A clause in the current ordinance allows city-owned vehicles to be taken home by employees “who are on call on a twenty-four-hour basis.” Fulop argued that description does not apply to council members.

But Fulop’s move to strip this privilege from council members might stall out, as it were. Corporation counsel Bill Matsikoudis issued an opinion Thursday that “council members may consider themselves 24-hour employees who are permitted 24-hour use of the cars,” while asking that the council and the mayor’s office create a “new unambiguous policy” on the matter.

“While the amount of their salaries may suggest part or full time engagement, their hours are neither part-time nor full time. There are no set business hours for council members,” the opinion reads. “The sufficiency of the hours they devote to business are for the electorate to determine.”

JC1TV Policy Won’t Change

The ordinance floated by Fulop that would, among other things, require the city-owned cable TV station JC1TV to televise City Council meetings from start to finish was voted down by the council Wednesday.

The proposed ordinance would have mandated that JC1TV broadcast the meetings at least four times before the next meeting was scheduled. It would also require JC1TV to broadcast the council caucus meetings at least twice between the caucus, typically held on Monday evening, and the council meeting, which generally falls two days later on Wednesday.

The bill before the council Wednesday was a slightly watered-down version of the legislation first proposed by Fulop, which called for the station to broadcast the council meetings live. But the compromise wasn’t enough to push the bill through the council.

While there seemed to be general support of the bill when it was discussed at the Feb. 11 caucus meeting, that support did not translate into votes, and the bill was killed by a 6-2 vote, with Richardson joining Fulop in supporting the measure.

Fulop told JCI after the meeting that he plans to put all five of his blocked ordinances — the three concerning benefits, the one regarding cars and the JC1TV bill — on “every council agenda for the next three years.”

A Change to Liquor Laws

At the Jan. 27 council meeting, an ordinance (Ord. 10-010) was introduced that would reduce the distance required between two establishments granted a license to sell or serve liquor. Currently set at 750 feet, the proposed law would change that distance to 520 feet within redevelopment zones. Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson opposed the change, saying that her ward is “inundated” with liquor stores and she does not wish to see any more pop up. She voted against introduction and Council President Peter Brennan, who owns a bar, abstained from the vote.

But the council agreed ahead of Wednesday’s meeting to vote down Ord. 10-010 and consider first reading ordinance 10-033 in its stead. The new ordinance was changed to apply only to liquor distribution licenses — those held by liquor stores, not bars and restaurants — being transferred into redevelopment zones. Richardson again voted no on the ordinance, and Brennan abstained, but the measure was introduced by a vote of 7-1-1.

Board of Education Candidates Announced

As the budget hearing raged, two community leaders took the opportunity to announce their candidacy for the Board of Education (BOE) election coming in April of this year. Up for grabs are the three school board seats currently held by board vice president Terry Dehere, former mayor Gerry McCann and Angel Valentin.

Sterling Waterman, president of the Concerned Parents’ Association at P.S. #16 — where his son is a second-grader — told the council that he is running for school board because “the Board of Education budget … is an increasingly large percentage of our tax dollars” and the current board is not doing enough to “rule out the waste.” Waterman also heads the eight-school Coalition of Parent Council Presidents.

Carol Lester, a vocal charter school activist and two-term board president of the Learning Community Charter School, addressed the council on the budget, but did not make reference to a school board bid in her remarks. However, she did make her intention to run known to the press during the meeting, and has since mounted a Facebook page. Lester’s candidacy is independent, but has the support of political coalition One Jersey City, led by 2009 mayoral candidate Dan Levin. Levin is also currently acting as Lester’s campaign manager.

Other First Reads

In addition to the contentious first read ordinances discussed, the council also approved a number of more mundane matters.

• Ord. 10-012, introduced unanimously, would establish a Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) board within the city Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce (HEDC). The board, which the city is required to create in order to meet eligibility requirements for CSBG funds, will be charged with making recommendations to HEDC and the council on matters relating to social services programs for low-income individuals and families.
• Ord. 10-013, introduced unanimously, would amend the city zoning ordinance to allow medical office use in the section of Palisade Avenue near Christ Hospital where a number of variances have already been granted to permit such use.
• Ord. 10-020 would grant a 30-year tax abatement for a 56-unit mixed affordable and market-rate housing development at 320, 324 and 328 Duncan Avenue. It was introduced unanimously.The abatement is structured so that the proerty owner will pay 6.28 percent of gross revenues for the first ten years, 10 percent for the second ten and 15 percent after that up to the 30th year, when it is scheduled to return to the conventional tax rolls.
• Ord. 10-021 would approve a five-year tax abatement for a six-story, 75,000 square foot office building being constructed on a formerly empty lot at the Jersey City Medical Center campus. The ordinance was introduced by a 6-3 vote, with Donnelly, Lopez and Richardson voting against it.The abatement calls for the developer to pay no taxes on the property in 2010, 39 percent of taxes due in 2011, 59 percent in 2012, 79 percent in 2013 and 80 percent in 2014. Under the agreement, the property would fully come on the tax rolls in 2015. The project, which has an estimated total cost of $19.4 million, is expected to create 100-plus construction jobs, as well as about 100 permanent full-time jobs once the office building is filled with tenants.
• Ord. 10-023 would approve a 30-year tax abatement for a 60-unit mixed affordable and market-rate housing development at 136 and 140-142 Summit Avenue and 55 Clifton Place in the Bergen Hill neighborhood. The ordinance was introduced unanimously, but it is not likely that the project will go through. Because of an unexpected change in the application deadline for certain federal stimulus funds, the developer on this project asked the council at the Feb. 8 caucus to expedite this abatement by granting it via resolution. After some discussion, the council decided against doing so because it would eliminate the opportunity for public comment on the bill. Since the project will not have an approved tax abatement attached in time to be competitive for the funds, it is not likely to see the light of day.
• Ord. 10-024, introduced unanimously, would retroactively approve the May 1973 sale of an affordable-housing development on Newark Avenue between Kennedy Boulevard and Summit Avenue, which was processed without the required “approval of the governing body.” The council is taking this step in order to allow the property owner to maintain the 48-year tax abatement on the property that was granted in Feb. 1971.
• Ord. 10-025 would renew a lease agreement between the city and the owner of property at 46 State Street, where the city rents space to store police and fire equipment. It was introduced unanimously.
• Ord. 10-026, introduced unanimously, would amend the Martin Luther King Drive Redevelopment Plan “to make the maps included in the plan more legible and to expand the Neighborhood Shopping District.”
• Ord. 10-027, at the recommendation of the Planning Board, makes changes to the city zoning ordinance to permit developments of less than 10,000 square feet in the city’s “multi-family district.” It was introduced unanimously.
• Ord. 10-028 would amend the Village Study Area Redevelopment Plan to permit medical office use on the first and second floors of buildings along Newark Avenue within the redevelopment zone. It was introduced unanimously.
• Ord. 10-031, introduced 8-1 with Fulop voting no, authorizes the city to issue nearly $8 million in bonds to fund emergency temporary appropriations to pay tax appeals made by property owners in the city. This is a routine practice that was called out by bond ratings agency Moody’s in a December report as a negative impact on the city’s bond rating.

Odds & Ends

• Other than Ord. 01-010, a proposed change to the liquor licensing law which was defeated as discussed above, there were two second read ordinances considered by the council, both of which passed unanimously. You can read more about these ordinances here.
• The council also considered 18 resolutions, most of which passed unanimously with little comment, except the routine approval of emergency temporary appropriations, which Ward E councilman Steven Fulop cast the lone vote against.
• A resolution to give one-year contracts to four companies for janitorial services was withdrawn from the council agenda after being discussed at Tuesday’s caucus. The proposed contracts, which covered services at more than 20 city locations, totaled $527,798.80. But at the request of Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson, Department of Public Works director Rodney Hadley did some research and found that the same services could be provided in-house by recently laid-off seasonal workers for less than half of that sum. He said that a mere $176,000 would cover rehiring 22 seasonal employees with benefits, and they could handle this service.
• The city was authorized to amend its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) five-year plan in order to allocate nearly $660,000 in funds to three local social service organizations: Grace Van Vorst Community Service, Hudson Community Enterprise and WomenRising.
• The council honored three individuals by resolution: police inspector Paul Riepe and city zoning officer Anthony Lambiase on their respective retirements and Hudson County Community College student Dominike Montes de Oca on his achievement of the rank of Eagle in the Boy Scouts of America.
• The city signed an additional authorization to enter into an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to place a sign reading, “Welcome to Jersey City” on the pedestrian bridge that crosses over the exit lanes of the Holland Tunnel. The sign was first approved last February, but the Port Authority requested additional language be added to the agreement.
• The council authorized an agreement with the Jersey City Reservoir Preservation Alliance which permits the group to enter the city-owned Reservoir No. 3 for the purposes of conducting educational and recreational programs at the site, as well as light maintenance.
• URS Corporation, which is contracted by New Jersey Transit to operate the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, will be authorized to enter city-owned property, a paper street at Brown Place between 230 and 236 Princeton Avenue. URS will enter the property in order to design and construct a new rail interlocking and siding facility for the Light Rail.
• Councilman Fulop has a new council aide, and a familiar one at that. Pam Andes, who served as his aide from June to September 2009 before leaving to have a baby, will replace Angie Sanchez, who has left for another full-time opportunity.

What Are We Buying?

The council approved the following purchases on Wednesday:

• Up to $200,000 to F&S Tire Corp. for new vehicle tires.
• Up to $160,000 to Midtown Occupational Medicine for contract physicians, who will conduct medical examinations of city workers and prospective employees.
• Up to $100,000 to Generator Exchange Co. for “light automotive parts.”
• Up to $100,000 to Certified Products Co. for automotive fluids and lubricants.
• $66,663 to Dimension Data for the installation of a new VOIP phone system at City Hall.
• $50,000 to Staples Business Advantage for copier paper.
• $37.911.67 to Dell Marketing for software service and installation.
• $5,250 Allied Car Care Center for heavy duty vehicle washing and detailing.
• $1,885.62 to extend a contract with Stantec Consulting Services to study school crossing safety improvements.


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