The Jersey City Independent "

A new majority faction on the City Council emerged at Wednesday night’s meeting when an ordinance was introduced to cut short Council President Peter Brennan’s term as president at a vote of 5-3-1. The law would also change the length of future terms from four years to two years going forward, but the crux of the issue is the direction of current Council leadership, which Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, the bill’s sponsor, had described as “lacking vision.” Along with the votes came sharp rebuke of Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis’s memo questioning the legality of the ordinance, a legal opinion most of the Council said failed to address the question put before him.

A legal memo written by Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis to the City Council finds that Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez’s proposed ordinance to end Council President Peter Brennan’s term as Council President in the middle of his term would “not likely pass judicial muster.” Although Matsikoudis acknowledges that there is no exact judicial precedent to [...]

Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez says she’s fed up with the “unprofessionalism” in the way the Council is being led — from Council President Peter Brennan’s “lack of time” in the office to a lack of vision for the city’s needs — and is proposing an ordinance that will shorten the length of the council [...]

Wednesday’s city council meeting was dominated by the appointments of a new council president and a new representative for Ward B. But there was more, and we’ve got the skinny.

Vega smiles moments after once again being voted council president. Despite a campaign from At-Large councilman Peter Brennan to rouse up enough votes to take Mariano Vega’s spot as leader of the City Council, all nine council members voted to make Vega council president for another four years at yesterday’s reorganization meeting. The first regular [...]

- Does Nidia Rivera Lopez, who is set to be sworn in as the Ward C representative on the City Council today, technically reside in Florida? That’s what runner-up Jimmy King claims in a suit filed in Hudson County Superior Court. He hired a private detective to investigate the rumors he’d heard about Lopez. “She [...]

- Mariano Vega wants to hold on to his position as City Council president, but At-Large councilman Peter Brennan, who made a play for the position four years ago, is trying for it again. – A former Jersey City building inspector has pleaded guilty in federal court to extorting tens of thousands of dollars, as [...]