I’m writing this letter to express my concern about the ordinance to remove Council President Brennan. On Wednesday, the council voted 5 to 4. Council members David Donnelly, Nidia Lopez, Steven Fulop, Rolando Lavarro and Viola Richardson voted in favor while Michael Sottolano, Bill Gaughan, Peter Brennan and Michele Massey voted against. It was quite obvious Sottolano, Brennan, and Gaughan were going to vote against but I’m surprised at Councilwoman Massey. In the previous council meeting, she abstained. Now, she voted against the ordinance. I hope she is not falling in the hands of the Healy Administration because it’s the wrong team to join.

Although I’m an advocate for the Ward A Greenville community, this really disturbs me. We need new direction in Jersey City and your voting against the ordinance shows that you want the same status quo in Jersey City. The people of Jersey City especially in Ward F, which you represent, are tired of the same old politics and politicians not putting them first. If in this case Mayor Healy vetoes the ordinance, which most likely he will, the council needs six votes to override it. I would hope you have talked with the other five council members who voted for it to get more clarification. I would say, you should go talk to the residents in the community to see how they feel. I’m quite sure they want this city to finally move in a different direction.

- Demetrius Terry
Ward A Greenville Advocate

“This is an important step,” said Ward D Councilman Bill Gaughan, “there are a lot of good business people out there who are struggling because of our economy and this helps.”

The law’s passage also resonated positively with community groups such as Harsimus Cove Association. HCA president Stephen Musgrave, who praised the city’s effort to involve neighborhood associations, said some of the groups’ suggestions were incorporated into the final ordinance.

“This is part of the overall strategy of the Healy administration to provide residents and business owners the ability to enjoy the arts, while also promoting small business opportunities and creating a vibrant city that is a tourist destination for visitors from around the world,” said city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill.

Restaurants will be divided into two classes of establishments, those with a capacity of greater than 100 people designated as Class 1 and those with a smaller capacity in Class 2. Class 1 licenses will have an annual fee of $800 and Class 2 licenses will cost $600 per year. For nightclubs – open later and louder and, unlike the restaurant-level license, they are not permitted in Neighborhood Commercial Districts – Class 1 licenses will cost $1,200 and Class 2 licenses will cost $1,000.

Any establishment currently holding an entertainment ordinance must reapply for the new license within 60 days.

Photo of Stephen Musgrave by Eric Schkrutz

“The City Council’s action is illegal and as stated in two opinions rendered by the Corporation Council violates the rights of Council President Brennan,” says Mayor Healy. “This ordinance was arbitrary and capricious, serves no purpose, and was created solely for political motives. It does nothing to better the lives of the residents of Jersey City and only serves to expose the taxpayers to the costs of a lawsuit. For all of those reasons, I will veto this ordinance.”

With the City Council’s 5-4 vote at last night’s council meeting, the new majority faction on the council appears to be one vote short of overriding the mayor and enacting the legislation introduced by Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez. At-Large Councilwoman Viola Richardson, At-Large Councilman Rolando Lavarro, Ward B Councilman David Donnelly, and Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop also voted in favor of the measure.

Following the vote – and ostensibly before he knew of Healy’s intention to veto – Brennan made it clear that he would be following through with his promise to sue the city, saying the law tramples on his Constitutional rights. To allay voter fears that they would be stuck footing the bill, however, Brennan said he would cover his own legal expenses.

The Council President found support from both Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano and Ward D Councilman Bill Gaughan. More surprising for some was the support he received from newly-appointed Ward F Councilwoman Michele Massey, who said she could not vote for the measure since she had not been provided with “documentation” showing “just cause” for why Brennan should be ousted.

“On behalf of the taxpayers,” said Massey, referring to the potential cost of Brennan’s threatened lawsuit, “and without documentation, I have to vote no.”

Lavarro, on the other hand, did not require similar documentation and said his vote aimed to better reflect the will of the voters. Noting that there are three new council members and Richardson has moved to an at-large post since the organization meeting where Brennan was elected president, “as far as I’m concerned, it’s a new council” and a new president would be appropriate, he said.

“The people of Jersey City spoke on election day, and they made a very loud and clear message that the city should move in another direction,” Lavarro added.

The vote went ahead despite a legal memo written by Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis, which maintained the ordinance would likely be rejected in court as “illegal,” an opinion the unconvinced majority on the council rejected as “convenient.”

“We lose focus that for all nine of us sitting up here, it’s not a god-given right, it’s a privilege,” said Fulop. “Policies change, perspectives change.”

Before voting no, Ward A Michael Sottolano said ousting Brennan “is totally without merit and without cause. It reeks of [being] self-serving and of political machinations at their worst.”

The “self-serving” argument resonated with resident Esther Wintner, a council mainstay who frequently criticizes the Healy Administration, but who in this case maintained that politicians who change the law for their own benefit are far more dangerous than “bad decisions” by those in charge.

“If members of the council are frustrated and unhappy with the rules that govern their body, there is an organizational meeting to fix it,” she said of the meeting where a council president is elected at the start of each four-year council cycle. “While I understand this is an extraordinarily unusual [council] term given the change of council members, stepping outside the rules to change the law, either out of frustration, expedience, or personal aggrandizement, sends the message that you think the law should be bent to your will, not you to the law’s.”

Still, the majority of speakers were far more enthusiastic at the prospect of new leadership on the council, such as Police Officer Benevolent Association representative Mark Razzoli, who noted the city’s double standard when it comes to contracts. Razzoli likened changing the council president’s terms of office to the city’s decision to change health benefits of retirees despite the existence of a written contract, a move Brennan had supported.

Perhaps articulating the frustration best, Imtiaz Syed, a Jersey City doctor and one-time At-Large Council candidate, said the need for leadership change was due in large part to what he described as spiraling crime in the city, of which he has been a victim twice. First his office was broken into, he said, and more recently the wheels of his daughter’s car were stolen. The Healy Administration’s response, he says, was pathetic.

“If I knew the state of affairs was going to be like this in Jersey City, would I have asked [my children] to come back to Jersey City?” Syed asked. “What kind of message are we sending to professionals, that they should leave Jersey City?”

Photo of Peter Brennan by Eric Schkrutz

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.

Along with Lopez, the affirmative votes came from Ward B Councilman David Donnelly, Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, At-Large Councilman Rolando Lavarro, and At-Large Councilwoman Viola Richardson, the councilwoman expected to replace Brennan should the ordinance pass its second reading. Newly elected Ward F Councilwoman Michele Massey, though recommended to the Council by Richardson, chose to abstain, saying she wasn’t privy to the reason for Brennan’s potential ouster and did not want to vote prematurely on the measure.

Despite Matsikoudis’s 10-page memo that called into question the legality of the ordinance, the majority of Council members said the memo was too vague.

“There were a lot of “ifs,” “mays,” “it’s possibles,” but not an affirmative yes or no,” said Lopez. “There was a lot of information on the memo that did not apply to the ordinance.”

Added Lopez, “It’s a new era and 33% of the council are holding new positions.”

The three no votes– which included a vote by Council President Brennan, who had opted to abstain from voting on the amended Entertainment Ordinance because of a perceived conflict of interest– described the ordinance as unjust. He said the law would result in uncertain leadership on the council because any five council members could could call for a change at any time.

“If the Council wants two-year terms for the Council President, I have no problem with that starting in 2013,” said an emotional Brennan, “but interrupting the current term [of a president] that six people on the current council voted on isn’t right. I feel that my rights are being violated.”

Brennan, who noted he “made every agenda meeting and every council meeting,” said he doesn’t see why his “name should be tampered with. I believe I have done a good job as Council President.”

Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano agreed, adding, the bill “is not a prudent course of action for the Council to take.”

“There’s no just cause for removing him,” continued Sottolano. “In essence what we’re saying [with this ordinance] is that any particular time or at the will or whim of the Council we can change the terms of office when we have five votes.”

As the Hudson Reporter noted earlier in the week, Jersey City’s revision of the municipal code is similar to a move Hoboken made last year. At the time, Hoboken’s City Council changed the city’s laws to allow a change in its leadership following an election that saw Hoboken’s mayor lose allies on the Council.

Should the vote pass at the following City Council meeting on January 25th, Brennan reiterated that he would sue over the decision, echoing the memo’s concerns that his vested rights were being trampled on, a decision Fulop slammed as a “threat” and scare tactic.

“You should acknowledge voters want to go in a different direction,” said Fulop before reminding the Council that he is often on the losing side of a Council’s vote and there is a proper way to handle it. “Leave with dignity, not with lawsuits.”

“Elections do have consequences,” he added, referring to the recent special election in which the two former At-Large Council seats, often supporters of Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s agenda, were defeated.

“None of these seats are a birth right or god given,” he said. “If the majority of the Council wants to explore a different option here we should be able to.”

File photo: Steve Gold

Although Matsikoudis acknowledges that there is no exact judicial precedent to follow, he outlines a number of similar cases and other legal problems that undermine Lopez’s effort, which include limitations to the council’s authority, precedents in “analogous” forms of government, and Constitutional issues of due process.

The memo, in parsing the law authorizing the council to choose a president, finds that unless the council presidency is being changed ‘with cause’– i.e. for doing something illegal– the president can only be selected at “organizational meetings” which occur once every four years. Typically, Jersey City’s mayoral and council terms are in the same four-year cycle, although this past November’s special election, for example, occurred because the council positions were temporarily filled following unexpected vacancies. According to corporation counsel, the council is bound by the explicit language regarding “organizational meetings” in order to elect a council president.

Matsikoudis also points to a court case that establishes a “presiding officer serves the term of the governing body and not durante bene placito (at the will of the appointing authority).” Lopez had argued one of her reasons for proposing the ordinance was because the council presidency should better reflect the new make-up of the council itself, and this argument by Matiskoudis apparently seeks to address that.

Further, should Brennan’s term end prematurely, he is “due “some manner of hearing before the ultimate decision maker, [the Council], and a statement for reason for the action”” as part of the “property interest” in the Due Process clause. Lopez’s ordinance, in essence, ‘fires’ Brennan from the position, and he would “likely” be eligible to be heard in his defense. Similarly, removing him from the position would also likely require a hearing “regarding any revocation of benefits flowing to him via the position;” or, put more simply, the council president receives an additional $2,000 for his position and taking that away would open up more problems. Matsikoudis writes, “it seems that the City Council would have to provide the President necessary due process protections, were it inclined to reduce his salary to a non-Presidential level.”

At Monday night’s caucus meeting Brennan said he had spoken with outside counsel and it was recommended that he sue the city should the ordinance be passed. The memo also addresses this possibility, and says the city would be on the hook for Brennan’s attorney fees and possibly for damages as well since Matsikoudis feels the ordinance would not hold up in court.

Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano requested Lopez withdraw the ordinance in light of the memo’s findings, but Lopez, who said she wanted more time to consider what she would do, declined to do so.

Two Former Jersey City Project Managers Face Charges of Shaking Down Construction Firms and Suppliers for $385,000: Two men who once worked as a project manager and his assistant at the Liberty Harbor development in Downtown Jersey City have been charged with shaking down construction companies and suppliers, officials said yesterday.

Jersey City Library Amnesty Week Began Yesterday: Patrons will be able to return overdue materials to Jersey City public libraries without fines from Monday January 9th through Saturday January 14th.

Today’s Best Bets:

LITM hosts Employees Only, a group exhibition showcasing the talents of current and former staff members who create art, music and films when they are not serving you drinks (7 pm, free).

If you want to laugh (and shut up), Shut up and Laugh returns to Lamp Post (9 pm, free).

In Statewide News:

N.J. Assemblyman Alex DeCroce Collapses and Dies in Statehouse: Longtime Assemblyman Alex DeCroce, the Republican minority leader of the state’s lower house, collapsed and died inside the Statehouse late Monday night, just moments after the 214th Legislature held its final voting session. He represented Morris County for 23 years. Governor Chris Christie will postpone his State of the State address but will pay a visit to the Legislature to eulogize the Assemblyman.

Bills Fly Through Senate, Assembly at the 214th Legislature’s Final Voting Session: Two years of deal-making in the state Legislature snowballed into a jam-packed final session Monday that touched on everything from allowing private companies to build and run public schools in three cities to giving builders a reprieve on drinking water protections. Here is a summary of the action.

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver Says Raising New Jersey Minimum Wage is a Top Priority in 2012: Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver said one of her top priorities this year will be raising New Jersey’s minimum wage, calling it a necessary move if the state wants to stimulate its lagging economy.

“By ordinance, the City Council more than 10 years ago unanimously passed that the Council presidency is for the full term of the council person elected, namely four years. That is the state of the law in Jersey City, and as a result Council President Brennan has another 18 months to serve before that can possibly be changed,” says Mayor Healy.

But Lopez says the Council made that law, so they can also amend it when necessary. According to Lopez, Corporation Council Bill Matsikoudis is “still looking into” the issue. She says she expects to have an answer by Monday, a delay that she describes as “stalling.”

“Give me a break,” she says. “[The city's lawyers] need to come up with a reason why they need to delay it. They’re trying to find a way to make it a legal issue.”

For Lopez, the “tactic” is typical of the problems she’s faced with the administration, which, she says, routinely ignores her proposals.

“If [Brennan] listened to the people at council meetings, he’d realize changes are needed,” Lopez says. “A council president needs vision and commitment to benefit everyone in our great city.

“And with all respect to Mayor Healy, it’s never too premature to do what’s right for people. It’s not unjust to change under-performing individuals. If you can get a council president who will be more effective, why not?” she adds.

The proposed ordinance would be paired with a resolution nominating At-Large Councilwoman Viola Richardson to the council presidency, a move suggestive of a new dominant faction on the council and one less aligned with Healy’s goals. It also comes after Richardson’s profile was raised dramatically following November’s special election, when the councilwoman won one of the at-large seats available and her ticket-mate, Rolando Lavarro, won the other.

Richardson was also instrumental in getting her replacement for the Ward F seat nominated. Neither she nor Brennan returned calls in time for this article.

Healy, however, has a not-so-subtle reminder to Richardson — the special election may not have been as representative of citywide sentiments as the faction supporting the move would like to think.

“Council President Brennan was elected by the full electorate in Jersey City and received approximately 12,000 votes and with all due respect, the newly elected Councilwoman Richardson was the victor in a special election receiving 4,100 votes,” the mayor says. “Not only is this measure premature, but it is also unjustified and illegal.”

The move, however, is not without precedent, according to City Clerk Robert Byrne. In 1992, Council President Marilyn Roman succeeded Gerald McCann as mayor after he was convicted of fraud. She then lost the position after the council voted for a different council president in the middle of her term.

Fulop has publicly supported Lopez’s move, slamming the current administration in a statement Tuesday.

“Clearly the Healy-Brennan leadership combination has resulted in huge tax increases year after year,” he says. “I don’t know where the mayor is living when he says taxes are stable but this change for Council presidency will both help get a new direction on taxes while also having needed diversity in leadership.”

The city, however, maintains taxes stayed “stable” from 2010 to 2011.

“It has been this administration and Council President Brennan, as well as other members of the Council, who have worked hard for the past two years to bring in a budget without a municipal tax increase, and it is our intent to do so again this year with the 2012 budget,” Healy says.

PSE&G Wins Special Incentives for Transmission Upgrades: Public Service Electric & Gas once again has won special incentive rates to expand its high voltage transmission system, a high-risk project running through Hudson and Essex counties.

County Executive, Register and Freeholders Sworn In at Hudson County Inaugural Ceremony: Both of New Jersey’s US senators were on hand last night for the swearing-in at the William J. Brennan Courthouse of Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise, Hudson County Register Pamela Gardner and the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Crime Blotter: A 7-year-old white and scruffy toy poodle has gone missing, or may have been stolen from a Jersey City yard on New Year’s Eve, its owner said Tuesday morning; officials are on the hunt for Jersey City man who escaped from a Newark halfway house eight days before his parole.

In Statewide News:

Time, or Tolls? Doing the New Math for New Jersey Commuters: Drivers did the time-versus-toll calculus on Tuesday, the first workday since the latest toll increase on the turnpike.

NJ Legislature to Decide Whether to Permit Online Gaming: Gamblers in New Jersey could soon be playing casino poker or other card games in the comfort of their homes or on the go if a measure allowing internet wagering wins approval of the state Legislature next week.

Lawsuit Aims at Toll Fees: A former police sergeant for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is suing the agency after it eliminated free tolls for life for retirees, the second suit to be filed against the agency after the contractual benefit was eliminated in January 2011.

Food Stamp Demand Rises in New Jersey: The number of families and individuals across the state who turned to food stamp benefits was at its highest level since the recession began in late 2007.

Property of Christ Hospital May be Sold to Alabama-Based Real Estate Investment Trust: The prospective new owner of Christ Hospital plans to sell the Jersey City hospital’s property to an Alabama-based real-estate investment trust, and then lease back the land for $7 million annually.

Jersey City Councilmen Quizzed by FBI About City’s Involvement with Insurance Broker: Councilmen Peter Brennan and William Gaughan have confirmed that FBI agents recently approached them about the city’s dealings with Bergen County insurance broker Joseph Bigica, a prominent campaign contributor who has brokerage contracts with a number of communities in northern New Jersey.

Three Fires: A family of five and one woman had to be relocated by the American Red Cross on Monday morning after an electrical fire ignited in the basement of their Virginia Avenue apartment building and spread to the first and second floors, fire officials say; a small fire broke out in the bedroom of a York Street home in Downtown Jersey City yesterday morning, fire officials said. Jersey City firefighters responded to another fire two hours later at a single-family home on Wegman Parkway.

Crime Blotter: Two workers repairing a roof were charged with invasion of privacy after peeping through the women’s bathroom window of the Jersey City Police Department’s West District Precinct; an 82-year-old city woman attacked her 81-year-old boyfriend with a knife and a meat tenderizer early Monday morning because she believed he was cheating on her, cops say; two men broke into a basement apartment of a Gifford Street building and fled when cops arrived early yesterday, but one was caught hiding in his mother’s apartment a short time later, police said.

Today’s Best Bets:

Performances of the Jersey City Nutcracker begin a six-day run tonight at 7:30 pm at Grace Church Van Vorst ($10-$50). The tale is performed by professional dancers from Nimbus Dance Works joined by youth and adults from the community.

In Statewide News:

Christie Fifth on List of VP Candidates: Gov. Chris Christie got half the number of mentions for vice president, or about 4 percent, coming in fifth, just behind former Gov. Mitt Romney, according to this morning’s Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind™ poll.

New Jersey Developer Says It’s Giving Up on Offshore Wind: The fate of New Jersey’s offshore wind projects took an unexpected turn this week, with the announcement by one of a handful of companies bidding to develop a wind farm off the coast that it is pulling out of such projects.

NJ’s Health Information Exchanges Share Electronic Medical Records: Medical data is starting to be exchanged electronically in New Jersey via “health information exchanges” whose members are hospitals, doctors, and other healthcare providers working in the same region of the state.

New Task Force Tackles Familiar Topic: College and Career Readiness: Three years ago, a large state-appointed task force issued a plan for “redesigning” the state’s public high schools to better prepare students for college and work. This month, the state is back at it.

“The City worked to ensure that the concerns of the vendors and the local restaurant owners were taken into consideration, as well as the City’s need to protect the health of the public and ensure the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles,” says city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill. “We feel that this revised version of the ordinance will satisfy all concerned parties and is another example of Mayor Healy’s commitment to making Jersey City more business-friendly.”

The latest version of the law increases aspects of public safety — the impetus for the ordinance in the first place — while molding the constraints to work better for the realities of operating a food truck.

“In an effort to unwind the mess created from the corruption from illegal sales of licenses, I think the proposal we have now will move the city into a balanced and proactive approach to dealing with food trucks,” says Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop.

While Fulop was involved with the drafting of the initial bill, he changed his position after vendors called the proposed rules “misguided.” The new effort to regulate the trucks involved more input from food truck operators and expands safety and health rules.

“This ordinance will create health standards, it will drive new monthly revenue for the city and balance the competitive discrepancy that exists in certain locations between the trucks and the bricks-and-mortar establishments,” Fulop says.

JCI has been following the effort to reform Jersey City’s food truck law for more than two years, since February 2009 when longtime food truck vendors working near New Jersey City University came to a City Council meeting to protest what they considered selective enforcement of an outdated law.

Since then, several attempts to revise the bill have been drafted, and all have met with little success. The uncertainty over food trucks deepened when former city health inspector Joseph Castagna was found to be issuing illegal vendor licenses. The cap on the food truck licenses was 175, but the city suspected that Castagna, who is now retired, may have issued upwards of 100 licenses beyond the cap.

Much of the resistance to the various drafts of the bill has come from the food truck vendors themselves, who have complained that the existing rules and some of the proposed revisions ignore the realities of their day-to-day operations and make unrealistic and unnecessary demands.

When the ordinance last saw light in May, it was tabled 8-1 with Council President Peter Brennan casting the lone “no” vote. At the time, Brennan argued that despite the law’s imperfections, the city’s first priority was to find out “who’s who out there.”

“We let this go astray for too long,” Brennan said in May. “We want to bring it back under control of the city, and this [ordinance] is how we have to do it. Should we make amendments to this? I believe we can. But we have children out there and we need to protect them first.”

Still, the council ultimately decided the immediate burden on the vendors — who said the proposed ordinance would make food truck operation impossible — was of greater concern than not knowing the identity of every truck operator. When the council decided to table the ordinance, members believed that they would meet with vendors and quickly craft a better plan. Instead, it took the city five months to put together this latest draft.

It does appear the city has learned from its mistakes. On the public safety end, additional oversight such as fire certification and state-issued business certification would be required of vendors. The new ordinance also eliminates a cap on the number of licenses available, something Fulop says he likes “because the market then will decide the proper number [of trucks in the city], as opposed to an arbitrary number.”

Also refined were background check requirements. Instead of mandating this for all food truck employees, something Fulop says wasn’t doable with the high turnover of employees, background checks would now be required solely for the primary owners, making it “more like restaurants,” Fulop says.

Under the ordinance, vendors would have to deal with increased fees. A permit fee would cost $200 for 2011, $300 for 2012, $400 for 2013 and $500 for 2014 and after. There would also be a $75 application fee. Additionally, vendors in some high-traffic areas would be able to buy monthly parking permits from the Jersey City Parking Authority for $400 a month, for a minimum of three months, that would allow them to stay in one location throughout the day. Without the permits, the vendor would need to move his or her truck every 120 minutes. (Gone in this version is the proposed requirement that vendors move their trucks every 60 minutes, which vendors said would have been impossible.)

Fulop says the increased fees “will level the playing field slightly and raise revenue for the city.”

Other changes from the initial bill deal with the operational side of food truck vending, such as requiring the distance between a food truck and a brick-and-mortar restaurant be 200 feet, down from 300 feet in the previous version. Also gone is the rule requiring that food trucks operate at least 100 feet from each other, something even competing food vendors criticized, saying it would ruin the “food truck rows” that generate foot traffic.

The City Council caucus meeting is tonight at 5:30 at City Hall.

Photo: Steve Gold