Wednesday’s regularly scheduled meeting of the Jersey City municipal council adjourned earlier than usual, with only a handful of new resolutions and ordinances on the agenda. Missing from the agenda – again – and silently growing into more and more of a melanoma for the council, is the $315 million Fiscal Year 2000 budget, which has yet to be passed by the legislative body. The newest wrinkle in the soap opera that has become the budget crisis is that $16 million in anticipated Distressed Cities Aid now hangs in the balance because of what many officials are calling a game of “chicken” between Mayor Bret Schundler and the state. Since last summer, Schundler has blasted the state for not keeping aid in pace with inflation, saying that the city is entitled to $27 million for its budget. In negotiations, the state whittled that number down to $16 million, though Schundler has continued to demand more. Citing the promotions of 14 Jersey City police officers to the rank of sergeant last week – despite a signed agreement between Schundler and the state of New Jersey to freeze all municipal hires and promotions – council members said that aid is once again in jeopardy of never reaching Grove Street. But Business Administrator Robert Lombard said that the promotion controversy was not connected to a removal from the state senate agenda of an aid bill for Jersey City. A state spokesperson echoed his statements by saying that the bill had mistakenly been put on the Senate agenda in the first place because of a “staff error.” As a result, the aid package was returned to the Community Affairs Committee for further review. “It will get into the budget as soon as Community Affairs releases it,” the spokesperson said. Just before Wednesday’s meeting, Lombard returned from Trenton, where he and assistant Laurie Cotter met with the Local Finance Board. Lombard and Cotter told the board that the promotions would have saved the city money in overtime payroll costs. Last month, because the New Jersey Division of Local Government Affairs felt that the city had not laid off enough of the municipal workforce, the aid was pulled off the table. Since then, some city employees, some of whom were senior citizens making minimal salaries, have been canned in compliance with state orders. Councilman-at-large L. Harvey Smith said that he was shocked to see the promotions of police officers to the rank of sergeant because he has been petitioning to have a South District captain appointed. The lack of such a position at that precinct, council members agreed, creates a breakdown in command and leadership. Lombard said before the council that he has tried many times to get the state to grant the city waivers to promote the 14 cops. He said that because of poor weather conditions and sick days, state representatives have cancelled every attempt to come to the city to discuss the matter. In addition, Lombard said that on Thursday, Feb. 3, the day before the promotions were made, he received a voice mail message from the state instructing the city not to make any of the sergeants. The promotions were made anyway because the certificates calling for the promotions were set to expire the next day. Desipte Lombard’s claim that the aid and the police controversy are not related, some officials and activists continued to believe they were, and they blamed the mayor for the possible loss of aid. Without the aid, part of the Distressed Cities Program, residents could be looking at a massive tax hike. “He’s not just screwing us [the council]; he’s screwing every taxpayer in the city;” Ward C Councilman Arnold Bettinger said of the mayor. As the mayor is believed to have his sights set on running for governor next fall, the current budget crisis has become a tremendous weapon for his political adversaries to have in their back pockets in Trenton. State Senate President Donald DiFrancesco has emerged as a top challenger should Schundler throw his hat into the race. Because of such political ambitions, and the fact that they may be working against the city in the current budget stalemate, those in attendance at Wednesday’s council meeting voiced the opinion that Schundler should step down from office. “The mayor should resign,” said Joseph Krajnik, president of the local uniformed firefighters’ union. “He’s put the city in harm’s way.” Hudson County Freeholder William O’Dea said that the actions of the city have also affected the other cities slated to receive Distressed Cities aid, which include East Orange and Camden. O’Dea urged the council to go on the record against the actions of the mayor’s office, but council is unable to do so because it is divided on the issue. “There are a number of us that sit up here that have voiced that concern,” Ward A Councilman Robert Cavanaugh said. “I think this council should, once and for all, come together in unison.” On the other side of the split council, Council President Tom DeGise said that the state continues to overstep its bounds. “The state has already taken over the school board,” DeGise said. “Why don’t they just take over public safety now?” Meanwhile, more of the FY 2000 budget is being spent each day. Bettinger said that because the council passed an emergency temporary appropriation on Wednesday, the year’s budget comes close to being 75 to 80 percent spent.
City boiling over budget politics
