Dear Editor:
On Tuesday, November 26, 2002 the Jersey City Municipal Council unanimously voted to introduce Mayor Glenn Cunningham’s proposed $324 million fiscal year 2003 budget. Although the budget was over five months late the City Council will expedite the budget hearings which are required by law.
As Mayor Cunningham knows, the Council is required to hold departmental hearings as well as a public hearing on the proposed budget in order to allow the residents of Jersey City an opportunity to express their views on the Mayor’s budget.
However, neither the residents of Jersey City nor the City Council have had an opportunity to discuss the budget request directly with the Mayor, head of the administrative branch of City government. In a recent paid political ad, which appeared in the Jersey Journal, Mayor Cunningham called upon the residents of Jersey City to attend the council meeting on November 26 to insure Jersey City’s legislative branch of government fairly review the Cunningham budget.
As members of the legislative branch of government, we feel the public has the right to hear directly from Mayor Cunningham as to exactly which portions of the budget he feared might be rejected for political reasons.
In an effort to insure the residents of Jersey City be provided an opportunity to express their views on the pending fiscal year 2003 budget to both the administration and legislative branches, we are inviting Mayor Cunningham to join the members of the Jersey City Municipal Council in a joint public hearing on the budget which he submitted on November 26, 2002.
Council President L. Harvey Smith,
Councilman Jerremiah Healy, Councilman Mariano Vega,
Councilman Peter Brennan, Councilwoman Mary Donnelly,
Councilman Steve Lipski, Councilman Bill Gaughan,
Councilman E. Junior Maldonado