Dear Editor,
County Executive Tom DeGise sure knows how to make good use of his moonlighting employees. Not only has DeGise taken to personally misleading the people of Jersey City about the increase in the tax bills, he now has his Jersey City council members, who are also his employees, taking a stab at it.
Now it’s Council President Harvey Smith carrying the County Executive’s water. Smith was recently hired in the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office as an Under-Sheriff. It didn’t matter to Mr. DeGise that Mr. Smith never held a law enforcement position in his life. The fact that he holds a spot on the Jersey City Council and takes direction from his Chief of Staff, Bill Gaughan, makes him the perfect person to work as UnderSheriff for $90,000 a year.
With the majority of the City Council on the County Executive’s payroll, the real tragedy is that nobody knows if the City Council members with high-paying county jobs are concerned about their needs or really just trying to protect their paychecks.
Since he came into office, Tom DeGise has managed to raise the tax burden of Jersey City residents every year. Not one Council member on the County payroll has protested. The reason is that DeGise’s Chief of Staff, Bill Gaughan, rules the Jersey City Council by controlling their jobs.
The Jersey City Municipal Council has decided to raise property taxes by $10 million this year. The Council has taken this action despite a plan that would have kept property taxes stable for the next 10 years. As your Mayor, I must say this is an unnecessary tax increase!
When my administration took office in July of 2001, we were faced with a $54 million deficit left by the outgoing administration of Mayor Bret Schundler, our Police Department was at its lowest staffing level in recent years and Jersey City was labeled a “Distressed City.” It was so bad that when Mayor Schundler was in office, the State of New Jersey had to assume control over Jersey City’s finances and had to take control of all personnel decisions.
However, my administration has worked hard to find honest solutions to Jersey City’s problems, and as a result, we have not had a property tax increase in Jersey City. We have kept taxes stable, while hiring additional police officers and firefighters, and my administration’s smart fiscal planning resulted in Jersey City’s removal from the “Distressed Cities” program.
This success has been welcomed by the people of Jersey City but troubling to those who put their political agendas first. That’s why the Council voted to raise taxes this year.
As I mentioned earlier, Bill Gaughan, who is the Councilman for Ward D, is also the Chief of Staff to the Hudson County Executive. His job there pays him over $95,000 a year, on top of his $25,000 City Council salary. Council President L. Harvey Smith has recently been hired by Bill Gaughan as Undersheriff in the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, a position which paid the last person over $90,000/year.
Councilman Junior Maldonado has a $80,000/year job at the Hudson County Improvement Authority. Councilman Mariano Vega has a $90,000 a year job as the Hudson County Director of Public Resources. Councilman Peter Brennan has a $65,000 a year job as a maintenance man of Hudson County and Councilwoman Mary Donnelly’s daughter-in-law works for the County.
They all answer to the Chief of Staff, Bill Gaughan who has the power to hire and fire them and they all voted against my administration’s plan to refinance the City’s debt, and they all voted to raise property taxes in Jersey City when it was not necessary.
They voted to defeat the refinancing plan that was approved by the State of New Jersey’s local finance board and which was endorsed by Goldman Sachs, one of the premier financial institutions in the nation that has chosen to move its world headquarters to Jersey City. And they followed the lead of Bill Gaughan who said he wanted to engineer a tax increase to further his political agenda.
The people of Jersey City deserve better from their elected Council members. They deserve to know that they are putting their needs first and not just trying to protect their high paying County jobs.
Sincerely,
Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham