Although Bayonne Mayor Joseph Doria has not yet announced that he will resign as mayor to take up a post in state government, local officials say he is likely to do so after Labor Day.
City Council President Vincent Lo Re would take over as interim mayor if Doria leaves.
Doria is expected to accept an offer to fill the vacant seat of the chairman of the state Department of Community Affairs.
The DCA is considered one of the most powerful departments in state government overseeing nearly every aspect of municipal government operations from how budgets are processed to the regulation of construction codes. The chairman also sits as the chairman of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, which oversees development and other issues along the Hackensack River watershed.
Doria is expected to accept the appointment at some point after Labor Day, but most likely will make an announcement the week following the remembrance ceremonies of Sept. 11.
The state position was vacated by Susan Bass Levin on July 1 when she accepted a position as deputy director of the Port of Authority of New York and New Jersey. While the post is being temporarily filled by Charles A. Richman, the deputy commissioner for the DCA, sources say pressure is mounting for Doria to make the move soon.
To take the post, Doria must relinquish his posts as mayor and state senator. Under state law, Lo Re, as council president, will assume Doria’s duties as interim mayor for 30 days, allowing the City Council to select a replacement to serve out the 14 months until the November 2008 special election for mayor.
If the council cannot come up with a replacement within 30 days, Lo Re becomes the acting mayor until the special election.
Because the announcement will not likely come until after Sept. 8, the special election to replace him would be put off until November of 2008.
Election this year, or next?
“At first, I didn’t think Joe would be leaving,” said Lo Re last week. “But recently, I began to see all the signs that he is.”
Lo Re predicted that the next year would be one of difficult choices and serious changes in the city administration.
Lo Re had asked Doria to make the decision before, rather than after, Sept. 8 so that a special election might be held this November. But Lo Re said he believed Doria would not make the announcement until later.
“I’ve always believed that the people are the best judge of who should represent them,” Lo Re said. If Doria announces after Sept. 8 – as many expect – the City Council will then be given the option of selecting a new mayor.
“The council can vote for one of us, or any registered voter,” Lo Re said, “or we can choose not to act. That would mean that I would remain as acting mayor until an election can be held in November 2008.”
This special election would decide who would be mayor until the next municipal election in May 2010.
Finances a problem
Lo Re said whomever sits as acting mayor will face some serious issues.
“The most significant issue is finance,” he said. “The next mayor is going to have to make some very difficult decisions. This means that the mayor and council are going to have to work together to cure the city’s fiscal problems.”
The city is still waiting to receive $23 million from developers on the anticipated purchase of property at the former Military Ocean Terminal to fill the gap in the 2007 budget. But Lo Re said the city is also facing a $25 million or more gap in the 2008 budget.
While plans are in place that would lay off 91 people – possibly as soon as Oct. 1 – this would only generate about $1 million in savings. The rest will have to be made up in cuts or tax increases.
Lo Re, already sounding like the next mayor, said residents might have to do without some of the extra services the city provided in the past, such a concerts in the park, or might be asked to pay a fee for them.
“Everything is on the table,” Lo Re said. “We have to look at everything if we are going to get through these tough times.”
Cutting the municipal budget is a chore, Lo Re said.
“The greatest component of the municipal budget is employee salaries,” he said. “The lion’s share of that are uniformed services. We need police and fire protection. We are an older community, and densely populated. The safety of our population must be our first concern.”
However, Lo Re said he would continue to support the use of funds generated from the development at the former Military Ocean Terminal to help keep taxpayers from being hit with major tax increases.
One area that he believes the city needs to look at closely is school spending.
“More than 50 percent of tax dollars in Bayonne is spent by the Board of Education,” he said. “Until we have an equitable funding formula that does not depend on property taxes for the schools, the city must find a way to keep costs down.”
Lo Re said proposals such as The Smart Bill, sponsored by State Assemblyman Louis Manzo (D-31st Dist.) – which shifts school funding from property taxpayers to income taxpayers – is a fairer system.