Dear Editor:
I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Frank Scalcione. My roots run deep in Jersey City. My grandparents purchased a building on 3rd street in the downtown section in the late 30’s. My family lives in the building, my nephews are the 4th generation that live there and will continue to live there for many years. I ran for councilmen-at-large in the May 12, 2009 municipal election headed by Harvey Smith who I never worked for and never had any dealings with. It’s a disgrace for what he is being charged for. In my opinion he should step down.
In response to what a critic recently said about me: You state that I did poorly in regards to my results. Every candidate did poorly as incumbent mayor Healy received about 17,200 votes. When you look at the numbers out of 245,000 people around 145,200 registered voters only 36,000 came out to vote. Would you say that’s a good amount of people that came out to vote? I don’t think so. Mayor Healy received slightly over 2,450 votes in 5 out of the 6 wards. Mr. Connors gave you wrong information about me, POOR INVESTIGATION WORK I don’t own several buildings and if I do PROVE IT. You state that I probably made well over $200,000 a year between my pizzeria and property. The prices I give to the people in my pizzeria 75 cent hamburgers, 50 cent hot dogs, $1 slices for the kids, $5.50 pies. With those prices I don’t think I made a profit of $175,000 dollars with the total rental income added. I represent the spirit of the little guy, the corner stone of economic development in our city. As a small businessman I know how important stable taxes and lower crime are. I will always fight to make sure small businessmen are heard. Those are the issues we must tackle.
I don’t need to publish what I do for the community and our schools. The people who I do it for know and the most important one is the almighty God. It’s obvious you’re doing the writing for police officer Connors who is also a member of the board of education and close with former Mayor Gerald McCann. You are advertising for Mr. Connors and you said you don’t know him…Hmm. I can prove what I do, I don’t need rewards like someone who works for the machine and uses the system to do FAVORS for people for there own interest. I’m self employed what I give is from my pocket not the tax payers. Please write about the issues we face as residents of this great city. It’s not about character and that’s something I have and that’s something money can’t buy. You and your friend Connors are invited to my pizzeria for dinner.
Frank Scalcione
Former candidate for councilman-at-large