John Halecky said he knew two years ago that he would not be running for reelection in the 2nd Ward in Bayonne.
“That’s the reason I didn’t have any fundraisers,” he said, although he admitted he took out petitions for a possible run this year, teased by the idea that he might serve a sixth consecutive term as a councilman, which would have made him the longest running councilman in Bayonne history.
“But this was just not good enough a reason to run,” he said.
With his decision not to run for reelection, Halecky will have served five terms as councilman – tied with Vincent Lo Re (who also decided not to run for reelection this year) and Neil DeSena.
“If I had to choose to be remembered by a park or a boy grandchild to carry on my name, I would take the grandchild any day.” – John Halecky
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Halecky ran for City Council the first time in 1986 and lost, but was part of the winning ticket in 1990 when Richard Rutkowski ran for mayor. The City Council faced some serious challenges, especially a change of state law that shifted the burden of taxes from the industry onto the backs of residential taxpayers.
Halecky became council president in his first year in office, a highly usual move that put him in the spotlight for many of these controversial issues.
During public hearings on the city revaluation of property, Halecky recalled arriving at one of the schools. The other council members found a back way in, but Halecky went through the front door.
“People were upset and they were booing me,” he said.
As president of the City Council, Halecky followed strict rules of order for holding meetings in an attempt to keep order in what might have been an extremely volatile time. This was not new ground to him since he had served on the Rent Control Board prior to this as its chairman.
During his terms as councilman, he has had the distinction of servicing as council president as well as other key positions, such as a member of the Cable TV Committee and Board of School Estimate, representative for the Bayonne Town Center Management Corporation, Special Improvement District and other committees.
Beginnings
Born in Pennsylvania, Halecky moved to Bayonne before he was one year old, so Bayonne is the only home he remembers – and though he still has a vacation home in the state where he was born, he couldn’t live there year round.
“Bayonne has too many things I enjoy,” he said.
A joke he routinely tells is that he married the boss’s daughter at Hudacko’s Pharmacy. But in truth, he worked his whole life delivering newspapers, setting up pins in the bowling alley, delivering circulars, and even moving furniture.
Halecky had worked in his father’s grocery store before making his way to the pharmacy, where he spent decades learning the business.
As a councilman, he said, he rarely promoted himself, but was always part of a team effort to get things done, such as the promoting of the light rail line or development of the malls. But looking back, he said, he is proud of several initiatives he embarked on, such as helping to do away with flooding in the area of Park Side Lane when he first got into office. He is currently a staunch supporter of the new east side pumping station, which will help solve flooding problems in an area where a park was named after him.
“I spent over 10 years trying to get a park in that area,” he said. “It was the first time the city used eminent domain since the development of the housing projects in the 1960s. I wanted to call the park East Side Park. But James Coleman, the owner of IMTT, insisted it be named after me.”
The grandfather of four children, Halecky said none of them will carry on the Halecky name.
“If I had to choose to be remembered by a park or a boy grandchild to carry on my name, I would take the grandchild any day,” he said.
Now 72 years old, Halecky decided it was time to step down and let a new generation of leaders take over.
Back then
Although people may be unhappy in some respects because of the impact of the Great Recession, he said looking back, he realized there was a time when people complained that the city did not have its own movie theater.
“Back then there was no Route 440, no light rail, no golf course, no cruise line,” he said. “We are moving ahead even if the recession has set us back a little. I believe this will take time, but we’ll be moving ahead again later.”
If he has one regret, Halecky said, it is his vote on the City Council for the sale of a portion of the former Military Ocean Terminal to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which eventually was voided in favor of a sale to Ports America.
“I think it was a better deal than the one we got with Ports America,” he said. “But I think we rushed into it and did not explain all the benefits to the public.”