Levin throws hat in for Jersey City council at-large seat
JERSEY CITY – Community activist and former mayoral candidate Dan Levin announced on Monday that he will run for one of two Jersey City Council-at-large seats in the November special election.
Voters will go to the polls on November 8 to fill two seats vacated by former council members Willie Flood and Mariano Vega, whose terms expire in 2013.
Flood resigned from the City Council in February due to health reasons. Vega – one of 46 public and religious officials arrested in the infamous 2009 FBI corruption sting – resigned last September after pleading guilty to federal charges.
Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy appointed Ray Velasquez to fill Vega’s seat. Attorney Kalimah Ahmad was selected by the mayor to fill the seat vacated by Flood.
Ahmad and Velasquez have announced their intentions to run for full terms.
Two weeks ago Roland Lavarro also joined the race for an at-large council seat.
Now Levin – co-founder of Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, Civic JC, and Bike JC – has entered the race.
“I am running for a seat on the Jersey City municipal council with a simple mission to improve the decisions made by our city,” said Levin in a release issued Monday. “I will bring a clear, common sense vision and sound management approach to solve our problems and build upon our opportunities while keeping the needs of residents central to all considerations and actions.”
The owner of a small business and a former credit union manager, Levin said he plans to build his campaign on “good government practices, historic preservation, advocating for sound and sustainable planning, advocating for safe streets and sidewalks to give equal consideration to pedestrians and bicyclists, and developing community groups and neighborhood associations.” – E. Assata Wright
Hoboken rent control petitions rejected by clerk; petitioners head back to the streets
HOBOKEN – The City Clerk’s office once again rejected petitions for referendum from tenant advocates which would have suspended three recent changes to the city’s rent control law and then placed them on the ballot for the public to vote on.
Now, the tenants hope to amend their petition within a 10-day ‘cure’ period.
The City Council had unanimously approved three changes to the rent control ordinance on March 2 after almost two years of council subcommittee meetings.
One change limits the back rent tenants can collect if a landlord is found guilty of overcharging them. Previously, tenants could be awarded money for the duration of the violation, times three. The new changes limit payments to a maximum of two years. A second change eases document requirements for landlords who wish to apply for a rent increase by way of vacancy decontrol (a 25 percent increase once every three years if a tenant vacates willingly). A third change requires landlords to inform tenants of their rights, and to show proof the information was supplied.
In order for an ordinance to be placed on the ballot for referendum, petitioners must submit signatures of registered voters totaling 15 percent of the total votes cast in the municipality at the last general assembly election within 20 days of when the law is signed by the mayor. In the Nov. 3, 2009 election, 14,593 voters cast their ballots, meaning the petitioners needed 2,189 signatures, according to a memo from the clerk’s office to the petitioners.
A few months ago, the issue became complicated when, according to the petitioners, the county clerk told the group they needed to collect a number less than what the city clerk advised. When the petitioners followed the advice of the county clerk, they were rejected by the city. The issue then went to court.
A Hudson County Superior Court judge ordered the Hoboken City Clerk’s office to look over the petition once again, because the office did not go through a certification process of the petitions.
In a July 7 memo from the clerk’s office to the petitioners, City Clerk James Farina wrote that of the 2,314 signatures submitted from the original gathering and an amendment period, only 1,573 were valid signatures of registered Hoboken voters. The petitioners need to submit 2,189.
“Accordingly, my office cannot certify these submissions as a valid petition for referendum and Ordinance Z-88 is not suspended by the petitions submitted and there is no requirement for Ordinance Z-88 to go to referendum,” Farina wrote to the petitioners.
Now, the tenant advocates will try to utilize a 10-day correction period once again to collect more than 600 signatures. In a release, the petitioners note than in the recent court ruling “the judge ordered the clerk to certify all 2,314 signatures submitted and, if insufficient, to initiate a 10-day amendment period in order to rectify the signatures insufficiency.”
A request for comment from the city attorney’s office was not returned by press time.
However, those on the side of the property owners — who want the changes to remain — say that the petitioners should not receive another 10-day period to acquire more signatures because they already used a 10-day period before the case went to court.
For more on this story, keep watching HudsonReporter.com – Ray Smith
Local cats will be up for adoption at expo
Hudson County’s TLC Rescue and the Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City are partnering to bring cats and kittens to the Garden State Cat Club’s Cat Expo “Adopt-A-thon” at the Garden State Exhibit & Convention Center in Somerset, N.J. next weekend (Exit 10 off I-287).
The expo runs from July 16 to 17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is: Adults: $10, seniors: $5, children 12 and under: $5. For more information call: (908) 276-9423.