Dear Editor:
Mayor Fulop stated in the beginning of his administration that there would be a desk audit of each department and any and all employees employed or anyone receiving a pay check from the taxpayers of Jersey City. These questions that must be asked of the mayor, was there an actual desk audit performed? If so, are the results completed or finalized? When will they be made available to the public? Or maybe the audit was so bad it will remain a secret?
The people and taxpayers of Jersey City have to right to know who, what, when, where, why and how their money is being spent by a government elected by them and obligated to answer to them. This is the most important aspect in improving a non corruptible, transparent, efficient municipality that was basically and essentially operated in the past with secret deals and bids, good old boy mentality, shakedowns, nepotism, kickbacks, cronyism and loyalty to their political contributors. The top heavy municipal work force, beholding to their own greed enjoyed the fruits of the taxpayers’ labors, while the bottom part of the municipal food chain was gobbled up and offered as sacrificial lambs to keep these individuals their non-essential positions.
Mayor Fulop’s shaky start has proven that maybe some of the past has rubbed off on him in the present? Let’s put it this way starting your tenure as mayor of Jersey City came off as an enormous red (F) failed, when his first act of duty was to raise property taxes? So far its business as usual, with a few exceptions such as the stoppage of the reevaluation of homes and property and a review of the possible illegal tax abatements that were suspiciously given freely like chewing gum, by the previous administration. This of course gave a certified guarantee of an obvious predictable outcome of higher taxes. The homeowner, renters and small businesses were actually subsidizing these abatements, while generously keeping the blood sucking political demigods in their elite useless positions.
This must stop! The main reason the mayor was elected was to change the political complexion of our City. We naturally assumed that there would be a total re-evaluation of each and every department eliminating any and all waste mostly found at the top; instead we were given a magician’s smoke in mirrors trick? Does it take multiple high salaried administrators to operate any given department, some also holding multiple positions? Is the City’s workforce still growing to epidemic proportions, while fewer services are being administered? Is anyone answerable to the people or is it the same old rhetoric?
Jersey City is on a tailspin course of destruction. High taxes will reduce population, property values and investments, increase undesirability with the possibility of bankruptcy. The mayor’s heart might be in the right place, sensitive and compassionate but his job is to replace failure with success and to increase the quality of life for us all, not for just a privileged few.
William P. Frasca