To the Editor:
Following last year’s municipal election, I made it a point to refrain from commenting on public affairs in Bayonne because I felt that our new mayor should be afforded the time and courtesy needed to get acclimated to the job without an atmosphere of negativity and opposition. I care about our city and want to see us succeed. That is why I first ran for the office of mayor. I had serious concerns about the direction our community was heading in. For five years, I worked to get our city back on track, reducing municipal debt, shrinking city expenses, and encouraging responsible development of new tax ratables and revenue.
Unfortunately, over the past six months, I’ve seen many of our efforts undone by Mr. Davis, with runaway city hiring, excessive outside contracts, and little regard for the city’s bottom line or our taxpayers’ wallets. The structural deficit that plagued the city for two decades is, sadly, growing once again. That is why I was taken aback by Mr. Davis’s strange “Johnny Cash” column in last week’s Bayonne Community News. Mr. Davis would like you to believe that he’s the poster child for “transparency” and “open government.”
Mr. Davis’s track record over the first six months tells a very different story. After inaccurately lambasting me during the campaign for hiring family members, his first action was to give his nephew, from out of town, a high paying plum job in his office. When the press made inquiries about the position’s salary, there was silence. Before each city council meeting, agenda after agenda contains blank spaces where the names of contract awardees and contract amounts should be posted. Transparent? I think not. Recently, we, the citizens of Bayonne, were advised that a lease had been signed with a company that is going to put up a tent and host trade shows on our valuable property that should be permanently developed. Are there terms to this lease? Do we know the parties behind this endeavor? Shouldn’t such an opportunity, to use our land, have been put out for bid to ensure that Bayonne got the best deal, instead of handing it over to connected friends? The Bayonne MUA [Municipal Utilities Authority], when I left office, had a surplus of approximately $25 million. It has not taken long for Mr. Davis to raid that fund to cover his excessive hiring, pay hikes, and reckless spending habits. I am sure when we see this year’s budget, it will contain millions more in MUA funds transferred to the city. Those surplus dollars should have been used to provide rate stability for our citizens for years to come, which is what I established that surplus for. The chickens are coming home to roost and our beloved city’s financial picture is, once again, bleak. I suppose that’s why Mr. Davis resorts to finger pointing and blaming others. He needs to divert your attention to cover his poor performance thus far.
My advice to Mr. Davis is this: if you believe you have uncovered something illegal, report it to the U.S. Attorney, or Attorney General of the State of NJ. If not, start governing in a manner that the people of Bayonne are entitled to. They deserve nothing less.
MARK A. SMITH