The last few weeks have showed significant turmoil behind the scenes in the administration of Mayor Steven Fulop.
One of the key signs has been the change of official spokespeople for Jersey City. Ryan Jacobs has replaced Jennifer Morrill as the official city spokesperson. Morrill, who retains her $100,000-a-year salary, has been demoted to spokesperson for public safety, a position previously held by Carly Baldwin, who earned about $55,000.
While not completely clear why Baldwin was fired from her public safety job, a report in the daily newspaper said that Fulop was angry after she responded to questions from reporters about a shooting in Mercer Park — a park in Bayonne — rather than referring all questions to Bayonne authorities. Jersey City police did, however, respond to the incident, raising questions as to why Bayonne or even the Hudson County Sheriff’s Department (Mercer is a county park) were not called instead. As it turns out, the shootings apparently started in Jersey City and spilled over into the park. Fulop may not have liked Baldwin answering questions about it, as shootings and murders are a smudge on the public record as the mayor attempts to polish up his image to run for governor. The shakeup may have been deeper implications for an administration desperate to control its public image.
Was stripping Loew’s a vengeful act?
But the firing of a spokesperson isn’t the only sign of problems inside the love boat called Jersey City.
Some critics claim Fulop can be very vengeful when he doesn’t get what he wants, pointing to the recent move to strip the Historic Landmark Loew’s Theater of Open Space Trust Funds.
The Fulop Administration is seeking to turn the Loew’s Theater into the Jersey City equivalent of Newark’s Performing Arts Center. The problem is that the city signed a lease more than a decade ago granting the Friends of the Loew’s, a volunteer group, the ability to operate it.
Unable to win his case in court to overturn the lease, Fulop has used his political clout with the county to yank $300,000 dedicated to fixing some of the code violations at the theater. With no money, FOL may be forced to turn over operations to the professional operators the city has waiting in the wings.
While the city said the repairs are part of a multimillion renovation planned for the future, it is a city-owned building that violates city codes for safety and health.
Are the freeholders in Fulop’s pocket?
Fulop made the request for the transfer of funds to County Executive Tom DeGise, who then sent them to the Hudson County freeholders.
The overwhelming vote in favor of the move shows just how much control Fulop has over that board, and how afraid the freeholders are to stand up to him. Freeholder Bill O’Dea abstained because he is a member of the FOL board. Fulop ally Freeholder Gerald Balmir was absent.
The Fulop administration shifted the Loew’s money to Berry Lane Park. This will be the largest park in the city if Fulop can cobble together the massive price tag to cover its cost. Some council members have complained in the past that funds have been pouring into Berry Lane at the expense of other parks throughout the city, something the Fulop administration has refuted.
Berry Lane Park has also become one more show piece for an administration that appears to be consumed with image making, but has yet to fully detail why making Jersey City into the largest city in the state is a good thing.
Key Fulop operative exposed again
Eugene McKnight, one of the key behind-the-scenes street political operatives for Fulop, came under fire this past week for failing to pay back court ordered fines resulting from his pleading guilty to racketeering in 1992. McKnight ran the city’s Human Recourses Department in the 1980s. McKnight was sentenced to nine years in prison, of which he served about 18 months for welfare fraud, before being brought back into the Fulop administration as an assistant director in the prisoner reentry program run by Jim McGreevey.
As part of his agreement with the court, McKnight was supposed to pay fines, and apparently has yet to fully comply, according to a newspaper report.
This has only fed political opposition, critical of McKnight’s behind-the-scenes operations in the 31st Assembly district.
Matthew Kopko, who is the Republican running in the 31st District against Angela McKnight (McKnight’s daughter in law), has been raising questions about alleged behind-the-scenes political manipulation in the campaign. Kopko called Eugene McKnight’s being hired by the city the stuff of a Woody Allen comedy.
“This would make for a funny Woody Allen movie if it wasn’t true,” Kopko said. “I liken it to putting a bank robber in bank security when he’s done his time.”
McKnight is a key person in a number of critical campaigns, including the election of Ward F Councilwoman Diane Coleman and other campaigns supported by Fulop.
Coleman became the fifth and deciding vote on the nine-member city council in 2012, allowing Fulop to push his agenda even prior to his successful bid for mayor in 2013.
Is Coleman on the verge of quitting?
All this puts Ward F Councilwoman Coleman in a strange predicament.
She is a strong political ally of McKnight and has praised him at a number of public functions over the last year and a half. But while she appears to approve of his benefiting as a result of prisoner reentry, she is caught on the wrong side of a reentry debate elsewhere in her ward. The reentry program is opening a new facility in a church that also houses a school, and she is against it. She has suggested she won’t run for reelection because of this controversial issue.
This is the second time in a few months that Coleman’s wishes have been overruled by other political considerations. Recently, she opposed a West Side historic district because it included several houses on the Ward F side of Bergen Avenue.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.