There seems to be a campaign underway to discredit former Gov. Jim McGreevey.
Over the last few months, McGreevey – who serves as director of Jersey City’s Workforce Development – has seen his personal stock plummet. Leaks to the press about his benefits due to his four-month-long county job and the lack of community notification over establishing a prisoner reentry center near a school have become fodder for political grandstanding.
McGreevey was hired by Hudson County as an attorney, allowing him to fill a four-month gap in his employment that qualified him for a state pension.
A public servant since his days in municipal government, McGreevey’s resignation as governor and other factors resulted in his inability to meet the 25 years required for full pension benefits.
Key to this is medical benefits.
Public employees routinely try to cobble together enough years, even taking appointments to boards that pay only a small stipend, in order to meet what is considered a perk.
This system was first set up at a time when pubic officials were paid poorly. The lack of salary was offset by promises of a 25-year pension along with benefits.
Over the intervening years, public employee salaries rose to become much more in line with private sector salaries and so this perk of lifetime benefits has irritated a number of taxpayers. Since the system was set up and controlled by political figures in the legislature who often benefit from the perk, they allowed few reforms.
So when someone like McGreevey does the same thing that thousands of other lesser-known employees do in trying to qualify, negative headlines expose him as allegedly unethical.
The fact is, the system is perfectly legal.
Since McGreevey was a public servant for 25 years minus four months, it seems logical that he might find a way to fill the gap. So this being Hudson County, how McGreevey got the job becomes part of the controversy. How did McGreevey get a job that was not publicly posted?
And who leaked the news to the press, and for what purpose, is also part of the story.
Halfway house controversy
McGreevey also has been the target of attacks for allegedly locating a center for reentry of prisoners near a school in Ward F in Jersey City.
Protestors have shown up at meetings of the City Council, the Board of Education, even the Hudson County Board of Freeholders, lambasting McGreevey in a well-orchestrated campaign.
This has revived the political career of former councilwoman Viola Richardson, who appears to be on track to run for council again in 2017.
This may explain the harsh attacks Richardson has launched against Ward F Councilwoman Diane Coleman.
The campaign was so well-orchestrated that Coleman even found protestors outside her house.
It has been a vicious campaign as well. Not only have Coleman and McGreevey come under fire, but these so-called community activists have actually screamed at some of the clients of the program, venting their wrath on people trying to do the right thing.
Also neglected in this campaign is the fact that the center, proposed for an unused space in a Ward F church, had the approval of the Archdiocese of Newark – which also runs the school nearby. The funding from the reentry program was designed to help keep the school open.
Is this all part of the gubernatorial race?
Some people close to Mayor Steve Fulop, who is a strong supporter of McGreevey, see this current spate of attacks on McGreevey as an effort to undermine Fulop’s future plans to run for governor.
The McGreevey attacks come in the wake of several other incidents. Last year, information was leaked to the local press about Muhammad Akil, then Fulop’s chief of staff. Akil had made a radical speech in college 20 years earlier. This was brought to light and some of the details in the news report came out of Akil’s personnel file.
Last month, someone leaked a report about another Fulop ally, Ryan Strothers, director of the Recreation Department, saying that Strothers had failed to fire a man whose background check had shown him to be a registered sex offender.
In a somewhat related case, a tip to the press also showed that Tamika McReynolds, who was convicted of fraud along with Newark Mayor Sharpe James, has been hired by the Jersey City Recreation Department.
The Fulop Administration has been boasting about giving second chances to people who have made criminal mistakes in the past. But it appears each time someone high profile gets hired, it makes headlines.
A similar leak to the press showed that Eugene McKnight, a member of the prisoner reentry team and a top political advisor to Fulop, had failed to pay back fines from a conviction two decades earlier.
Some Fulop people believe all these will become fuel for a campaign against Fulop when he finally takes the plunge into the governor’s race in 2017.
McGreevey for mayor?
McGreevey, however, may be different.
McGreevey has spent the last half decade reinventing himself politically. He returned to Hudson County as a volunteer at Integrity House, and later headed Integrity House’s successful in-jail reentry programs.
McGreevey’s program may have been too successful, and may have shown up a number of other similar but less effective programs the county uses.
While McGreevey’s political fortunes rose over the last few years with the election of Fulop as mayor of Jersey City, not everybody in the county likes him.
Many have significant ties to former Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy – who is rumored to be considering a run for mayor in 2017 as well.
The wrath of attacks on McGreevey may be the result of a strong rumor that McGreevey would like to become mayor if and when Fulop is elected governor.
The list of possible suspects in leaking dirt on McGreevey is substantial, as is the army of city and county workers who retain loyalty to Healy, but pretend they are fully behind the Fulop Administration.
Along with Healy, Freeholder Bill O’Dea, Council President Rolando Lavarro, and even former Mayor Gerald McCann may be looking to run for mayor.
In some ways, any or all of them may see McGreevey as an upstart.
McGreevey would have support of Fulop, state Senator and Union City Mayor Brian Stack, and perhaps even U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.