The City Council voted down a resolution 6-1 on Tuesday that would have made the city’s ethics code the strictest in New Jersey.
City Councilman Steven Fulop had drafted the resolution with political ally and local attorney Jim Carroll, and was the lone vote in favor of it.
The resolution bans holding more than one public office or multiple salaried and appointed public positions within Hudson County – whether elected or appointed.
The legislation would also bar a public official from using a city automobile for personal use, and ban city officials from lobbying the city or city agencies for three years after they leave office.
This bill may have hit too close to the council members, as five out of nine of them simultaneously hold positions in Hudson County government, and a sixth works for an autonomous city agency. A seventh is a retired city employee who is collecting a pension for that job.
Some council people have said that they are forced to hold two positions, as City Council is a part-time job that pays about $25,000 per year, with the City Council president earning $30,000.
Had this ethics legislation been approved, it would have been sent to the city’s Ethics Board and then to the state’s Local Finance Board for approval.Public may agree
Fulop said before the meeting that he had wanted to propose the bill to follow the ethics bill passed recently by Governor Jon Corzine that also calls for a ban on dual office holding. After the meeting, he said he would pursue the resolution through a referendum, which means that if he gets enough signatures on a petition, the matter could go to a public citywide vote.
Fulop has addressed the issue of ethics before. Last September, he asked the city’s Ethics Board if City Council President Mariano Vega and Councilwoman Mary Spinello’s involvement in voting on the AMB Warehouse project was a conflict of interest, since both of them also work for the county, who had different ideas about the fate of the project than the city did.
The city’s six-member appointed Ethics Board found there was no conflict of interest on the councilpeople’s part.
Earlier this year, Fulop pushed for passage of a version of the state’s “pay-to-play” laws, which ban political contributions from contractors doing business with the city. Fulop’s version would have also applied to real estate developers, but it was voted down by the City Council.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Fulop commented on the council’s vote.
“We gave the council the opportunity to enact it and they didn’t,” he said. The reasoning behind their votes
Fulop said his legislation would only go into effect on July 1, 2009 when the council begins a new, four-year term. Thus, it would only affect the current members if they were re-elected.
Of the nine council members, only Fulop and Journal Square Councilperson Steve Lipski have jobs outside county or city government.
Fulop works for the New York-based financial firm Citigroup and Lipski is the principal and founder of the CREATE Charter School, located in the Greenville section of the city.
Lipski, however, offered a simple “No” before leaving for a community meeting.
Before the council meeting, he explained why he was opposed to the legislation. He said that a legal opinion offered to the council by Assistant Corporation Counsel Joanne Monahan said the resolution violates the state’s Faulkner Act, which created the current form of government under which Jersey City operates.
Some of the other council members who stayed were more vocal.
Councilman Bill Gaughan, who also voted down the legislation, said, “You cannot legislate honesty and integrity.”
Councilman-at-Large Peter Brennan, who served as the acting council president in place of an absent City Council President and Councilman-at-Large Mariano Vega, accused Fulop of failing to discuss this legislation with his council colleagues in the days preceding the meeting. He said that instead, Fulop chose to speak first to the local daily newspaper.
Brennan also defended the council members’ having two jobs, since their council positions are part-time and pay an average of $25,000. “I am proud to say we work very hard for the people of Jersey City, but we are not paid enough,” Brennan said.
Brennan also called into question Fulop’s motives for the legislation, saying he is using it as a platform for running for mayor, and that his ethics legislation would allow only for millionaires like Gov. Jon Corzine and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to serve in politics.
Fulop struck back at Brennan, saying his criticism was just to give himself an excuse to vote against the proposal. He also said the council job was about serving the public, not earning another salary.
While other council members did not vote for the ethics legislation, some did show an open mind towards its purpose. Richardson did not like the idea that the legislation put her integrity into question. She noted that she was the only council member and county employee who supported late Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham’s policies while he was immersed in political infighting, thus showing that she doesn’t always follow the party line.
But she did say she agreed with various elements of the resolution.
Richardson and Brennan both called for the council positions to be made full-time.
Spinello agreed there should be an ethics bill, but said she abstained because she was subjected to Fulop’s inquiry into her conflict of interest over voting on the AMB Warehouse project last year. The next step
Fulop announced on Thursday he will start the process of gathering signatures and initiating two ballot referendums.
The first ballot initiative will force elected members of the City Council who hold more than one government position to collect only one taxpayer salary, similar to the ethics legislation that was voted down last week that banned dual office holding.
The second ballot initiative would resurrect the developer pay-to-play ban similar to the one that the council rejected earlier this year.
Fulop said he is confident the public will vote for these measures if the council does not do so.
“I am certain the public will see it as an issue and I guarantee these initiatives will be successful,” Fulop said.
He continued, “This action will quell any thoughts that I am doing it for the headlines.”
City Clerk Robert Byrne said Fulop would have to collect the amount of petitions equal to 15 percent of the total voter turnout in Jersey City from the 2005 November general election. That number of petitions, which Byrne estimates would range from 6,000 to 7,000, would determine whether the initiatives are placed on the ballot. Specifics on the ethics law
Besides the facets of the resolution that were mentioned, it also defines and regulates the following: personal use of city property, business arrangements between city employees and elected officials, the employment/appointments of relatives or household members to paid positions, inappropriate financial benefits and gifts, definition of permissible representation, post-public service employment activities, and public disclosure mandates of political activities and municipal real estate transactions. For comments on this story, contact Ricardo Kaulessar at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com. SIDEBAR Who has which job
Here are the public jobs held by six of the nine members of the Jersey City Council.
City Council President and Councilman-at-Large Mariano Vega is the director of the Hudson County Director of Parks, Engineering and Planning.
Heights Councilperson Bill Gaughan is Chief of Staff for Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise.
City Councilman-at-Large Peter Brennan is a confidential aide to DeGise.
City Councilwoman-at-Large Willie Flood currently serves as the Hudson County registrar.
City Councilwoman Viola Richardson works for the county, dealing with juvenile offenders and with people previously incarcerated to help them settle within the county.
West Side City Councilwoman Mary Spinello works for the Jersey City Incinerator Authority – an autonomous agency – but she has had to abstain on votes in the past regarding business between the city and the agency. She abstained from voting on Fulop’s legislation.
Greenville Councilman Michael Sottolano is a retired city employee. – RK