More than 50 speakers addressed the Jersey City Council Tuesday night in a five-hour meeting, calling for cooperation between the Council and Mayor Glenn Cunningham.
“The feuding going on between the council and the mayor needs to stop,” said Jersey City resident Harold Foster. “It took one year to mess up Jersey City. It won’t take a year to clean it up if the two groups can work together.”
The majority of the speakers stressed the need for the mayor and council to work together for the betterment of Jersey City. Others blamed the council for tabling Mayor Cunningham’s nomination of Rev. Ralph Brower to be a member of the Jersey City Redevelopment Authority. In the last month and a half, council meetings have been marked by loud protests from both citizens and Mayor Cunningham, protesting the council’s decision to block the Brower appointment. Brower served in the late 1970s as the first vice president of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency.
“The council cannot prevent the mayor from appointing trustworthy citizens to city agencies like Rev. Brower,” said Jersey City NAACP Vice President Rex Reid. “Your action has disenfranchised the mayor and the people who elected him.”
The feud between the mayor and City Council goes back to last spring, when the two diverged on which candidate to support for county executive. Most City Council members supported Tom DeGise, who won the Democratic primary for that position in June and just took the seat this month.
Various speakers urged the council to ignore influences outside Jersey City.
“Don’t let outside influences affect the council,” said Jersey City resident Dan Wiley. “The council should serve the people of Jersey City.”
Some speakers chided the council for allying with Rep. Robert Menendez on their choice of county executive. Councilman Mariano Vega responded by saying it was important for the city to have connections in the federal government.
“We have to be able to reach out to people in Congress to get help for the city,” Vega said. Vega added that equal powers existed between the mayor and council, which allowed the council to confirm any nomination made by the mayor.
Toward the end of the meeting, the council defeated resolutions reappointing Jersey City Incinerator Authority Director Oren Dabney to the Jersey City Redevelopment Authority. Also defeated was the appointment of the mayor’s chief of staff, William Ayala, to the Municipal Port Authority, and Carl Czalicki to the Jersey City Capital Project Control Board. The council did, however, appoint Councilmember Viola Richardson to the Capital Control Board.
In other matters, the council tabled $2.2 million in bonds for the Jersey City Incinerator Authority. Council President L. Harvey Smith said that questions had arisen over a reported $500,000 in hirings and raises done by the Authority. The Authority had claimed it needed the $2.2 million in funding to make equipment purchases such as street sweepers and snow removers.
“Until those questions are answered, we are going to table it,’ said Smith.
Cunningham said Thursday that the $500,000 in hirings and promotions was unrelated to the $2.2 in requested funding, noting that the people who operate the machines need to be paid. Cunningham added that it was vital the equipment purchases for the Incinerator Authority be made as soon as possible.
After the meeting, Councilman E. Junior Maldonado said, “At least this meeting was more positive than prior nights.” In past meetings, speakers accused the council of being racist for tabling the Brower nomination. “Situations like this are difficult,” he said. “You want to be professional when dealing with the public, but it is very time consuming.”
Maldonado also commented about the call for cooperation between the council and the mayor.
“Unity only comes about when the mayor begins to heal the wounds which have been made,” Maldonado commented.
Council president L. Harvey Smith also remarked on the number of people speaking in favor of the mayor’s appointment of Brower.
“The council did not put in people [among the speakers] who see things our way,” said Smith. “We have to endure a barrage of insults.”