Kevin Sluka

The current director of the city’s Public Works Department and the youngest candidate in the field (at 35), Sluka is having a tough time distinguishing one day from the next, but all of that will be over soon. And while he’s a long shot candidate in the race, he continues to campaign hard.

A stout Bret Schundler supporter (though he did not get the mayor’s endorsement, a sore point with him), Sluka has guided the public works office after starting his career as an aide to interim Mayor Joseph Rakowski. He enthusiastically supports charter schools, is a believer in tax abatements and is proposing a program for low-income families to buy homes.

He admits that there is work to be done on one of his more visible responsibilities: potholes.

“If people remember me as a guy who built 17 ball fields and 20 playgrounds, but couldn’t fix a pothole, that’s a good thing,” said Sluka, quickly noting that the previous two DPW directors had been guilty of crimes that required jail time. Sluka, a Society Hill resident, said that the street surfaces have deteriorated in the past two years as a result of the state’s denial of bonding for capital improvements, bad winters and new construction in the city.

Sluka, a Dickinson High School graduate, disagrees with many of the candidates who are seeking to halt, at least temporarily, the construction of charter schools, the alternative publicly funded schools that have sprouted all over Jersey City in the past few years.

“If a system doesn’t work,” Sluka said, referring to the current public schools, “you have to offer alternatives.” He added: “If you start saying we’re gonna put a moratorium, people are going to get nervous. Every charter school has a waiting list. Every one.”

Sluka, like Schundler before him, sees the charter school movement as a way to improve the existing public schools by reducing class size and giving parents a choice in a child’s education. He does not believe the criticism that charter schools steal the best students from other public schools.

Sluka, like most other candidates, believes police officers should be trained in Jersey City and encouraged to live here to help build a “network” with neighbors and shop owners. And crime has improved, Sluka believes.

“We don’t have: ‘So-and-so was murdered on my block last week,'” he said. “They’re talking about ‘my window was broken on my car.’ You’re getting less crime, you’re getting crime that’s more of an annoyance.” That said, Sluka had his car broken into five times when he used live in the Heights. “And my car isn’t very expensive,” he said.

Starting programs

As far as drugs, Sluka believes some sort of “czar” needs to be created. “Will drugs exist no matter what? Probably,” he said. But he believes the best thing to do would be to offer options to children, like more after school programs.

And tax abatements? “I don’t think tax abatements are a bad thing,” he said. But he thinks ones awarded in the future should be for a period of five years, not the 20 that are the standard now. He would leave the door open, however, to renegotiate if times got rough for a developer. He would also look to make more provisions to create jobs for Jersey City residents.

Sluka would like to start a program that could be described as a “homeowner abatement.” The city would subsidize low-income families to help pay for taxes and mortgage to buy a house. He sees it as a way to give families a sense of ownership.

“If someone’s outside chipping away at my aluminum siding, that’s my asset,” he explained. “I go out there and make that guy stop that. If I don’t own it, maybe I do, maybe I don’t.” He has not, however, figured the cost of such a program for the city.

City services need streamlining, he argues, in that there is duplication, for instance, with the Municipal Utilities Authority and the Incinerator Authority. But he doesn’t see the budget getting trimmed much further, and argues instead that the city needs better grant writing.

He believes the recent audit of Jersey City is suspect. “The state report is politically motivated,” he said. The Bergen Arches should be developed, he believes, as a public transportation conduit and a park, linking with the Secaucus Transfer station. He does not think a highway should go through, as Mayor Schundler had proposed.

In dealing with the city’s diverse population, he ranks himself above the rest.

“I know where every mosque is,” he said. “I’ve been to every synagogue more than once.” He cites the two Filipinos on his ticket. “Other candidates are not going to know why the Muslims get out at one in the afternoon and tie up West Side Avenue,” he contended. “Instead they’re going to have Carmine Venezia (the Parking Authority Director) out there ticketing people.”

For those who believe that Sluka’s run is about four years premature, he is dismissive.

“I’m not running for mayor to get another job,” he said, “and I wouldn’t run for council to be mayor. I have more executive experience in government than all of the people running against me.”

It stung a little bit that DeGise got Schundler’s backing.

“I’m a little disappointed with the mayor,” he said, “because he said he wasn’t going to do it, and he did.”

Political factors contributed to the decision, he said. And he remains confident of one thing with Schundler. “I know he’s going to walk in the booth and vote for me.”

Sluka’s council slate

Linda Mayo (Council-at-Large)

Mayo serves as Deputy Mayor for International Affairs and works in the Mayor’s Office of Constituent Services. The first Philippine-American ever to hold elected public office in Jersey City, she is a member of the Jersey City Board of Education, elected in 1998 to a three-year term. Mayo is the president of the Philippine-American Concerned Citizen Action League, a leadership mentor at the Institute for the Advancement of Community Leadership and Service Learning at New Jersey City University and a member of the Advisory Committee on Community Outreach for Jersey City’s New Museum. She is a member of the Hudson County HIV/AIDS Planning Council. She is a past president of the International Montgomery Gateway West Association, and past President of the Downtown Coalition of Neighborhood Associations. She also is a past commissioner of the Jersey City Planning Board. From 1992 to 1999, Mayo was a member of the New Jersey Governor’s Ethnic Advisory Council.

Anthony Grazioso (Council-at-Large)

Born in the Village Section of Downtown Jersey City, Grazioso is a graduate of Saint Peter’s Prep. He served as the Director of Public Relations for the City of Jersey City and, was Director of Public Works from 1960 to 1961. He worked for the Port Authority of NY/NJ as a Community Relations Representative. Grazioso was the Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson for NJT’s Department of New Rail Construction, where he was involved for 12 years in the study, planning, design, construction and operation of the Hudson/Bergen Light Rail System. He began his extended tenure as a transit executive in 1972, when he was named Director of Public Affairs and served as Chief spokesman for Transport of New Jersey. He retired in June, 1998. He is a trustee of the Christ Hospital Foundation, the Public Policy and Research Center at New Jersey City University, Liberty Academy Charter School and the Educational Arts Team, sponsors of Camp Liberty.

Warren H. Curtis (Council-at-Large)

A graduate of New York University’s School of Physical Therapy, Curtis worked as a pediatric physical therapist at A. Harry Moore School for 20 years. He later served as Director of Physical Therapy at Hudson County’s Meadowview Hospital. He served as assistant to the mayor during the administration of the late Thomas F. X. Smith and is a World War II Army veteran. Curtis is a lifelong resident of Jersey City.

Ron Hurley (Ward A)

Ron Hurley was born and raised in Jersey City. The past five years he and his wife, Hasena, have resided in Greenville. Ron is a Jersey City Detective and has 20 years of service with the Jersey City Police Department. Ron graduated from Dickinson High School and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice from New Jersey City University. He is the founder and president of the Franklin Park Association in Greenville.

Angel “Jun” Florentino (Ward B)

Angel “Jun” Florentino has been a licensed real estate broker, tax consultant and resident of Jersey City for 20 years. He was a member of the 1995 and 1999 New Jersey Association of Realtors Million Dollar Club. He is also part owner of Topnotch Realty. He has been appointed Commissioner of the Jersey City Rent Leveling Board. He also was a former vice-chairman of the Philippine-American Friendship Committee, charter president of Hudson Jaycees, founding member of Jersey Toastmasters, Inc. and president of the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce of NJ, Inc.

Kevin T. Lyons (Ward C)

Lyons is Fiscal Officer in the Jersey City Department of Recreation and Cultural Affairs. He consistently attends meetings of the Sergeant Anthony Park Association and Saint Joseph’s Grammar School Alumni Association. A graduate of Saint Peter’s Prep and Seton Hall University, where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting, Lyons recently obtained a Master’s Degree in Administrative Sciences with a concentration in Public Policy from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Bethania E. Torres (Ward D)

Born in the Dominican Republic, Torres has lived in Jersey City for the past 14 years. Torres enrolled at Hudson County Community College, where she studied English as a Second Language during the evenings and worked by day. Fourteen years later, the Torres family has three children, Michael, Kevin and Gebeth. Torres holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration/Management from New Jersey City University.

Raul Mercado (Ward E)

Mercado owns and operates his own business event planning and marketing firm, The Mercado Group, Inc. Raul is the creator and producer of the Gateway Small Business Expo & Conference, Caribbean American & Hispanic Business Expo, Hispanic Business Awards and small business development workshops. He served as program coordinator for the Puertoriquenos Associados Community Organization, Homebuyers Development Program, English As A Second Language, GED, and Job Readiness training programs for inner city residents.

A graduate of Wesleyan University in 1983 with a degree in Sociology, Mercado has been a member of the Liberty Healthcare System Foundation, Bergen County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, North Jersey Regional Chamber of Commerce, Jersey City Affordable Housing Coalition, Gateway Charter School, National Association of Latino Elected & Appointed Officials and the Hispanic American Action Committee.

Harold A. Ross (Ward F)

A 1983 graduate of St. Anthony High School, Ross is a U.S. Army veteran, where he learned pharmacy. He has worked as a pharmacy specialist in several hospitals, including Morristown Memorial, St. Michael’s in Newark and the East Orange V.A. Medical Center. He also worked as a pharmacy auditor for National Prescription Administrators and for Paid Prescriptions, a division of Merck-Medco Pharmaceuticals. He was one of five students to be selected as an intern at the Centers for Disease Control. According to information provided by the campaign, Ross “was part of the research team that studied the masking effects of folate of vitamin B-12 deficiency.” He is currently the director of the Jersey City Safe Haven after-school program.