JERSEY CITY – An attorney working for the re-election campaign of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy was expected to head back to Hudson County Superior Court Monday afternoon in the next round of an ongoing attempt to get a series of e-mails released between Board of Education trustees and City Councilman Steven Fulop.
Healy and Fulop are political adversaries who are facing each other in the upcoming mayoral election slated for May 14.
The Healy campaign has been trying to uncover evidence that Fulop – who endorsed eight of the school board’s current trustees – has used his relationship with the Board of Education to get lucrative contracts for his campaign donors and other supporters of his candidacy for mayor. In addition, they are also trying to document the extent to which Fulop allies in the private sector guided school board decisions.
While hundreds of e-mails were eventually released last month, many were heavily redacted and attorneys for Healy have argued in court that some e-mails that should have been released were not. Among the e-mails that that were not released by the Board of Education are some that have been leaked to local media.
Among the leaked e-mails is one to then-school board President Sterling Waterman, dated November 19, 2010. In it, Fulop introduced the school board president to Linda Quentzel and her client Philip Johnston of Johnson Communications. It is believed to be one of the e-mails that will be discussed in court today.
“This email is a great example of Healy trying to distract voters from his failed record as mayor,” Fulop responded Monday evening. “Johnston Communications has been with Board of education for 10 years long before I was elected to the council. The next part of the e-mail on this issue that Healy doesn’t reference to the voters clearly stated I was recommending a free cost-cutting audit to save taxpayer money. Also, to further strengthen my point, Johnston Communications has not bid or proposed to do any business with the Board of Education.”
For more details on this story, see this weekend’s paper. – E. Assata Wright