Hudson Democracy

Mayor Healy Brings a Budget to City Council

Mayor Healy came by the Jersey City Council caucus meeting Monday night to introduce his executive budget proposal, remarkably early considering the city's switch to calendar-year budgeting on January 1. The proposal includes an overall decrease in spending but a twelve percent increase in the property tax levy. Council president Peter Brennan set April 13 as the tentative date of the City Council's yearly mandatory public hearing on the budget. 

Report: Flood to Resign from J.C. Council

Update 1:39 p.m. Jersey Journal reports Flood has resigned and Mayor Healy has nominated Kalimah Ahmad, attorney and assistant counsel for the county, to replace her.

At-large Jersey City Councilwoman Willie Flood will step down this month, according to a report on PolitickerNJ. The report says Flood's health has been "deteriorating".

Healy Has to Live With Anti-Fulop Rule

Two weeks ago, the Jersey City Council rejected an ordinance proposed by the Healy administration that would have moved retired city workers into a different health benefits plan, unless they paid a fee to keep their current plan. Mayor Healy said the ordinance would have saved the city $3.2 million a year.

Council Ducks Chicken Law; Will It 'Bee' Back?

The Jersey City Council has withdrawn from its agenda an ordinance that would have clarified the city's rules for keeping chickens and bees. Council members tell the Independent's Matt Hunger that they have been on the receiving end of angry phone calls from constituents since the city's newspapers reported on the ordinance yesterday.

Council Passes Temporary Budget in Special Meeting

Six months after moving the start of fiscal year 2011 to January 1, the city once again found itself without a budget or revenue ordinances this weekend, so the City Council met in special session this morning to authorize a three-month budget allocating $170,031,017. Of that money, $70,094,558 is earmarked for mandatory debt payments. 

City Hall, Wednesday Night, 6 p.m.

If you can make it, go to City Hall tomorrow night at 6 p.m. for the Jersey City Council meeting. Let the council know citizens are not going to tolerate an indifferent, self-serving government in a time of crisis. You will not stand alone.

Talks Stalled, Layoff Process Starts

The Jersey Journal, in a story about a stupid billboard off Duncan Avenue, reports last-minute negotiations between P.O.B.A. and Jersey City are unproductive. Eighty-two officers, just under ten percent of the department, are set to be laid off soon. The Healy administration is asking for a $4 million giveback from the union on the terms its recently-negotiated contract. The city wants to skip officers' $1,300-per-year uniform allowance and have a "pay lag".

The Rich Guys Get a Special Meeting

At a very special meeting just for big-shot real estate developers, the Jersey City Council tonight approved an ordinance to allow the transfer of a tax abatement with the sale of Liberty Towers, the Paulus Hook condominium project. The city is to collect a one-time $2.8 million payment from the transfer, part of the $280 million deal real estate deal.

Rat Politics, Continued

You wouldn't know it from the Jersey Journal's typically superficial reporting, or the rancor between the P.O.B.A. and the Healy administration, but it was only earlier this year that the city and the officers' union negotiated a new contract. That contract can tell us a lot about more about the impending police layoffs than any press release or street protest.

Healy: Merge Public Works with J.C.I.A.

Mayor Healy made a personal appearance at the City Council's caucus meeting last night to sell his long-awaited plan to merge the Department of Public Works with the Jersey City Incinerator Authority.