Jersey City Times received this press release at 3:30 p.m. today.
State Offices Closed on Monday, February 1st for Non-Weather Essential Personnel
All Six Vaccine Mega-Sites Closed Monday
Due To Winter Storm NJ TRANSIT Will Temporarily Suspend All Service on Monday Except Atlantic City Rail Line Which Will Operate On A Regular Weekday Schedule
TRENTON – Governor Phil Murphy today declared that New Jersey will enter a state of emergency beginning Sunday, January 31, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. in response to the expected winter storm. Snow accumulation for the storm began as of Sunday afternoon, with the heaviest snow expected to fall during the day on Monday, and hazardous conditions may continue through Tuesday morning. Executive Order No. 218 declares a state of emergency across all 21 counties in New Jersey, allowing resources to be deployed throughout the state during the duration of the storm.
State offices will be closed on Monday, February 1st, 2021. This does not include weather-essential employees. Private companies and businesses should dismiss their employees at their own discretion. All six vaccine mega-sites will be closed on Monday, February 1st due to the storm.
All NJ TRANSIT buses, rail (except Atlantic City Rail Line), light rail and Access Link service will be temporarily suspended systemwide for the entire service day on Monday, February 1st due to the significant expected impacts of the snow storm.
“Heavy snow, coastal flooding, and high winds are expected in many parts of the state ,” said Governor Murphy. “The safety of residents and workers is our utmost priority. Please follow all weather-related guidance and stay off the roads in order to allow access for emergency personnel.”
“The New Jersey Department of Transportation is coordinating with our regional and local transportation partners and the New Jersey State Police to ensure the most effective response to this storm,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti. “We are grateful for the public’s assistance by staying at home and allowing transportation agencies to safely and efficiently clear roadways of snow and ice.”
“Our State Emergency Operations Center has been activated to coordinate with our State Emergency Management Partners. Troopers throughout the state are ready to assist residents and drivers both on and off of the highways for the duration of this storm as needed,” said State Director of Emergency Management and Superintendent of the State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan. “However, we cannot do it without the help of our communities. Please use caution if you must travel, prepare emergency kits for use at home and in your vehicle, and check on your neighbors.”
“In anticipation of the snowstorm, the NJBPU has been in communication with the utilities and they are prepared for the weather emergency,” said New Jersey Board of Public Utilities President Joseph L. Fiordaliso. “We expect outages as a result of the storm and advise residents to charge their phones in advance, make necessary preparations and report any outages to their utility. As always, do not touch or go near any downed wires. We know that any outage is an inconvenience and we will be working with the utilities to ensure they restore all outages as safely and as quickly as possible.”
“NJOHSP coordinates with its partners and New Jersey’s critical infrastructure operators to prepare for all hazards such as this winter storm,” said Jared M. Maples, Director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. “As we continue to monitor for other potential threats, we’re working with our partners to reduce the storm’s impact to residents and visitors. We encourage everyone to stay home and to please consider checking in on family and friends via phone, email, or social media.”
Parts of New Jersey are expected to experience heavy snow, coastal flooding, and blizzard-like conditions. To prepare for the winter storm, the New Jersey State Police has activated the State Emergency Operations Center in order to monitor the storm. The New Jersey Department of Transportation, New Jersey Turnpike Authority, and South Jersey Transportation Authority will also deploy over 3,900 plows and spreaders to keep roads and communities safe.
The Governor encourages New Jerseyans to visit ready.nj.gov for important weather updates and safety information. New Jersey residents should also pay attention to local forecasts, warnings, and watches.
For those living in Central and Southern New Jersey, visit the U.S. National Weather Service Philadelphia/Mount Holly at http://www.weather.gov/phi/
For those living in Northern New Jersey and the New York Metro area, visit the U.S. National Weather Service New York, N.Y. at http://www.weather.gov/okx/
The Bergen, Burlington, and Gloucester County mega-site were pre-scheduled to be closed on Monday, February 1st. Anyone with appointments at the Atlantic, Middlesex, or Morris mega-sites will receive a call from the health care partner at that site and be rescheduled within the week.
Atlantic (AtlantiCare) and Middlesex (RWJBarnabas) will be rescheduled to Thursday
Morris (Atlantic Health) will be rescheduled to Wednesday
Health care partners will begin making calls after 2:00 PM today
The Vaccination Call Center will remain open through the storm: 855-568-0545
Important Tips to Remember When Preparing for Winter Weather:
Secure loose items in your yard such as trash cans, children’s toys, and lawn decorations.
Build an emergency kit that includes supplies for the whole family, including pets. Due to COVID-19 there are a few updates to preparing for this winter season such as including hand soap, hand sanitizer, disinfectant supplies and cloth face coverings in your emergency kits/go-bags.
Have cash on hand. If the power is out, so are the ATMs and credit card machines.
Know how to report a power outage to your utility company.
Know where your utility shut off valves (gas, electric, water) are and how to use them.
NEVER use a generator inside homes, garages, crawlspaces, sheds, or similar areas, even when using fans or opening doors and windows for ventilation. Deadly levels of carbon monoxide can quickly build up in these areas and can linger for hours, even after the generator has shut off.
Be sure to keep an adequate amount of gas in your car.
Be sure to check on friends and neighbors who have access or functional needs. Due to COVID-19, in person visits may not be ideal under certain circumstances. Please adhere to social distancing guidelines and wear a mask. Use other means of communication such as phone, text or video chat to check on neighbors and help prepare them.
Be sure to have extra medications on hand and keep them in a water-resistant container.
Get all of your vital records and insurance papers together now. Keep them in a water-resistant container. If you can, scan and email them to yourself so you have a copy of important numbers and policies, etc.
Charge your cell phones and try not to use them if the power goes out.
A copy of Executive Order No. 218 can be found here.
When the City Council voted on Wednesday to authorize large salary hikes for directors and other top city officials, it did so without evidence that the increases were necessary, according to Ward E Councilman James Solomon, who along with councilmen Rolando Lavarro and Jermaine Robinson, voted against the ordinance.
The ordinance provides that the salaries of 16 of the city’s highest paid employees, from the business administrator to municipal court judges, will, in the future, be tied to those in Newark, which according to a 2019 study pays substantially more than Jersey City. Also included in the ordinance were salary hikes for the mayor and council. Those latter increases will go into effect after the next election.
Mayor Fulop had told the council that the raises were necessary to attract the best talent.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation using most recent data available, suggests that the ordinance, when fully implemented, could increase the city’s yearly payroll by more than $500,000.
When setting policy on salaries, it is customary for large businesses and organizations to study what competitive employers are offering and what the financial impact of the new salaries will be. The 2019 study was not referred to during discussions leading up to the vote on the ordinance. “There was no financial analysis given to the council,” says Solomon.
According to Solomon, the council also lacked the current salaries of the city officials who would be affected by the ordinance. Three weeks ago, he put a request in for that data but, as of yesterday, three days after the vote, he still hadn’t received it. “I don’t think it’s any accident that they didn’t provide me with that information,” says Solomon.
Solomon also questioned the rationale offered by the mayor. He said that he is unaware of any candidate who has passed on a job offer with Jersey City because of salary considerations.
At Wednesday’s meeting, several council supporters of the ordinance pointed to two recently vacated positions as evidence that the pay scale was too low. Again, Solomon rejected the argument and specifically cited the case of former business administrator Brian Platt. “The claim that Brian left over money is “bull***t. If they had wanted to keep Brian, they could have come to us [the council], and we could have given him a raise.” Solomon made this point at the meeting, arguing that the council had recently granted pay raises to several officials.
Jersey City Times received no response from the administration when it was asked to confirm that any such person has turned down a job offer or resigned because of low pay.
Solomon is also concerned with the potential for patronage. The council normally gets to sign off on the salaries of the highest paid city employees during the yearly budget process. After budget approval, Solomon pointed out, however, that the mayor is free to give raises without council input. “Now, if one employee leaves, freeing up $50,000, the mayor can use that money to reward political allies.” The new, higher salaries will magnify that potential he says. He pointed out that Health and Human Services Director Stacey Flanagan is the Ward E “boss” for the Hudson County Democratic Organization and Business Administrator John Metro works on the Fulop campaign.
Public speakers were uniformly opposed to the timing of the salary hikes. Said Frank “Educational” Gilmore, “We’re in the middle of a global health pandemic. It is amazing to me how you can find money for anything this administration thinks is appropriate…This is the same administration that cut recreation by 42 percent.”
Said Sabrina Harrold, “If you’re going to be fair, be fair across the board. Look at all the titles. You should start with the titles at the lower end and work your way up.”
While supporting a raise for council members, Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein complained that “There’s no transparency…It should be written in such a way that we could get a sense of how big a raise we are talking about.”
Councilman-at-Large Daniel Rivera supported the pay raises, citing the work of the department directors during the Covid-19 pandemic. “These guys from sun-up to sundown are giving it 100 percent for the constituents.”
While sensitive to complaints about the timing of the ordinance, Council President Joyce Watterman pointed out that there were two high level vacancies that needed filling. “One thing I’ve learned in life is timing is always off…If we lose another director, there’s a gap in our system, and we can’t fill it.”
Jersey City Superintendent of Schools Franklin Walker will petition the New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA) to allow the Astor Place Community Garden to remain after being notified some uses of the space violate an agreement with the authority.
The space is being used for food distribution, coat drives and COVID-19 testing, vital services during the pandemic where many are out of work and in need, said volunteers, religious leaders and numerous other Jersey City residents who spoke during public comment at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.
Residents of the Astor Place neighborhood and those involved in the food distribution efforts heard the garden, adjacent to PS 12, was in danger of being closed and gave impassioned pleas to the board and superintendent to prevent a garden closure from happening. Residents said as many as 2,000 people line up to receive food on Saturdays.
Those who spoke in support of the garden said the heavy boxes being given out are filled with fresh vegetables, meat and produce. One former crossing guard said before the community efforts took hold, the lot the garden sits on was “a drug lot.”
Longtime volunteer Sheila Ruiz said the garden is a powerful asset for the community and has become part of the team that is helping families through the pandemic. “I find it appalling that they’re trying to close down a community that’s trying to feed children and families during this time,” she said.
The board took action on the issue after coming out of executive session around 11:30 p.m. by unanimously approving a resolution to support Walker’s petition to allow the garden to remain.
“We are all in agreement with the great things that are happening in the community as a result of the Astor Garden,” Walker said.
The superintendent said he received a letter on Jan. 20 from the SDA, which owns the land the garden is on and rents it to the schools. The letter said “the SDA has learned that the district’s present use of the property significantly violates the terms of the use and occupancy agreement” that was entered into in July 2009. The letter also provides an opportunity to “cure” the violation, Walker read.
Walker said in August 2020, he signed off on a building use form submitted by the BITE organization which “indicated that there would be gardening, food pantry, educational programs and services” on the Astor Place land and the form “was approved under those circumstances.”
“However, based upon the SDA, their indication is that the uses of the property have gone beyond the scope of what was originally indicated in the building use form” Walker said.
The SDA directed the district to remove political signs on the property and a port-a-john in advance of an inspector coming to the space next week to review that these things are done.
Walker’s solution is to “petition the SDA on behalf of the district, the community and the BITE organization to allow the garden to remain and include the current activities as a part of the agreement.”
“One of the key terms that they use and that allows us permission to do that is that it benefits the students,” Walker said.
Use of the garden will be able to continue until Walker submits the petition, but it must operate within the scope of what was identified on the building use form. This means the free food distribution many residents advocated for can still take place. Changes to the form may be needed for COVID-19 testing and coat distribution to continue.
Over the last two years, Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro has emerged as one of the Fulop administration’s loudest critics, having waged pitched battles on issues from inclusionary zoning to police funding. This comes after years on the inside as a member of “Team Fulop” and as city council president.
Lavarro is now being mentioned as a potential challenger to Mayor Fulop in this fall’s citywide elections.
I set up a Zoom meeting with Lavarro to find out how this metamorphosis took place. I wanted to know how one goes from being the mayor’s chief enforcer on the city council to his chief antagonist.
But I first wanted to get his back-story.
A lifelong resident of Greenville, Lavarro came here at age seven. His parents, both from the Philippines and both physicians, were like many immigrants. “They wanted me to assimilate,” Lavarro said. Afraid that he’d develop an accent if he learned Tagalog, Lavarro’s parents spoke only English at home. At a time when, according to Lavarro, “people were known by where they went to grammar school and high school, ” he attended St. Paul’s Elementary School and then St. Peter’s Prep. He went on to get a BS in marketing from NYU Stern School of Business.
After graduating, Lavarro spent ten years working for nonprofits that helped immigrants transition to life in the U.S. For a time he worked with Filipino veterans who had lost their military pensions. He lobbied congressmen in New Jersey on their behalf. Thereafter, he entered the realm of politics.
He was an aide to then-councilwoman Mary Donnelly and worked briefly for State Senator Bob Gordon when Gordon was still in the state assembly. He spent three years combatting substance abuse in Greenville with a group connected to the Philippine American Friendship Community. For seven years, Lavarro worked for New Jersey City University.
Lavarro credits Barack Obama’s inauguration speech, which called on Americans to get involved in their communities, with inspiring him to run for office.
“He was just elected to President of the United States, his message of transformational change, that’s what really motivated me to engage in politics, ” Lavarro explained.
So, in 2009, he ran for city council as part of Assemblyman Lou Manzo’s slate. Lavarro lost the race in a run-off to Michael Sotolano, then part of the “Healy machine.” But another bite at the politics apple was not far off.
It was the infamous 2009 “Operation Bid Rig” scandal that gave Lavarro the break he needed.
Three council seats opened up, and he ran with the late Viola Richardson for one of the two open council-at-large seats. From a field of 17, he and Richardson emerged victorious. “We stunned a lot of folks, including myself, when we won that election” Lavarro recalls.
In 2012, then-councilman Steve Fulop asked Lavarro if he’d join his slate for his run for mayor against Jerramiah Healy.
“When I was first courted to be part of the ticket, I didn’t know Steve Fulop from a can of paint. I knew people who knew him, and I trusted some of those folks who suggested to me that he was the real deal and that he was a reformer.”
When he hesitated, Fulop became impatient, according to Lavarro. “He asked me at one point. ‘What’s it going to take care for you to make a decision?,’ and I said, ‘I need to know what you stand for. I ran for a reason, right?’”
Lavarro says he wanted make sure he and Fulop were on the same page. Recalling his motivation for entering politics, Lavarro explains, “I talked a lot about the tale of two cities because I was looking to represent Greenville. I talked about the inequities, the lack of jobs from development and economic opportunity. I talked about public safety a lot during that campaign.”
While Fulop’s background on Wall Street gave Lavarro pause, Fulop finally convinced him. “He ultimately shared the white papers. The now famous white papers that were disseminated and shared with the public.” A white paper is a report that informs readers concisely about a complex issue. “And when I read those white papers, I mean, those were like the, the newest things. I was pretty aligned with a lot of the things that were going on there. And so I decided to join the ticket at that point.”
Fulop and his slate went on to win the election, taking office in July 2013. Because he was the only member of the slate with council experience, Fulop asked Lavarro to become council president. Lavarro would hold the title until 2019.
Fulop was quick to make it clear that although Lavarro was nominally independent as city council president, when push came to shove, he was expected to dutifully comply with the mayor’s wishes. The issue that brought this into stark relief was Berry Lane Park.
It was 2014, and Fulop decided that he wanted to divert funding from a number of small parks around the city to Berry Lane Park.
“I just thought it was the wrong approach to take money away from other parks and doing improvements and enhancements in every neighborhood in the community and putting it into one park,” Lavarro said.
Lavarro surmised that the mayor’s gubernatorial ambitions were behind it. “I thought he wants to put all of this money into one big park; it doesn’t make very good headlines when you’re running for governor to say you took care of a bunch of little small pocket parks, but it does make a difference if you can talk about a huge multi-acre park that you literally refer to as ‘Jersey City’s Central Park.’ It’s a good project and initiative. But he was trying to accelerate it so he could have it for his gubernatorial run and point to that.”
Lavarro was not alone in his doubts about the project. According to Lavarro, several of his fellow councilmembers were frustrated at not being consulted by the administration. With support from these colleagues, Lavarro arranged to have the vote for the park’s funding tabled to provide time to negotiate a solution. But on the day this was to happen, Lavarro got a call from the mayor.
“He started screaming and cursing at me over the phone,” Lavarro remembers.
“And I went to his office to go talk to him, and he proceeded to ream me out in front of everyone in his office, suggesting what was I trying to do by tabling something, and who do I think I am. And he was indignant to the idea that I was actually going to do my job as a councilman and council president. And he literally walked out of that room and his office and started to go around from council office to council office, whoever was there, like an hour before the council meeting and telling them that they were going to vote for this and saying that, ‘I don’t know what kind of things this guy has been filling in your head, but you’re going to go vote for this. Whatever this guys is saying, it’s a lie.’”
Lavarro got his way at the next council meeting. The ordinance shifting money to Berry Lane Park was tabled. “I later communicated with them [the mayor’s staff] and then sent them a message essentially saying that we’d like to talk about this and kind of discuss these matters with him. And I reached out my hand to kind of say let’s see if we can work things out.”
Lavarro heard nothing from the mayor but did get a call from the city clerk asking him to call a special meeting to vote on the tabled ordinance. Lavarro suggested again that they talk about it before any further meetings. According to Lavarro, the mayor then went behind his back and pressured five other council members to call the meeting over Lavarro’s objection. The mayor got his way when the ordinance passed 7–1.
Afterward, Lavarro talked to the late Michael Yun. “He said, ‘You really upset the mayor on this, you really showed him … , You showed him what you’re made of, but let’s let this go at this point.’”
Soon thereafter Lavarro’s city car was taken away from him.
Fulop’s “emissaries” later approached Lavarro. “They said, ‘What are we going to do here? You’re the council president, he’s the mayor. You have your personal ambitions, he has his. How do we make this work?’”
“And I said my only personal ambition—I remember having the conversation like it was clear as day—I’m only here to do good things. I came here to change Jersey City.”
As Lavarro recounts his response, he chokes back tears.
When it came to policy, however, Lavarro remained on board with the mayor. At least until Lavarro attended a meeting of “Jersey City Together” in 2016.
Upon taking office, Fulop halted the nearly completed property “reval” begun under his predecessor, Jerramiah Healy. Unsurprisingly, the firm that had done the work and not been fully paid sued the city. Lavarro, along with the rest of the mayor’s slate on the city council, authorized the city to spend money litigating a case that the city would go on to lose. The judge held that the city had acted in bad faith in cancelling the contract. Ultimately, the suit cost the city close to $4 million in legal fees and damages. Some say the bill came to more.
Compounding the fallout, many critics pointed out that the case prolonged property tax disparities that allowed Downtown property owners to pay much less than their fair share in taxes while poorer neighborhoods paid far too much.
It was during the Jersey City Together meeting that Lavarro says he first came to appreciate this fundamental inequity in taxation.
Asked how he now feels about approving the money to move ahead with the mayor’s lawsuit, Lavarro said, “I do regret it.” He would like people to know that, by 2016, he was pushing back on some administration policies. “If folks were to look throughout my history, there were things that I expressed my opposition to, some of it, most of it, not very public.”
After losing in the trial court, the administration asked the city council to fund an appeal. Lavarro says he disagreed with idea.
“We had a closed session. It became very clear to me that we were losing these lawsuits decisively. And if you go into the records of that closed session, it’s all documented. I’m probably literally the only person literally on the city council who questioned what was going on there.”
Nonetheless, Lavarro voted to approve the appeal.
“The truth of the matter is I made a mistake because I voted for the contract again. I offered some amendments at the council floor on the vote of it, trying to say let me see if I could do some amendments to put some accountability into this. But it was frankly, in hindsight, meaningless— those kinds of amendments and so forth. The more appropriate action for me at that time should have been just to vote against the contract.”
Lavarro acknowledges that, despite his present posture as administration critic, he supported the administration on most issues during his time as council president.
“We ran together with a platform, and we were supposed to be enacting that platform, right… and that was those white papers. If you look at the record … on tax abatements, you’ll find that I have the most ‘no’ votes among the council Fulop folks, with the exception of Yun and Boggiano, who voted ‘no’ on a number of those things.”
Lavarro also recalls many votes where he went along despite his misgivings. “I remember the Greenville Yards. That was with the Port Authority wanting to establish a waste transfer station in the Greenville section. I was very torn about that. The community was up in arms about it.” Under pressure, Lavarro voted in favor of it only to have the rug pulled out from under him when the mayor backed out of the deal at the last minute.
“I look back on that vote, and I was just distraught with myself and angry with myself about it because my gut was telling me that this was not a good vote.”
I asked Lavarro if there were specific issues that led him to the conclusion that he and the mayor were on opposing sides. Lavarro points to 2018 and 2019. It came down to property. “I said we should not be selling public assets away, and they were going to look to sell them for more luxury developments and more real estate developers. And I began to say, I think that this is all just more of the same: Fulop selling them for his donors and to benefit the privileged and the politically connected.”
He also remembers objecting to the process that created the West Side Special Improvement District. It “left out a lot of business to owners, particularly local small mom and pop and particularly a lot of the immigrant-owned businesses with which I have a deep-seated connection.”
The final straw for Lavarro came with the June 2019 expose on Fulop by Bloomberg News. Upon reading it, Lavarro said he finally made a connection between Fulop’s delay of the reval and Dixon Advisory Services, one of Jersey City’s largest property owners.
“I always thought that perhaps he suspended it for political reasons because it’s not a popular thing to do with certain segments of voter populations. But when that Bloomberg story came out… it actually set off a light bulb in my head that actually made a thousand percent more sense because from all of the information and all of the other past dealings I’ve seen with this administration.”
“It’s never just about the policy or just about whose benefiting. It’s not talking about the actual policy and how it impacts the people of Jersey City, rather it’s about this administration: Fulop’s agenda to benefit himself politically, personally, and those who are politically connected, the financial benefit that developer and others were seeing as a result of the suspension of the reevaluation, the millions of millions and millions of dollars that they’re all saving.”
While Lavarro says he had public misgivings about certain issues, he admits that he went along with a number of administration initiatives he now criticizes. “If folks were to look at my voting record, they would see that I was having issues and concerns with things like the Katyn Memorial Statue and the Jersey City Museum. I had concerns about the financial things there. And I asked questions about that stuff. My votes were supportive of it, and frankly, I think they were mistakes at the time that I made those votes. Ultimately, with the statue I got to reverse that vote, but the museum I think probably I should have not taken that vote because now we see no transparency or accountability with the funding for that and how money is going to be spent on that going forward.”
In a fateful decision, Lavarro decided to write to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito and urge him to look into the Bloomberg article’s “alarming” allegations regarding the mayor and Dixon. “It is my hope that your office will do an extensive investigation,” Lavarro wrote.
“I knew that when I made that letter and offered that letter to the U.S. Attorney, that was going to be the end of the relationship no matter what, whether I’m running for future office or not.”
Lavarro proudly owns some of his work as a former Team Fulop member. “I ended up finding myself on the tax abatement policy committee, and we rewrote the policy on tax abatements. I will take credit and responsibility for writing into those policies an emphasis on affordable housing.”
But ultimately Lavarro found that tax incentives alone weren’t enough to encourage the construction of affordable housing.
“You’re not going to get them to voluntarily build affordable housing. It doesn’t make sense for them financially. So you’re going to have to impose it and require it in order to make it happen. And that’s why the inclusionary zoning ordinance was such an important piece for me.”
When asked to name three ordinances he’d pass today if given the opportunity, Lavarro didn’t skip a beat citing “a super strong inclusionary zoning ordinance,” allocating more money to schools, and “taking a good look at how we allocate our resources to the police department.”
Has the administration done anything right, I asked. “Sick leave” he responded. “It was a model for the state of New Jersey…it’s becoming a model for the nation as well…I was a big proponent of that,” he said.
Lavarro is also a fan of the massive Bayfront development on the West Side. “I was as the council president and as a councilman, without a doubt, hands down the most vocal proponent on the city council for that.”
And he applauds the mayor’s “vision zero” traffic deaths campaign as well as his emphasis on sustainability and mobility. “But,” he said, “the process on those issues and the way he’s dealt with them has been abysmal….He’s not very good with process. In fact, he does everything he can to make sure that he gets a headline out of it before the council or other stakeholders are at the table [or before] the public more importantly has an opportunity to be at the table on those matters.”
I asked Lavarro if he credited the mayor with the city’s growth and new-found visibility. “We talked about all of this development and the opportunity that development and increased ratables and increased revenues for the city…gives us…to bridge the gap in addressing the tale of two cities… but the reality is that those dollars and those resources haven’t materialized.”
Lavarro rattled off a number of investments the city was unable to find the money for including aid to the schools and tenant support. “For long-time residents, for middle-income and lower-working families, which is a large part of the city at this point, they have not realized in large part the benefits of Jersey City’s development and growth.”
Lavarro’s demotion from council president was followed by a health scare. Early in the pandemic, Lavarro came down with COVID. I asked him about his experience as well as his current health. “I haven’t had any longterm impacts or effects.” Lavarro stops to collect himself. “I was terrified, frankly at the time and I’m thankful that I got through that. That was a scary time for me, my family.”
Will Lavarro run for mayor? “I’m definitely strongly considering it. And you know, first of all, I don’t think this mayor should go unchallenged. I think while folks think there’s an aura of invincibility to him, I also think that his decisions and choices…I think they’re bad for Jersey City at this point.”
Less than 5% of immunization centers in New Jersey are tapping the reservation system state officials created
This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.
New Jersey officials have conceded there is a disconnect between the state-run online vaccine registration system and the 200-plus COVID-19 vaccination sites run by local and county governments, health care providers and pharmacies.
The gap turns out to be significant, according to a state list updated Tuesday.
Less than 5% of the coronavirus immunization programs now operating in New Jersey are using the state’s registration system, with the vast majority running their own sign-up process through existing corporate or government websites or newly created portals specific to their location. Only one of the six state-overseen vaccine mega-sites — in Gloucester County — is linked to the New Jersey Vaccine Scheduling System, or NJVSS.
This uncoordinated registration system is frustrating the public as New Jersey residents eager to get vaccinated discover they cannot easily make an appointment through the state portal. Instead, the state scheduling system — which officials said has now pre-registered more than 2 million people — is designed to alert individuals when they are eligible and prompt them to make an appointment at a local vaccine clinic, which usually involves additional calls, emails or a separate sign-up process to secure a spot.
Gov. Phil Murphy has placed much of the blame for the slow rollout of inoculations on the limited supply of vaccines the state has received from the federal government, which allocates doses and oversees shipping. Without enough vaccines, some sites have been forced to cancel appointments or delay opening.
“We continue to ask for patience as we await more vaccine doses coming into our state,” Murphy said Monday, insisting everyone who wants a shot will eventually get one. “We have built the infrastructure from the ground up. All we need are these doses and we will be able to fire on all cylinders.”
Stock on hand
As of Tuesday evening, more than 540,000 New Jerseyans had received at least one of the two shots recommended by drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna, the two companies with vaccines with federal emergency use approval. Some 85,000 have also received their final dose, according to the state’s tally.
Since the process began in mid-December, vaccine sites have received close to 1.2 million doses, including nearly 350,000 designated as second shots, or boosters, according to the state Department of Health. More than 200,000 are allocated for nursing homes and other senior facilities.
State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli set a goal of eventually vaccinating 70% of the state’s adult population, or 4.7 million people. The process is currently open to health care workers, residents and staff at long-term care centers, emergency responders, individuals over age 65 and those of any age who have certain chronic health risks, like diabetes or cigarette addiction.
There are now 205 vaccine sites established, according to a DOH list updated Tuesday, although not all are operating at full capacity; nine rely on the NJVSS system.
All are connected to the state’s pre-existing vaccine inventory database, the New Jersey Immunization Information System, or NJIIS, which allows DOH to track their “throughput” and make allocation decisions for the week to come. Doses are shipped directly from federal stockpiles to the immunization sites.
While the state’s updated 190-page vaccine plan, submitted to federal officials in December, notes the importance of carefully tracking all doses — something that fell short during the H1N1 vaccine campaign in 2009 — it provides little detail on the public sign-up process and only mentions the NJVSS system once. Dispensing sites are responsible for everything from set-up to vaccine storage to patient registration, the plan notes, and offers various options for scheduling appointments.
DOH staff said late Tuesday all this had been made clear to the operators of vaccine clinics from the start and a number of the sites are run by health care systems that opted to use existing sign-up systems; it was not clear if the state considered mandating participation in the NJVSS system.
“We are also exploring streamlining registration and scheduling at all of our sites that do not currently participate in NJVSS,” Persichilli said Monday. “Our attempt is to make appointment scheduling easier and one-stop shopping.”
Her staff declined Tuesday to elaborate on her remarks.
Heavy use of new hotline
The state launched a COVID-19 vaccine phone hotline — (855) 568-0545 — with 250 live operators early Monday, which Persichili said received nearly 60,000 calls by noon that day. Until then, little immunization information was available to those without an internet connection or computer skills.
While operators can help callers with scheduling, it appears they are only able to access appointments at the nine vaccine sites now part of NJVSS.
“Due to scarcity, callers are not guaranteed an appointment when they call,” Persichilli said Monday, urging the 196 sites operating under separate enrollment systems to link to the state’s public registration portal so that operators can access more openings.
“As supply increases and more appointments become available in NJVSS, the call center will be able to assist callers in making appointments through” the state system, Persichilli added. “In the near future, the call center will assist consumers to look up registrations, schedule appointments and edit appointments in the system.”
However, the NJVSS system does not currently have the capacity to schedule appointments for second doses, Persichilli noted Monday. She said she got at least 30 emails over the weekend from people who had received initial shots at the Gloucester County mega-site, a clinic in Middlesex County, and other locations, but were unable to secure a date for the booster shot. The second doses are designed to be provided three or four weeks after the first, depending on the manufacturer.
Persichilli said the DOH has encouraged vaccine sites to schedule the booster shot when the patient is checking out after receiving the first dose, but her staff declined to say how this was communicated or why it was not mandated.
State officials also did not comment on why the registration system was not designed to handle return visits from the start, but stressed it was currently being updated to accommodate this element. The state’s vaccine plan appears to offer multiple suggestions on how clinics can schedule booster shots — including utilizing NJVSS.
“We will follow up on every single one of them,” Persichilli said of the residents who had not been provided return visit appointments.
Persichilli said the state has also reiterated to vaccine sites the need to schedule the second dose in advance.
“The second doses are set aside, so people will get their second dose,” she said. “We have to make sure that they have their appointments to get their second dose.”
A former payroll clerk and senior analyst for the Jersey City Department of Recreation will be sentenced to three years in state prison under a plea agreement announced today by Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal. Angela Rivera, 41, of Jersey City, pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree theft by unlawful taking. She admitted to stealing approximately $80,000 by fraudulently inflating payroll hours for certain relatives and associates. She will be required to pay full restitution to the city and will be permanently barred from public employment. Sentencing is scheduled for April 9.
News that a Department of Recreation official was adjusting payroll records to pay the official’s friends and family for work they did not perform was first reported by the Jersey Journal in April of 2018 based upon an anonymous source. At the time, city spokeswoman Hannah Peterson dismissed the accusations as “gossip” from a disgruntled employee. Rivera continued to work for the city until January of 2020, when she was fired following her arrest.
The department has been beset by scandal and has changed leadership repeatedly. In 2015, Director Ryan Strother was terminated when he refused to fire a registered sex offender he had hired. Director Kevin Williamson was disciplined for taking a city car home that was later stolen. Director Arthur Williams was suspended over his use of a city car and reportedly continued to receive pay from his previous employer, the Board of Education, while working for for the city. Rivera’s theft occurred during both Williamson’s and William’s tenures.
Last year four Jersey City Recreation Department employees filed federal lawsuits against a Williams and the city claiming age and gender discrimination.
In 2019, the city restructured the department and placed an emphasis on youth development. The name was changed to the Department of Recreation and Youth Development, containing two divisions: the Division of Recreation and the Division of Enrichment. It is now led by Lucinda McLaughlin.
The restructuring led ten former Recreation Department employees who had been reassigned, to bring a federal race and age discrimination case against the city. That case, later dismissed, became an issue in Kansas City which recently hired Jersey City’s former Business Administrator, Brian Platt.
Between December, 2016 and February 2018, Rivera inflated payroll hours for certain former part-time and seasonal employees who are her relatives or personal associates. Some of the inflated paychecks were deposited into Rivera’s personal account after she forged the employees’ signatures to endorse the checks over to her. Others were deposited into accounts controlled by the employees named on the checks.
“As a payroll clerk, Rivera was trusted to maintain accurate employee records and ensure that city funds were properly spent, but instead she falsified records to steal tens of thousands of dollars,” said Attorney General Grewal. “This type of public corruption can be very costly to taxpayers, as this case demonstrates, and we’re determined to hold those who commit such crimes accountable.”
The four relatives and associates who took part in the scheme are Ashley Cuevas, 24, Gabriel Villanueva, 42, and Carlos Huertas, 34, all of Jersey City, and Alfred Coriano, 41, of Bayonne. They will enter a pre-trial program requiring them to pay full restitution. If they successfully complete the program, the charges against them will be dismissed.
Chances are you haven’t given much thought to retirement. It’s no wonder. Jersey City is a young town, with a median age of 34 according to census data. That’s almost six years younger than the NY-NJ-PA metro area. A paltry 16% of Jersey Cityans are over 60.
But if you’re a long term planner or one of the few gray-hairs still here and ready to think about retirement, this new analysis from the financial planning website WalletHub is for you. Maybe.
In an analysis of the best and worst states for retirement, New Jersey has come in dead last. Yes, we repeat, dead last. Worse than Delaware? Worse than West Virginia? Really?
Let’s start off with the observation that WalletHub seems to have it in for all things Jersey. They previously ranked Jersey City 172nd of 182 U.S. cities for retirement. It makes you want to call the whole thing rigged. Where’s Sydney Powell when you need her?
But New Jerseyans should take the slight with a big grain of salt. What constitutes a good quality of life is inherently subjective and WalletHub’s analysis may say more about the survey’s designers than anything else. For instance, a key metric under “Quality of Life” is “Golf Courses Per Capita.”
Culture, which is not one of the metrics, is apparently of little interest to those in their golden years. “Don’t worry,” Wallet Hub seems to be telling us, “you’ll love the touring production of Cats that comes through. And if theater isn’t your thing, they’ve got attractions like the National Hubcap Museum.”
Similarly, food is assumed to be of little importance to the denture wearing set. Can you imagine how high New Jersey’s score would be if Wallet Hub had given us credit for Indian restaurants per capita? And shouldn’t Missouri get a deduction for the concentration of Applebees? Apparently, to WalletHub, a ready supply of Ensure is enough.
Another metric where New Jersey apparently falls short is on “Elderly-Friendly Labor Market.” What? We thought the idea of retirement was to STOP working?
So take this slap in the face in stride. We’ve got Rutt’s Hut and they don’t.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has unveiled a new plan for the proposed Midtown Bus Terminal project which will “completely reimagine the world’s busiest bus terminal and its connection to the Lincoln Tunnel.” The new plan released today provides for a nearly 40 percent increase in transit rider capacity. The new terminal will be designed to serve 100 percent electric bus fleets and will feature “cutting-edge” technology to manage and speed bus movements in the terminal – using both autonomous vehicle technology and AI-aided traffic management.
The Midtown Bus Terminal is accessible using multiple bus lines from the Journal Square Transportation Center in Jersey City.
The existing Midtown Bus Terminal was built in 1950 and expanded in 1981. According to the Port Authority, it sought out proposals to replace the outdated terminal with a modern facility that would meet the needs of commuters, long distance travelers, and the local community. In response to public comment, the Port Authority sought plans minimizing the distance bus riders need to traverse to access New York City subway connections and reach Times Square office buildings.
The new Midtown Bus Terminal plan includes the complete rebuild of the main terminal at its current location with a nearly 40 percent increase in capacity for commuter and intercity buses. Based on community comments, the new plan includes a storage and staging facility that moves commuter buses out of street level storage lots and accommodates intercity buses that previously picked up and dropped off on city streets in the vicinity of the existing terminal. In addition, the new plan “responds to the community request for increased public green space.”
The plan takes no private land and is built entirely on Port Authority property. Finally, the Port Authority expects to use multiple sources to fund the project which, in addition to the$3 billion for the project in the agency’s 2017-2026 Capital Plan, includes provisions to secure additional funding through up to four new high-rise towers. The additional funding from these developments would be derived from: 1) the proceeds from the sale of the development rights for the new towers; and 2) subject to an agreement with the City of New York, funding from Payments In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOTs) which would otherwise be paid to the City. The Port Authority also intends to seek financial assistance from existing FTA programs or from a new federal infrastructure program enacted under the new Biden Administration. This multi-source financing model proved successful in the financing of Moynihan Train Hall.
The new plan for the new Midtown Bus Terminal includes:
The complete replacement of the existing terminal building on 8th Avenue for commuter bus services with a state of the art, best in class facility;
A bus storage and staging building between 9th and 10th Avenues that removes buses from congested city streets;
The storage and staging building also will include additional capacity to handle intercity buses that currently load and unload on city streets, reducing congestion and foot traffic from local streets;
New bus ramp infrastructure between 10th and 11th Avenues enabling direct bus access from the Lincoln Tunnel to both the new staging and storage building and to the new terminal;
Approximately three and a half additional acres of new green space in the local community between 9th and 10th Avenues created by decking over sections of the Dyer Avenue entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. Those areas will serve as temporary staging locations during early phases of construction and will be transformed for public green space at the completion of the construction project;
Up to four high-rise towers: one on 8th Avenue between 41st Street and 42nd Street; one on 9th Avenue between 40th Street and 41st Street; one on 11th Avenue between 39th Street and 40th Street; and one on 10th Avenue between 39th Street and 40thStreet.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the terminal served an estimated 260,000 passenger trips (8,000 bus movements) on weekdays, or 23 percent of trans-Hudson trips entering or exiting Manhattan’s central business district. Based on pre-pandemic ridership trends, demand through 2040 is expected to increase by 30 percent with estimates of up to 337,000 weekday passenger trips.
Photo of Port Authority Bus Terminal by Roger Rowlett
Up-to-date Instructional plans approved by the state Department of Education
This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.
A recent decision by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency to authorize a condemnation suit to acquire a derelict warehouse in Bergen-Lafayette is raising new questions about the testimony of the agency’s executive director, Diana Jeffrey, regarding another project known as Morris Canal Park Manor.
Condemnation proceedings are sometimes used by the JCRA to acquire blighted property for redevelopment where the property owner is unwilling to sell.
The 17-story Morris Canal Park Manor project, also known as “Steel Tech,” was the subject of a contentious December 16 City Council meeting at which the council voted to amend the Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan to allow the luxury project, also in Bergen-Lafayette, to move ahead.
Community members argued that the project would accelerate gentrification and violate the Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan, which provided that the parcel would become part of Berry Lane Park.
Now, the JCRA’s authorization of a condemnation suit at 125 Monitor Street is calling into question the reasons given by Jeffrey for not having employed the same legal strategy at Steel Tech when it became clear that the owner would not sell the property.
Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro asked Jeffrey why the JCRA didn’t seek to acquire the Steel Tech property by way of condemnation. Jeffrey replied that the JCRA would not “typically” commence condemnation proceedings without having a developer who could fund the cost of the litigation. She also said that to acquire the Steel Tech property would have been “infeasible and reckless” because of the possibility that at the end of the litigation the city might end up being forced to purchase the property for a price beyond the city’s means. The JCRA “doesn’t undertake condemnation lightly,” she said.
What Jeffrey did not disclose to Lavarro and the council was that on the previous day, members of the agency’s board of commissioners voted to acquire nearby 125 Monitor Street and to authorize condemnation proceedings if necessary. 125 Monitor Street has an appraised value of $5.76 million, close to the value of $6 million Jeffrey last put on the Steel Tech property.
When JCT asked about the seeming contradiction, administration spokesperson Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione echoed Jeffrey’s response. “The potential exposure for the Steel Tech site was millions upon millions more than what the city could afford and therefore would be irresponsible and unfair to the taxpayers, which is a completely separate and incomparable situation to the 125 Monitor project where the city will pay zero out of pocket.” She further pointed out that the developer would be picking up the cost of the lawsuit whereas with Steel Tech, the city would have had to pay for the litigation, a point that Jeffrey made as well.
But some are unwilling to give Jeffrey and the administration the benefit of the doubt given that many of Jeffrey’s statements appear to have been flat out wrong or misleading.
For instance, in a memorandum to City Council President Joyce Watterman prior to the council meeting, Jeffrey stated that Steel Tech “was never part of the original plans for Berry Lane Park.” Jeffrey was forced to walk back that claim when former JCRA director of development, Ben Delisle called her statement “crazy and disingenuous.” A ream of documents backed up Delisle’s claim.
Then, during the council meeting, Jeffrey seemed to inflate the property’s value to bolster her claim that the JCRA decided not buy the Steel Tech property because it had been “priced out of the market.” But she was forced to acknowledge that her estimate of the land’s value had been based not on an actual appraisal but on an informal one by unnamed persons at the JCRA. “I’m not saying that we did an appraisal and that it came back at $6 million…it was our assessment that it could be worth as much as $6 million.”
Later in the meeting, Councilman-at-large Rolando Lavarro presented Jeffrey with a 2017 JCRA letter in which the agency “reiterated” its offer of $3.15 million for the property. Jeffrey countered that this price was for negotiation and didn’t reflect its actual value. In fact, a month later an appraisal done for purposes of obtaining a Green Acres grant valued the land at $2,950,000, undermining her claim that in offering $3.15 million she was merely lowballing the seller.
Jeffrey further undermined her credibility when discussing the standard a court would use to value the property in a condemnation proceeding. Lavarro presented her with a 2018 letter from New Jersey Realty Advisor Group, an appraiser. In it, the appraiser stated that the land would ultimately be appraised using its (then) current zoning, which was industrial. Jeffrey disagreed, stating that the appraisal would be based on “highest and best use.” Jeffrey’s statement was grossly misleading.
According to the leading New Jersey Supreme Court case on the subject, property is normally appraised based on current zoning ordinances. Only if there is “a reasonable probability that a zoning change would be granted” will a court depart from using the current zoning for valuing the property.
Had Jeffrey — by all accounts a capable attorney — been completely honest, she would have conceded that the likelihood of a court placing a high value on the property was small. The “current zoning” was industrial. The land was slated to become part of a park pursuant to a long-standing redevelopment plan.
Questions posed by the project’s council sponsor, Ward F Councilman Jermaine Robinson, should have also set off alarms. After Lavarro finished, Robinson, the man who had spent years putting the deal together, demonstrated that he didn’t know what the land — the one card the developer held in the negotiation — was worth. Without a hint of embarrassment, he said to Jeffrey,”I don’t know if the owner or the seller’s owner has today’s value…like do we have a number…did we do an appraisal?” Jeffrey answered, “No, we didn’t do an appraisal…we haven’t done a recent appraisal, no.” No one thought to ask Robinson how he could have gone into the negotiation so unprepared.
What motivated Jeffrey to spin the case for Morris Canal Park Manor may never be known. But Jeffrey’s and the administration’s suggestion that the city lacked the funds to acquire the property and to fund a condemnation suit strikes some as questionable.
One person knowledgeable about the workings of Jersey City redevelopment, who asked to remain nameless, said the city’s claim that in a condemnation proceeding at 125 Monitor Street it would be avoiding the cost and risk sounded more like a pretext. According to that source, the decision not to condemn the Steel Tech property was more likely based on a shift in priorities towards development and away from parks.
Former JCRA Executive Director Bob Antonicello also discounted financial risk and the cost of litigation as the city’s motivation in moving ahead with the project. “When we began the process of assembling the parcels for Berry Lane Park, we didn’t have 25% of the $40 million we ultimately needed. If we had worried about the cost of condemnation in 2006 when we began the process, the park never would have been built.”
Indeed, history has also shown that when it suits city hall, money can and will be found to buy property and to litigate. In 2018 Jersey City bonded for $170 million to purchase the land for the massive Bayfront development on the Hackensack River. And in it’s ill-fated multi-year lawsuit to avoid a city-wide revaluation of properties — a case in which the trial judge ruled that the administration acted in bad faith — the administration spent close to $500,000 on legal fees.
If Councilman Robinson considered working with a different developer willing to fund a condemnation case and committed to a project acceptable to the community, he didn’t tell anyone. The community was presented with a massive fait accompli.
In the end Jeffrey’s misrepresentations and spin combined with Robinson’s questionable handling of the project may be why many in the community feel that the Steel Tech project looks like a backroom deal. Said June Jones, President of the Morris Canal Community Development Corporation,”We didn’t know about Steel Tech until they had been in discussion for almost two years.”
