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Andrea Crowley-Hughes

Board of Ed, City Council Huddle on Budget Crisis 

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Jersey City Board of Education trustees and city council members who met for a joint session on Wednesday are in agreement: to solve the public schools’ funding crisis, they must work together. City council members did not promise any specific amounts of funding at the session, but the two governing bodies planned to form subcommittees and reconvene for another meeting in May. 

Conversation among the officials who met at the Hank Gallo Community Center in Lincoln Park was congenial, although due to WiFi problems that made the livestream unwatchable, members of the public could not view the meeting in real time. 

The school board has passed a preliminary budget for the 2021-22 school year that includes an $85 million increase in the tax levy. The preliminary budget would raise school taxes on the average Jersey City home assessed at $461,925 by an additional $993 per year – or $83 per month – in school taxes, according to the district.

Superintendent of Schools Franklin Walker has said the budget will repair years of underfunding for the district of 30,000 students. School Board President Mussab Ali, who is a graduate of McNair Academic High School, put that in concrete terms at the session. “The students who are graduating this year, the class of 2021, from kindergarten to 12th grade, have never had fully funded Jersey City public schools,” Ali said. 

Ali said the state of New Jersey has been cutting aid to the district based to some degree on Jersey City’s growth in ratables, which he said have risen from $20 billion to more than $40 billion. He also pointed out that the only 27% of the city’s revenue goes to the schools, while the state average is 53%. 

“Jersey City, as a city, can afford to put more money in, but the question is how are we going to do it sustainably and in a way that doesn’t hurt homeowners,” said Ali. 

The school board’s 2021-22 budget includes $86 million in payroll taxes from the city, even though the city has only certified $65 million of this owed amount. 

Ward E Councilman James Solomon spoke about working together to come up with “additional revenue raisers,” such as cigarette taxes. “We don’t know what the future of the commercial waterfront is going to be that was supposed to fund a good portion of the payroll tax,” Solomon said. 

In agreement Solomon’s ideas for local revenue sources was Ward D Councilman Yousef Saleh.

“We as a council should be looking at recreational cannabis and passing that as soon as possible, sort of creating the framework for how we’re going to tax it,” he said. 

Saleh, along with others on the board and council, said pressure needs to be put on state officials. 

“This is an election year, so that is front and center in mind. You can’t come get votes from our area and then meanwhile hurt a district of majority Black and brown students,” said Saleh. 

Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro said there are only two ways to alleviate the taxpayer burden and adequately fund schools: “by either substantially reducing the city’s levy, so as to offset the increases on the school side, and/or having the city contribute revenues to the Jersey City Public Schools.”

Lavarro had proposed a meeting between the city council and school board during public comments at a recent Board of Education meeting. He is being mentioned as a potential challenger to Mayor Steven Fulop in this fall’s citywide elections.

Council President Joyce Watterman and Ali said the next step after the session is to form subcommittees, which will focus on legislative outreach, finances and operations. Watterman said “we can come back to the public as a unified body once the subcommittees know what they have to do.” 

“If we all live here, I think we should all get along and put everything on the table,” Waterman said. 

The preliminary 2021-22 school budget is currently awaiting approval from the county superintendent. The district’s budget calendar lists April 22 as a tentative date for a board meeting on budget adoption and April 24 as the earliest date for the next public budget hearing.

 

Aaron Morrill

Mayor Spars with Lavarro Over Liberty Science Center High School

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Mayor Steven Fulop and his city council nemesis Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro sparred yesterday over the mayor’s plan to fund the operation of a new “state-of-the-art” public high school adjacent to Liberty Science Center.

At issue during the semi-monthly council caucus meeting was a resolution that would commit the city to contributing $2 million every year for thirty years towards the operation of the public school, which will be run by Hudson County Schools of Technology (HCST) which currently operates five schools open to county residents.

Along with Liberty Science Center, the school will be part of the future SciTech Scity, a 30-acre “innovation campus” billed as a “future technology hub for students, innovators, entrepreneurs, and scientists.” According to the administration, the school will “offer skill-centric science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes for 400 science-talented high school students in grades 9–12.” The administration claims that students will have access to “a work education program” at “200-plus technology startup companies…that will call SciTech Scity home.”

The school would be built with the proceeds of a $45 million bond offering.

Before yesterday’s caucus, activists like Chris Gadsden, principal of Lincoln High School, questioned the mayor’s plan. “I find [the plan] to be a little bit disrespectful to the budgetary process that’s taking place right now where the Jersey City Board of Education is asking the city to come through on its commitments to fully fund the Jersey City Schools.”

In a letter to Hudson County View, McNair Academic High School Athletic Director Kristen Zadroga-Hart asked “why are we paying the county to build and run a school that will house students from outside of Jersey City on top of the money we already pay from our County taxes? Why not invest that money in our own Jersey City Public School students?”

Several council members expressed concern that Jersey City was shouldering too much of the financial burden given that the school would be open to students from across the county. Ward C Councilman Richard Boggiano said he supported the school but added, “if you’re going to include all 11 other municipalities in the county, they should be kicking in also.”

Council President Joyce Watterman said, “My concern is for the kids who may need extra help to get to that level to even get into a school like this. Lavarro concurred, opining that if standardized tests were the measure for admission, the school would not provide “an equitable opportunity.”

To these concerns, Paul Hoffman, the President and CEO of Liberty Science Center, told the council members, “We’ve already raised $300,000 for 7th and 8th graders who are really into science, but maybe their skills in math are behind some of the other children who are entering the school. So we will work with them to get their skills up so that they can enter the school on equal footing with the other students.”

Hoffman said students would be admitted based upon “science interest and science talent” but that the county had yet to develop the specific criteria.

Hoffman also said that a program in the works called “High Schools of the Future” would train Jersey City students “for 21st century jobs that they could get when they graduate” and involve commitments from employers to hire such students out of the schools.

Lavarro said, “I’m not in favor of a county school. I would like to see every single seat go to Jersey City kids.”

In a similar vein, Ward E Councilman James Solomon questioned why the city would only get a portion of the seats having donated thirteen acres of land for SciTech Scity.

With Hoffman fielding a barrage of questions, Fulop asked if he could jump in and comment.

According to Fulop, Hudson County has committed to allocate sixty percent of the available spots in the school to Jersey City students. “Hopefully it’s more than that.” Normally, based upon its population, Jersey City would receive forty percent of the seats in a county school.

Fulop called it a “gross misrepresentation” to link the city’s donation of land to the plan for the high school. “The idea behind [donating the land] was not just the high school…it was an entire ecosystem that would create scientists… and foster a global brand for Jersey City around science and technology.” The mayor predicted that the 200-plus businesses incubated at SciTech would build their headquarters in and around Jersey City.

“We explored with them this apparatus because there was no other mechanism to create the same kind of educational opportunity, the same kind of flexible curriculum, and we’re having a cost savings for Jersey City residents.”

As to the cost, Fulop said that the $2 million per year “is a massive discount to what the Jersey City taxpayers pay per school…less than $10,000 per student is a huge discount to what we pay for the Jersey City public school system.”

“This is a good thing. And it’s really sad that it’s falling in the social media world into a political conversation.”

Both Fulop and Hoffman said that the previous Jersey City Public Schools administration had been offered the opportunity to build the school but that there hadn’t been a funding mechanism by which it could be done. Nor, Fulop said, did the Jersey City Schools have a way to create “the same flexible board and the same flexible curriculum.”

The mayor called the school a “layup” for the residents and taxpayers.

To Solomon’s concern that the city doesn’t have a written promise from the county to guaranty the number of Jersey City seats, Fulop said that that’s the mechanism used at the county’s Explore 2000 School. “They’ve kept their word and exceeded it every year.”

Hoffman noted that private philanthropists have donated $5 million dollars to a public school. “They don’t have control over this school. That is something which is very unusual that we’ve been able to bring to this.”

“This is not at the expense of the Jersey City public school system.” said Fulop.  “We have committed a lot… in the last year alone.”

Lavarro said he wanted to look at the neighborhood and demographic breakdown of students admitted to the Explore 2000 School. “If that’s the model for admission that’s going to be utilized…to make sure that that’s the model that you want for admission to go into this proposed county STEM school.”

The mayor said he had promised Council President Watterman that the city would “set up a program to make sure that the south side of the city actually has an infrastructure around it to support children actually getting into this school.”

Lavarro called the mayor’s promise to Council President Watterman “a recent conversation” that “didn’t go into the overall planning.” Fulop called it “an absolute false statement.”

Fulop said that Lavarro, as former Jersey City Redevelopment Authority chairman, was “the architect of the deal” and knew that making it a county school was an option.  “The only thing that’s changed is that it’s an election season now.”

Resolution 21-260 is on the agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting of the Municipal Council.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aaron Morrill

Fair Housing Group Calls for Changes to Proposed Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance

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A proposed inclusionary zoning ordinance before the City Council tonight is coming under fire from the statewide housing rights organization Fair Share Housing Center. Ordinance No. 20-089 was put before the council two weeks ago by Mayor Steven Fulop and Council-President Joyce Watterman.  Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro has since waged a one man battle — with the support of Ward E Councilman James Solomon – to amend it. Local activists have come out in force in support of Lavarro’s amendments.

Today, Fair Share Housing Center Executive Director Adam Gordon released a statement calling for changes. Citing “serious flaws in the ordinance,” Gordon said “Although we welcome the stated desire of Jersey City’s elected officials to tackle the growing crisis of displacement and rapid gentrification in New Jersey’s second-largest city, the proposed ordinance set to be considered by the City Council this evening is riddled with developer-friendly loopholes.  If adopted without significant amendments, it will produce few, if any, new affordable homes.”

His statement goes on to say  that “The ordinance, as currently drafted, would allow wealthy and politically connected developers to build large numbers of luxury homes while negotiating their way out of affordable housing requirements. By allowing City Council members the ability to waive its requirements entirely whenever it wishes and allowing other buyouts at its discretion, the ordinance will create a political game by which developers lobby Council members to get special treatment for massive developments [instead] of creating one set of rules everyone must follow.  Not only is such legislation inadequate to address the deep need for affordable housing in Jersey City, but it also violates state law in a number of ways. We call on Jersey City’s elected officials to close the gaping loopholes in this ordinance and act swiftly to pass an ordinance that actuallyaddresses the affordable housing needs of Jersey City’s working families.”

 

Mayor Steven
Sally Deering

Arts Trust Fund, New Hotel and Redevelopment on Council Agenda

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Mayor Steven M. Fulop Wants Voters to Decide Fate of Arts Trust Fund

The Jersey City Council’s Caucus meeting held Monday night included resolutions to convert a 5-story residential building into a boutique hotel, and a redevelopment plan for 37 homes in downtown Jersey City. An hour into the meeting, held in the Efrain Rosario Memorial Caucus Room in City Hall, Mayor Steven M. Fulop stopped by to discuss the Arts Trust initiative that could bring in an estimated $800,000 a year for non-profit arts groups.

Accompanied by Director of Jersey City’s Division of Cultural Affairs Christine Goodman, Mayor Fulop spoke to the Council about the Arts Trust, an arts and culture trust fund similar to the 2016 Open Space Trust Fund. The Arts Trust Fund would support local artists and arts education and would be funded by taxpayers at a maximum rate of $.02 per $100 of assessed property value. Mayor Fulop and Goodman want Jersey City voters to decide ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by placing a Referendum on November’s voting ballot.

“This is something we’ve worked on with the arts council for the better part of two years now,” Mayor Fulop said, “trying to find a solution to support arts and non-profits in Jersey City with long-term sustainable funding. We met with a group of about 80 organizations last Monday.”

Ward D Councilman Michael Yun questioned why the 80 organizations couldn’t fundraise for themselves. Mayor Fulop said that a lot of the organizations don’t have the infrastructure to write the grants

“They spoke about the challenges around that,” Mayor Fulop said, “and they spoke about how difficult it is to find funding. This is a challenge arts groups face around the state and the country. We think it’s important to try and help them out because (the arts) are really crucial to a city that people want to live in.”

Goodman spoke of a “severe and pervasive funding gap that Jersey City non-profits face and have faced for a very long time on the state level”.

“(Jersey City is) on the very bottom of the funding list for counties across the state,” Goodman said. “We have Essex, a comparable county pulling in $5 million in funding. The entire County of Hudson gets $200,000 to share, so there’s a huge funding gap.”

Councilman Yun asked what the arts groups would give to Jersey City in return for the funding.

“The story is what they already do for us, “ Goodman answered. “We have theaters, dance companies, but we’d like to talk about the story of arts education. This funding stream could really help programming that reaches children and young people and exposes them to art at a greater rate than they are being exposed to now.”

Mayor Fulop said the Council would set the exact tax rate with a goal of bringing in $800,000 per year which is comparable to the tax brought in to support the Open Space Trust Fund. Councilman Yun went on to say that although it was a good initiative, his main concern was the many special taxes Jersey City residents already pay.

“We have so many special taxes now, ” Councilman Yun said. “I think it’s not the right thing to do.

Proposing a new hotel

109 Columbus Drive. Photo by Sally Deering

A proposal to change the residential use of a 24-unit building to hotel use for a proposed boutique hotel was brought before the council by Charles Harrington, lawyer for the developer. Harrington said the change from residential use to hotel use would begin the process for a redevelopment plan for 109 Christopher Columbus Drive in Ward E. If the building were to be converted to hotel use, the people living in the five-story building would face eviction once their leases expired.

“If this is passed, what will happen to them?” Council President Joyce E. Watterman asked.

Harrington said that his client would work with the residents to help them relocate.

“My client is looking at that,” Harrington said. “They have rights.”

Councilman Yun said it would be important to speak with local residents and groups like the Van Vorst Park Association to get their input on the conversion.

“I’ve met with the Van Vorst group in the past,” Harrington told the Council.  “We had a similar proposal, and at that time, 4 or 5 years ago, it was really well -received. It’s a boutique hotel concept similar to here.”

Councilman James Solomon of Ward E proposed to spend the next three days meeting with members of the community for their perspective and report back his findings at Thursday night’s Council meeting.

“Before we move forward, I would like to see a financial analysis,” Councilman Lazarro added.

Redevelopment Plan for Laurel Court and Saddlewood Court

Laurel Court, Jersey City. Photo courtesy redfin.com

The Council moved on to a resolution concerning 37 homes in Laurel Court and Saddlewood Court in downtown Jersey City’s Ward E, and the approval for redevelopment and “condemnation of the property” because the homes, built in the 1970s, are dilapidated and outdated. If approved, the homeowners could sell their homes to the developer for profit.

“(The homeowners) met with me in 2018,” Councilman Solomon said, “and 37 out of the 38 homeowners on that lot said this is what they want. That is my understanding of where we’re at.”

Councilman Lavarro said the 37 homeowners are likely motivated by an inability to afford living in Jersey City, but he disapproved of the resolution because it doesn’t justify the need for condemnation of the property. The homes under consideration would be “prized homes in other parts of the city,” he said.

“If you’re going to declare this as an area in need of redevelopment, you have to be able to justify that,” Councilman Lavarro said. “We can go out and mark every home throughout Jersey City as an area in need of redevelopment and make it a home for the affluent and the wealthy. That’s not the way I want to go about redeveloping Jersey City”

Without justification, it seems unlikely the Council will approve redevelopment.

Council President Joyce E. Watterman presided over the Caucus meeting with Councilman at Large Rolando R. Lavarro, Jr., Councilman at Large Daniel Rivera, Ward A Councilwoman Denise Ridley, Ward B Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey, Ward C Councilman Richard Boggiano, Ward D Councilman Michael Yun, Ward E Councilman James Solomon and Ward F Councilman Jermaine D. Robinson in attendance.

The next Jersey City Council Meeting will be held on Thursday, Feb. 13, at 6 pm
Council Chambers
Jersey City Hall
280 Grove St, JC
For more info: jerseycitynj.gov

Header: Mayor Steven M. Fulop and Cultural Affairs Director Christine Goodman Address the City Council at its Caucus Meeting on Monday. Photo by Sally Deering