Razzoli is indeed still employed by the city -- he had a civil service title before his promotion to DPW director -- but Cowan has retired, as of last week.

The resolution approving a letter of intent between the city, the JCRA and the Powerhouse developers was approved. The next step is coming up with a redevelopment agreement. Not sure what the timeline is there, but when I find out, I'll post an update.

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Fulop's campaign manager, John Thieroff, doesn't head the MUA. He's a commissioner on its board.

Autonomous Jersey City agency doubles contract amount for firm whose partners donated to Fulop

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

An engineering firm whose partners donated to Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop's campaign has doubled the amount of its consulting contract with the autonomous Municipal Utilities Authority.

CME Associates, of Sayreville, asked the MUA's board of commissioners last month to amend its consulting contract by an extra $148,000, citing unforeseen workload. CME is one of two firms with partners who supported Fulop in last year's mayoral race and later won lucrative contracts with the MUA.

CME won an initial $148,000 contract with the agency last December to oversee various MUA projects and attend regular meetings with agency staff and its board of commissioners. The pact expires in December.


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Those are the right photos. Our photographer happened to catch city workers tearing down a nearby memorial so she included those. It's about one block away from the one for Campbell.

Jersey City police chief: Fulop devised 'illegal' operation to snarl traffic at Holland Tunnel

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

Jersey City Police Chief Robert Cowan is alleging that Mayor Steve Fulop planned to snarl traffic outside of the Holland Tunnel the same month he announced plans to sue the Port Authority for $400 million.

In an eight-page letter Cowan submitted to the city clerk, the chief says that at a November 2013 meeting with Fulop, Cowan was directed to conduct traffic stops "without sufficient reason" that Cowan says would have caused traffic jams "on the streets of New York City and back traffic up into the Holland Tunnel," the letter reads.

The chief says he objected because of the plan's "illegality" and that it was ultimately canceled. A few days later, Cowan alleges, Fulop told him to conduct traffic stops instead at Old Colony Road and Port Jersey Boulevard, near the Global Container Terminal owned by the Port Authority.

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Ah -- Well, city officials do read JC List so they probably did indeed get the idea here!

I thought this graf took care of that -- plus there's a link to our original story about CarePoint's letter regarding the idea.

On June 18, after the city announced it was rebooting the RFP process, CarePoint senior adviser Peter Kelly sent a letter to Fulop and members of the City Council asking that it award the contract to CarePoint and JCMC.

Cops: Jersey City woman claims ties to Fulop administration to get out of drunk driving arrest

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

A 35-year-old Jersey City woman was arrested early Friday morning and charged with drunk driving after police claim she nearly struck a police car on Fulton Avenue, slapped a cop in the neck, extricated herself from handcuffs three times and then tried to use her political connections at City Hall to get out of the arrest.

Delores S. Black, of Dales Avenue, told the officers during the early-morning altercation that she would get them fired, according to a police report, which says Black "stated that she had done it before and will do it again."

"Watch how this s--- goes down," Black told the officers after they handcuffed her, according to the report. "I promise you, girl, this is going to be the last day of your life."


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Jersey City restarting process to select ambulance provider

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

Jersey City is hitting reset on the controversial process of awarding its ambulance contract, The Jersey Journal has learned.

The news comes five months after the city set in motion a plan to award the ambulance contract to hospital chain CarePoint Health and McCabe Ambulance over the Jersey City Medical Center. The switch has been on hold since December as federal officials review the deal.

Senior hospital management has been notified that the city will issue a new request for proposal (RFP), city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill confirmed.

"The RFP is similar to last time and provides for flexibility," Morrill said in an email, adding that the RFP hasn't been finalized yet.

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Among redactions on Fulop's schedule, three political fundraisers

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

Invitations received yesterday by The Jersey Journal show that three political fundraisers where Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop was a featured guest are among the hundreds of entries in Fulop?s schedule that city officials redacted before giving them to The Jersey Journal.

The new information flies in the face of city officials? contention that they only redacted meetings to protect the privacy of individuals who met with the mayor. And it raises additional concerns about whether there are any more similar events among the 605 entries blacked out on Fulop?s calendar.

A source provided the invitations in response to yesterday?s Jersey Journal cover story about the mayor?s schedule, which city officials heavily redacted before giving it to the newspaper pursuant to a state Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request. City officials blacked out 605 of 1,465 entries on the calendar, saying state law prevented them from releasing the names of private individuals who met with the mayor.

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Sorry, I should have said the study finds that Downtown development will lead to a lot of the projected enrollment increase.

Trucker - Downtown development is mostly the reason.

Study: Jersey City school district to see 25% boost in enrollment by 2017

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

Enrollment in the Jersey City public-school district will increase by 25 percent between now and 2017, with over half of the expected increase coming in the Downtown, according to a study released this week by the district.

All of the enrollment gains will be produced in grades K through 5, the study finds.

The 144-page study, produced by New York firm Urbanomics at a cost of $89,440, makes a host of recommendations to accommodate the additional thousands of students, including reassigning some students in the Liberty Harbor North area to Liberty High School instead of Ferris, and transforming some PK through 8 schools into K through 5 schools in an effort to fill two underutilized middle schools.

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51 off-duty cops, new turn restrictions to help Jersey City handle Pulaski Skyway shutdown

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

Calling Jersey City ?ground zero? for traffic repercussions related to the upcoming Pulaski Skyway shutdown, city officials are putting together a plan to mitigate what could be a two-year traffic nightmare as motorists cut through Jersey City to make it to the Holland Tunnel.

The plan includes prohibiting turns at a number of intersections; stationing 51 off-duty police officers at assumed problem areas; and opening up the Office of Emergency Management on April 14, the first weekday after northbound lanes on the aging span are shut down.

The plans being drawn up now are subject to change if April 14 comes and traffic problems aren?t quite where everyone assumes they will be, city officials caution.


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Landmark Loew's group sues Jersey City, claiming breach of lease

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

The feud between Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and the nonprofit organization that operates the Landmark Loew?s Jersey Theatre is headed to court, with the nonprofit filing a lawsuit today claiming Fulop?s decision to seek an outside management firm to run the legendary Journal Square theater is in violation of a 2004 lease between the city and the nonprofit.

The nonprofit, Friends of the Loew?s (FOL), says in the 13-page lawsuit that the city has broken its promise to assist FOL in finding funding for capital improvements, and specifically stood in the way as FOL sought grant money to repair the aging theater's air-conditioning system.

FOL also alleges that the city is guilty of ?slander of title,? with the suit saying Fulop?s public statements about wanting a new firm to operate the theater has led third parties to cancel their bookings.


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Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

...sources say Fulop?s recent bashing of the board has less if anything to do with the BOE?s new restrictions on public comment, which the mayor says he opposes, and more to do with the board?s refusal to support a city plan for the school district to lease space for pre-K centers in two proposed residential developments, one Downtown and one on the West Side.

Board members have told him they don?t have the funds to lease the space, while Fulop accuses them of only wanting to subsidize pre-K programs in the tony sections of the Downtown.

The impasse has turned the normally agreeable relations between Fulop and the BOE into something frosty and strained.

Fulop took the argument public last night during his State of the City address when, with Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles sitting in the second row, he chastised the district, saying it ?must do a better job of budgeting.?

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Jersey City to give Weiner Lesniak $15K more for 'complex' parking study

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

Weiner Lesniak, the politically connected law firm that won a $20,000, no-bid contract from Jersey City to prepare a 17-page study on the dissolution of the Jersey City Parking Authority, is set to get another $15,000 this week.

A resolution up for approval at Wednesday's City Council meeting would hand over the extra cash to Weiner Lesniak because of the "complexity" of its study of the city agency. The move would bring the total amount for this contract to $35,000.

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Jersey City school board member resigning after 18 years

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

Sue Mack, the longest serving member of the Jersey City school board, is stepping down next month after nearly 20 years on the nine-member body.

Mack?s resignation comes after months of speculation that she would resign from the Board of Education, a development that seemed inevitable after she became Bayonne?s city planner last summer.

Mack's final day on the board will be March 21.

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First the SL is starting to shine the light upon his very irregular hiring of McGreevey and how he's being paid, now this bit of news.

Thanks for the link! I just wanted to point out that was Earl Morgan with The Jersey Journal that wrote that column about McGreevey's salary.

stc:

Residents interested in creating a logo and tagline for the city?s contest must submit them by 4:00 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21. They should be mailed (hard copies) or hand-delivered in a sealed envelope to Florence Baron, Jersey City Economic Development Corp., 30 Montgomery St., Suite 1400, Jersey City, NJ 07302.

Seems to be missing some info. Brunswick and Monmouth run parallel

I guess it could have been more clear. She followed them from Brunswick onto Montgomery onto Monmouth, according to the suit.

Jersey City police chief threatened to 'ruin' cops over traffic stop, lawsuit says

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Jersey City Police Chief Robert Cowan retaliated against four police officers and threatened to ?ruin? them after a Dec. 1 traffic stop of a woman who claimed to be a politically connected city aide, a new federal lawsuit claims.

The four officers, including one sergeant and three patrolmen, say Cowan transferred them all to less desirable posts after the woman complained about being stopped, according to the 20-page lawsuit.

The chief then stifled the officers? first amendment rights when he disciplined them for complaining to their unions about the transfers, the four allege in the lawsuit, filed Dec. 14 by the officers and the city?s two police unions against the city, Cowan and the woman.

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