May 13th, this BA got confirmed. It is 3+ mo and still Orange could NOT find a replacement. How long, he is going to be temping there? NO wonder why they asked for a 6 month extension to fix the Budget... God, save this city !!!

A great video posted in nj.com...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuvn_Rg-4cg&feature=player_embedded

INTERESTING COMMENT ON CRIME in Jersey Journal:

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... arly/5664/comments-2.html

whynotask August 07, 2010 at 10:25AM
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...What the real numbers are? OR, better yet, look for yourself. After all you do have a computer and internet access. Try this: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/prelimsem2009/table_4mt-oh.html which will show you the FBI stats for 2009 vs 2008 for Jersey City. BOTH sides are correct in their statements! NEITHER is looking at the problem! MURDER is UP 12% during that period and FORCIBLE RAPE has remained the SAME. That's not a 30 percent decline. But property crimes are down significantly. Maybe there's less to steal? Anyway, the decrease in property crimes is important, but it's not the whole story. The fact that murder and rape are NOT decreasing is important and it's what the JJ is reporting (The JJ likes blood and gore it seems: "If it bleeds, it leads" is the old tabloid newspaper slogan).
WHEN JC is forced to lay off 50+/- patrol officers because it can't get its fiscal house in order and has ignored that now $80 million problem for years, the property crime stats may not change. There will be more property crime, but the cops will be over committed responding to the street violence and not able to take the robbery, auto theft or burgulary report, thereby underreporting property crimes as one poster has suggested is already the case.
HOW does any of this back and forth blame game help anyone? Can't the frekin newspaper go online and read the reports? Can't the administration deal with the murder and rape? Everyone here really needs to think about what's important and HOW THEY, yes all of them/us, are going to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.

** JJ COMMENT OF THE DAY **

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... _the_day_if_the_curr.html

Chaucer August 06, 2010 at 9:58AM

Lets be real, the Mayor, the Chief of Police need to seriously address the growing criminal element within JC, it is and will be out of control unless more serious efforts and planning begin immediately. The prospect of the city going bankrupt with over 500 million in unsecured debt will only make problems worse. This reality alone should turn our JC taxpaying citizens into an aggressive uproar instead of bashing a newspaper.
The call to action is now, and intelligent citizens and educated people know, if the current administration is left to its own demise, we won't have an affordable, safe and non-violent city much longer!

http://hudsonreporter.com/view/full_s ... ce=lead_story_left_column


Residents narrow recall effort
Focus on mayor for now, possibly council later
by Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter Staff Writer
07.31.10 - 11:06 pm

Jersey City residents who formed a committee this year to try to recall several city officials have become aware of legal restrictions on how many officeholders they can target. Thus, they said last week that they have decided to focus for now on unseating Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who is up for re-election in 2013.

But they say new committees have formed to try to recall several members of the City Council.

Three residents ? John Lynch, Martha Larkins, and Riaz Wahid ? were informed by City Clerk Robert Byrne in a June 15 letter that state law requires that ?no recall committee shall sponsor the recall of more than one officeholder.?

The trio had begun spreading the word last month that they want to recall Healy and City Councilmembers-at-Large Peter Brennan and Mariano Vega. They describe their campaign as a protest against the council?s approval of the recent municipal budget, which led to a rise in taxes, and to express dissatisfaction with the way the city is governed.
_____________

?It just took a life of its own.? ? John Lynch
________

They submitted a Notice of Intention to the city clerk?s office on June 4 asking City Clerk Robert Byrne to inform each of the officials targeted for the recall, the first legal step in the process.

After the June 15 letter from Byrne notifying them that only one official can be recalled by their committee, they pulled back and re-submitted a notice of intention to recall Mayor Healy early last month.

Byrne wrote back on July 16 informing the committee that the notice to recall Mayor Healy was reviewed and approved. That notice was published in the local daily newspaper last week.

Healy acknowledged to the city clerk?s office that he had received the notice, and on July 22 ? the next step in the recall process ? the mayor returned the July 16 letter to the clerk addressed to the committee, bearing his signature.

What?s next?

Lynch, a Jersey City Heights resident, said last week that the committee sent Byrne the paperwork they want to use to collect residents? signatures on a recall petition.

Lynch also said that Notices of Intention to recall council members are being worked on by new committees that don?t include Lynch, Larkins or Wahid as members.

Now, the council members targeted include at-large representatives Peter Brennan and Mariano Vega, as well council members Michael Sottolano in Ward A and Nidia Lopez in Ward C.

Lynch said the members of the new committees preferred not to comment publicly until their recall effort is formally underway.

Lynch says he is impressed with the progress of the recall effort so far, which includes over 20 people from across the city organizing various committees.

?None of us knew each other really before this,? Lynch said. ?It?s not like we got together and got this crazy idea to do this recall. It just took a life of its own.?

Besides the city?s financial problems in the past few years, more than a dozen city officials were arrested last year as part of a statewide FBI sting operation to nab candidates taking bribes while running for re-election.

Enormous undertaking

A recall enables voters to remove an elected official from office through a petition drive which, if successful, forces a new election. For each public official targeted, a separate petition must be signed by 25 percent of voters who registered in the last general election, which was November 2009.

It is not an easy or quick process. In Jersey City, it means a minimum of 30,000 signatures would have to be validated by the clerk to force the recall election of Healy and the councilpersons-at-large mentioned. Those 30,000 signatures would have to be collected citywide within 160 days of the date of the approval of the notice of intention.

For the wards, it would require a minimum of the signatures equaling 25 percent of voters from that ward who registered to vote in the November 2009 general election.

By law, the petition drive cannot begin until one year after the elected official?s term commenced. Healy, Vega, Brennan, and Flood were all re-elected in May 2009 and began their present terms on July 1, 2009.

Shortly afterward, residents began posting comments on the local website JCList proposing a recall of the mayor and several council members.

If the recall of any Jersey City official is successful, it would be the first in the city?s history, according to City Clerk Byrne.

Various political observers have noted that a recall effort could easily fail due to apathy. In the May 2009 municipal election, a little more than 30,000 out of a potential 120,000 registered voters actually voted. Healy amassed more than half of those 30,000 votes.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.

JERSEY JOURNAL RECALL POLL:

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ou_think_a_recall_is.html

JERSEY JOURNAL CALLS ON MAYOR HEALY AGAIN...

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... t_re-elected_but_hes.html

Yes, he got re-elected, but he's not serving: editorial


In March 2009, an election year in Jersey City, about 300 residents gathered at Christ the King Catholic Church on Ocean Avenue to listen to mayoral candidates explain what they would do about the violence in the streets.


Because for some it was more about elections than public safety, the audience was sprinkled with municipal government employees programmed to cheer for the incumbent and boo the challengers.
Yet the issue was an emotional one. Too many residents are afraid to leave their homes at night.
The crowd was there to hear the man responsible for their safety, Mayor Jerramiah Healy.


What irked many who attended were claims by the mayor and Police Chief Thomas Comey that statistics proved how the crime rate was dropping in Jersey City. Residents were hardly convinced that this was true.
At one point, Healy said the Police Department had never fully implemented the latest initiative against crime called "Operation Ceasefire." It is an anti-gun violence program they said has been proven successful in other New Jersey cities.
Asked when it would be "fully" integrated into the city's crime fighting effort, the mayor responded "ASAP." Healy also promised to increase police manpower by 15 percent.
He was re-elected. No one knows how "fully" the crime-fighting initiative was implemented or how many more police are on the streets. It doesn't matter, because the public barometer has concluded that any exercise has failed.
The May election was followed by a bloody summer of shootings that included a gun battle between police and two suspects that led to the death of Detective Marc DiNardo.
This year, there have been many stabbings and shootings. Among the victims is 5-year-old Hasmera Clayton, who was shot in the neck at the Montgomery Gardens public housing complex July 16, allegedly by an 18-year-old man whom police say was shooting at another man.
Earlier in April, there was the tragic killing of Michael Muchioki and his fiancee Nia Haqq, 25. The couple had just come back from their own engagement party when they were shot and killed during a botched carjacking.
And with the violence, Healy has been invisible and quiet. He has been available for comments on news items concerning gun laws and is seen at the occasional ribbon cutting. He appeared at an anti-violence rally at Montgomery Gardens following the wounding of the 5-year-old.
How often has there been a public outcry from the mayor? There have been few sightings of him comforting a family destroyed by the violence.
The mayor did visit Hasmera Clayton in a Newark hospital after a bullet was removed from her neck -- nearly a week after her shooting made national news.
It is not enough from a mayor who seems disengaged from his City Hall office.
On Thursday, a trio of residents published a legal notice, a statement of their intent to seek the recall of the mayor.
Healy responded with reasons why people should not sign a recall petition. He asks that he be allowed to finish the job "to which I was elected ..."
He lists the reasons as initiating "furloughs, a hiring freeze and the layoff of hundreds of city workers to offset property tax increases" in difficult economic times, attracting development, ordering corporate polluters to clean up toxic sites, and initiating "the largest street resurfacing project in city history."
The mayor also touts his plan to improve a park per ward each year for the next 10 years, and to add hundreds of acres of new city parks.
Because he has not learned his lesson, he takes credit for using grants to "put more cops on the street, and institute crime fighting tools such as CompStat to bring crime to 30-year low."
This is a man who cannot console citizen victims of crime or their families. He is no New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who last month immediately met with the families of two teen drowning victims in the Bronx.
This mayor is incapable of hearing the frightened beating of Jersey City's heart. Residents need someone who is not only capable in office but who cares about all people. This newspaper, again, would like Healy to step down as mayor. It would be a public service.

COMMENT OF THE DAY..

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... _the_day_he_is_tryin.html



This has to be the comment of the day.
It has nothing to do with whether the facts are true or not. Instead it has to do with blind faith or unbending loyalty.
In response to an article that a committee attempting to recall Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy is putting together a petition that will include a note from the mayor asking people not to sign. Healy lists reasons why he should stay in office. Hudson County Now user "dolong800" extols the virtues, as he often does, of the mayor.
Below is his post:
dolong800 July 30, 2010 at 8:34P
Mayor Healy may have flaws, like all of us, but he is a decent man who has made significant changes in Jersey City. I see development, new businesses and growth. It has a vibrant downtown, a plan for Journal Square and many other initiatives. I also see the need for a reduction in crime and quality of living offenses. The budget is tight and Mayor Healy has reigned in spending. He is trying in very difficult conditions for any city.

This is part of the process; the petition to sign is yet to be approved by the City Cerk's office

OK.. I have given the update on this to the volunteer; in the web, the following is the address:

Medicaid District Office
(201) 217-7100
438 Summit Ave Ste 6
Jersey City, NJ 07306

The volunteer will inquire and take care of it.. thanks

I met him today morning at JSQ. he agreed to be on JSQ on tuesday at 8am. One of the volunteers agreed to take him to 438 Summit Ave on Tuesday at 8am. Let us see hope for good...

I met Alfonso today evening, he told me that he did file a police report about his lost wheel chair; He lost his medicaid card; I need to organize some one to take him to execute your suggestion; it is not easy to catch these guys at 8am in the square; it all depends on how their previous night goes for them... Will keep posted...

What TAX PAYERs need to understand is:

This year, Healy's administration is talking about $56million hole;

Next Year, it is going to be $10 million more that gets passed by JCBOE (State school tax levy) + new bond payments.. thus around $70-$75 million hole.

The following year, it is another $10 million from JCBOE + bond payments... $85-90 million hole.

Don't forget that other AUTONOMOUS agencies that Jersey City has like MUA, already increased around 40% in Sewer charges... they are on their own track...

Thus, the administration needs to look to cut $90m today not $56m. Assume, they fix $56m hole today, they need to fix another $15-20m hole next year and then another $15-20m hole the following year.

This is the time that residents must come up with suggestions to the City to fix $90m hole this year not $56m hole... Call your Council person listen to their suggestion and offer help in case you have expertise !!!

He can charge during the day time at 880 Bergen Ave, Hudson County Self Help Center... Store? It is going to be wit him 24 hours; we need to make sure that no one steals it again from him...

What they are doing here is:

Supposedly, if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water it will jump out but, if you put a frog into water and gradually heat it up to a boil, it will stay in the pot and boil to death. This is a clear direction for future bankruptcy !!!

Surprised... NO WAY... they knew it is coming. Many of us told them to change the way they operate, guess what, they did very very little. The administration does NOT care, the council does NOT care, the people who vote do NOT care & many do NOT care to VOTE. They throw bond-money projects to unions, so that they can stay in power. Unions elect these guys not tax payer. This is business as usual, save energy, find a second job like how they all have, just PAY the taxes !!! The message is very CLEAR. There is no point in CRYING. No one cares in this city.. SIMPLE!!!

Councilwoman Nydia Lopez came to JSQ PATH station fountain and donated a CANE to him today around 6pm. Alfonso was not there but his friend took it. Thank you very much Councilwoman. We have some leads to get him a powered wheelchair.

I met him today evening, an officer from Port Authority saw the request on-line and told him that they will look in to donate one... let us see...

I met him today evening and suggested him to get a medical prescription again; Medical supply store people told me that he is not eligible to get another one since the government programs give one for every five years; we need to work on it;

Met with Alfonso yesterday (last Sunday of every month we give food/fruit bags/clothes to homeless in jsq); Alfonso's wheel chair got stolen last year; he is now looking for at least a CANE; we MUST get him a motorized wheelchair; I called Mayor's Action Bureau, they gave me a number 201-547-6800 (humane services) to call. They told me to leave a message to Chuck C, Advocate for Disabled; I did so... Please help Alfonso (see attached picture)...


http://tinyurl.com/2bwb32f


You can find him in Journal Square area (near the fountain)...

------------------------------------------
THREE COMMENTS in nj.com ...
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joisyjoe June 09, 2010 at 11:02PM
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And how much will this Special Election-Recall cost us of Jersey City Tax Dollars?? In the middle of this horrible recession, wasting/spending our tax dollars on this Special Election-Recall should not be a priority
......................................................................................
DIVINE June 10, 2010 at 1:32AM
Follow
HOW MUCH [JOISYJOE] MUCH LESS THAN THE ONE HUNDRED AND 68 DEVELOPMENTS AND COUNTING. 20TY AND 30TY YEAR TAX ABATED BUILDINGS.AND THE DUAL AND AND TRIPLE JOBS AND NEPOTISM THATS GOING ON IN SPITE OF 45 ARRESTS.EXAMPLE WILLIAM[DEAD MAN WALKING]GAUGHAN CITY COUNCIL PAYROLL, CHIEF OF STAFF TO TOM DEGISE[HUDSON COUNTY]AND 2 DAUGHTER ON THE PAYROLL FOR 100.000 DOLLORS EACH.THIS MAN OWNES HOUGHTON FUNERAL.HE AND HIS DAUGHTERS ARE IN NEED.MARIANO[BED AND BREAKFAST]INDITED BUT STILL GOES ABOUT HIS HALF NO SHOW JOBS THAT GO AS FAR BACK AS 25 YRS AGO.DIRECTOR OF WELFARE WHEN THE CHECK SCANDAL WAS GOING ON.TAKEING THE COUNTY JEEP ON PRIVATE MATTERS IN PENNSYVANIA. ALL THE COUNCIL PEOPLE HAVE DUAL GOOD PAYING JOBS,WITH RELITIVES DOING THE SAME.THE REASON FOR HEALYS SONS TO BE BY LEONA[BURLESQUE QUEEN]BELDINI WAS TO SHOW [SEE WE CARE].THE REAL REASON THE HEALY BOYS WHERE BY HER WAS TO SORT OF EMBARRASS HER INTO STAYING QUIET. WHERE AS MR.SHAW WAS ABOUT TO[AS THEY SAY IN THE TRADE[GO BAD] [FLIP].BUT HEALYS LUCK HELD UP AND MR.SHAW DIED.AND HEALY CELEBRATED.LETS NOT FORGET THE EXTREMELY HIGH PROPERTY HOME TAXES[3XHIGHER THAN NEW YORK CITY] THATS PASSED DOWN TO TENNENTS.THE PEOPLE ARE RUN DOWN BY THIS NAKED DRUNK WHO SHOULD NEVER HAD BEEN ELECTED TO ANY GOVERMENT SEAT AND HIS RUBBER STAMP COUNCIL. WHERE JUST LITTLE NO BODIES TO THEM THAT THEY THINK THEY CAN URINATE ON THE PEOPLE OF JERSEY CITY AND HUDSON COUNTY. AS VEGA SAID TO ONE POOR MAN ABOUT TO LOSE HIS HOUSE-[WE ARE ALL HAVEING IT HARD BEFORE HIS ARREST] IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS.THE MAN HAD TEARS IN HIS EYES. AND PAY RAISES AND PROMOTIONS TO FIRE CAPTAINS ALL CHIEFS NO SOLDIERS AND POLICE,TEACHERS. WHO FOR THE MOST DONT EVEN LIVE IN HUDSON COUNTY,JERSEY CITY. THE WORST BUNCH OF DEGENERATES I'VE SEEN IN 50YRS IN JERSEY CITY. BUT KNOW, THERE IS A GOD...

........................................................................
polyhack June 10, 2010 at 5:55AM
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ABOUT TIME NO LOSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.......................................................................

Letter: Must replace incompetents

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... t_replace_incompeten.html

I attended the reading of the budget at City Hall, and all we heard from the council was the hard time they had coming up with a budget that was 10 months overdue. Their smug and condescending attitudes as they sat there telling us that we are in tough times was a little hard to take. When Mr. Vega, Brennan, and Gaughan are sitting there with two jobs and two pensions, their preaching seems to be a little hard to handle.

Now the rumors seem to be going around that Mr. Brennan wants Mayor Healy to step down early so he can assume the mayor's seat. That would perpetuate the farce we have had foisted on us for the last four years. If we don't get more than 20 percent of the people to vote this time we are doomed to the same incompetence we have endured for the last four years.
Remember, if you don't vote you can't complain and we will once again get the government we deserve. If we want to get our city back we have to voice our opinions and vote on them.

My sincere apology to Mr. Fulop and Mr. Donnelly for including them in my diatribe. The hope of our future is in the hands of young people such as this, and I wish them all the luck in the world because they will surely need it.
WALTER WASILEWSKI
JERSEY CITY

....................
COMMENTS
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Well written Mr. WALTER WASILEWSKI, and thank you.

- bullet

-----------------------

Our entire political system is full of incompetents.............from the white house down. Bayonne is no different.......our mayor hold 2 jobs too. ( clearly tells us we have to many people as there is not much to do in 1 job)
Obama leads the incompetent pack and is destroying America. States can't afford welfare or free medical with all the career lazy we have, and Obama passes FREE HC .
Maybe we need to all stop paying taxes for 1 year,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, everybody!
And the funniest article I have seen is in SC where this unknown Vet wins the senate nomination and they are all over him. Now even questioning if he is sane! He is probably the ONLY honest person in the senate. And would most likely do whats right for the country, not just whats right for him!
I would prefer him over Menendez.
Hopefully Christie cuts out all the freebies and gets to the career welfare people rolls. Our taxes are to high for what we get in the city. Each one of us working people are paying to support the free life of others. At least we should get a photo of the families we support to put on our refrigerator.
We do need Hope and Change.....but it has to start with getting Obama and Dems out of office, and then starting to pick off the old republicans who voted against the will of the people.


-mcstorage


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Seems to me that the powers that be want to preclude Mr Fulop from winning the mayor's seat in the event of a recall election for Healy. The recall petition for that bozo will get plenty of signatures.

- Flargh

--------------------------

http://jerseycitydesk.blogspot.com/20 ... g-to-start-recall-of.html


THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010

It took THIS long to start a recall of Mayor Healy?
OK, so Johnny didn't start it either so he's as much to blame but hats off to Jersey City residents John Lynch, Riaz Wahid and Martha Larkins who sent a letter to the city clerk's office to announce their intentions.

Mayor Kwame Healy of course had no comment, or rather his spokesman had no comment, the mayor is busy and has no time for such questions about his competency.

Wahid told the Jersey Journal "I believe the people of Jersey City deserve leadership that is committed to aiding us in our day-to-day struggles, I have grown frustrated seeing my taxes go up with nothing to show for it." You tell 'em Riaz. We agree.
We'd owe these fine upstanding citizens our thanks for taking on Healy's job but there's more to this story. The group is ALSO going after Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano, Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, Ward D Councilman Bill Gaughan, and Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson. GIDDYUP kids, you go!

Honest and hard working members of the Jersey City Council, Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop and Ward B Councilman David Donnelly are NOT on the list to be recalled as they provide valuable and HONEST representation.

When you notify Nidia Lopez about the recall effort put extra postage on the letter, it's going to Florida.

Johnny wants to know when and where petitions will be available to be signed off on, you can advertise here for free

some one taught an interesting math in one of events today... have 370 volunteers to collect 100 signed petitions in 100 days... i.e. one petition a day per volunteer !!!

I hope school board members will show up!!!

The mail box is full and they are coming out from woodwork...

some one said:

"I live in Nidia Lopez's district (in NJ, not FL) and would consider getting involved. "

get involved... let us change our fate !!!

if it is Sept 10th, then we dont even have 90 days !!!

where did I suggest "Fire Insurance" or premiums ? issue is not history lesson, stick to the point, a separate accountable entity like MUA or JCIA which will promote fire safety & resistance standards using science & technology, whose focus is prevention and NOT putting out the fire!!! there are robots who can with the ability to fly and do the job for a fraction of cost !!! the world is moving in a different direction...

If it looks good on paper, we should implement; One is not good; its all eggs in one basket; in a run-off, he won...its too risky !!! there are restrictions to work at ward level; there are people selling condos moving to rentals; cant afford to live... frustration is spread across the city, not just in a ward; 500 volunteers will do the job !!! you're hired !!! 499 more to go ...

"neighbor's LAPSE" is a management issue; The insurer had let it lapse; the city which oversees, let it lapse; like tax sale, have a sale on this one also and the people supposed to make compliance work as part of the govt, do their job, failure to do so, let them ALL pay a penalty!!! I cant drive car, if I dont have a Car insurance; dont provide Gas & Electricity, if they dont have the Fire Services Coverage... End of the day, CITY should not be in the business of collecting garbage, putting off fire, parking, water, sewer etc., City residents should be paying for only what they use not for what is offered!!! Is that libertarianism?

Sure.. JCIA, MUA, Parking Authority have problems; the problems are not because of tax payers, it is because of the people the tax payers elected and their greed to stay in power!!! These people have setup a system, 'in the name of Governance' they can prosper by collecting more and more tax money but not by giving up even 1% of luxury that they have acquired from tax payers(even in hard times)!!

These are interesting times and so the challenges, if we don't adapt CHANGE, we'll be left alone with a big premium to pay at a later stage; we need new line of lateral thinking to solve our problems; 'TAX INCREASE' every year is not a solution!!!