Future Jersey City leadership looking more and more settled: Political Insider

Saturday, December 10, 2011, 3:15 PM
By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal

As the Insider predicted after the November special election to fill two vacant at-large seats on the Jersey City council, Michele Massey, executive director of a "nonprofit," will become the new Ward F councilwoman -- the city announced.

The news Thursday was that Mayor Jerramiah Healy will appoint Massey next week. Sorry, newly elected Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson did the "appointing," after she won her citywide seat and left the Ward F post vacant. I guess protocol calls for the mayor to technically do it.

A bigger story is just under the surface. It is that there will be little or no contest when a new government takes over City Hall in 2013. Changes on the City Council herald the city's future. After Monday, there should be a total of three new members added to the local governing body and the administration will have lost its majority. Unless there is some cataclysmic turn of events, technically this is a dead duck administration.

Massey's Ward F post will be up for grabs in a November 2012 special election. Just six months later, the city faces a municipal election. There will be some who will want to run in 2012 and others who will not bother and wait until May 2013 to get on the favorite's ticket -- we're talking Fulop. Those that don't land on the slate can only hope that Richardson's vibes about running for mayor are true.

Anyone who wants to run for the top spot will have to declare their intentions very soon, possibly after the holidays. They need time to become a "citywide" name, raise money, organize a campaign, raise money, gather workers and allies, and raise money.

If any prospective candidate waits until after the June primary or later next year to announce their intentions -- they will lose, badly. They can't count on political organizations for support because many war chests have a hollow sound when you knock on them. Anyone who does throws their hat or bonnet in the ring late is fishing for a job or leverage for an appointed post.

By contrast, Fulop has been preparing for this election since before the 2009 campaign. He has been fine tuning an organization of believers, a much more powerful army than paid workers. Fulop has been continually holding fund-raisers. The only developing competition is for council seats.

The 2013 city election will again come after a presidential election, when Obama tries to stay in the White House. Everyone will be emotionally spent after the national race, just like last time. And just like last time, voters will all think they did their civic duty -- and ignore the local May contest.

This is where the Fulop true believers will be the difference. They will cast ballots. Some who want a change will also hit the polling places. Look for Sen. Brian Stack of Union City to use his growing influence in the Jersey City Heights to help oust Healy. (The two wild colonial boys never liked each other.) Stack wants to send a message to those trying to keep him off the Democratic Party line in the June 2013 primary.

This is the storyline all next year, unless Fulop receives a real challenge and soon.

INSIDER NOTES

-- The Hudson County Chamber of Commerce held its Legends Ball Thursday evening at the Liberty Science Center, where a trio was honored for their commitment to the local economy and community.

The science center's large 3-D movie theater was jammed with chamber members, family, and public officials for the ceremony.

Among this year's honorees is Sharon Ambis-Pizzutiello, marketing director for The Jersey Journal, who is also a member of the chamber's board of directors and who takes hits at public functions for working in the company where I draw a pay check.

Another honoree is Eugene J. Cornacchia, president of Saint Peter's College, future university and real estate devourer. Raj Mukherji, managing partner of Impact NJ, a lawyer-affiliated lobbying firm that is climbing a number of "influential" lists, is the third honoree.

Toward the end of the formality, Mayor Healy was called to the podium, where he produced city proclamations for each "legend." When he announced the name of the Journal marketing director, he announced that this was the last time he would mention The Jersey Journal. But, he wouldn't stop there. Healy looked out at the large audience and said, "Is Augie here?"

I was standing in the back by one of the exit doors. Even though I knew he wouldn't hear me I shouted back: "I'm here. When is the movie going to start?"

-- On Tuesday, Healy held a fund-raiser at Puccini's, where it cost supporters either $150 or $300 to prance with the mayor.

Now, I don't know if it was a coincidence, but prior to the fund-raiser the Healy administration approved raises for 170 non-union city employees. I don't know if any of these folks used the raises to attend the Healy function. Sources said there were some county folks at the restaurant but not many city people.

There were too many untouched tables at Puccini's, say sources. Seeing this, some people told each other that the mayor's political future was, well, dead.

To be fair to Healy, there was another funeral that evening. People were going to the wake of Hudson County's first elected county executive, Edward F. Clark Jr., who died last Saturday at age 85. The mayor could chalk it up to tough competition.

-- It appears that the new City Council will not be a rubber-stamp panel for the administration. Then again, it may not be totally anti-Healy.

Council members Steve Fulop, Rolando Lavarro, Nidia Lopez, David Donnelly, Viola Richardson, and Massey are considered the new majority, a far cry from the 2009 Team Healy that took office just before the massive FBI raids.

Several of the new officials like to call themselves a bit more independent. I would include Donnelly and quite possibly Lavarro, based on a personality that likes to be friendly with everyone.

We'd have to say Massey has yet to sit down and locals call her "an independent thinker," but didn't I hear that about Ahmad.

-- In November, the Insider initially called Massey director of the nonprofit Monticello Community Development Corporation. Later the Journal was told that she directs a subsidiary of the nonprofit.

Facebook poster and JC Peace Movement member Riaz Wahid suggested that there may have been some filing problems and that the IRS revoked the status of the Jersey City-based Monticello Community Development Corporation group. Wahid is correct, according to the search engine I checked on the guidestar.org website that keeps track of nonprofits. Oddly enough, guidestar.com can not find the subsidiary, Monticello Avenue Main Street Program, which is the organization cited by City Hall.

-- Ric Ayala has informed everyone he knows that he has received a letter from the Puerto Rican Day Parade and Heritage Festival Association indicating that he is now the official president of the 2012 parade and festival. Ayala apparently was awarded the post because he was running unopposed.

Ayala's supporters are calling it "a bloodless coup" over the usual City Hall-back room selected candidates. They specifically refer to the opposition as "the cabal controlled by Jersey City Fire Director Armando Roman," who was president of the 2010 parade.
Ayala has the unenviable task of fundraising and organizing the event.

-- Hoboken 4th Ward Councilman Tim Occhipinti is holding his second annual fund-raiser, Politics, Pasta, and Sinatra. It is Monday, which is the late Frank Sinatra's birthday, at Leo's Grandevous. It's $100 a pop.

-- Hoboken continues to party on Thursday, when former council candidate Mike Novak acts as host of his firm's holiday party. Atlantic Environmental Solutions has booked the W Hotel's Chandelier Room for the evening. Expect a number of political figures to show up -- BYOM, bring your own mistletoe.