Jersey City judge named chief municipal judge; had been blocked by council in February

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
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on August 22, 2013 at 11:04 AM, updated August 22, 2013 at 11:55 AM

A Jersey City judge who was nominated by former Mayor Jerramiah Healy as the municipal court?s chief judge in February, and whose appointment was then slapped down by a City Council bloc led by then-Councilman Steve Fulop, has been reappointed chief municipal judge by now-Mayor Fulop.

Got that?

Carlo Abad will become the city?s first chief municipal judge of Filipino descent. Fulop today also stated his intention to appoint Judge Mark Curtis to a full-time position with the municipal court.

?Both Carlo Abad and Mark Curtis have outstanding records and we are confident in their ability to serve our municipal court, which is one of the busiest in the state,? Fulop said in a statement from the city. ?Additionally, we recognize the value of having leadership in our court and throughout city government that represents our city?s great diversity.?

The mayor, who took office July 1, also announced a shift in the city?s policy over making mayoral appointments.

Under the new process, Fulop will notify the council when he wants to nominate someone to the court or a municipal board, providing a resume and letter to council members along with the candidate's full background and credentials. The council will have "ample time," sometimes longer than a month, to review the credentials before voting to appoint the candidate, Fulop?s office said today.

?The prior administration had no process or protocol in place for such important appointments to our court and municipal boards,? Fulop said. ?Instead, they would expect the City Council to make immediate decisions on a candidate without a full or proper review. This is something we pledged to change and we have.?

Abad was first nominated as chief municipal judge in February by Healy. Days later, Fulop, who then represented Ward E on the nine-member council and was seeking to unseat Healy as mayor, helped block Abad's nomination, saying Healy shouldn't have been making such important appointments so close to the May 14 municipal election (Abad was named acting chief municipal judge that week by a Hudson County Superior Court judge).

Healy then called the council's action "an ugly illustration of how politics has overtaken certain members of our City Council." Three months later, on May 14, he lost the city?s quadrennial mayoral contest to Fulop.

Abad will make about $118,000 annually.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ebruary.html#incart_river

If the purpose of a court is to generate revenue by collecting fines, then any hack will do.

If instead the court is to administer justice according to the law, then as a citizen I want someone who will treat me fairly, will weigh my evidence, and render a verdict without considering the implications for the city's budget if they find me not guilty.

If your idea of municipal court is the place you go to beat a parking ticket, then sure, appoint Ray Velasquez, or any other good old boy you traded favors with.

But other people wind up in municipal court. Those in domestic disputes, those who may have been over-charged by a cop with an attitude, people facing jail, license suspensions, and potentially crippling fines. Any hack will not do if the mission is to dispense justice.

I still haven't heard anybody go to bat for Mr. Velasquez, making the case he was truly qualified. His own behavior demonstrates an inability to control his temper or exercise good judgment, even to the point of threatening a frivolous lawsuit. God help anybody who faces that kind of attitude when it is wearing a judge's robe.

I made a comment earlier that a lack of appointments to the courts could impact the city's budget. According to the 2013 Budget, the city's budget shows $10.7 million in projected fines. Last year, it projected $11.3 million for 2012. The projected figure is based on what was collected the previous year (2011) so the courts collected $600,000 less. Perhaps this drop happened because we have less judges. I don't think Mayor Healy considers me a supporter since I have criticized him many times in the paper, but I had no problem with him appointing judges to the court.

The closer I looked at this, the more sense it makes, and this seems like a pretty good result for Jersey City.

Kudos to the City Council (at least Fulop, Lavarro, Coleman, Lopez, and Donnelly) for doing their job. Velasquez came with a terrible reputation, and Abad is not well known. It's responsible to ask that candidates come before the Council with their bona fides established, so that the Council can cast an informed vote before putting someone on the bench to dispense justice.

If a Ray Velasquez can get nominated, something is wrong. Nobody with any sense could call him qualified for the bench. As Velasquez was good enough to demonstrate in his ranting reaction. If Healy didn't have such a record of appointing political hacks, his appointments wouldn't get so much scrutiny.

I hope the Council insists that future appointments go through more of a vetting process before a name is dropped onto the agenda.

Just the kind of judge you want on the bench. A guy who throws a fit when he doesn't get what he wants, posts private conversations on the web, lies about what they say, and threatens to sue public officials for doing their jobs. Some judicial temperament.

Bravo to the Council for wanting to review judge's qualifications.

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The mind-blower is that Healy would appoint Ray Velasquez to anything, much less the bench. Ray's Facebook rants showed how unsuitable he is to be a judge. And it's more proof that Healy doesn't care about qualifications for office. His only thought is political benefit.

The people of Jersey City ought to be applauding the fact that we won't have to face an ill-tempered, un-prepared, and un-qualified Judge Velasquez.

This winds up with a good result. Healy's hack is denied is patronage, and the court gets a qualified judge.

Rejected Jersey City judicial appointee blasts City Council on Facebook

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
February 15, 2013

The former Jersey City councilman whose judicial appointment was blocked this week by a divided City Council has taken to Facebook to threaten his opponents with a lawsuit.

Ray Velazquez, who sat on the council for about a year and is a former Hudson County Freeholder, was set to become a full-time municipal judge this week, until five council members aligned with Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop rejected his appointment, calling him a ?crony? of Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

?Shame on all of them for attempting to destroy me and my reputation for not going along with their program,? Velazquez wrote on his Facebook page today. ?See you all in court.?

In the post, Velazquez writes that Fulop ?courted? him for his endorsement after Velazquez abruptly resigned as deputy mayor in December.

?When the vacancy on the municipal court came up, I called him for his support,? he writes. ?He told me to wait until he was mayor. I told him that I would not do that.?

Velazquez was set to replace Judge Carlo Abad, whom Healy appointed to become chief municipal judge. But the council rejected Abad?s appointment, too, saying Healy shouldn?t make any long-term appointments so close to May?s election.

Hudson County Superior Court Judge Peter Bariso today appointed Abad as acting chief municipal judge until the mayor and council settle the matter, and attorney Kenneth Lindenfelser to take the position Healy wanted Velazquez to have.

Asked to comment, Fulop said Velazquez?s Facebook post is filled with ?lies.? Velazquez reached out to him, Fulop said, and they never discussed a vacancy on the municipal court.

?I never met him on it,? he said.

The two men sparred a bit on Facebook after Velazquez posted his initial thoughts:

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... udicial.html#incart_river

Between FB twitter and other local websights like NJ.com and weirdos there is a nice catfight between Ray Velazquez and Steven Fulop!
Cant wait til June.

Abad has been interim appointed by Judge Bariso.

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

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I've never paid attention to that figure when I've gone through the budget. From a practical standpoint, revenue collection will only be slightly impacted from a timing perspective, not by amount, so I have no problem with waiting. That said the purpose of the courts is not to collect revenue, fines are intended to add extra incentive for people to not commit minor crimes.

Is it true though that the city forecasts how much revenue it will collect?! Sounds like that would provide decent evidence that police quotas exist...

These judicial vacancies occurred in the normal course of business. This isn't like what Sal Vega did up in West New York, when he tried to pack the Board of Education at the very end of his term. And an election is not until May, June if it goes to a runoff. So we are talking about several months of vacancies here.

Appointed officials have terms that are not necessarily congruent with the elected officials that appoint them. So it's understood that when a new administration is elected, there will be appointments that were made by the prior administration.

I'm not disagreeing with you Dan, but the branches are a check and balance system, to just accept something because it would be seen as disrespectful to the court system isn't exactly a sound argument either.

I know that a few years back that several judges were ousted because they were not honest and were fixing tickets. I do think that appointments this close to the election seems a little suspicious. If Healy wins, I wonder if his picks might be different.

I have absolutely no trust in Velasquez. I've seen his rubber stamp votes and his drunken attack on Pam Andes at a fund raiser for absolutely no reason make me think twice about this guy as a judge. Seriously scary.

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Let's harken back to last year's State of the City Address. Quote: "Our plan calls for making this a priority this year."

Healy promised to make this a "priority" but, looks like dropped the ball on this (as well as lots of other things.)

Healy also talked about folding police, fire, and parking into one agency. He talked a lot about homeland security and OEM. But, we see how he handled the Sandy store.

But, he did manage to do one thing: continue to hand out tax abatements. Pretty clear what his priorities were.

if you believe everything is a conspiracy and orchestrated then throwing monkey wrenches into the system makes sense, but with power comes responsibility, and one should pick battles carefully. why doesn't the new council majority bring back merging the semi-autonomous agencies into the city?

when Ray Velazquez was being considered for appointment to city council, I took the time to complete SF's questionnaire, but he still voted for the Velazquez appointment.

there is a reason I ran against him and I should have teamed up with another candidate to be more competitive.

he and his running mate should have attended most of public forums, they didn't and were voted out.

but at the same time, he may very well have been a decent choice, he went to law school out of the area (Notre Dame) and had the courage to be openly gay.

I have a good friend who told me she would vote for me and Ray Velazquez. She liked and respected him. Everyone's experience is different.

now to reject Justice Abad's appointment in lock step was ridiculous.

these appointments come from our court system. our mayor and council should respect them. if you disagree then reform the courts. we are not talking about appointments to city agencies.








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Timeline for Velazquez:

October 1, 2010, sworn into the council to replace Mariano Vega after Mariano resigns and subsequently pleads guilty to federal corruption charges

November 8th, 2011, Jersey City speaks about how well Ray performed during his Council tenure and loses in dramatic fashion to both Councilman Lavarro and Councilwoman Richardson.

May 17th, 2012 after the public clearly spoke about his work during his tenure on the council, Mayor Healy STILL appoints him as deputy Mayor. Signs of a political favor?

December 5th 2012, he resigns the same day someone else (Omar Perez) joins Mayor Healy?s ticket. A falling out?

Everything points to Healy making amends with Velazuez for not adding him to his ticket by appointing him as a full time judge.

I agree with other posters who point out that a lack of judges hurts the judicial system. And, quite frankly, my hunch is that Justice Abad would not be ah-bad choice (sorry). I hope the council re-visits this question shortly after the election.

But, we didn't get into this problem of a scarcity of judges overnight, and it is not going to get fixed overnight. A concerted effort will be needed to right this ship.

But putting Ray Velazquez back on the bench is simply revolting to me. Healy likes to hand him any kind of patronage job that comes along. The council rightly rejected Ray "Handout" Velazquez.

But, neither of these issues compares to the grotesque amount of money that was handed out to Oren Dabney of the Incinerator Authority. Taxpayers will be paying for this obscenity long after Healy is gone (and long after the JCIA is abolished). Look for Healy to continue trying to hook up his friends as he heads out the door.

I guess you never read a JC budget, I am not going to quote you a figure because the budget should be presented soon but JC receives millions in their budget from fines. Any money raised from fines is less money raised from taxpayers. It is not just JC residents who pay fines, it is people who use our streets from other municipalities.

Ive heard he has a reputation for not showing up to court on time.

The purpose of the judicial system is not to raise revenue.

Retired judges that served on higher courts are called and assigned by the state to fill vacancies. This should have zero effect on court backlog.

Were they electing him just because he would have been the first Filipino Chief Judge? In that case I think it it's a good thing they didn't.

I am not saying they were but the article's author seems to think they should have.

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+1!

I will not comment on the politics but I do know our court system do not have enough judges which is an inconvenience for the public. Court cases are pushed back. Also, the courts bring in revenue through fines for the city. A lack of judges also means a lack of revenue.

I'm sorry, I was under the impression that in NJ municipalities where there is a mayor-council system, that the mayor appoints the judge with the advice & consent of the council...

did the chief judge of the county take over our appointment system? what gives?

BTW, is the chief judge a friend of Tom DeGise's?

this was not a mayoral appointment, the recommendation came from the courts, a review panel and request from the chief judge of the county.

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Makes perfect sense to me.

Healy says the council "deprived the community of two tremendous public servants.... The people have spoken twice on Velazquez and the answer has been "thanks but no thanks." He offers nothing and people see through that. Is the HCDO Hispanic bench that thin that trotting Ray out for every opening is all they have to offer?

Its funny that Healy said "The Council's rejection...is an ugly illustration of how politics has overtaken certain members of our City Council." since his appointments are obviously political in nature.

Jersey City council denies Filipino Chief Judge post

By Anthony J. Machcinski/The Jersey Journal
February 13, 2013

A chance to appoint the first Filipino Chief Judge in the state of New Jersey fell short of the required number of votes at the Jersey City City Council meeting tonight.

In a highly debated vote, a resolution that would have appointed Carlo Abad the Chief Judge in the city Municipal Court failed to receive the required five votes, losing 4-5. A separate resolution to appoint Radames Velazquez a full-time municipal court judge was defeated in a 4-5 vote.

Council members David Donnelly, Nidia Lopez, Steve Fulop, Diane Coleman, and Rolando Lavarro voted against both resolution, while Council members Michael Sottolano, William Gaughan, Viola Richardson, and Peter Brennan supported the administration appointments.

"This is a mind-blower for me," Richardson said to the crowd after the votes.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy voiced his own disappointment in a statement saying, "The Council's rejection...is an ugly illustration of how politics has overtaken certain members of our City Council."

Healy added that the vote not only deprived the community of two "tremendous" public servants, but denied the Asian community a history-making moment.
The votes divided along political lines, with allies of Fulop, who is running for mayor, voting against the appointments, and allies of Healy voting in the affirmative.

Lavarro said tonight that his "no" vote had nothing to do with the credentials of Abad or Velazquez, a former councilman, but reflected the problem he had with the process that went into appointing them.

"We (council members) talked about (appointments) three weeks ago at the previous meeting and we said we're not doing long-term appointments until after the election is done," said Lavarro, referring to the upcoming municipal elections in May.

Lavarro said he doesn't believe that any mayor should be allowed to make long-term appointments this close to a municipal election because of the temptation to trade an appointment for political support.

Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis told the voting majority that their defeat of the appointments would "create a major problem."

"The chief judge of the county wants to see these (appointments) done swiftly," he added.

Had the resolution passed, Abad, a municipal court judge since 2008, would have become the chief judge of the Jersey City Municipal Court, the first Filipino to hold that post.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ies_fil.html#incart_river