Too hot to stay as partner on project to build affordables on MLK Drive

Saturday, September 26, 2009
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A former Jersey City council candidate arrested in the massive July corruption sweep has stepped down as president of her not-for-profit community organization and is no longer involved with the development of an affordable housing project being overseen by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency.

But the JCRA isn't satisfied.

"We cannot have someone who has been arrested involved in any of these projects," JCRA Executive Director Robert Antonicello said of La Vern Webb-Washington.

A community activist and developer of affordable housing, Webb-Washington was one of 23 Hudson County officials and political operatives arrested in the July 23 FBI corruption sweep.

She is accused of accepting $15,000 for her unsuccessful City Council campaign in return for promises to help an FBI informant posing as a developer speed through approvals.

The JCRA made the decision to ask that Webb-Washington be removed from the project at its Sept. 15 board meeting, Antonicello said.

Webb-Washington then decided to step down, she said, because she didn't want her association with the project to jeopardize funding.

"With this cloud over me, I didn't want it to affect it (the project) at all," she said, adding that she's still heavily involved with running her organization's community programs.

However, she said her son, Wali A. Washington, has taken over as president of Webb-Washington Community Corp.

But Antonicello says that is not enough to allow the organization to remain a partner in the development.

He wants the developer of the project, Gene O'Connell of JP Affordable Housing, to find a new not-for-profit to serve as general partner for the 39-unit Fred W. Martin Houses being built on Martin Luther King Drive.

As general partner, Webb-Washington Community Corp. is in charge of making sure social services are available to building residents and generally serves as a liaison between the developer and the community.

For that service, Webb-Washington Community Corp. received a one-time fee of $100,000, which is to be used to fund the organization's community programs, O'Connell said.

Antonicello said he hopes to have the situation "resolved" before the JCRA's next board meeting, on Oct. 20.