Jersey City council approves cutting council president?s term in half

August 23, 2012, 12:00 PM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Starting next year, Jersey City?s City Council president will have a term of two years, instead of the current four-year span.

The council voted 5-3 last night to make the change, which won?t happen until a new council takes over next July. The identical council majority attempted in January to make the change immediately, but Mayor Jerramiah Healy vetoed the measure.

Council members David Donnelly, Steve Fulop, Rolando Lavarro, Nidia Lopez and Viola Richardson voted in favor. Councilman Peter Brennan, the current council president, voted against, along with Bill Gaughan and Michael Sottolano. Ward F Councilwoman Michele Massey was absent.

Lopez said the change would allow for ?a fresh start? every two years if the council so wishes, a thought echoed by others in the council majority.

Gaughan, meanwhile, called the ordinance ?unfair? to the next council.

?It should be their decision, not ours,? Gaughan said.

The council also unanimously approved a measure hiring a Wisconsin firm as a debt collector to round up overdue fines owed to the Municipal Court. The contract doesn?t have a price tag attached because the firm will receive a portion of the money it collects.

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