Morgan: An opaque administration

By Earl Morgan/For The Jersey Journal
October 08, 2014 at 6:31 PM

The political phrase is "a transparent administration." That's a campaign promise Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop made last year. That would seem to mean a government accountable and accessible to the people it serves. Unfortunately that's not how things are working out.

Instead, the mayor seems to choose using his press secretary as a way of holding the people and the press at bay. Oh, there are certain newspapers, the mayor' favors, like the Wall Street Journal, which has a national reach. From time to time, the mayor -- who pundits say has gubernatorial aspirations -- plants a story in media outside of Hudson County, which indicates that he might actually be talking to editors and reporters. Usually the story concerns some gargantuan new high-rise or hotel under construction somewhere in the city or on the drawing board. However, the WSJ has no office or beat reporters assigned to cover the day-to-day happenings on this side of the Hudson River.

I've had several conversations with area TV and print journalists about the difficulty of reaching Fulop when a major news event occurs here.

After having spent nearly four decades reporting on Jersey City and Hudson County, be it the courts, streets, town halls, the police, etc., it was always possible to reach a mayor, county executive or county prosecutor.

Aside from the occasional press release provided by his press secretary Jennifer Morrill, who does a fine job as far as that goes, the mayor seems to speak to his public through the municipal cable channel or, as I prefer to call it the "mayor's channel,'' since -- with exception of the rebroadcast of City Council meetings -- the main programming consists of Fulop interviewing or being interviewed or delivering a speech. Oh, every now and then, there will be a piece featuring those members of the City Council who won their seats as part of the mayor's ticket. Neither Richard Boggiano nor Michael Yun, members of the City Council who were elected independently, are ever seen on the city-owned cable channel or "TV ONE," as it's also called.

Should a reporter venture to call a city department director, he or she will get the standard answer to call the mayor's press secretary for a canned response to a news event or story.

In some instances, calls to some administration minions are impossible, since they never seem to be in their offices or do not have a working voice mail, making it impossible to leave a message to return a call.

Accepting a post in the government requires being accountable to the press and the taxpayers to at least, on occasion, answer their queries. Otherwise quit and find a job that doesn't call for public accountability.

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