Two City Council bills now compete to put city seals on vehicles owned by Jersey City

Published: Monday, September 26, 2011, 3:00 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Looks like Jersey City employees may have to drive around with city seals on their vehicles after all.

City Councilman-at-Large Ray Velazquez who refused to support Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop?s recent ordinance requiring city seals be placed on all non-emergency city vehicles plans to introduce a similar measure at tomorrow?s council meeting.

Fulop?s measure, which was offered to the council three or four times before a majority adopted it in August, was vetoed earlier this month by Mayor Jerramiah Healy after city attorneys said it was illegal.

But the same legal team is giving Velazquez?s proposal its stamp of approval, even though it is similar to Fulop?s proposal, and may even apply to more city vehicles. City officials insist there is a difference.

Fulop?s ordinance would have mandated city seals be placed on all non-emergency city vehicles; Velazquez?s proposal achieves similar ends by amending salary ordinances that provide vehicles as part of some employees? compensation.

The new salary ordinances would require the vehicles ?bear the city seal,? and would apply to cars given to council members, council aides, departmental heads and statutory employees.

Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis, in a Sept. 21 memo to the council, said Fulop?s ordinance usurped the mayor?s authority, while Velazquez?s proposal works within the limits of the council?s power.

Velazquez said he asked the administration to draft this ordinance after Healy vetoed Fulop?s similar measure.

?It?ll be a legal resolution, and at the same time sending a message to the mayor that we are taking this action,? he said.

Making things more complicated, a resolution on the same meeting?s agenda seeks to override Healy?s veto of Fulop?s ordinance. The ordinance was adopted 5-4, but Fulop would need to find a sixth vote to override the veto.

Asked to comment on Velazquez?s ordinance, Fulop called it a political stunt timed to benefit Velazquez in the November special election.

Velazquez is running to remain in his current seat, which he was appointed to after former council member Mariano Vega resigned in disgrace.

Velazquez?s ordinance will require two readings, a public hearing and then a 20-day waiting period before it?s enacted, Fulop noted.

?We can get this done next week if Ray votes for the veto override and sides with the taxpayer,? Fulop said about Velazquez in an e-mail.

Healy has vetoed the decal ordanince.In two weeks there will be a vote to override the veto.
Ray and his phony car theft story is the perfect reason why we need the decal law in the first place.
Let's put pressure on Ray to be the Sixth vote to overturn healys veto.

Call Mayor Healy to ask him to issue an executive order that mandates that all non-emergency, city-owned cars have decals placed on their doors per the ordinance that the city council recently passed but does not have the authority to mandate. 201-547-5200. You will be transferred to "scheduling" to leave a message for the chief of staff.

This story doesn't make much sense -- and why not have decals on all city cars -- if not just end this whole practice.

+1 on calling bullshit on this.

Anyone who knows Ray Velasquez knows he is an arrogant twit in the tradition of Mariano Vega. A no-talent hack with an enormous sense of entitlement and grandiosity.

But the Jeep wasn't broken into yet he knew the keys for the Explorer were missing? So he left the Jeep unlocked and just decided to check for the Explorer keys? Did he need the insurance $ or something?

So how'd they get the keys if the Jeep wasn't broken into ? Maybe he left an envelope on the window with the keys in it.
Jack Ass

WOW! 762 from 5030 in 20 years? That is a crazy #!

Why do you leave the keys for one of your vehicles in the glove compartment of your other vehicle??? You don't leave the keys for ANY vehicle in Jersey City anywhere except inside your house.

Something sounds fishy.
Someone should check his easy pass.
It's like DNA if his car never crossed the bridge on that day than he was already there using his City Car in NYC.
Sounds like faking a false police report.

I'm sure its uncommon to steal marked city vehicles, but unmarked vehicles are a much better take.

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


Jersey City councilman's city vehicle stolen from in front of his home, recovered later in NYC

Published: Friday, September 02, 2011, 3:43 PM Updated: Friday, September 02, 2011, 4:54 PM

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Jersey City Councilman Ray Velazquez's city-owned Ford Explorer was stolen in front of his Highland Avenue apartment in June, and recovered nearly one month later in Manhattan, according to police.

Velazquez told The Jersey Journal he left the keys to the Explorer in the glove compartment of his own Jeep Wrangler on the night of June 15.

When he entered his own vehicle the next morning, he noticed the keys to his city-owned Explorer were missing, he said.

Police spokesman Stan Eason said the Explorer was recovered "about three and a half weeks later" in Manhattan, where it had a number of parking tickets affixed to it.

Once the city was notified it had been found, it took possession of it, and returned it to Velazquez, Eason said.

It's not common for a city-owned vehicle to be stolen, he added. In 2010, 762 vehicles were stolen from Jersey City, down from 5,030 in 1990, he said.

This week, the City Council voted to add decals to all non-emergency city vehicles, an action opposed by Mayor Jerramiah Healy and Velazquez himself. He voted against the measure.