Can the City use this as a loophole to increase property taxes over and above the state mandated 2%? If so isn't that more incentive for dysfunctional government?

So, now that the entire senior staff of the JCIA is going to be canned for this debacle, we can close the shop and roll it into the DPW, right? They ARE getting fired? Right?!!!

Or likely not. Why break the at least century old tradition of JC gov't existing to benefit it's employees and contractors rather than it's taxpayers & citizens.

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Parkman, you summed it up right there.

It is that lack of intelligence that has led to poor decisions being made by the city council, and in turn is one of the many reasons we are leaving JC in less than 2 weeks.

I commend people like you that do your part to help where they can. You've done a great job in VVP and we will miss it dearly. And I commend Fulop for being the lone voice of reason many times. Good luck Steve. You've done a good job and I know it is always a tough uphill struggle with the current administration.

We've been here for 8 years and thought when we moved here, like many people moving in now, that JC had potential. I fear if things don't change JC will never live up to it's potential and will forever remain a bedroom community to those not wanting to live in NYC. JC has improved somewhat over the last 8 years, and from what I've heard and read it is far better than what it was prior to our arrival, but the city keeps making one poor decision after another at the expense of taxpayers, and honestly, it's disheartening, disgusting, and embarrassing. Many times I don't even think it is lack of intelligence but more of a complete disregard and contempt for the constituents probably to solidify some backdoor handshake deal that lines the pockets of all the players while taking out of the pockets of taxpayers. I think most of the time the council is laughing on its way to the bank. I guess the only good thing I can say about JC is that at least we're not as corrupt as New Orleans or Chicago (but maybe not by that much).

Quote:Steve,

Why is the city of Jersey City bailing out an autonomous agency, and what obligation does it have to do so?

Why is the JCIA not required to cut expenses as a condition for this bailout?

It is my understanding that these past due amounts are for the collection of recycle refuse, which should produce a profit for the JCIA?why is there a shortfall?

Why doesn?t the city or the JCIA have recycle bins throughout Jersey City, in its parks, high traffic areas, and schools in order to increase revenue?

When does the JCIA stop becoming a cash cow for political favoritism?

Jersey City continues to base its financial decisions on politics instead of sound business?we will never achieve being a first class city until the council as a whole has the intelligence and fortitude to do the right thing.

Thanks for posting. This article is a little misleading as we didn't vote to pay any bills. The vote was to allow nothing to be paid this year and defer the $7M into two payments starting next year after the election. The issue at hand is that there is no plan how to pay it next year, and it is operating expenses from this year thus the comments from Donnelly and Lopez knowing what they were doing was concerning .. Hope that clarifies

Steven

Update...

Jersey City council votes to give city agency $7M to pay overdue bill

Published: Sunday, June 17, 2012, 2:20 PM
Updated: Sunday, June 17, 2012, 2:21 PM

By Terrence T. McDonald

The Jersey City City Council voted Wednesday night to give nearly $7 million to a city agency to pay an overdue bill, over the objections of a councilman who called the measure "the most irresponsible resolution" he's seen in his council tenure.

Wednesday's action, approved 7-2, authorizes a $6.8 million payment to the Jersey City Incinerator Authority so the agency can pay overdue bills related to waste disposal. Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, who voted against the measure along with Councilman at large Rolando Lavarro, said the move is "appalling."

"It's the most irresponsible resolution that I've been a part of and seen on this council agenda," Fulop said. "It is amazing to me that people can sit up here and say they recognize this is wrong (but) support it anyway."

Two council members -- David Donnelly and Nidia Lopez -- voted in favor of the measure despite expressing "reservations."

The debt will be paid in two equal payments, one next year and one in 2014. Fulop said he believes this will set taxpayers up for a tax increase next year.

City officials in March first addressed the JCIA's outstanding debt to Waste Management, a private firm that contracts with the agency to pick up city trash, and the Hudson County Improvement Authority, which disposes of it.


Full JJ piece?.

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

Buy the JJ.

Please please please write to your council person in support of eliminating the JCIA.
It might make a difference.

Jersey City City Council to consider eliminating the Jersey City Incinerator Authority

March 27, 2012, 10:07 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

The Jersey City City Council is set to vote on an ordinance at its April 9 meeting that would eliminate the Jersey City Incinerator Authority, after a debate at last night's council caucus in which Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop said he'd rather vote on the issue once and for all.

Fulop had been tapped to sit on a committee that would discuss whether to fold the JCIA into the city Department of Public Works, or vice/versa. The city, seeking to consolidate services as a cost-saving measure, has been debating the proposed merger for more than a year.

After last night's debate, Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis asked Fulop whether the councilman wanted an ordinance drafted that would eliminate the JCIA.

"Bring it on," Fulop responded.

In 2010, Mayor Jerramiah Healy attempted to merge the DPW into the JCIA, but the state stepped in, saying state statute forbids autonomous agencies from performing certain duties the JCIA would have to perform if it absorbs the DPW.

The planned merger would save about $5 million annually and eliminate around 80 jobs, officials say.

In a statement issued this morning, Fulop explained why he wants to skip the committee and go right to the elimination of the JCIA.

?There is really only one option that will reduce costs and increase accountability, and that is the elimination of autonomous agencies such as the JCIA,? he said. ?Jersey City?s residents, the Mayor and this Council know that eliminating autonomous agencies is the the right thing to do and I intend to push this forward now. The tax relief is badly needed."

When the state halted the proposed JCIA/DPW merger, state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would permit the JCIA to perform duties it now cannot, such as park maintenance.

Cunningham denied that the legislation, which was approved by a senate committee last month, has anything to do with saving the JCIA, which is headed by Cunningham supporter Oren K. Dabney.

?It only legitimizes what the Incinerator Authority has been doing for as long as it?s been there,? she said.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_city_council_to_co.html

Last year I attended a meeting in the Heights where a rep of the JCIA talked about all the revenue they were making from selling the materials collected for recycling.

Aluminum and bi-metal cans I can see being profitable (it always has been). Color me skeptical when it comes to the glass and plastic's profitability. Paper / cardboard value swings wildly (it is highly dependent on export prices).

So is the JCIA really making anything from the recycling program? If yes, is that money being used to offset trash removal costs from the city?

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This guy is a GENIUS! Why solve the problem when we can just pull money from other budgets?

they should just throw the trash along westside ave.there is so much trash over there nobody would notice

Jersey City to help JCIA find "other avenues" to pay $7.2 million in unpaid bills

Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 8:55 PM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Jersey City Business Administrator Jack Kelly tonight said the city will attempt to assist the Jersey City Incinerator Authority pay more than $7 million in bills it owes two vendors for trash removal and disposal.

The $7.2 million bill, revealed Monday at the council caucus, has piled up for the last three or four years, according to JCIA Executive Director Oren K. Dabney.
Dabney said the bills started to pile up in 2010, when the city cut JCIA funding by $4.2 million.

At tonight?s City Council meeting, Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop asked Kelly how the city plans to ?solve? the JCIA?s unpaid-bill problem. On Monday, Fulop said he doesn?t understand why the city proposed a 2012 budget that does not address the $7.2 million debt.

Kelly said tonight that it?s difficult to control the budget of an autonomous agency, adding that the JCIA has some unexpected revenue that may help alleviate their debt to Waste Management, which picks up city trash for the JCIA, and Hudson County, which disposes of the trash.

The agency is set to receive $1.2 million from the Board of Education for picking up its trash, while there is around $1 million in snow-removal costs that were budgeted but not spent this year, Kelly said.
?And we will have to look at other avenues to close that gap,? he said.

Quote:
If they're not paying for trash pickup or trash disposal, what the hell is all the money going to? Overpaid employees to sit around and twiddle their thumbs as part of some "executive board"?

The JCIA is a patronage mill for State Senator Sandy Cunningham. Oren Dabney is one of her lackeys.

The interesting dynamic here is : Healy needs Cunningham's support to be reelected as Mayor. So everybody in Healy's office kisses Cunningham's behind and looks the other way while the JCIA is mismanaged and filled with Cunningham hacks.

On top of this, Cunningham is fighting furiously to merge DPW into the JCIA rather than the reverse. She wants to keep her patronage pit. Fulop is so right on this one. The JCIA has no accountability or oversight. It should be dissolved and absorbed into the City's Department of Public Works.

no, because they failed.

eliminate the JCIA and roll functions into DPW - idea has been out there a long time, lets do it. if the authority is in the council, then it can be done by initiative and referendum. I'll sign.

Quote:

Quote:

You must have missed Oren & Clayton Dabney. BTW, the Cunningham boys are not related to the former mayor in any way, shape or form.

Top Earners of the Incinerator Authority:

TIMOTHY J HAWKES
$141,616

OREN K DABNEY
$139,436

GLENN P CUNNINGHAM
$106,004

CLAYTON DABNEY
$99,036

JOSEPH ZAZZARINO
$96,740

FRANCIS J LAMPARELLI
$94,476

RAJARAM S VASAN
$91,328

TERESA POPE
$87,700

WILLIAM ROONEY
$85,768

WILLIAM J OCONNOR
$85,486

WILLIAM E CUNNINGHAM
$84,536


Interesting to see two Cunninghams on that list.

Also, I don't think that includes fringe benefits, like health care, free cars and other things that they might hand out.

This is Fulop?s Op-Ed piece from 2010?he wanted to go JCIA -> DWP Healy wanted to go DWP -> JCIA


Keeping JCIA autonomous in merger with DPW will only worsen patronage: Fulop Op-Ed

Published: Tuesday, November 09, 2010, 6:40 AM
By The Jersey Journal

By STEVEN FULOP

SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL

The Healy administration and their allies on the City Council have proposed consolidation by eliminating Jersey City's Department of Public Works (DPW) and putting it into the autonomous agency known as the Jersey City Incinerator Authority (JCIA).

This move is yet another clear example of politicians' desires to place political agenda ahead of what is best for you, the overtaxed resident. Consolidation is good, but it should be the exact opposite direction, with elimination of the autonomous agency and put the functions under the city's control so that there is council and taxpayer accountability and oversight.

There is no question that there are considerable (and desperately needed!) savings to be realized by combining the two agencies -- administration estimates place these cost reductions at $5 million per year. Even greater cost reductions could be realized by keeping the DPW and folding the JCIA into it. By eliminating the JCIA, there would be no need to pay for separate financial reporting accountants, separate lawyers doing legal work, and the city would no longer be on the hook for the gift of health benefits it provides to JCIA's board members.

But the real benefit of eliminating the JCIA and not the DPW goes well beyond these additional cost savings. As an autonomous agency, the JCIA has very little oversight and has long been a source of jobs and contracts for friends, family members and the politically connected. For the past hundred years, it has been through these types of handouts that the local machine has been able to keep its hold on power -- handouts funded entirely by the taxpayer.

Furthermore, the administration is proposing 80 layoffs and they point to the fact that these layoffs within the JCIA would not be subject to Civil Service restrictions on who receives a "pink slip." As I mentioned to the mayor personally, the city has never done performance reviews of its employees so how is fair that political appointees can arbitrarily select who stays and who is fired based on who they like without facts on performance. This is bad for city morale and bad for employee effectiveness. If the surviving entity was the Department of Public Works within the city there would be oversight and clear process on which employees stay or go and it would not be based on politics or who campaigns for whom.

These autonomous agencies also have the ability to independently issue debt with no regard to the city's bonding capacities -- debt that the city's current and future taxpayers will be on the hook to repay.

Incredibly, not only can the JCIA give jobs to dozens of neighbors, in-laws, former mayors and campaign workers, but they can essentially borrow to do it! This is one of many reasons why we should be moving to eliminate autonomous agencies rather than strengthening them. If the combined DPW/JCIA entity is kept as a department of the city government under the current JCIA leadership, rather than allowing it to be an autonomous agency, it will be much easier to prevent these types of abuses.

While it may be "easier" to proceed with the administration's plan, much of what they seek to accomplish could be achieved in the same time frame by keeping the DPW and eliminating the JCIA. In keeping the DPW, we not only realize the desperately needed savings the mayor's plan targets -- and then some -- but we also create a structure that will truly serve the people's interests. Don't be fooled by the administration's false urgency -- there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.

The autonomous agencies have been a bastion of political patronage since they were created.

STEVEN FULOP is the Jersey City councilman representing Ward E.


JJ piece?

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... ia_autonomous_in_mer.html

** **
buy the JJ?it is not trash!

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Why? So we can have another JCIA CEO and board? No. The mayor should be disbanding the JCIA, which has been operating illegally for many years, and roll the remaining functions into the Dept. of Public Works. Greater oversight (and could there be a better example for the need for greater oversight???), reduced costs, likely higher efficiency, elimination of a patronage pit. That's a Win, win, win, win if you are scoring at home.

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According to the Asbury Park Press, in 2010 selected JCIA employee salaries were as follows:

Timothy Hawkes, General Counsel: $141,616
Oren Dabney, CEO $139,346
Jeff Dublin $83,484

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Yes he did. He proposed abolishing JCIA and merging it into the Department of Public Works.

What a bunch of clowns. THE JERSEY CITY INCINERATOR AUTHORITY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Chairman P. Terrell Flood The same!? Vice Chair Maureen Hulings "Whatever happened to Maureen Hulings (vice chairwoman of the parade committee) daughter Amy Hulings who is a Jersey City cop. She was busted for getting into a accident in Newark. The thing was she was on duty as a Jersey City cop at the time. What the heck was she doing in Newark? This made the paper but no outcome was ever given. Was she fired or suspended? She of course should have been fired." (from the comments here: http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _day_parades_today_i.html ) Commissioners Frank Checchia Roger Hejazi Michael J. Malloy Michael A. Rooney Liam M. Tanelli Chief Executive Officer Oren K. Dabney Sr. General Counsel Timothy J. Hawkes Mayor Honorable Jerramiah T. Healy http://www.jciaonline.org/board.php

the problem (initial) is one thing, but the utter lack of reaction (action) of first the JCIA board, then the administration is more problematic.

the mayor should be asking for the resignations of the JCIA executive director and board of commissioners.

same with the the Parking Authority granting a five year contract extension to its executive directer at least appearing in conflict with the administration stated intention of folding it into a public safety department.

What are the salaries again of the JCIA top management?

Wow! Something stinks here and it ain't just garbage.
Why would Waste Managment be so docile in collecting the amounts due for garbage pickup?
Anyone else think there is a high likelihood of unethical dealings between JCIA and Waste Management?
Also it would be well worth checking into the JCIA's payroll and equipment repair costs for the periods Oct '10 to April '11 vs. Oct '11 to April '12. They should be exponentially lower for the later period with the extreme differences in winter weather.
What good reason would there be for JCIA Executive Director Oren K. Dabney to keep his job? What possible defense can anyone give for his failure to update JCIA commissioners on the financial status of the agency he is supposed to be in charge of?
Love the Healy quote at the end, ?is not offering our city and its taxpayers any solutions.?
And you Mr Mayor? What's your solution? Seems like ultimately you and your cronies are the the reason a solution is even needed.
I am going to write an email to my council person today, RE Orin Dabney should be shown the door. Suggest everyone do the same.
Best!

Autonomous Incinerator Authority hasn't been paying its trash bills, Jersey City Council told

Published: Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 3:03 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

The Jersey City Incinerator Authority owes more than $7 million to two entities that pick up and dispose of city trash, an amount that shocked some JCIA commissioners and City Council members.

The unpaid bills have been piling up over the past three or four years, according to JCIA Executive Director Oren K. Dabney, who said the city agency can?t afford to pay all of its bills in large part because of $7.4 million in decreased city funding from 2009 to 2011.

After payroll, insurance and other expenses, there isn?t always enough left to pay Waste Management, which picks up trash for the agency, or the Hudson County Improvement Authority, which pays a separate company to dispose of the trash, Dabney said.

?What I tried to do was pay what I could when I could,? Dabney said at Monday night?s council caucus.
It wasn?t until a $4.2 million cut in city funding in 2010 that the bills began to pile up, according to Dabney.
Trash collection and disposal cost JCIA $1.4 million a month, Dabney said.

Waste Management did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The city, meanwhile, puts the blame on Dabney, with spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill saying the city expects the JCIA to tighten its belt.

?The city laid off seasonal, part-time and ultimately full-time civilian employees, and implemented 24 mandatory furlough days, and began consolidating and outsourcing services when possible,? Morrill said. ?We expected the same from the JCIA, but that has not happened.?

The JCIA, which operated with a $33.5 million budget in 2011, disposes of trash, clears snow and enforces waste-related environmental regulations. The proposed 2012 city budget provides the agency with $27.9 million, an increase from $26.3 million in 2011.

The unpaid-bills issue arises as the council is set to decide whether to merge the JCIA with the city Department of Public Works, a consolidation that city officials say will save taxpayers $5 million annually.
Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, who led discussion of the issue at Monday?s caucus, said this latest episode casts doubt on the mayor?s ability to deliver on his promises.

?Healy proposed a balanced budget by simply not paying garbage-pickup bills worth millions of dollars ... thinking nobody would notice,? Fulop said. ?It is more reason why we need to end autonomous agencies.?
In response, Healy said in a statement that Fulop ?is not offering our city and its taxpayers any solutions.?