Jersey City pay-to-play restrictions made stricter by City Council

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
December 20, 2012 at 12:07 AM

A measure revising Jersey City?s pay-to-play ban by further restricting political donations by city vendors has been adopted by the City Council.

The measure, backed by Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, restricts city vendors that win no-bid contracts from donating more than $200 to the campaigns of school-board candidates and to some state Senate and Assembly candidates.

The vendors will also be prohibited from advertising for municipal candidates and from participating in voter-registration and get-out-the-vote drives.

Fulop?s proposal was adopted tonight by a 5-4 vote, with the Downtown councilman finding support from council members Diane Coleman, David Donnelly, Nidia Lopez and Rolando Lavarro.

?There is no wrong time to do the right thing, and this is strict pay-to-play ? the strictest in the state,? Fulop said tonight. ?It?s not perfect, that?s for certain. It is certainly a step in the right direction.?

The measure adopted tonight also bans contributions above $200 to Jersey City political action committees, or PACs.

Fulop was instrumental in adopting the city?s original pay-to-play restrictions in 2008. The council had resisted that move at first, and voted to approve the restrictions only after Fulop won enough signatures to place the question on the ballot.

Ward D Councilman Bill Gaughan, who tonight voted against Fulop?s measure, said the ordinance is too expansive and could be struck down in the courts.

?I think this has some real serious legal issues,? Gaughan said. ?I will vote no and I?ll see everybody in court?

The measure was competing with a similar ordinance that was less expansive but, according to its supporters, on surer legal footing than Fulop?s plan.

The council tabled that proposal by a 6-3 vote, with the same members who approved Fulop?s measure ? joined by Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson ? voting to table it.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _restri.html#incart_river

Pay-to-play measure fails to advance after councilwoman changes vote two hours later

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
October 24, 2012 at 9:01 PM

Revisions to Jersey City?s pay-to-play law proposed by Ward E City Councilman Steve Fulop that were originally approved at tonight?s council meeting ultimately failed to advance when Ward F Councilwoman Michele Massey rescinded her support.

Massey was originally the deciding vote in favor of Fulop?s ordinance, which was competing with a similar measure proposed by Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Fulop?s political rival.

But two hours after Fulop?s measure was approved by one vote, Massey asked to take back her support, killing the measure for now.

The councilwoman?s decision led to a testy exchange between her and Fulop, who called Massey a ?rubber stamp? for the Healy administration.

Healy appointed Massey to the Ward F seat last December, and supports her in a special election set for Nov. 6 that will determine whether she remains in the seat until July.

?Do not insult me,? Massey told Fulop. ?You are so rude.?

?The last couple rubber stamps that were up here are no longer up here,? Fulop said, referring to two Healy allies who were voted off the council last November.

After Massey took back her vote, Fulop?s measure had support only from Fulop and council members David Donnelly, Rolando Lavarro and Nidia Lopez.

After the meeting, Massey said she had never intended to vote in favor of Fulop?s ordinance, which would restrict city vendors from contributing to candidates for the school board, the state Senate and the Assembly. Healy?s proposal, which the council approved unanimously tonight, would apply only to contributions to Board of Education candidates.

Massey, who arrived at the meeting about a half-hour late, just as the original vote for Fulop?s ordinance was wrapping up, said she rushed through the agenda because she was late and only later realized her error.

?I take full responsibility,? she said, adding she?d rather see Fulop?s measure ?delayed? than adopted before her concerns are assuaged.

Fulop said he was ?shocked? by her last-minute change-of-heart. He pledged to make some revisions and re-introduce it in three weeks.

Asked to comment on his use of the phrase ?rubber stamp? to describe Massey, he said, ?The track record is what the track record is.?

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ls_to_a.html#incart_river

Quote:

Unfortunately, it's more like Jerry SNAFU.

Jersey City council to take up competing revisions to pay-to-play ordinances

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
October 24, 2012

With two proposed revisions to Jersey City?s pay-to-play law on the agenda for tonight?s City Council meeting, council members are set to decide whether to follow the lead of Mayor Jerramiah Healy or his political rival, Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop.

Healy?s proposal entails one revision to the city?s four-year-old pay-to-play ordinance. Healy?s plan would bar the city from entering into contracts with vendors who contribute to city Board of Education candidates.

Fulop, meanwhile, has a much more expansive proposal that would prohibit city vendors from donating to campaigns of state Assembly or Senate candidates running in Jersey City districts.

Doing this, Fulop says, would restrict ?wheeling,? the practice of donating to an aligned candidate to circumvent campaign-finance laws.

Fulop?s proposal would also bar vendors from contributing to political action committees, engaging in ?get out the vote? drives or expressing support for any candidate in a city election.

At Monday?s council caucus, Healy?s council allies advocated for the mayor?s proposal, saying Fulop?s wide-ranging plan needs more investigation before possible adoption.

?Why don?t we just pass the less strict one, and (then) expand it?? asked Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano.

Fulop urged the council to approve both measures, which are up for introduction at tonight?s council meeting, and give him three weeks to explain why his is the better plan. The measure would be up for adoption three weeks from today.
?If we are to do it, we should do it properly,? Fulop said.

The pay-to-play revisions were first proposed weeks ago by residents who are unhappy with a key Fulop donor winning a contract with the BOE in April, though neither measure set for a vote tonight would have prohibited that contract from being awarded.

Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson, a key vote, said she?s undecided on whether she?ll vote to introduce both measures or just the mayor?s.

Richardson noted that she?s inclined to vote with Healy this time around. Fulop?s plan to ban city vendors from contributing to state candidates may not be legal, she said.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... y_council_to_take_up.html

"Public confidence in the political process is NOT weakened when Jersey City residents see..."

1. My campaign keeping the bribe money it received

2. My Deputy Mayor and campaign treasurer sent to jail for corruption

3. My running mate and Council President sent to jail for corruption

4. My running mate and Ward B Councilman sent to jail for corruption

5. My running mate and unsuccessful Council candidate sent to jail for corruption

Public confidence in the political process is only weakened when Jersey City residents see a smart, hard-working, honest young upstart try to take the job that is rightfully mine.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. The Great and Powerful Jerry FUBAR has spoken.



"I'm Jerry FUBAR and I approve this message."

Jersey City mayoral candidates trade barbs over proposed revision of pay-to-play law

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
October 16, 2012 at 11:15 AM

Both main contenders in next year?s Jersey City mayoral race have agreed to revise the city?s pay-to-play laws, but that hasn?t stopped the two men from sniping at each other in the process.

The revisions, first proposed by a group of citizens unhappy with Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop?s ties to a Verona insurance agency that won a lucrative gig with the Board of Education this year, would prohibit businesses with no-bid BOE contracts from donating to mayoral or council campaigns.

The measure, which is set for an initial vote in front of the council next week, would also bar some city vendors from donating to so-called ?super PACs,? groups that can spend unlimited dollars on political campaigns.

Though Fulop said at last week?s council meeting that he would support such a measure, Mayor Jerramiah Healy used last night's announcement of the proposed changes to take a shot at his political foe.

"Public confidence in the political process is weakened when Jersey City residents see a Board of Education that was elected with the heavy support of Steve Fulop, turn right around and hand no-bid contracts to Fulop's fundraisers," Healy said a statement from his campaign.

The two men are battling for the mayor?s seat in next year?s city election.

In return, Fulop noted that Healy opposed the city?s current pay-to-play ordinance when Fulop first proposed the measure in 2008. Only after Fulop lobbied successfully for the proposal to be placed on the November 2008 ballot for voters to decide did Healy's allies on the council support the initiative.

Fulop added a crack about Operation Bid Rig III, the massive corruption sweep that in 2009 sent one of Healy?s deputy mayors and two council allies to federal prison.

?With only seven months to go before he has to face voters, I guess the mayor has finally seen the light,? Fulop said in a statement from his own campaign. ?Maybe now in his moment of clarity he will return the tainted donation from FBI informant Solomon Dwek that he promised he would four years ago.?

Dwek is the disgraced developer who acted as a confidential informant during the Bid Rig investigation.

Just last week, Fulop had a heated argument with Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis over the proposed pay-to-play revisions, with Fulop saying he wanted them in front of the council next week and Matsikoudis saying he didn?t think the city could investigate and draft the ordinance in just two weeks.

In an Oct. 15 memo to the council, Matiskoudis writes that he and his staff plan to review the proposed revisions and tell the council before its next regular meeting whether the portion regarding Super PACs ?passes legal muster.?

The city?s current pay-to-play ordinance bars contributions over $300 to a candidate, or $500 for a candidate committee. Those limits go unchanged in the revisions up for consideration next week.

The ordinance also bars businesses that receive no-bid city contracts from contributing to city campaigns. The revisions would expand to include businesses that receive no-bid contracts from the BOE.

That may not be legal, according to Heather Taylor, spokeswoman for statewide nonprofit The Citizens Campaign, which advocates for residents getting involved in local government.

Taylor noted that the BOE is an autonomous agency controlled by its own elected board.


"The city has no authority to regulate who enters into contracts with the public-school district," she said. "The way this is written, it's outside the city's jurisdiction."

Taylor said The Citizens Campaign urged the city not to include the Board of Education in its revision of the pay-to-play law.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... mayoral_candidates_6.html

Quote:

hilariously true

I am surprised that Matsikoudis chose the confrontational route as opposed to quickly offering to settle.

Shouting match at Jersey City City Council meeting over expanding city's pay-to-play law

October 10, 2012, 11:54 PM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

A discussion of proposed changes to Jersey City?s pay-to-play ordinance led to a shouting match at tonight?s City Council meeting between a top city attorney and Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop.

The argument grew so heated, with the two men shouting at each other and other council members yelling at them to stop, that Council President Peter Brennan took the unusual step of banging his gavel and ordering the attorney, Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis, to return to his seat.

?How about a little respect for the city council here,? said Ward D Councilman Bill Gaughan after the dispute ended. ?Take your petty nonsense outside.?

Matsikoudis and Fulop sparred after a few residents urged the council to expand the city?s pay-to-play ordinance to forbid political donors from receiving contracts with the Jersey City Board of Education.

Some of the residents told The Jersey Journal the impetus behind the proposed changes is a contract the BOE has with Verona-based Fairview Insurance Agency Associates. The residents say the contract was awarded because of political contributions Fairview officials made to Fulop, who has supported all nine current members of the school board, and BOE President Sue Mack.

Ryan Graham, the agency?s chief, contributed $2,600 to Fulop?s campaign, and the same amount to Mack?s failed bid to win a council seat last November.

When the topic of expanding the city?s pay-to-play law came up tonight, Fulop said he supports the idea, and wants the council to vote on it in two weeks. Matsikoudis said he doesn't think the measure can be drafted by then.

Matsikoudis soon left the table where he sits during the meetings to speak to Fulop from the podium where residents usually address the council.

?We all know why people want to extend it to the Board of Education,? Matsikoudis said. ?Your number one contributor is benefiting from the Board of Education.?

Fulop called the charge ?absolutely false,? noting that Graham contributed $1,000 in 2009 to the campaign team of Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Fulop?s political foe, and $2,500 in 2010 to Ward B Councilman David Donnelly, who was not a Fulop ally at the time.

Fulop then suggested that Matsikoudis hesitated from supporting the city?s pay-to-play ordinance before it was adopted in 2008.

?That?s a lie,? Matsikoudis said.

?You pushed back,? Fulop shot back.

The two men argued over each other until Brennan banged his gavel and ordered the conversation to end.

?Billy, sit down!? Brennan shouted at Matsikoudis, who returned to his seat.

The city resisted adopting a pay-to-play ordinance in 2008, but relented when Fulop ran a successful petition drive to have voters approve the ordinance via a ballot initiative. The council adopted the ordinance unanimously before voters had a chance to have their say.

Fulop is running in next year's mayoral race against Mayor Jerramiah Healy. Matsikoudis is a Healy ally.

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