Jersey City election 2013: Fulop unveils jobs program as councilwoman defends joke again

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
February 15, 2013 at 6:32 PM


Jersey City Ward F City Councilwoman Diane Coleman today gave a fiery speech defending a controversial joke she made at Monday?s council caucus, a joke Coleman said today she would not apologize for.

?I take a licking and keep on ticking, and I?m going to keep on ticking,? Coleman said today in her Martin Luther King Drive campaign headquarters.

Coleman appeared with mayoral hopeful Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop and at-large council candidate the Rev. Joyce Watterman as Fulop unveiled a program he said would help former inmates find employment. Both women are running with Fulop in the May 14 city election.

Coleman on Monday joked that ?everyone? in Ward F has a criminal record, which set off a firestorm of criticism from the mayoral campaigns of Mayor Jerramiah Healy and former high school and college basketball star Jerry Walker.

Fulop?s campaign refused to apologize for Coleman?s comment, which the councilwoman today said was ?sarcasm? intended to reflect disappointment with the Healy administration?s record on employment.

The Fulop campaign used the flap to present an initiative it said Fulop would launch within 12 months of being elected mayor that would help ex-offenders find jobs.

The initiative would create a ?unified network? of social service providers, start a registry of jobs available to ex-offenders and publish a re-entry resource guide. The program would initially cost as high as $300,000, and Fulop?s campaign said it would be funded with a mixture of city, state and federal funds.

Fulop and Coleman today slammed Healy for presiding over a Ward F that struggles with high crime and unemployment.

?I?m not going to apologize for fighting for the residents of Ward F,? Coleman said. ?The mayor should apologize that he let this mess stay like this.?

Caf? owner Jermaine Robinson, who is Healy?s Ward F council candidate, said in a statement from the Healy campaign that Coleman?s Monday joke belittles Ward F residents.

"Mayor Healy and I believe in Ward F and all the people who live here,? Robinson said. ?When some suggested I relocate my business out of Ward F, instead I doubled down by investing my energy into making things even better for my neighbors."

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