They should entice some regional baker with a huge building in Greenville, given them incredible tax incentives, and have them hire ex cons and young kids preferentially to learn a trade and get a start in their life instead of tax breaks for new housing. Do it along the Light Rail. Serve the bread in JC schools, use the rest for church soup kitchens. Have Fulop hit up his backers for independent seed money. Get Booker to shake the Hollywood Gay Mafia for some money to kick start it.

This city is kidding me giving jobs to people who come out of prison when there are people that lost a job and can't find one but our Mayor is helping criminals a job......

Oh - just realized I should keep these things to myself. I'm going to need to be able to unload my house here in DTJC at some point - negative comments certainly won't help with unloading the property quickly : )

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A town incredibly diverse except for anyone right of center! Cute little downtown, Arturo's was the place that spawned Razza, St. James Gate pours a good Guinness. Schools are getting sketchier year by year and taxes are freakishly high. Downtown will be a mess for a while when they redevelop the Post Office smack downtown.

FULOP=HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. Very sorry I voted for him (I can't say I wasn't warned). He was so vocal, present, and on-point before the election. He kind of disappeared after he won. Seems like a lot of us were fooled.

Also, I'm VERY disappointed the re-val's been done away with.

Additionally, everything around town is the same.

Counting down the days for when I get to leave for the greener pastures of Maplewood!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sure, the taxes are high, but at least I'll be getting something in return : )

I thought we voted for change in May ?? I didn't realize this was the type of change we were getting. First the Mayor hires Mcgreevey one of the most corrupt Politicians this state has seen in years,( who used the "I am a Gay American" to deflect from the real issue of his corruptness) as the head of the re-entry program, then he gives Mcgreevey a second job as head of the Cities tax abatement program, now he allows Mcgreevey to hire another corrupt former politician who bilked the taxpayers for years out of millions of dollars ...... Remember the Mayor is only 6 months into office and this is the type of people he hires..... So much for being good government and transparent.... I guess there were no competent people without a criminal record to do the job the right way ............ I would suggest all former politicians who have been convicted of crimes while in office to send their resumes to 280 Grove street asap for immediate consideration.... remember those who are the most corrupt will be given the utmost consideration all though you may be over qualified...

Is it possible there are no ex-offenders from Jersey City qualified for this position? Is the agency required to post this job and interview qualified candidates before making a hiring decision?

"He was sent back to prison for parole violations for his initial crime"

Come on - This is hideous and insulting to us all and is not doing any justice to ex-offenders serious about getting back on track.

Is there any kind of defense for this hire? I liked Fulop and voted for him but this looks absolutely terrible. Is it as bad as it looks?

First this happened under the Cucci Administration. McKnight was already on the payroll when Cucci was mayor. I do remember the papers explaining, McKnight had cheese on the windows, part of the WIC program. I wish those articles were on line. Anyway, several years ago, when Healy wanted to appoint Ray Velasquez as a judge, many of Fulop's supporter came to the council and complained Ray was a crony and shouldn't have the job. Ray was a Judge before. I guess Healy must be laughing now.

My guess hey lets hire someone with a record to show that we mean business? I am also uncomfortable with this choice but after do some digging on my own because the Jersey Journal headlines are to shock their readers.

I found and old article from 1992 when it first happened.



A former city human resources director was sentenced to nine years in prison today for running a welfare fraud scheme that officials called one of the state's largest municipal corruption conspiracies. Eugene McKnight, 43 years old, of Jersey City, pleaded guilty to racketeering and tampering with evidence in September. The scheme involved approving rental assistance and welfare checks ranging from $300 to thousands of dollars to friends and employees who cashed them and split the money with Mr. McKnight, said the State Police Superintendent, Justin Dintino. After the investigation, the number of welfare clients on city rolls was reduced from 3,200 to 1,650, saving more than $6 million a year. Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan ordered Mr. McKnight to pay $76,000 in restitution and $5,000 in fines in addition to his sentence.

New York Times

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And it's not like he learned his lesson, he was sent back to prison for parole violations for his initial crime!

Get jobs for the poor schnooks who were sent to jail for selling dime bags of pot, not former public officials who betrayed the public trust to the tune of MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. How Fulop can't see the bad optics of this astounds me, vis a vis the Coleman connection.

First the SL is starting to shine the light upon his very irregular hiring of McGreevey and how he's being paid, now this bit of news.

Thanks for the link! I just wanted to point out that was Earl Morgan with The Jersey Journal that wrote that column about McGreevey's salary.

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That's just awful. I don't know how a worse hire could have possibly been made as far as a appearances go. Let's hire felon that defrauded the city who also has close ties to a political ally.

Helping the kids who never had a chance possibly get back on their feet sounds great. Helping the guy who stole millions and then wormed his way back into politics sounds like a patronage mill that Boss Hague would have been proud of. Same as it ever was.

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Not a good week for Fulop. First the SL is starting to shine the light upon his very irregular hiring of McGreevey and how he's being paid, now this bit of news.

With DiBlasio interceding on behalf of his supporter (caught driving illegally, along with a couple of outstanding warrants) it's looking like 1984 around here-'everyone's equal, but some are more equal than others'. Tale of two cities indeed.

I think we now say 'meet the new bosses, same as the old bosses'. Damning for those who think 'progressives' really are.

Angela Delli Santi, Associated Press
POSTED: Tuesday, December 10, 2013, 1:07 AM
JERSEY CITY, N.J. A nonprofit organization that provides jobs to poor women in Africa has brought its model to women transitioning out of prison in the United States.
Same Sky was founded five years ago to help women in Rwanda who were left destitute after the 1994 civil war. Same Sky America is a pilot expansion started this year for women trying to rebuild their lives after serving sentences at the Hudson County Correctional Center in New Jersey.

In Rwanda and Jersey City, the women are employed as artisans and earn money for their handiwork. They hand-bead bracelets and necklaces, which Same Sky sells online and in stores, with the net profits going to help the women in Rwanda.

The women and their mentors are the first to say how complete a transition the women on both continents are making.

"By me making the bracelet, I am giving back," said Shaneka Boatwright, 36, who lives and works at a New Jersey halfway house after serving time for weapon possession and aggravated assault. "I don't really have anything, but they have less than I do."
Francine LeFrak, an Emmy- and Tony-winning producer, founded Same Sky after making a film about Rwandan genocide, which left a quarter-million rape victims HIV-positive and impoverished. Their dire circumstances convinced LeFrak that they needed an opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty - a hand up, not a handout, as LeFrak likes to say.

The artisans earn 15 to 20 times the prevailing wage for women in East Africa and $3 per piece in the United States. All the net proceeds from online and retail sales, with partners including Cole Haan, DKNY, and Toms shoes, are reinvested to train and employ more women in need of work.

LeFrak said she decided to expand the program because of the need for employment opportunities for women "right here in our backyard."

"Same Sky was born with a mission to provide women with the dignity of work. From Rwanda to Jersey City, we are dedicated to eradicating poverty through training and job creation," LeFrak says on the organization's website, www.samesky.com. "Ultimately, we want to spread the idea that shopping can change the world."

Former Gov. Jim McGreevey, a Democrat who resigned from office in 2004 and now counsels Jersey City women who have been incarcerated, said the chances of a woman returning to jail diminish greatly if she can find housing and secure a job. But the job has to be flexible, he said, to allow the women to attend drug court, report to probation, or go to school.

Beading bracelets, which is done at the Most Excellent Way Life Center where they live, provides flexibility and collegiality.

McGreevey introduced LeFrak to halfway house founder Gloria Walton, who agreed to help guide the women's budding entrepreneurship. The residents, often working in small groups seated around a long table, fill jewelry orders as they come in from Same Sky. The women have individualized techniques for stringing the beads and recreating patterns, and they have chosen one among them to oversee quality and have taped a prototype of each bracelet to a piece of cardboard to give less experienced crafters a visual reference to the finished product.

Laughter, music, and deep conversation sometimes happen around the table, said Walton, who described the work as meaningful, spiritual, and cathartic.

"They give themselves over to making something good and beautiful," McGreevey said.

The New Jersey women have produced about 5,000 bracelets. The income has helped some of them open savings accounts and learn to budget for the first time in their lives.

"It's a legitimate job," said Walton, who noted that one woman recently earned a $900 biweekly paycheck.

In mid-December, the Jersey City crafters will be trying something new - selling their Benefit bracelets at a rented kiosk at Newport Centre mall. A trio of bracelets, which is how the Benefit collection is sold, costs $50. The women in Jersey City have already earned $89,000 for their sisters in Rwanda.

Jewelry-maker Barbara Murray, 44, says it feels good "that I'm not doing anything to get myself in trouble. I want better."

After spending eight months in jail and two years on probation for multiple shoplifting convictions, including one at the mall where she will be selling bracelets this weekend, Murray has jokingly volunteered to be head of security at the kiosk.

"I can spot 'em," she said of would-be thieves. "And if I'm wrong, I'd be the first to say I'm sorry."

Angela Delli Santi
Associated Press


Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/loc ... .html#bQohkMAFHpr6EZxr.99

LeFrak, McGreevey aid women remaking their lives, help launch kiosk next weekend at Newport Centre Mall

By Ken Thorbourne/The Jersey Journal

Inside a minimally furnished room on the second floor of a Martin Luther King Drive walk-up in Jersey City, a group of women are continuing to remake their lives, one bead at a time.

?It means a lot for me,? Florence, a 52-year-old who was released earlier this year from the Hudson County jail, said on a recent fall morning as she strung beads onto a thin wire. ?Sometimes people have a lot of thoughts. ? This work definitely gives me a focus.?

The work, creating ?benefit bracelets? that retail for $50 a pop, is also putting money in Florence?s pocket to pay for bus fare, diabetes medication and fines that many ex-offenders owe probation departments and the courts.

Florence, who declined to give her last name, and about 15 other women represent Same Sky America, the continuation of an enterprise that was started in Rwanda in 2008 by Francine LeFrak, the Broadway producer and filmmaker and daughter of Sam LeFrak, the builder of Newport, the Jersey City waterfront community.

A few months ago, Francine LeFrak was asked by former Gov. Jim McGreevey to start the program in Jersey City. McGreevey was hired in September as executive director of the Jersey City Employment & Training Program.

This is the first domestic launch of the program, which has been credited with lifting hundreds of women out of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

READ MORE

Was there NO ONE else qualified for the job being GIVEN to McGreevey? It's amazing how some people always land on their feet ...at the taxpayers expense.

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Incorrect; in fact, after he pulled the plug he agreed so several more weeks of talks with the other parties and the only concession toward sharing the cost overruns was from the Feds, who offered low interest loans on the overrun. NY offered zilch.

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The governor cancelled the project before agreements were in place that firmly assigned responsibility for cost overruns. Instead of working on our behalf to further those agreements, he had us believe that the situation reached an impasse and New Jersey was going to be left holding the bag. That doesn't appear to be entirely accurate. A new rail tunnel is inevitable, and his premature decision wasted time and money that will never be recouped when it is finally constructed.

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Nonsense, and you're just a water carrier for that idiot in the White House. Obama didn't explain how the program would be administered-in effect, a Pelosi-like 'you have to sign onto it to find out how much it'll cost you later'. We know how that has worked out, haven't we? Much in the same way Christie refused to allow NJ taxpayer to be on the hook for any and all cost overruns on the tunnel to Macy's basement, he saved us from unknown but certainly onerous tax burdens. Thank God we have a Governor with NJ taxpayers in mind.

The expansion would have allowed many more to qualify at no additional cost to the state for several years, and only 10% of the increase afterwards.

Not gonna happen here thanks to governor fatass.

And all in some stupid hope the Tea Party idiots will vote for him.

You are correct, I should have typed Medicaid instead of Medicare originally. But the point is the same, the Tobacco settlement which was to fund Medicaid went into the general fund. The fed does horrible job in reimbursement and state who use the program always add state funds. I actually tried to help a neighbor quality for Medicaid last year, but you have to be extremely poor to quality, a way to knock people out of the program.

Also no only person i know. is somebody is doing the same is this couple they live in Audubon building 140 apartment 2-D, both they make $120,926 dollars, Efrain Melendez from Health Department salary $39,400 plus his selling back the insurance every 4 month getting back $1,000 more do the math people , and Ada Melendez whit salary $84,526 of course his wife working at board of education. how in the word they live there. OHHH i know how he told me 1 day that his the only one on contract because if he put his wife they can't live there because they make to much money together , so how is gonna fix this i guess the mayor, i hope before this going big in to the news as a fraud TOTAL SALARY $120,926. This is unbelievable, and all the time is just City employees people favors. Jersey-people please do something they should get suspended or arrested for fraud and pay all that money back

So, what's your point? You were mistakedly talking abolut Medicare, which is not the case.

Also, the expansion was being picked up 100% by the feds, so people are not getting care they could otherwise..

So, which is it? Should we be mad at the governor for not taking the cash because he is a partisan ass, or not? You were the one complaining about people not getting care.

I hope you realize Medicaid only pays a percentage, it is the reason our hospitals have closed due to excessive debt. The state as a rule kick in the rest.

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What does Medicare have to do with the state government or McGreevey? It's a fully Federal program. Medicaid is administered by the states, and Christie recently vetoes the offered expansion so he can be in good standing with the Tea-tards as he vainly goes after the presidency.

Jersey City asking council to approve $500K loan for McGreevey's jobs program

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Jersey City is asking the City Council tomorrow to authorize a $500,000 city loan so the Jersey City Employment & Training Program (JCETP) can build a new home at the Hub.

City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said the city expects the entire cost of building JCETP?s new office will be reimbursed with federal grants. But the grants won?t come until after construction begins, and the loan is necessary so the local, minority contractors who are working on the project can get paid, Morrill said.

$500,000 is the maximum the office will cost, she added.

READ MORE

This has more to do with Fulop's school board candidates than McGreevey so I reposted it there. McGreevey is his own trains wreck that we all are now paying for through out taxes.

Hah, it is happening.

First Sterling Waterman broke away and got pounded with an ethics complaint. Then Marvin Adames got his long desired promotion and beat his way back to Newark after a year. Sue Mack lost the council campaign and now on the outs trying to pick her successor. Now, Angel Valentin is tossed to the curb. The Fulop machine is closing ranks and if you try to stretch your wings it looks like you are out on your ass.

Live by the sword die by the sword. Whose next ...... No skin off my back, but my wallet. Where is the "bradleybeachbrawl" and Chief Lapdog, who also may be gone after the Mayor pads his pension.


Jersey City school board member, 3 others out at McGreevey's jobs program

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

Jersey City school board member Angel Valentin has been sacked from the Jersey City Employment & Training Program, about one month after former Gov. Jim McGreevey took over as director of the nonprofit.

Valentin, 57, was one of four JCETP workers let go last week, in a move Valentin said ?smells of politics.? The school board member was a supporter of former Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who lost his bid for re-election in May to Mayor Steve Fulop.

"I guess they wanted changes," said Valentin, who had been with the nonprofit for about 12 years.

McGreevey denied that the personnel changes were political, saying a three-person committee reviewed the nonprofit?s staff to determine whether everyone's job functions matched JCETP?s mission.

The committee made ?a professional decision,? he said.

?There was only one person in the entire agency ? focused specifically on making connections with the business community to increase and foster job opportunities,? McGreevey said.

Valentin made a $72,600 salary as grants manager for JCETP. The salaries of the four laid off workers comes to about $190,000, according to McGreevey.

Meanwhile, JCETP, with a budget of $4.2 million and a staff of 27, has hired Adam Friedman as its new deputy director, at a $93,000 salary. Friedman held the same role at Exodus Transitional Community, a Harlem nonprofit focused on prisoner re-entry.

?Adam?s goal will be to ensure that the training that we conduct is linked to actual jobs,? McGreevey said, adding that JCETP had previously wasted time training workers for jobs that don?t exist.

McGreevey said he met Friedman while the former governor was enrolled in an Episcopal seminary.

Fulop tapped McGreevey to head the JCETP, at a $110,000 salary, saying the former governor will help connect jobs to Jersey City resident and establish a new prisoner re-entry program.