Jersey City Redevelopment cites pay-to-play violation in letter to designated developer of City Hall annex

Friday, June 11, 2010
By MELISSA HAYES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency could void a multimillion-dollar contract for a City Hall annex because the developer violated the city's pay-to-play law.

The JCRA dashed off a letter to Robert Pimienta of JC-Impact LLC saying that after The Jersey Journal reported that the Impact Political Action Committee, based in the same Hackensack office as the LLC, made a $1,500 contribution to Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop.

Impact-JC LLC is the designated redeveloper of a parcel of land off Skinner Memorial Drive where the city hopes to construct a City Hall Annex that would include 120,000 square feet of office space, a 1,200-space parking garage and 50,000 square feet of retail.

The city's pay-to-play law prohibits businesses and individuals who do business with the city from donating more than $300 to a candidate or $500 to a joint action committee.

"There are severe penalties under the ordinance which include the remedies for a breach of the terms of the applicable redevelopment agreement and disqualification from eligibility for future redevelopment agreements for a period of four calendar years from the state of violation," JCRA John Curley wrote to Pimienta on June 4.

Pimienta and Fulop both maintain that the donation did not come from Impact the company, or the Impact PAC - even though Fulop did return the dough.

The donation, they maintain, was from the "Public Awareness PAC," but the confusion came about because it was accompanied by a letter from Pimienta.

"While the donation may not be from Impact, technically, the letter it came in was from Impact so I filed it as Impact," Fulop said. "Our office doesn't play in technicalities so I returned the check."

Pimienta said a request was made for a donation to Fulop, but Impact did not send one.

He said Public Awareness PAC, which he is not a member of but is familiar with, wanted to donate to Fulop and he didn't see the harm in forwarding the check. He was unaware of the solicitation clause in the city's pay-to-play law.

"There's no malice intended," he said.

Fulop was among eight City Council members to vote May 12 in favor of a resolution authoring a second amendment to Impact-JC LLC's contract, allocating $2.6 million for work on the site.