Jersey City councilwoman resigns, will turn focus to personal health and family responsibilities

Friday, February 04, 2011
By TERRENCE T. McDONALD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City Councilwoman at large Willie Flood resigned from the City Council on Wednesday, and Mayor Jerramiah Healy has recommended the council appoint a Jersey City attorney who works for the county to take her place.

In her resignation letter, Flood said her decision stems from a desire to "focus on my personal health, family, and other responsibilities."

Flood, 71, had served as a councilwoman at large since 2005, when she narrowly won election against three opponents. Previously, she served on the council for three years after being appointed in 1990 to fill a vacant seat.

Calls placed to Flood's cell phone and to her county office - she serves as county register - were not returned. Flood's term as register expires in December.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy yesterday thanked Flood for her years of service, calling her a "great advocate" for Jersey City.

"We are grateful for her hard work and dedication," Healy said in a statement.

Flood hails from Greensboro, Ala., where she knew Martin Luther King Jr.

In 2005, she told The Jersey Journal that King asked her family to participate in the Montgomery bus boycott in the 1950s, and they "followed him like he was the Pied Piper."

After moving to Jersey City, Flood became an elementary school teacher for the public schools, eventually becoming assistant principal of the Whitney M. Young Jr. School.

Flood's tenure as a councilwoman, for which she earns around $30,000, has not been without controversy.

Spurred by reports in The Jersey Journal in 2007, Fox 5's Arnold Diaz inducted Flood into his "Hall of Shame" for hiring her son, Phillip T. Flood II, both in her county office and as a council aide.

Diaz, along with a Jersey Journal reporter, chased Flood and her son from City Hall's second floor to the rear parking lot in December 2008 to get a comment. The following month, Flood's son - who has had several brushes with law enforcement - resigned as her council aide, but kept the county job.

The City Council has 30 days to fill Flood's seat. If it doesn't, the seat will remain vacant until a special election in November.

If the council approves Healy's recommendation, attorney Kalimah Ahmad, she will have to run and win in November to serve the remainder of Flood's term, which expires June 30, 2013.

Willie Flood did " A HECKUVA JOB "

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That's awesome.

I hope someone watches her son. He's taken advantage of his mom's "power."

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Well from what the Politicker article stated, she will not be looking to run for re-election in November.

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Jersey City Councilwoman Willie Flood resigned abruptly from the council yesterday because she wants to "focus on my family," she wrote in a letter to Council President Peter Brennan and Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

The letter states Flood had a "lengthy deliberation and consultation" with her family.

"Over the past six years, it has been an honor and privilege to serve the people of Jersey City," Flood writes in her letter.

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

This is such a bad joke. The woman is incapacitated and probably didn't write the letter. And the truth is; although she might be a nice person, she has been an incompetent hack for over 30 years and will continue to pick up a paycheck as Count Registrar even though she is incapable of performing the duties. Hudson County government at its worst. Where's the transparency ??!!

this is sad ... those times i made to the council meetings, she added entertainment value ...

since the last election, we have now lost three (s)elected councilpersons ... hmmm

I heard she is suffering from being an unqualified ghetto hood rat!!!!

And I'm sure she will.... right after she is re-elected in November.

What about her County Register job ? If she is incapable of fulfilling her duties as City Council person for health reasons she should resign her County job as well.

dementia could come in handy when she is exposed of what she was really up to for the past 5 years!

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What I want to know is, how is it possible for the Mayor to nominate someone with even sending a public announcement to listen to candidates?

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My understanding is that Ms. Flood is suffering from dementia. That's why she missed all those meetings. She should have been replaced months ago.

I'm amazed how one egocentric council-woman was convinced to forgo her position for another egocentric.
The damage is what is willie up to and what has been promised for her!

Politicker NJ gave the scoop on this at 10am and the Jersey Journal seems to just have waited to print the story that City Hall wanted them to print. Funny how Healy and his buddies already had someone lined up to be a "Yes sir" type!

http://www.politickernj.com/back_room/jc-s-willie-flood-step-down