If only the mayor had any credibility in taking about the JCPD

It sure sounds like Steve Fulop's Public Safety Director (nee Jersey City's) James Shea was told about the possibility for the very abuses that have landed dozens of JCPD in trouble with the FBI for no-show stand around jobs by former JCPD Chief Robert Cowan. Cowan is said to have circulated a letter pointing out the vulnerabilities of the program but Public Safety Director and Jersey City spokespeople are saying the letter wasn't dated so there's no ay of knowing when it was created. Those inside the department however say they did indeed see the memo in 2013, when Cowan said it was written.

Plenty more on this from Terrence T. McDonald but well get you fired up to read with story with this clip:

In a statement to The Jersey Journal, Cowan said Zacche's actions left some of Jersey City's poorest residents vulnerable.

"Fulop and Shea's ignoring of my recommendations also provided tacit approval for the small percentage of corrupt minded politically connected police supervisors and officers to continue fleecing the taxpayers at the expense of the safety of the citizens these corrupt officers are sworn to protect and serve," Cowan said.

Petty and we don't mean Tom

Petty, somehow entitled, and certainly not as he seems. That's Johnny's take on Mayor Fulop's petty swipe at the $500K set to go to Friend's of Loew's before the Hudson County Board of Freeholders took Fulop's side and took 300K of the 500K and gave it to the city. By the way and quickly, nice job Freeholders your motives in this can now easily be questioned and your future actions either will or will not show us why you voted as you did yesterday. Go ahead, cozy up to the mayor.

Johnny does a lot of research. Probably more than 99% of people. He can't find a single mention by Mayor Fulop he planned to "repurpose" that 500K set to go to Loew's BEFORE he lost the court case that would have taken over Loew's and made Jersey City the de-facto owners. Fulop would then have been free to bring in his own "consulting groups" at your cost JC, and other promoters at your cost JC to see what was needed for HIS vision of Loew's and what should play there. Let's lay our cards on the table. Johnny often feels frustration with FoL as well. They need to get on the hop. We realize funds are tight and we realize Fulop and the HC BoF knee-capped you but you have had time. Luckily for you a judge saw the agreement the city signed with Loew's to be legal. We also understand you had met the bullet points of what the city was looking for in their pretty much invented outrage to use as cover for taking $300 of the $500K away from you. Still, it's been 30 years. Find a sugar daddy or take on partners. Your deal with the city lasts only so long.

Now, Fulop makes no mention of the "repurposing" of any of the $500K until the judge rightly ruled the city signed the agreement, just because Fulop was having kittens sideways doesn't invalidate it. Suddenly after the court case he's all about cutting the funds. That's sheer pettiness. We've seen it before though haven't we? We've seen it with the JCPD, we've seen it with who gets run out of Dodge for speaking out while others "Allegedly" commit crimes and stay on council with nary a peep from the mayor. A former Police Chief says Fulop covered up a JCPD sergeant's DUI. Some departments are gutted while others go unchecked. Wonder who chooses and why. A petty double standard. We saw it with when Fulop really did pull a Conehead Chris Christie traffic study move by ordering traffic snarled TWICE out of entitlement, pettiness or some other malady. Some of the people online are starting to wake up to this guy and whom he claims to be. Sure, murals are nice. Doesn't help commuters. With the way you've worked with the asshats at the Port Authority there's been one supposedly not related no weekends for a year at Exchange Place. With all the tax money you're giving away so downtown can be overrun by now mostly renters we don't imagine the PA would take a call for more train service from you. How's our lawsuit against them going? Haven't heard much on that lately. We should be kabillionaires by now, no?

Letters recently were sent about protecting Liberty State Park from the new developer friendly bill all the rage with idiots who want to carve out pieces of a Jersey City jewel. Know who wrote to support Liberty State Park from the Fulop Administration? Nobody. State Senator Steve Sweeney did. State Senator Sandra Cunningham did. Where was Fulop? Oh that's right, he wants to place an F1 racing track on part of LSP. No wonder he wouldn't be there protecting OUR park. Entitlement thy name is Steve Fulop.

Petty, entitled, and not as he wants to seem.

Failing grades for Mayor Fulop on communications and crime -- UPDATED!

Disappointment, thy name is Steve Fulop, Mayor of Jersey City.

First, and this is an issue we've had to bring up before and trust us, we don't like to bag on Jersey City, we don't. We'd love to be positive and uplifting each and every day. Today we just can't. Despite what the mayor says, hiding in another one-way discussion on Facebook, crime is bad in our city. You can use any metric you want to Mr. Mayor to say it's "trending down" which tells us it's still far too fucking high. You made promises as a candidate to approach crime differently. What we've seen thus far is you appointing a police chief, getting rid of him, fighting him in court and, quite possibly, according to court documents you covered for a Jersey City cop's DUI to get the police union behind you again and basically made a hash of the JCPD. It's a mess. Johnny talks to cops on the street, he hears things. Let's just say, things are not good from the top down in the JCPD. It starts at the top with the guy more interested in pulling strings like a marionette rather than fully going after crime. When one is running for governor without saying so these kinds of "How will this look a year or two out on the campaign trail" questionable decisions get made. That is no way to police what will be New Jersey's largest city after the next census. There are at least ten cops downtown standing around construction sites picking their noses and sleeping in their cars (Johnny has pics of course or he wouldn't make that claim). Hey, there's an idea. Mayor Fulop promised the police would no longer be handling these lazy, easy stand-around jobs when he took office. He said a citizen group would handle this and get more cops out there, you know, TO FIGHT CRIME. Yeah, you're transforming the police, sure you are. If Johnny was Mayor those ten cops would be in a car patrolling The Heights or Greenville. Why didn't Mayor Healy have these same problems you ask? He wasn't secretly running for governor. As bad as he was he took crime seriously and met with the press when things went wrong. Which brings us to our next point;

Facebook is for cowards. Not for sharing pics of a night out or a day at the lake or some old kids pictures on a Throwback Thursday, it's fine for that. It's NOT fine however to hold one-way discussions with the citizens when people in your city are being shot. First, not everyone is on Facebook. Johnny for one gave it up four years ago. Here's a hint Mayor, hold press conferences, don't just send out Jennifer Morrill to say what you mean. Don't shy away from tough questions. You don't hold press conferences. How many press conferences have you held with someone not named the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board in NYC? We know from the Jersey Journal they have to pull teeth to get any schedule information or any info from your office. You're not communicating with your residents, you're simply not. Using a press mouthpiece and hiding on Facebook are unacceptable. At least for those of us Jersey City residents who expect more it is, just maybe not for all the advisors you've managed to sprinkle into city jobs, performing perfunctory half-measures just to keep them around you for your Drumthwackett run.

School's out for the summer Mr. Fulop and your report card isn't looking too good;
Communication D
Crime D
Marked improvements will be expected going forward. Have a nice summer Steve!

UPDATE 9:57 AM -- As to Johnny's point about the cops unnecessarily standing around construction sites, the JCPD cop smoking cigars in the middle of the street today with Mill Creek workers really drove that point home. Enjoy your smokes officer, it looks so good to see your commitment...to cigars.

A Jersey City Desk Editorial -- Mayor Fulop, What?

Where to begin. Let's start with yesterday's news that our Mayor Steve Fulop seems to spend more time  setting up staff to run for governor than he does changing Jersey City and certainly following up his campaign promises. We've learned since he took office he secretly was making deals with a developer that would have given a chunk of Liberty State Park away for an F1 track. Yeah, that's pretty un-green of you Mayor. Know what else is un-green? Your downtown. More and more every day. Sure, you can stick a tree or two in a planter or put in a hedgerow and count as a green "initiative' but the eyes know different. We're still giving away huge tax breaks like Johnny Appleseed downtown, something Councilman Fulop railed against. He screamed bloody murder about the building going up at 110 First St. Watch him be the first in line to shake Lloyd Goldman's hand when he gets out of his limo at the opening. What's going on in the Heights? We've seen plans and talk in Journal Square, much like we did for all those years under Mayor Healy. Speaking of the former Mayor, let us not forget the economic boom downtown and the monies the city is taking in were started under him. Someone's not exactly being honest about the uptick on that. Alas, that money goes away sooner rather than later, and some of the first abatements that were set up downtown under former Mayor Healy are a mere ten years away from expiring, what is the plan for those who are suddenly going to not be able to afford what once was a dream? Without affordable housing downtown, which builders all agree to then they get the process going and tell the City Planners "Fuck off the poors can go elsewhere" the divide between downtown and everywhere in Jersey City not named downtown is going to grow and grow. Is that the plan, to let this happen? But, the current mayor is busy getting ready to run for governor and is concentrating his efforts not on Jersey City but on making sure the right people are in Jersey City government, (hey they even do some work city related too) that will help him on his "I Heart Drumthwacket" 2016 tour. Sure, maybe they do some work on city business, but at full on attention that we'd expect for our tax money? Imagine, just imagine if all the energy Mr. Fulop showed in his city council days as well as his run for mayor were put back into Jersey City at 100%. Just imagine the kind of mayor we could have had. Imagine Mr. Fulop's time not spend pandering to county and other city Democratic power brokers and attending fundraisers were spent on, well, US.

Another disturbing story this morning from Terrence T. McDonald at the Jersey Journal. Our mayor, according the the story personally told former Police Chief Robert Cowan to stop investigating a Jersey City police sergeant for being REALLY drunk while driving. The video we've linked to is awful. When Cowan found out that Robbinsville PD had extended Sgt. Vincent Corso a "professional courtesy" ride home and no mention because you can't drive drunk but cops can Cowan was mad and wanted internal affairs on it. But, OUR Mayor and Public-Safety Director James Shea according to reports:

Cowan alleges that Fulop repeatedly asked him to "get rid" of an internal affairs investigation into the January 2014 incident, and when he wouldn't, Fulop and Shea moved to put the internal affairs unit under Shea's control instead of Cowan's.

Mr. Fulop, as the former victim of a drunk driver, run down from behind on his bicycle which cost Johnny a shattered elbow, a nice gash across his chin and a few teeth, if you in any way shape or form intervened as to not get this officer in trouble after he was clearly driving intoxicated then you're an asshole. Yes, asshole. Yeah, that's why this is called an editorial. The police force has become an utter hash it would seem since Mayor Fulop took charge. Crime goes on as it has lo these many decades and all we hear are the internal squabbles and petty power plays going on around city hall with regards to our police force. Not your police force Mr. Mayor, OUR police force. We'd love to see the Jersey Journal run a poll and ask if the citizens of our fair city had the same faith in you running the JCPD as they did when Mr. Healy ran it.

So yes, Mayor Fulop, what? It's obvious you have already set your mind to bigger offices than the one you have or the whirlwind that was candidate Fulop, with seven councilmembers on his side could have done amazing things. Fun runs and ribbon cuttings at the odd small shop are great but if you want to run for governor you need some big ideas, bigger than the ones you're ignoring in Jersey City right now you once couldn't wait to tackle.

Quite the bombshell this morning, and it goes off next to the Mayor

The Jersey City Daily posted a link on Twitter that helps show a mayor obsessed with fighting the Port Authority. Former Jersey City Police Chief Robert Cowan noted in court documents that though he had only recently assumed command, he said in Superior court documents that a top Fulop staffer told him exactly how they were going to try and "to obtain leverage against the Port Authority," and in doing so Cowan said, he saw illegal actions taking place:

Cowan's complaint in Hudson County Superior Court describes a meeting on Nov. 4, 2013, in which the mayor's chief of staff "issued an unlawful order to Cowan, instructing Cowan to establish a traffic stop (looking for seat belt violations) with the intent of shutting down traffic outside of the Holland Tunnel."

In fact Cowan said it wasn't just seat belts at the Holland Tunnel that had the mayor focused like a laser on the PA (Johnny's words), no, it gets much more vindictive, read on citizen:

Fulop's office nevertheless called Cowan in a week later to discuss plans for a traffic stop meant to check trucks coming out of the Port Jersey Global Container Terminal, according to the complaint.

When Cowan balked again, Fulop's allegedly responded with, "this is not a negotiation, I am telling you to do this."

Cowan says the truck stops at the terminal occurred on Nov. 18 and Nov. 18 but that he shut the traffic stop down because he perceived that the back-up it caused was "hazardous and a misuse of police resources."

An "angered" Fulop allegedly called for another stop to harass the Port Authority, but Cowan says he told the mayor "that his instructions were unlawful."

"Fulop became visibly angry and reminded Cowan: 'you serve at my pleasure' threatening that Fulop could remove Cowan as chief if he so desired," the complaint states.

So ladies and jellyspoons, Mr. Steve Fulop, Mayor of Jersey City and so obsessed with getting leverage over the Port Authority he's willing to make orders his police chief finds illegal on their face.

If this is true, and outside the city denying the overall lawsuit filed by Cowan, nobody in the Fulop administration has denied these comments, then we as a city have a problem. A egotistical "I'm never wrong problem" in our city. An "I'm willing to do whatever I want laws be damned" problem. Sure the Port Authority are assholes. Sure they rip us off daily. But we'd expect more from the mayor of Jersey City over this. Much more.

JCPD is sued; claims of retaliation over support for the mayor come to the fore

When Mayor Fulop shockingly demoted his choice to lead the Jersey City Police Department after a year, Fulop claimed it was because Chief Robert Cowan has created a toxic workplace and the city had far too many lawsuits under of his leadership.

Make that one more lawsuit, only this one is from police Lt. David Goldrich who says the new chief, Philip Zacche is doing exactly what the mayor claims Cowan was doing AND claims support of the mayor and his policies is of the utmost importance:

Yesterday, The Jersey Journal reported on a separate lawsuit filed by a current police lieutenant and a retired captain who are allies of Cowan and allege Zacche warned them after he replaced Cowan as chief that they had the "bubba stink."

Fulop, Zacche, Connors, Public Safety Director James Shea and Business Administrator Robert Kakoleski are all named as defendants in the suit. Goldrich alleges they violated his federal and state constitutional rights. He is seeking more than $100,000 in damages.

Jennifer Morrill who is usually not at a loss for words on the city's behalf had nothing to say when asked. Just the boilerplate "we don't talk about lawsuits against us."

Goldrich says he did donate $1200 to Fulop's campaign yet decided against further support after Fulop drop kicked Cowman so shockingly down the ranks. He says that's when the trouble started.

There's a lot to read here and a lot to think about. The Jersey City Police have been a mess under Mayor Fulop's time in office. No continuity, no follow through on certain police issues he said he's tackle, and now this. A mess of his own making it would seem.