More ethical lapses come dripping out of the Fulop Adminsration

The constant drip drip drip of questionable ethical decisions by Mayor Fulop's Administration, which seemingly began even before he took office continued as some previously undisclosed information has come to the fore, Matt Friedman with Politico take it away:

In March 2012, when he was a Jersey City councilman, Fulop was quoted in a Bloomberg article saying that he was quitting his job in finance to run for mayor full-time. The election was scheduled for May, 2013. But some time after the article was published, he took a job with FAPS — a car import-related business that rents space from the Port Authority.

FAPS that year was in the midst of a lease dispute with the bi-state agency.

Emails released Wednesday showed how an aide to Gov. Chris Christie and his appointee at the Port Authority in 2012 used contract negotiations with FAPS to pressure Fulop, a Democrat, to endorse Christie for re-election in 2013.

Now, the Fulop spokesperson Jennifer Morrill says the Mayor or nobody in his administration can speak on this matter because they were advised to keep their yaps shut by the U.S. Attorney's office.

If you're a long-time reader of the Jersey City Desk, you know that whether Jennifer Morrill was saying Fulop sucked for the Healy Administration or that Healy sucked with the Fulop Administration her words have to be checked out thoroughly as facts often elude her. Well guess what, the U.S. Attorney's office said Morrill's comments were, you guessed it, NOT TRUE. You'll be doing yourself a favor by going over to read the full article and see just how badly the Mayor of Jersey City sounds in all this. Mr. Open Government, Mr. Honest Guy is sure not delivering on these counts.

Mayor Fulop, Jennifer Morrill and the Administration just can't be believed anymore

Sure it's a comparatively small thing but it will go a long way to showing indeed everything being done, every personnel decision being made is done with an eye on the governor's race.

Case in point:

Mayor Steve Fulop is appointing a Ewing woman, Lizette Delgado-Polanco, who is vice chair of the New Jersey State Democratic Committee and executive director of the SEIU New Jersey State Council to the Jersey City Employment & Training Program.

Wait for it, what will she be doing with credentials like that?

city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said Delgado-Polanco will be helpful as JCETP focuses on "moving women from welfare to work."

Except she'll be making ZERO money and lives near Trenton. Suuuuure she'll be spending a lot of time in Jersey City helping those women transition. Bullshit. Why was she added? Easy, let's check:

* vice chair of the New Jersey State Democratic Committee
* executive director of the SEIU

She's heavily connected to the powerful SEIU union which Fulop will be courting as a candidate for governor. Vice chair of the Democratic Committee? Oh come on! This has very very little to do with improving the lives of anyone other than Steve Fulop and sadly that's how Jersey City is run anymore. Everything is a political decision made to improve Fulop's own chances, the mystery people walking around city hall you can't find on any official record of being employees are doing nothing but laying the groundwork for Fulop to run for governor.

Neither Fulop not Morrill or anyone carrying water for the administration can have anything taken at face value. They have so abused the trust of Jersey City residents and taxpayers.

Does anyone now think Mayor Fulop has any kind of grasp on the JCPD?

Early Father's Day there was a shooting at Mercer Park (and pay attention this gets confusing) which is technically located in Bayonne but right across the street is Jersey City where most of those who use the park come from. The park was hosting an annual block party for Jersey City residents at the time of the shootings. Jersey City PD were the first to respond. Two 15 year-old boys were shot during the melee.

This is what nobody disagrees with.

Then as Terrence T. McDonald tells us, then things get weird. The cities of Bayonne and Jersey City both spent time saying it was the others' job to investigate. Details of the shooting have been withheld far longer than the usual crime info. In fact McDonald was told by Steve Fulop's spokesperson Jennifer Morrill (more on her in a bit) he'd need to file a freedom of information filing to get any info about this particular shooting. We're guessing it's because of one of several reasons, and it could be a bit of all of them; secrecy, further political ambitions, embarrassment at how it was handled etc,. Despite what Mayor Fulop says shootings and crime to any Jersey City resident with eyes and ears is trending badly. Fulop likes to point to graphs and charts to show crime has dipped in this metric or that park area, but that have little to do with real-world policing and keeping citizens safe. Whatever helps him sleep at night. Which brings us to the woman who was FIRED for giving updates on Jersey City police actions as was her JOB. Carly Baldwin gave an update since the JCPD were first on the scene but Mayor Fulop said she should have deferred on any statement to Bayonne PD. See what he's doing there? Firing someone who won't cower to his wants AND he tries to push this off on Bayonne so as not to scuff his gubernatorial cred (of which he has none but that's for another post). Yes, Carly Baldwin was fired for doing her job.

Oh we're not done, the utter confusion of what goes on with the JCPD and Fulop's lack of knowledge of it was never on better display than when Jennifer Morrill had to step up and answer FOR a stumbling Fulop:

Though the article you'll read has been updated it had a section that read as follows:

On Tuesday, at an event at Liberty State Park, The Jersey Journal asked Shea and Fulop why Baldwin hadn't been responding to inquiries about police or fire incidents as usual. Morrill stepped in to say Baldwin "is off right now." 

Morrill stepped in to say. Isn't that great Jersey City? Our mayor is asked a hard question and he needs Jennifer Morrill to jump in and shield him from the press. Remember, Steve Fulop does NOT want to talk to you or answer your questions. he only wants to show up and restaurant opening and talk with the Wall Street Journal editorial board. Morrill you'll also note didn't answer the question honestly. She knew buy then Baldwin had been let go. Nothing like expediency eh Ms. Morrill?

So Mayor Fulop, or more than likely Jennifer Morrill, what did Steve Fulop know about the JCPD sergeant's DUI in Robbinsville and did the mayor help cover it up or in any way make it go away?

Either way Mayor Fulop has been shown to be in FAR over his head when it come to crime and the oversight of the good men and women in the JCPD. Click on this link to see the Jersey Journal's scathing front page today over Fulop's mishandling of this situation.

A Jersey City fire inspector got what you may call an 'unhappy finish'

Phillip Procaccino was a Jersey City fire inspector with the key word in that sentence being "was." Procaccino it turns out was taking bribes from massage parlors in order to receive occupancy certificates and would also tip off the owners of the joy houses when any kind of inspection was coming, whether it be from police or other city officials so they might hide any evidence of what was really going on at the sites. Procaccino, had previously worked as a zoning inspector for the Jersey City Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce's Zoning Division, so one might say he's one of those city employees who was a jack of all trades yet master of none. When asked about his long service to the city, Jersey City spokespersona Jennifer Morrill had this to say:

"Procaccino was a long-time city employee hired by the previous administration who worked in various departments.''

An unhappy finish all the way around then...

What is dead may never die -- Jersey City Parking Authority to be folded into the city government

Once a state board looking at the question as to whether or not Mayor Steve Fulop could move to roll the Jersey City Parking Authority into the auspices of city government (currently the JCPA is an autonomous agency) said he could, the JCPA's days were numbered. All Fulop needs now is a vote of city council, of which he's got more than enough support, and JCPA becomes city property. 

Current chair of the JCPA’s board of commissioners John Tarantula said taking away autonomy for the 65-year old department was a "big mistake" and "political payback" since the JCPA supported then-Mayor Healy in the last mayoral election.

“I believe they want to lay everybody off and rehire who they want to,” Tarantula said.

Longtime city spokesmodel Jennifer Morrill said Tarantula's comments were “ignorant and self-serving.”

While we agree with Mayor Fulop in rolling the department into the city government makes good economic sense, we do have issues with Ms. Morrill's comments. “Ignorant and self-serving.”? Did you forget who you worked for until last May Ms. Morrill? Jerry Healy. Now you want to say others are making “ignorant and self-serving.” comments?

Pot meet kettle.

We figured the Jersey City reval cancellation papers were lost in the mail but no, they haven't been sent

A big topic in the last mayoral race was about the property tax reval that former mayor Healy approved and candidate Fulop said he'd stop.

Just to be clear and as you'll read in the article by our friend Terrence T at the Jersey Journal, Mayor Fulop can't wave his magic scepter (Yes the one Boss Hague used to beat freely given contributions from his bannermen) and the reval goes away. There is copious paperwork and the request must be filed with the county yada yada yada...

But according to Jersey City Spokesperson-for-Life Jennifer Morrill (As always we kid, we respect the job you do) Fulop hasn't petitioned for approval for the cancellation. When asked why Morrill declined to comment.

Hmmmm.

The Jersey Journal said nobody seemed sure about the way forward on this:

It’s not clear what happens if Jersey City never petitions the county to halt the reval. Kennelly referred The Jersey Journal to the state Division of Taxation, whose spokesman did not return a request for comment.

We're hopeful at this point Mr. Fulop will file the proper paperwork (Don't be like Governor Christie and lose out because incomplete papers were filed) and this mess gets cancelled. If you own property downtown you'd better read the last third of the article. You'd stand to lose more than chump change if the reval continues.

Come on Mr. Mayor, be clear as to what we're doing as a city on this. Some people want to make long term decisions property-wise and having this hand grenade sitting downtown won't help the new campaign to pull people and businesses from the shoulder to the wheel borough of Brooklyn (save this link for home friends).