Kevin Davis, a member of Bike Hoboken, said the local city council should ask Jersey City Councilwoman-at-Large Amy DeGise to resign after a number of unflattering stories have come to light after her July 19th hit-and-run.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Now the Jersey City Chappaquiddick scandal was the Jersey City councilwoman hit-and-run, six hours later waited to call the police. And normally of the mind that I don’t demand that elected officials resign. My opinion, which I’ve stated sometimes before, is if you break it, you buy it,” Kevin Davis told the Hoboken City Council at Wednesday evening’s meeting.
“If you made a mistake by voting for the wrong elected official, sorry, you gotta wait for the next election. But my exception for this is extraordinarily bad conduct or unethical conduct from elected officials.”
Davis continued that while we could wait to see what happens in court, multiple other stories of DeGise “abusing her power” have come out since, beginning with a November incident right in the Mile Square City.
DeGise had her car towed near 9th and Monroe Streets on November 19th for parking in an illegal spot and having registration that expired back in 2019, as HCV first reported.
The police body camera footage of the incident went viral, with over 600,000 views across all platforms, showing DeGise attempt to pull rank and drop a name to get out of the tow, though Police Officer Ramon Calderon wasn’t having it.
“I’d like to salute the police officer who didn’t cave in to those demands: this police officer followed the law. So that came out … it came out she’s living in an apartment with rent restriction – she makes more than that. There’s a general pattern of her using her position now to abuse her power.”
Another resident, Paul Presinzano, briefly addressed the towing incident, stating that it was troubling someone in power thought they could call the mayor’s office for a favor even if it was not granted. Like Davis, he also praised Calderon’s professionalism.
” … I want to commend Officer Calderon for the professionalism and calmness on that video … Thank you Chief Aguiar and Director Ferrante, it shows that despite the negative news of recent, that not all police are bad. Officer Calderon demonstrated the quality of the men and women that protect Hoboken and I wanted to thank them.”
Their remarks came before another scathing report from The Jersey Journal hit yesterday, highlighting DeGise’s driving record, which includes five suspension orders from the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission between 2010 and 2012.
Davis, who also attended the first and so far only rally in Jersey City calling on DeGise to resign, concluded by stating his elected municipal officials should do the same.
“Her behavior was inappropriate and I’m just a dude, I can say she should resign and it doesn’t really make any news. But if you guys individually said ‘I councilperson such and such think that Councilwoman Amy DeGise should resign because her behavior is inappropriate for an elected official’ I think that would make a huge impact.”
No one on the dais took Davis up on his offer in the moment, this far making Jersey City Councilmen James Solomon and Frank “Educational” Gilmore the only municipal officials asking for DeGise to step down after CCTV video of the hit-and-run was released.
Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said the hit-and-run “is behavior that’s unacceptable” earlier this month, but stopped short of calling for a resignation.
In the event that DeGise doesn’t vacate her seat voluntarily, a recall next year would take a massive grassroots effort since 42,523 valid signatures would be required, according to Jersey City Clerk Sean Gallagher.
The Jersey City Council meets for the first time since the incident for the caucus on Monday at 10 a.m. and then Wednesday for a regular session at 6 p.m. They will convene at City Hall, 280 Grove St.