The Jersey City Council will vote on waivers for eight city employees who live elsewhere in order to comply with local residency rules for department directors and other key municipal positions at tomorrow’s meeting.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Towards the tail end of yesterday’s nearly four-and-a-half hour caucus, Council President Denise Ridley noted that the list originally had nine people, but Juanita Dhlamini no longer works for the city.
Acting Business Administrator Peter Horton said the administration compiled the list using the last records from the Human Resources Department, but they would update the resolution as needed.
“Now how does this work: You can get hired by the city, you have a certain amount of years you can live in this city, and then you can move out, correct?” questioned Councilman at-Large Michael Griffin.
“Because I’m looking at some people on this list and they’ve been working for the city for like 30 years.”
Corporation Counsel Sarah Levine said that the Law Department does not believe there is any grandfather clause as it pertains to the residency ordinance in question.
“So that’s now the case councilman on the face of the ordinance, which is our local law: There is no grandfathering provision, there is no express period of service after which you are de facto to have considered a waiver,” she explained.
“My best assessment is that this is a provision of our municipal code that has been long neglected and that there were not meaningful efforts to comply with it previously. I say that because I have searched iCompass for waiver resolutions for directors, employees who were hired in years prior to my tenure here who seem to have not sought or obtained a waiver.”
She added that for those reasons, she felt that this was simply complying with the local law, which the governing body has the ability to change if they see fit.
Horton added that this does not apply to every single municipal employee, but instead only to directors and certain statutory employees such as judges, the city clerk, tax collector, tax assessor, mayor, council members, and council aides.
Last week, only HCV reported that Jersey City would seek waivers for at least three top officials, including Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose, Health and Human Service Director Linda Ivory-Green, and City Clerk Sean Gallagher.
All three are included in the resolution, as are Deputy City Clerk Amanda Bransky; Carissa Cunningham, an aide to Ward B Councilman Joel Brooks; Tax Collector Trisha Greco, Tom Hurley, an aide to Ward C Councilman Tom Zuppa; and Darren Jones, an aide to Griffin.
Councilman at-Large Rolando Lavarro jokingly asked if the governing body could do a line item vote on each person included on the list, prompting Gallagher to respond: “You cannot do that, if you try it, you will be dismissed.”
“I will defer to our esteemed Parliamentarian on that point,” Levine added.
On a serious note, she pointed out that the employees included in this list are the same employees included in the salary range ordinance approved by the council last month.
” … If you’re an employee that was not in one of these positions, but was elevated to this position, it wouldn’t have applied to you previously, so you could’ve been here 25, 30 years, and once you get appointed, now it suddenly applies to you,” Horton stated.
“That applied to me for many, many years because I was a deputy for 18 years, but anyway,” Gallagher expressed.
“We’ll consider it Sean,” Ridley joked. “I appreciate it,” Gallagher answered, noting he spent 26 years as a city resident.
After Levine noted that there is no way to essentially enact tenure to override the local rule, Gallagher said he thinks he has Lavarro on the record saying an exception was made for him when he was first appointed, gladly offering to get the transcript if needed.
The Jersey City Council will convene for their regular meeting tomorrow at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 280 Grove St., and the public session will also stream live on Microsoft Teams.
