LETTER: Solomon needs to ‘clean house’ at Jersey City City Hall in light of deficit

In a letter to the editor, Jersey City resident Dan Levin expresses that Mayor James Solomon needs to “clean house” at City Hall in light of the city’s financial crisis.

Dear Editor,

On January 15th, James Solomon was inaugurated as mayor of Jersey City and his administration will take over after 12 years of his predecessor Steven Fulop.

Mere weeks later on February 4th, Mayor Solomon disclosed a massive $250m+ deficit calling it the largest financial crisis in city history and laid the blame squarely on former Mayor Fulop.

While the deficit is extraordinary since it occurred after the greatest economic expansion of our lifetimes followed by the federal government raining Covid funds on cities and we can appreciate the disclosure and transparency from the new administration, but placing the blame solely on Mayor Fulop is disingenuous as many people in his administrations, city government, and city boards and commissions acted on his behalf of or supported his actions, efforts and initiatives.

The initial transparency and announcement of a series of community meetings by Mayor Solomon is a good first step as is initiating the process of seeking state assistance.

However, there also needs to be plans forthcoming that include a combination of not just the state financing and refinancing of debt but furloughs and layoffs, restructuring and streamlining of staff, service cuts, tax increases and the property tax revaluation that again is overdue.

Accountability is needed to move forward. There are numerous people who supported and executed the financial shenanigans pushed by Mayor Fulop and were complicit at minimum or worse.

Initially, Mayor Solomon established and filled out transition teams for his administration that surprisingly included many seemingly hardcore supporters or sycophants from the prior Fulop administrations.

At first glance, it might appear that this could have been done to ensure a smooth transition and buy-in from the previous administration.

However, in light of deficit disclosure, one might believe that it is time to clean house, instead of bringing many of the same people who were party to or contributed to the deficit into the new administration.

Others on the city council, city department heads and staff, heads of semi- autonomous agencies and their appointed boards along with staff and appointed municipal boards all had a hand in creating the deficit against a favorable economic environment.

Some left direct city employment for golden parachutes.

For example, one former councilperson that supported Mayor Fulop’s initiatives in lock step was appointed to the newly created position of Executive Director of the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation and his former business administrator was appointed Executive Director of Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority.

There are numerous of these sycophants serving on appointed boards and commissions for the city.

During his campaign then Councilman Solomon talked about the corruption tax on Jersey City residents and was quoted saying “we need to bring real change to Jersey City and that starts with strident anti-corruption policies that ensure accountability and trust in government.”

While he may not have anticipated how bad it was or how soon he would need to act, he now has the opportunity to follow through on accountability.

Sincerely,

Dan Levin
Jersey City resident