Jersey City Public Safety Director James Shea attended this afternoon’s council caucus meeting ahead of an anticipated vote of no confidence via a resolution sponsored by Ward F Councilman Frank “Educational” Gilmore.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
“We’ve sent the emails, he hasn’t responded. At this point, we’ll move forward with the vote of no confidence, the issues have been laid out for years and part of the problem is that the power is taken out of the council’s hands when each director has not come back up for re-appointment,” Gilmore said.
“Constituents are calling as it relates to traffic issues, a particular fire station is not open, brownouts, all types of public safety issues. We’re emailing the proper personnel to get responses and we can’t get responses.”
Echoing what he said in a January letter to the editor, Councilman-at-Large Daniel Rivera was critical of fire response times, while Ward C Councilman Rich Boggiano expressed displeasure with ongoing traffic issues.
“I’ve been emailing the public safety director for over three years asking about crossing guards,” he explained.
“We asked for an itemized budget when we spent upwards of $20, $30 million. We still have not gotten that itemized budget,” Gilmore declared.
Boggiano added that a lot of the traffic issues are because there aren’t enough police officers, claiming upwards of 300 more officers used to be assigned to street duty.
“I think it goes a lot higher in the administration too. They have to start paying attention to the problems people are complaining about,” he added.
Boggiano later said that the Law Department was supposed to arrange a meeting with public safety personnel that never happened, to which Council President Joyce Watterman said it was time to get everything out in the open.
” … That’s why I’m keeping him here: To finalize this once and for all, I’m tired of this keep coming back up,” she said.
“We did have the closed session. But it’s not for us to schedule any of the meetings. Director Shea did say he would make himself available,” replied Acting Corporation Counsel Brittany Murray, to which Business Administrator John Metro concurred.
Gilmore said that Boggiano had asked for a meeting outside of closed session, including a one-on-one with Shea, which never materialized. Metro replied that he would make it happen if he put the request in an email.
“The council has a right to do a vote of no confidence but that would be more akin to a censure, yes? The other thing we could do is request a hearing,” Ward B Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey noted.
“If you wanted to do a removal, you’d have to give notice for a hearing, and then a vote,” Murray said.
“So what’s being considered is more akin to a censure?” Prinz-Arey repeated, to which Murray said she was correct.
Gilmore again expressed dismay about the ongoing public safety issues while “our taxes have tripled” and said he wanted to move forward with the vote of no confidence.
“Would it be possible to get the data regarding how many moving violations have been given out through the city?” Ward D Councilman Yousef Saleh asked.
“Absolutely, requests to me need to come through the business administrator. I don’t know how many times I’ve said that in front of here … We don’t do individual requests to subordinates. We all have a chain of command … That is the statutory way it’s supposed to be done,” Shea argued.
While Murray said Shea is correct and that is state law, Ward A Councilwoman Denise Ridley said procedures and protocols need to be consistent.
“I think the issue is we need to get one set way of doing things, right, because most directors, you contact them, you email them directly, and then it’s done, right?,” she said,
“So that doesn’t mean what Director Shea is saying is wrong, but … are we supposed to send all emails through the business administrator? John is gonna be overwhelmed, I know how many emails I send every day so.”
“I’ll find sleep next week,” Metro joked, before Watterman interjected that there are two assistant business administrators as well.
“I can call the directors to task and make sure the information is getting delivered through the entire council,” he added.
Watterman sought further clarity about communicating directly with directors.
“Just include me in the email. Include [City Clerk] Sean [Gallagher] so he can send it to all the council members. Sometimes we do get the same inquiry on different items,” Metro said.
“John, just one simple question: Where is the itemized budget for the $30 something million the city just spent as it relates to updating the [911] systems?” Gilmore pressed on.
Metro said Police Director Tawana Moody provided an eight-page memo to the council before Gilmore interrupted.
“We voted on it already!” Gilmore exclaimed.
“It was given to you that week. We went through this councilman, I’m not looking to be combative here. We went through this at the time of the vote: You asked why didn’t we get the information, we confirmed on the record the memo was sent. That’s all,” Metro responded.
Gilmore said the memo did not address the questions at hand, continuing that “You’re sending us information after a vote was taken … How is that responsive, effective leadership? People get paid to answer questions!”
“Councilman, the memo was sent before the vote. If you didn’t read it, that’s a different story, but Sean had sent it out to the entire council and council members on this dais confirmed they received it,” Metro replied.
“Director, you have anything you want to add here?” Watterman asked.
“Absolutely not,” Shea said.
“Thank you, I just wanted to make sure we had this conversation here,” Watterman concluded.
The Jersey City Council will convene on Wednesday at City Hall, 280 Grove St., at 6 p.m., which will also stream live on Microsoft Teams.
