Mayor and councilman clash over plan merge JC Incinerator Authority & DPW

[MCA™]

Jersey City Incinerator Authority workers plead with City Council to keep their agency autonomous, and keep their jobs
Published: Thursday, April 26, 2012, 3:00 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Holding signs reading “Please don’t trash my job” and “Steve Fulop is the butcher of Jersey City,” dozens of Jersey City Incinerator Authority workers descended on City Hall last night to fight for their jobs.

The City Council unanimously tabled the measure to abolish the 61-year-old city agency to save costs. The measure, spearheaded by Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, would have handed the agency’s duties to the city Department of Public Works.

A parade of JCIA workers and supporters spent nearly three hours pleading with the council to drop the issue. Many of the public comments focused on the JCIA’s Second Chance Program, funded by the state, that allows the city agency to provide jobs to ex-convicts who were convicted of non-violent offenses.

JCIA street sweeper Matthis Sharpless, who addressed the council while pushing a stroller carrying his 16-month-old twins, said his criminal history caused “pitfalls” when he tried to obtain employment. Through the Second Chance Program, Sharpless said, he was able to get his JCIA job and turn his life around, and he argued for the council to retain the JCIA, which employs 140 mostly full-time workers.

“It’s going to demolish families trying to rebuild,” said Sharpless, 55. “The people getting out of jail, they’ve got to come back to something.”

Fulop was on the ropes for much of the meeting, with angry JCIA workers and their supporters occasionally yelling at him from the audience, while others addressed him directly in pointed public comments.

The Ward E councilman said the intent of the JCIA/DPW merger is to eliminate high-paying jobs at the top of the ladder, not low-level workers.
“My goal in this is not to hurt you, but to protect the rank-and-file for once,” he said. “I am not the bully.”

[Woodsy]

Why aren't we killing off this patronage mill?  Oh, wait, I think I just answered my question.

[MCA™]

Long-planned elimination of Jersey City Incinerator Authority appears stalled
Published: Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 3:03 AM
Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

A move to dissolve the Jersey City Incinerator Authority has hit the skids, with critics of the proposal seeking to delay or halt the long-discussed elimination of the city agency.

The City Council was set to hold a final vote tonight that would have dissolved the JCIA and hand over its duties to the city Department of Public Works. But that vote may be tabled after critics of the proposed merger said at Monday’s council caucus that the council was moving too fast with too little information about the consequences of the change.

Meanwhile, city officials are devising a plan that would keep both the JCIA and the DPW alive.

Monday’s discussion arose as the council debated a separate proposal set for initial approval tonight that would permit the city to borrow roughly $9 million to pay bills the JCIA owes for garbage collection and disposal.

Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson asked to postpone both that vote and the final vote to eliminate the JCIA. Richardson said the nine-member council seemed to be “speeding” toward the elimination of the JCIA to meet some arbitrary goal.

“What’s the rush?” she asked.

Two weeks ago, the council, led by Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, voted 7-2 to scrap the JCIA, with Richardson and Ward F Councilwoman Michele Massey voting against. That measure was set for final adoption tonight.

The proposed merger has been discussed for years, with Mayor Jerramiah Healy originally hoping to fold the DPW into the JCIA. That move was blocked in 2010 by state officials who said the JCIA was not permitted by state statute to perform some of the DPW’s duties, such as park maintenance.

On Monday, city Chief of Staff Rosemary McFadden said the administration would like to investigate whether both the JCIA and DPW can survive by paring down their staffs and eliminating duplicative services.

The measure to eliminate the JCIA is still on tonight’s council agenda, though it seems likely the body will move to table it during the meeting. A public hearing on the measure scheduled for tonight is likely to go on as planned.

The council meets at 6 o’clock tonight at City Hall.

[MCA™]

Jersey City Council votes to introduce ordinance to fold JCIA into DPW
Published: Thursday, April 12, 2012, 3:00 AM
Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal

The Jersey City City Council voted last night to introduce an ordinance that would dissolve the Jersey City Incinerator Authority and merge its responsibilities with the city’s Department of Public Works.

Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop, who sponsored the measure, said that based on a consultant’s report the merger would save city taxpayers $8 million to $10 million annually.

“This is in the best interests of the city going forward and hopefully we will maintain most employees both in the JCIA and the DPW,” Fulop said, noting the reorganization would take at least a year. “This is a real opportunity for taxpayer savings.”

Councilwomen Michele Massey and Viola Richardson voted against introduction of the ordinance.

Massey argued the move was premature since a bill pending in Trenton sponsored by state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham would allow the merger to happen in the other direction, with the DPW dissolved and its duties assumed by the JCIA. That is what Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy initially said he wanted to see happen.

Healy has since said he is OK with either entity taking over the other.

Council President Peter M. Brennan voted to introduce the ordinance, but questioned the accuracy of the consultant’s report. He also voiced concerns that taxpayers would get stuck with the $7 million tab the JCIA still owes two solid waste management companies.

“I am not happy with the $7 million debt,” Brennan said “Will the taxpayers have to pay this?”

Richardson said too many questions are still unanswered. “We don’t have enough information to make this kind of decision,” Richardson said.

A public hearing on the ordinance is scheduled for April 25. No date was set for the final adoption vote.

[MCA™]

Jersey City City Council to consider eliminating the Jersey City Incinerator Authority
Published: Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 9:21 AM
Updated: Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 10:07 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

The Jersey City City Council is set to vote on an ordinance at its April 9 meeting that would eliminate the Jersey City Incinerator Authority, after a debate at last night's council caucus in which Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop said he'd rather vote on the issue once and for all.

Fulop had been tapped to sit on a committee that would discuss whether to fold the JCIA into the city Department of Public Works, or vice/versa. The city, seeking to consolidate services as a cost-saving measure, has been debating the proposed merger for more than a year.

After last night's debate, Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis asked Fulop whether the councilman wanted an ordinance drafted that would eliminate the JCIA.

"Bring it on," Fulop responded.

In 2010, Mayor Jerramiah Healy attempted to merge the DPW into the JCIA, but the state stepped in, saying state statute forbids autonomous agencies from performing certain duties the JCIA would have to perform if it absorbs the DPW. The planned merger would save about $5 million annually and eliminate around 80 jobs, officials say.

In a statement issued this morning, Fulop explained why he wants to skip the committee and go right to the elimination of the JCIA.

“There is really only one option that will reduce costs and increase accountability, and that is the elimination of autonomous agencies such as the JCIA,” he said. “Jersey City’s residents, the Mayor and this Council know that eliminating autonomous agencies is the the right thing to do and I intend to push this forward now. The tax relief is badly needed."

When the state halted the proposed JCIA/DPW merger, state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would permit the JCIA to perform duties it now cannot, such as park maintenance. Cunningham denied that the legislation, which was approved by a senate committee last month, has anything to do with saving the JCIA, which is headed by Cunningham supporter Oren K. Dabney.

“It only legitimizes what the Incinerator Authority has been doing for as long as it’s been there,” she said.

[MCA™]

Autonomous Incinerator Authority hasn't been paying its trash bills, Jersey City Council told
Published: Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 3:03 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

The Jersey City Incinerator Authority owes more than $7 million to two entities that pick up and dispose of city trash, an amount that shocked some JCIA commissioners and City Council members. The unpaid bills have been piling up over the past three or four years, according to JCIA Executive Director Oren K. Dabney, who said the city agency can’t afford to pay all of its bills in large part because of $7.4 million in decreased city funding from 2009 to 2011.

After payroll, insurance and other expenses, there isn’t always enough left to pay Waste Management, which picks up trash for the agency, or the Hudson County Improvement Authority, which pays a separate company to dispose of the trash, Dabney said.

“What I tried to do was pay what I could when I could,” Dabney said at Monday night’s council caucus.

It wasn’t until a $4.2 million cut in city funding in 2010 that the bills began to pile up, according to Dabney. Trash collection and disposal cost JCIA $1.4 million a month, Dabney said. Waste Management did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The city, meanwhile, puts the blame on Dabney, with spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill saying the city expects the JCIA to tighten its belt.

“The city laid off seasonal, part-time and ultimately full-time civilian employees, and implemented 24 mandatory furlough days, and began consolidating and outsourcing services when possible,” Morrill said. “We expected the same from the JCIA, but that has not happened.”

The JCIA, which operated with a $33.5 million budget in 2011, disposes of trash, clears snow and enforces waste-related environmental regulations. The proposed 2012 city budget provides the agency with $27.9 million, an increase from $26.3 million in 2011.

The unpaid-bills issue arises as the council is set to decide whether to merge the JCIA with the city Department of Public Works, a consolidation that city officials say will save taxpayers $5 million annually.

Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, who led discussion of the issue at Monday’s caucus, said this latest episode casts doubt on the mayor’s ability to deliver on his promises.

“Healy proposed a balanced budget by simply not paying garbage-pickup bills worth millions of dollars ... thinking nobody would notice,” Fulop said. “It is more reason why we need to end autonomous agencies.”

In response, Healy said in a statement that Fulop “is not offering our city and its taxpayers any solutions.”

[shahaggy]

By STEVEN FULOP
SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL
The Healy administration and their allies on the City Council have proposed consolidation by eliminating Jersey City's Department of Public Works (DPW) and putting it into the autonomous agency known as the Jersey City Incinerator Authority (JCIA).
This move is yet another clear example of politicians' desires to place political agenda ahead of what is best for you, the overtaxed resident. Consolidation is good, but it should be the exact opposite direction, with elimination of the autonomous agency and put the functions under the city's control so that there is council and taxpayer accountability and oversight.
There is no question that there are considerable (and desperately needed!) savings to be realized by combining the two agencies -- administration estimates place these cost reductions at $5 million per year. Even greater cost reductions could be realized by keeping the DPW and folding the JCIA into it. By eliminating the JCIA, there would be no need to pay for separate financial reporting accountants, separate lawyers doing legal work, and the city would no longer be on the hook for the gift of health benefits it provides to JCIA's board members.
But the real benefit of eliminating the JCIA and not the DPW goes well beyond these additional cost savings. As an autonomous agency, the JCIA has very little oversight and has long been a source of jobs and contracts for friends, family members and the politically connected. For the past hundred years, it has been through these types of handouts that the local machine has been able to keep its hold on power -- handouts funded entirely by the taxpayer.
Furthermore, the administration is proposing 80 layoffs and they point to the fact that these layoffs within the JCIA would not be subject to Civil Service restrictions on who receives a "pink slip." As I mentioned to the mayor personally, the city has never done performance reviews of its employees so how is fair that political appointees can arbitrarily select who stays and who is fired based on who they like without facts on performance. This is bad for city morale and bad for employee effectiveness. If the surviving entity was the Department of Public Works within the city there would be oversight and clear process on which employees stay or go and it would not be based on politics or who campaigns for whom.
These autonomous agencies also have the ability to independently issue debt with no regard to the city's bonding capacities -- debt that the city's current and future taxpayers will be on the hook to repay.
Incredibly, not only can the JCIA give jobs to dozens of neighbors, in-laws, former mayors and campaign workers, but they can essentially borrow to do it! This is one of many reasons why we should be moving to eliminate autonomous agencies rather than strengthening them. If the combined DPW/JCIA entity is kept as a department of the city government under the current JCIA leadership, rather than allowing it to be an autonomous agency, it will be much easier to prevent these types of abuses.
While it may be "easier" to proceed with the administration's plan, much of what they seek to accomplish could be achieved in the same time frame by keeping the DPW and eliminating the JCIA. In keeping the DPW, we not only realize the desperately needed savings the mayor's plan targets -- and then some -- but we also create a structure that will truly serve the people's interests. Don't be fooled by the administration's false urgency -- there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.
The autonomous agencies have been a bastion of political patronage since they were created.
STEVEN FULOP is the Jersey City councilman representing Ward E.

[MCA™]

Jersey City workers and their union leaders protest as City Council introduces plan to merge DPW and JCIA to produce 80 layoffs; police protest plan to cut police budget by $8 million, fear loss of 80 cops
Thursday, November 11, 2010
By MELISSA HAYES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Some carried signs, some wore their work uniforms and others blended in with the crowd, but Jersey City workers banded together at last night's City Council meeting to protest proposed layoffs.

"We no longer share the pain with the city up to and including this ordinance, we are carrying the brunt of it," said Jersey City Supervisors Association Inc. President Ben Anderson.

Anderson was referring to an ordinance that would lay off the entire Department of Public Works in an effort to roll its functions into the Jersey City Incinerator Authority. The majority of the Public Works employees would join the JCIA staff in the merger, but the agencies would lose a combined 80 workers.

Anderson said his members, who work at the DPW, would see their health benefits, pensions and retirement status impacted by the merger.

Members of the Police Officers Benevolent Association and Police Officers Supervisors Association also attended the meeting, protesting the city's plan to cut $8 million from the police budget, which they say would lay off 80 officers.

Salvatore Costanza, a representative of Local 68, which represents the operating engineers, said union members haven't been given enough information to understand the proposed JCIA-DPW merger. He asked city officials to hold a meeting with the unions.

Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said that the city would have to give the JCIA a year's notice before disbanding it, but the city needs to realize the $5 million the merger would save now. Healy also said the JCIA does not have to abide by Civil Service requirements, making it easier to require workers to take on more responsibilities.

But employees said they fear they can be let go without cause. "This merger that they want to do here is going to take away our job security," Parks Supervisor Santo DellaMonica said prior to the meeting. DellaMonica said JCIA workers are paid more than DPW employees and the city could save more by keeping Public Works and closing the JCIA.

Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop and Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez voted against introducing the measure. Other council members expressed concern about several issues, including employee pensions and retirement credits, but said they were willing to introduce it. It was introduced 6-2. Ward B Councilman David Donnelly was absent.

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See related topic: Jersey City mayor and police chief looking to cut police budget by $8 million, but hope to avoid layoffs

[fasteddie]

But Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop argued that Public Works should take over the JCIA

If for no other reason than "Jersey City Incinerator Authority" is a STUPID name. They don't "incinerate" anything and haven't "incinerated" anything except for MY TAX DOLLARS for many decades. At least "Department of Public Works" sounds somewhat relevant and even at that, the "Works" part is arguable.

[MCA™]

Jersey City mayor and councilman clash over plan for merging Jersey City Incinerator Authority and Department of Public Works
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
By MELISSA HAYES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The Jersey City administration and City Council agree on one thing: there's a lot of duplication between the Jersey City Incinerator Authority and Department of Public Works.

But there's plenty of disagreement over how to merge the agencies.
 
Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy attended last night's council caucus and asked members to introduce an ordinance tomorrow that would allow the JCIA, an autonomous agency, to take over the DPW.

The merger would eliminate 80 positions and save the city about $5 million annually, Healy said.

"One of the reasons I'm recommending we do the merger into JCIA and keep the Incinerator Authority alive when we do that, (is because) we will not be restricted or somewhat burdened by the labyrinthine regulations of the Civil Service code," Healy said.

Healy said if the city were to eliminate the JCIA, it would require a one-year notice and the city would have to deal with bumping rights and other Civil Service restrictions.

Healy has proposed that JCIA Executive Director Oren Dabney remain in charge of the agency and that DPW Director Rodney Hadley become deputy director.

But Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop argued that Public Works should take over the JCIA, which would require it to report to the City Council and administration, and be accountable to taxpayers.

"There's an easy way to do it and there's a right way to do it that is good for the longtime health of the city," Fulop said. "The proper thing to do is eliminate the autonomous agency."

Fulop sparked a debate when he asked how the 80 employees would be eliminated and accused the administration of keeping on political supporters.

Healy said Dabney conducts annual reviews of his employees and Hadley knows his staff well. He said both are honest men who would pick the most productive workers to staff the new combined agency.

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