Jersey City—Despite repeated denials that he was in danger of losing his job, while frantically rallying support in an effort to retain the position, George Wilson has been unseated as County Under Sheriff in favor of L. Harvey Smith. Smith has reportedly been equally frantic in his efforts to secure some position with the County government and has finally succeeded albeit at the expense of Wilson. Both are African American. Wilson’s expense will be the loss of the position and the $81,000 annual salary and benefits including a County car.

That was Wilson’s tip-off that things were not going his way on the job front when he saw his County car being flatbedded away from his home on a flatbed truck. Wilson had not been notified of the County’s intention to terminate him as Under Sheriff in favor of Smith before the car was towed. Wilson reportedly went to his office immediately afterward, only to find his key no longer fit as the lock had been changed.

Smith has been vying for a permanent, salaried position with the County government and was said to be in line for the post of County Clerk when that office was left vacant by the death of Janet Haynes, an African American. Smith was passed over for the clerk’s position when it was filled by Javier Inclan, a Hispanic, former executive director of the Hudson County Democratic Organization. Though reports indicated earlier that Smith had been offered the job as Under Sheriff, those reports also indicated that Smith had declined the offer.

Yet the buzz was enough to set off Wilson’s alarms a trigger a letter writing campaign lobbying for his continued tenure as Under Sheriff. Now that Wilson is out and Smith has official taken the post, Smith is displacing another African American. When the County Clerk’s post was filled with Inclan, an Hispanic, there was a net loss of one County position held by African Americans.

Reverend Edward Allen, a 30-year community activist and a member of the National Board of Directors of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Operation Push, said that he has for months now been appalled by Smith’s behavior. “He should be ashamed of himself through and through. First he opposes and runs against Jersey City’s first African American Mayor, the man whose coattails Smith rode into office. We all know of his opposition to the Mayor’s appointment of Rev. Brower to the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency,” said Allen. Rev. Brower convinced the Mayor to let Smith run on the Mayor’s winning ticket. “Then we have the primary election challenge. Right now Smith, an African American, is being sued personally by the NAACP for racial discrimination against African American voters. And now, in payment for his faithful service to his HCDO masters he takes away the job of another African American. He has declared himself for what he truly is to the African American community here. Maybe it is a good thing to get him a job out of the schools where, as an educator, there was a risk that he might have been mistaken for a role model.

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