Let me get this straight, Cunningham screws over Menendez and loses us our Jersey City state money and now we are supposed to love Cunningham and get all hot and bothered at Menendez.: Urban Times News
: February 21-28, 2003
: Mcgee Juggles Chainsaws On A Tightrope
: UTN Staff
: (Jersey City) Like all consummate
: professionals, Jersey City Business
: Administrator Carlton McGee makes it
: look easy. The Chicago native's calm
: demeanor does not convey the frenetic tension behind the creation of a balanced budget for a distressed city of a quarter million
: highly diverse inhabitants. Starting behind
: the eight ball with a $54 Million deficit
: inherited from a previous administration.
: McGee heads the Cunningham administration's struggle to break even and balance the
: opposing forces to level taxes, increase
: services and upgrade the quality of life in
: general.
: Coordinating multiple moving targets, MCGee has had to win over a hostile council loyal
: to political opponents to achieve
: the administration's goal of balancing the
: budget and do it all staying within the guidelines of the State's Local Finance
: Board. By accepting State aid under the
: Distressed Cities program. the City had to
: agree to requirements including restricted
: bonding ability, and a hiring and pay freeze.
: That conflicts directly with the city's need
: to add and replace equipment and satisfy
: demands for increased personnel in police
: and fire departments. McGee knows that
: the council will do everything possible to
: withhold cooperation in an effort to force a
: tax increase that can be blamed on Mayor
: Glenn Cunningham, even though upward
: pressures on taxes can be traced to resistance from the council and the council's
: political boss, Congressman Robert
: Menendez.
: Menendez is "boss" of the Hudson County
: Democratic Organization and is the political adversary of Jersey City's Mayor. Glenn
: Cunningham. A little more than a year ago
: a war broke out between the two former
: allies over a patronage contract award to
: attorney Donald Scarinci, Treasurer of
: Menendez for Congress. Cunningham
: refused to get involved with the patronage
: award and the situation has steadily deteriorated ever since. Menendez retaliated in
: part by organizing resistance to
: Cunningham's administration by the City
: Council, most of whose members depends
: on the Hudson County Democratic
: Organization for patronage jobs with the
: County government and for campaign
: fundraising through HCDO which
: Menendez controls.
: McGee has had to contend with council
: resistance to obvious economy moves such
: as a change in the way the city's health benefits plan is paid. By paying directly to the
: insurance company and not through a state-run pool that includes other municipalities, the city could pay $200,000 a month less for
: identical coverage. But the council majority,
: led by L. Harvey Smith has held hearings,
: interviewed "experts" and required ever-
: increasing amounts of additional informa-
: tion to "understand" a simple concept. All
: the due diligence has delayed a decision on
: the payment method and months have
: dragged by at $200,000 per month. As the
: months dragged on and the lost savings
: mounted through the past six months, the
: renewal rate for the existing insurance plan
: increased by an additional $1.5 Million for
: the year. increasing the cost differential
: between the two alternatives to $3.9 Million
: annually. McGee has explained numerous
: times to council members who still say they
: do not understand how the proposal works
: despite McGee's intricately detailed expla-
: nations. McGee has explained to the council
: in meetings of the entire governing body
: and to subcommittees and to individual
: members of the council. Six months and
: counting and McGee is still exhorting the
: council to approve the change to allow the
: cash-strapped city to save $3.9 in the next
: 12 months.
: When the administration first presented its
: budget proposal in Mid-November it
: seemed that Cunningham had pulled a rab-
: bit out of a hat with a balanced budget that
: called for no new taxes and hired additional
: police and fire personnel and new equip-
: ment for police, fire, and street maintenance
: equipment. Council member William A.
: Gaughan argued with McGee but voted to
: introduce but not approve the budget along
: with other members of the anti-
: Cunningham council. It was Gaughan who
: said prophetically at the time the budget was
: introduced that assumptions included the
: budget proposal were questionable, espe-
: cially the assumption that the city would
: receive not less than the same $10.5 Million
: in State aid to distressed cities as it had the
: year before.
: Almost exactly as Gaughan predicted, only
: two weeks later, administration officials
: were shocked to, learn; that the State aid to
: Jersey Cite tinder the distressed cities pro-
: gram had been chopped 80 per cent to only
: $2 Million from $10.5 Million. Gaughan's
: uncanny accuracy prompted speculation that he had already known of the reduction
: at the time he made the remark and before
: State finance officials had informed the
: Cunningham administration. Gaughan
: serves as chief of staff, at $95,000 a year, to
: the new County Executive, Tom DeGise,
: another Menendez partisan. Politically con-
: nected sources charged that Menendez
: exerted influence with Governor
: McGreevey to reduce aid to Jersey City. Of
: the eight cities in the state that receive aid
: under this program, Jersey City was hardest
: hit to date. Union City, whose mayor Brian
: Stack is also currently at odds with
: Menendez, has not yet learned what this
: year's allocation will be. Other cities in the
: program have gotten amounts slightly less
: than they received last year. Harrison, for
: example, received $3.9 Million versus $4
: Million the year before, according to Chief
: Financial Officer Elizabeth Higgins.
: Yet, McGee stoically continues to answer
: council questions and objections to the
: budget proposal that he now says will
: require radical measures if the city is to
: avoid a tax increase and layoffs. From bal-
: anced budget as originally presented,
: McGee now says that extraordinary meas-
: ures will be required to offset the shortfall of
: $8.5 Million in state aid, and the continued
: cash hemorrhage of more than $300,000 a
: month for insurance payments.
: The council quickly approved the outlay of
: $490,000 for a 100-foot aerial ladder truck
: for the Fire Department. McGee explained
: that to spend precious cash on a wasting
: asset makes no sense whatsoever and
: deprives the city of the use of that cash for
: any other purpose. The ladder truck could
: easily be leased without the need to lay out
: any cash, McGee explained. "To buy, or
: worse yet, pay cash for a depreciating piece
: of equipment is irresponsible. That is how to
: wind up with an aging fleet of 20-year old
: vehicles
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