Umcle Harvey Tries Again - Sort OfUrban Times News
February 28 - March 6, 2003
By Steven Glazer
(Jersey City) Apparently not con-
tent to merely block new initiatives of the
Cunningham administration, Council
President L. Harvey Smith. AKA "Uncle
Harvey," has gone on the offensive look-
ing to undo established and ongoing pro-
grains such as the Jersey City Office of
Employment and Training. That agency is
autonomous and run by Executive
Director Edward Santiago, a supporter
and political ally of Jersey City Mayor
Glenn Cunningham. Initially Uncle
Harvey has begun the process to introduce
an ordinance bringing the JCOET under
the city's office of Health and Human
Services headed by Sergio Lam boy. Smith
should know better after serving 12 years
on the City Council, that the office is fed-
erally funded and totally separate from the
workings of city government. Although
this had been done during the administra-
tion of former Mayor Bret Schundler,
Santiago's agency matches job
seekers with employers and provides
training to upgrade workers' skills, adver-
tises in this publication. Uncle Harvey
headed the City Council's move to with-
draw city paid advertising from this publi-
cation which is identified as partisan to the
Cunningham administration. If the agency
were brought under city control, then the
agency's budget would also require council approval. But that is a legal impossibil-
ity as the agency is really a free-standing
nonprofit corporation, federally funded
completely separate from the city's
finances. Jersey City was the first in the
nation in 1981 to establish such an
autonomous agency and served as a model
for numerous other cities across the coun-
try since that time. The voluminous body
of law and precedent would require con-
siderably more than a municipal ordinance
to undo or significantly modify.
That did not keep Uncle Harvey
from trying however, with the help of
Alex Booth, Corporation Counsel. Booth
is currently battling the administration to
retain his position as Corporation
Counsel. Cunningham tried to fire Booth
but Booth enlisted enough council support
with Uncle Harvey's help to overturn his
firing and is currently in court together
with the City Council, contesting the ter-
mination. Ironically, the mayor cited a
lack of confidence in the advice he was
getting from Booth as a reason for want-
ing to terminate Booth as the city's attor-
ney. "Booth should know better," said
Santiago, "The council can pass all the
ordinances it wants and it does not mean a thing. This is a federally funded program
separate from city government, exactly so
it delivers service and does not get hung
up in local politics. If that is the kind of
advice the city is getting from its lawyer,
no wonder Glenn wants his money back.
And Harvey has certainly been around
long enough to know better."
Uncle Harvey could not be
reached for comment. In fact Uncle
Harvey can never be reached for comment
by this newspaper. Long time political
activists who have known him well and for a long time said, "Harvey has killed
half the State of South Carolina by now.
There are entire ghost towns there because
of Harvey. Everytime there is a problem
or some situation that he wants to avoid,
there suddenly develops a serious illness
or death of some family member in South
Carolina. If it were true that somebody
had really died every time Harvey ducked
out of a confrontation of some sort saying
it was due to a death of a family member
back in South Carolina, the entire state
would be practically empty."
