Short: Office Politics in Jersey City
TLDR: Both the legislative and executive branches of the Jersey City council misunderstand state law and residents have been suffering for it.
At the March 12 Jersey City council meeting, the council passed a resolution of “no confidence” in the city’s public safety director, James Shea, imploring the mayor to remove him. The resolution included the council’s (long) list of reasons for unhappiness with the director, but based on a number of bitter public spats between the council and the director, it all seems to come down to the fact that the director doesn’t appear to prioritize being responsive to the council’s questions or instructions.
At an earlier session this month where the “no confidence” resolution was first raised, Shea and his boss, the city’s business administrator, justified his non-responsiveness: they asserted that NJ state law (the Faulkner Act) prohibits a director from responding to requests that aren’t routed through the city’s business administrator. They pointed the finger at the council for sending requests relating to public safety to Shea directly, arguing that they would have been responded to if they’d come through the appropriate channel (i.e., routed through the business administrator).
C’mon. The council and each city department work for the same boss: Jersey City residents. There’s no excuse for them to let meaningless bureaucratic box ticking stand in the way of prompt and effective resident service.
Watch as Councilman Gilmore immediately grasps how absurd the administration’s position is (see below).
Moreover, the business administrator and public safety director fundamentally misunderstand the Faulkner Act. The Act isn’t intended to stand in the way of the council doing its job of overseeing public safety in the city. The Act provides for a business administrator but gives the council full discretion to determine whether the business administrator acts as the city’s chief bureaucrat.
Years ago, the council did pass an ordinance making the business administrator chief bureaucrat, but the Faulkner Act makes clear that they can lift that appointment at will. At any point, the council can simply change Jersey City law to cut the business administrator out of the loop. And given how little residents have benefitted from the extra layer of bureaucracy, it’s time for the council to do so.
The Accountability Agenda removes this layer of bureaucracy (see below).
