The Bullies!

Schundler and his administration are bullies. 

The following article is from Earl Morgan's column, known as Morgan's Corner. The article is dated October 16, 1999.

The Jersey City Municipal Port Authority could be the poster child for a proposed amendment to the city's ethics  code that would limit membership on all city boards and commissions to no more than 50 percent municipal employees.

The little-known JCMPA - not to be confused with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey - has bonding authority and some official imput into issues involving Jersey City's waterfront.

After listening to Doug Salters, a former City Council aide and current member of the JCMPA, recount what he termed the harassment and intimidation he and his authority colleagues faced, it might be for the Jersey City Ethical Standards Board to broaden its proposal and bar all municipal employees from serving on governmental bodies.

Salters lost his council job when his boss, ex-Councilman James McLaughlin, was defeated in his bid for re-election. He was moved to a spot in the mayor's constituency complaint bureau, but recently took the city's buyout offer and is now out of work.

The JCMPA board was constantly bossed and bullied by City Hall, according to Salters.  He said orders from the mayor's office were issued by Jodi Drennan, the administration's coordinator of autonomous agencies.

It was through Drennan that the board was told to fire its attorney and bond counsel, Michael Israels, Salters said.

The other JCMPA commissioners included two Jersey City police officers, Gary Whelpley and Sal Frascino, Jersey City City Council President Tom DeGise's sister and secretary Lois Shaw and Deputy Mayor Eliu Rivera.  Neither Shaw nor Rivera made many meetings, according to Salters.

Salters said after his appointment, he tried to find ways the agency could help the city.  He noted how other cities, New Orleans and Hartford, Conn., for example, were able to use their municipal Port Authorities to reclaim their waterfronts and generate revenue for the city.

"There were a lot of things we wanted to do but we could never get anyone interested from City Hall," Salters said.

Whelpley, who has stepped down, corroborates Salters allegation.

"There was definitely intimidation from City Hall," Whelpley said.

Salters claims he wasn't the only JCMPA commissioner chafing under the heavy hand of City Hall.  He said the situation more or less came to a head around the mayor's dictate to sack Israels.

"Lois and Rivera hadn't been to a meeting in months and they finally resigned," Salters said.  "That left me and the two police officers.   But City Hall sort of thought I was like the mayor's guy on the board.  So I was told by Jodi Drennan that the mayor wanted us to fire Isreals."

A meeting was convened who only agenda item was the termination of Israels.

"But no one really wanted to fire him," Salters said.   "Frascino and Whelpley voted against firing Mike, so I abstained."

City Hall's reaction to that vote was swift, an angry Salters said.

"I got a call from Jodie wanting to know why I didn't do what the mayor wanted," Salters said. "(City Business Administrator) Rob Lombard was also mad at me.

"He asked me why we had a meeting if we didn't have the votes to fire Israels.  I told him if they didn't want me to go to the meetings so we wouldn't have a quorum I wouldn't have gone.  But I remember Lombard saying to me 'Don't look for any favors from this department,'" Salters said.

Lombard denied the statement and even asked why anyone would care about this matter.

"Why should we pay Israels when we had no need of a bond counsel?" Lombard said.

According to Salters, the city sent attorney Dennis Salerno, a part-time city corporation counsel, to take over for Isreals after Isreals spared the commissioners by resigning.  The two police officers left the board.

While cops are city employees, their jobs are less susceptible to pressure from City Hall than someone in an unclassified civil service title like Doug Salters.   The officers left their JCMPA seats and were replaced by Tom Gallagher, the mayor's chief of staff, who also serves as chairman of the authority.  Barbara Netchert, a management employee in the city's Division of Redevelopment and Harry Melendez, deputy director of the department of Health and Human Services are also board members.  All are city employees.

While Salters is no longer a city employee, he is still a JCMPA board member until his term ends in February.  He's not expecting to be reappointed.