Kate
August 3rd, 2008, 02:00 PM
Saw this in yesterday's Jersey Journal. It looks like Councilman Fulop may be headed to court to oppose a ch*****ge from the City's lawyer to one of the two initiatives he's backing.
Politicial Insider
Fulop might have known his quest wouldn't be easy
Saturday, August 02, 2008
I t is not easy to put referendums on the ballot in Hudson County - even harder when the earning capacity of elected officials is involved.
Jersey City Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop learned this the hard way. He is trying to put two initiatives on the November ballot. One would limit when and how much vendors who are awarded no-bid contracts in City Hall could contribute to local political campaigns.
The one measure that is getting kicked around would ban City Council members from collecting a council pay check if they hold another taxpaying public job. As "luck" would have it, seven of the nine council members double-dip from the public trough. Fulop's people believe Heights Councilman Bill Gaughn, chief of staff to County Executive Tom DeGise, is taking the referendum as a personal attack.
Once filed, should the City Council fail to approve these initiatives, the city voters would have a shot of making them law in November - if Fulop and company can collect enough signatures to place them on the ballot, and there's the rub.
Fulop claims that after talks with City Clerk Robert Byrne he was under the impression that all that was needed was 1,506 valid signatures of registered voters representing 10 percent of those who voted in the last general election.
Let us skip details and just say Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis' legal interpretation calls for Fulop to file 12,227 signatures - and that he had 10 days to do it.
Either Fulop doesn't have a clue or Matsikoudis is using legal mumbo jumbo to delay a City Council vote on the measures. See you all in court.
What I don't understand is how Fulop finds himself in this situation. His people say they relied on Byrne and were blindsided. Hey, there's no crying in Hudson County politics. One would have thought Fulop and his crew would have covered every contingency. In Hudson politics, the "X-Files" mantra applies: "Trust no one."
He could still luck out. Fulop believes that in a court fight, a judge will pay attention to the case law presented by his legal eagles and says people on the bench have had a habit of allowing candidates and initiatives to go on ballots if they believe the process was followed in good faith.
Since the story came out of how the administration of Mayor Jerramiah Healy managed to block the referendum effort (I guess I should use the word "allegedly," but let's say I forgot), Fulop has received 60 donations and a number of people have asked to join his campaign effort.
Politicial Insider
Fulop might have known his quest wouldn't be easy
Saturday, August 02, 2008
I t is not easy to put referendums on the ballot in Hudson County - even harder when the earning capacity of elected officials is involved.
Jersey City Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop learned this the hard way. He is trying to put two initiatives on the November ballot. One would limit when and how much vendors who are awarded no-bid contracts in City Hall could contribute to local political campaigns.
The one measure that is getting kicked around would ban City Council members from collecting a council pay check if they hold another taxpaying public job. As "luck" would have it, seven of the nine council members double-dip from the public trough. Fulop's people believe Heights Councilman Bill Gaughn, chief of staff to County Executive Tom DeGise, is taking the referendum as a personal attack.
Once filed, should the City Council fail to approve these initiatives, the city voters would have a shot of making them law in November - if Fulop and company can collect enough signatures to place them on the ballot, and there's the rub.
Fulop claims that after talks with City Clerk Robert Byrne he was under the impression that all that was needed was 1,506 valid signatures of registered voters representing 10 percent of those who voted in the last general election.
Let us skip details and just say Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis' legal interpretation calls for Fulop to file 12,227 signatures - and that he had 10 days to do it.
Either Fulop doesn't have a clue or Matsikoudis is using legal mumbo jumbo to delay a City Council vote on the measures. See you all in court.
What I don't understand is how Fulop finds himself in this situation. His people say they relied on Byrne and were blindsided. Hey, there's no crying in Hudson County politics. One would have thought Fulop and his crew would have covered every contingency. In Hudson politics, the "X-Files" mantra applies: "Trust no one."
He could still luck out. Fulop believes that in a court fight, a judge will pay attention to the case law presented by his legal eagles and says people on the bench have had a habit of allowing candidates and initiatives to go on ballots if they believe the process was followed in good faith.
Since the story came out of how the administration of Mayor Jerramiah Healy managed to block the referendum effort (I guess I should use the word "allegedly," but let's say I forgot), Fulop has received 60 donations and a number of people have asked to join his campaign effort.