Residents Concerned About Handicapped Parking,  Ordinances, Salaries and Titles

PERTH AMBOY – 3/21/16 Caucus – During the public portion, Resident and former Councilman Ken Balut commented, “We had a Councilman who violated the Handicapped Law and he was appointed a Judge. If I was turned down for a handicapped spot, I would sue you.”

Balut also questioned Pelissier’s last paychecks of $5,000 and $6,000. Then he went into some of the questionable billing of the DeCotiis Law Firm. He brought up an article from the Bergen Record where the DeCotiis Law Firm had to pay back $115,000 for overbilling. “We are catching the heat. We had to raise taxes to get back revenue. You can get $80,000 for the temporary budget. The Mayor’s budget went up $20,000 last year.

Resident Stanley Sierakowski said, “At a previous Meeting Councilman Fernando Gonzalez stated that the City sold 6,000 acres of property for a dollar. What did you get back 4,000 acres for? Also, did the Board of Education agree not to appeal the decision by the Judge requesting their change of date for the election? Taxes were not paid for that particular property that was sold for a dollar. Taxes for those eight years would come out to $800,000.”

Resident and Business Owner Susan Batista still had questions about her suit against the City of Perth Amboy.

“I filed an OPRA request for the law firms that bill the City pertaining to my case,” she said. “I have the bill for the DeCotiis firm. I’m waiting for the two other law firms. You’re voting for this money to be spent. I started talking about the foreclosures in this town in 2008. I reduced my fees to help people. I helped people get their foreclosures stopped.”

Resident David Caba spoke about the Meeting of March 9, 2016 when the room was packed. “We have a large Latino community. I was criticized when I said Dominicans should get jobs. I said we should have a say in this. A lot of my friends are Puerto Ricans. Two Dominicans were put on the Redevelopment Agency. A third of the population is Dominican. The Labor Secretary is Dominican. The Dominicans have no positions of authority in this City. The Dominicans are not the majority in the votes. Obama could find a Dominican to put into a position of authority, but we can’t find a Dominican in the City for a position of authority.”

Resident Sharon Hubberman spoke, “There was a process that a person qualifies for to get a handicapped placard in the first place. Now, you are adding additional paperwork for them to go through. You need a tier system. Are some of these ordinances legal I find it difficult to see what transpired in some of these ordinances. It states you can appoint separate counsel if there’s a conflict of interest. There is also a process as to how bills are processed.”

Resident William Mason came up to speak. He asked B.A. Cruz about the OPRA request by Batista and he also inquired about the new computers that were recently purchased by the City, “What departments will be getting those computers?”

Resident Alan Silber came up to speak about the last Meeting on March 9, 2016. “There are a lot of City Employees here. Why were 90 day deadlines ignored. I hope you got the point when Caba was talking about Dominicans not in positions of authority. The City Code required that the Mayor draft a resolution about the B.A. position.” Silber inquired about a job listing paying $40,000 for an community organizer. “It must be legal if the Law Director said it was – the Assistant B.A. position was never advertised and it says that it must be a resident. No one ever gave him (Pelissier) a waiver. You (the Council) should get a separate lawyer. You have a right to that money ($20,000 that the Council placed in the budget for a separate attorney). You may have to sue to get it.”
Mayor Wilda Diaz came up to speak in response to some of the inquiries from the public. “We knew that election was a great disservice to the community (BOE election that was requested to be changed to April). The cost, the participation would be low, and there was not enough notice given.” She urged residents to go down to State Street and see the development going on. “Those companies want to hire people from the City. God bless Mr. Pelissier. He’s home with his family now. I’m glad to have Adam Cruz here to help us move forward. We are stabilizing taxes. The public questions job positions. They do not understand their importance. They have every right to come up here and question, but they don’t work here and really don’t know what’s involved.”

CFO Jill Goldy came up to speak about former Assistant B.A. Pelissier’s pay. “Pelissier left his employment a few days prior to the pay period ending. We revised the amount of two days pay, even though it was still shown on the record. The report was resubmitted, showing that two days of pay was taken from Pelissier’s paycheck.”

Law Director Arlene Quinones-Perez said, “The Board of Education has 20 days to appeal the decision of the judge who denied them the right to change the election to April 2016. The notice that the Board gave about the election date change was effective. The Board of Education and City Council can change election dates.”

City IT Tech John Alleman answered questions about the new City computers,“Of the 32 new computers, 16 were put in the Police Department. The other 16 were placed in other departments that had (Windows) XP machines.”

Annie Hindenlang, Executive Director Office of Economic and Community Development Perth Amboy Redevelopment Agency answered Silber’s question about the Community Organizer’s position. “This person would help to get grants for community events and has nothing to do with union or political organizations.”