Virginia Lugo

I’ve been a business owner in Perth Amboy since 2004. This is my community and I care deeply about its health and prosperity.

I have been a BID Board member for over four years. At the outset, I was one of the true believers in the Administration and the BID Chairman. I truly believed that we were there to do the best we could for the businesses we represented and for the community at large. A community I’d long since grown to love.

It took me a while to understand fully how the system worked. I slowly realized,

after a year or so on the BID Board, that we were not doing anything concrete for the business community.

The problem was systemic. For years we operated under the misapprehension that we were an Advisory Board, not a Board of Directors, which was never the case, however insistently others may incorrectly assert, despite all evidence to the contrary. Who has been benefiting from this years-long, carefully-planned confusion?

Why is this important? As an Advisory Board, we were severely limited. We could make suggestions, but we did not have the right to direct and enforce how the funds ostensibly under our purview would be used. This allowed the City free reign over our budget, rendering the BID Board an ineffectual onlooker regarding budgetary matters.

When I became involved with the budget committee, I came to realize that most of the funds comprising the annual BID budget went toward paying administrative costs and City expenses. Year after year, after signing Bill List after Bill List, I realized that we were just a rubber stamp to legitimize the transfer of funds to the City. There was very little left in the budget to do anything for the business district, our sole purpose for existing. This is why our business district looks the way it does today.

I am a whistleblower. I have brought these matters to light at considerable personal cost. They will attempt to discredit me and they will try to draw attention away from the very real, factual issues I’ve raised.

I would urge all those who are on other committees on other boards to make sure that you have a copy of your by-laws and guidelines. Start questioning where the money is going. Question the RFP process. Who are the proposed vendors? Make sure that there’s not only one person directing traffic, that you work as a collective unit. Make sure that there is something being accomplished for the betterment of the community.

Sometimes we get appointed because we have close relations or seem simpatico with the Administration, and the assumption is that our vote and our signature will be in agreement with theirs. We have a responsibility to our community. We ultimately have to answer for our actions.

If this has been done with the BID, what else has been happening without our knowledge?

The pressing issues are:

1. The misappropriation of BID funds going back at least a decade
2. The fact that, until recently, no annual BID elections had been held for over 10 years
3. An independent attorney needs to be selected by the members of the business district to protect their interests as an entity entirely separate and independent from the City Administration.
4. BID meetings should be once again televised on channel 34. They should also be once again recorded on video and audio — something that has been unaccountably halted months ago.

I am an optimist regardless of the wrongdoing that has been done. I believe there are citizens and business owners who care about this City and want to see a beautiful and revitalized Perth Amboy.

A vibrant business district increases property values and benefits the community at large.

When the funds are properly used, I do believe the BID will be a viable entity playing a great and honorable role in the development of our city.

I’ve requested that the City Council look into these matters. I spent over a year trying to correct this by working with the Administration to no avail. Something must be done. Too much time has been lost and too much money has been already wasted.

Virginia Lugo