PERTH AMBOY – 12/7/15 Caucus Meeting – Director of the Department of Recreation Kenny Ortiz gave an extensive overview of the importance of Municipal ID’s for City Residents.
Councilman
Fernando Irizarry
An information packet was handed out to the members of the Council and a slide show presentation was shown for all to see.
Ortiz stated, “28% of households in the City have no bank accounts compared to 5% overall in Middlesex County. A taskforce was formed consisting of local businesses, banks and social services to address this problem to help our residents. There are fees for the ID cards. We understand that there are some who will not be able to pay for these fees. For these hardship cases, there will be no fees for them or reduced fees. The ID Program will fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Human Services.”
Deputy Chief of Police Larry Cattano came up to speak about this program. “Overall, the program (Municipal ID) will grow. People want to be able to get bank accounts.”
Ortiz cautioned, “The ID Cards would only be valid in the City of Perth Amboy. They can be used as one of the points when applying for a driver’s license. Businesses will have a decal displayed if they participate in the ID Program. Residents who do have Municipal ID’s will able to get a discount at these stores. Homeless people have used social service programs when they are in need. We can go to these different social service organizations and check with them to see if any of these homeless individuals were given assistance.”
Dir. Dept. of Recreation
Kenny Ortiz
Ortiz also cautioned that these ID’s cannot be used for voting, passports or identification when traveling by air. “These are just some of the restrictions. Newark, New Jersey is one of the cities that has Municipal ID Programs in place.”
Councilman Fernando Irizarry was concerned about the following: what kind of information would the applicant have to divulge on the form needed to be filled out? What information would be put on the card? Where would that record be stored?
“How long a time frame will be given to see if this program works out?” Irizarry asked.
Ortiz answered part of the question, “The Art Gallery on the corner of Reade and Fayette Streets would have storage space available where the applications would be stored.”
A time frame could not be given by Ortiz if the City decides to abort the program.
At that point, Johanna Calle, a Representative from the NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice came up to the podium and answered some of the Council’s concerns. She stated how successful the program was in other Municipalities. Calle was familiar with the success rate that the City of the Newark had with this program.
Calle added. “It’s important that residents get government ID issues. It can be counted for federal funding.
Councilman Joel Pabon said, “I think it’s a great program. They’re a lot of sports players that can use these ID’s. It’s worth a shot. It’s a win-win situation.”
That was not good enough for some people. Later on in the Meeting, during the public portion Resident Ken Balut stated, “No records are safe.”
Pastor Bernadette Falcon-Lopez had a different view and emphasized the importance of Municipal ID’s, especially when it comes to the homeless, “They need to have ID’s (photos) so they can get services. Food pantries can supply the homeless with emergency food, but without the proper ID, they cannot get registered for the food banks.”
For more information about the Municipal ID Program go to www.njimmigrantjustice.org/municipal_id
