The Jersey City Ethical Standards Board

The Jersey City Ethical Standards Board (Ethics) was started by former Acting Mayor Joe Rakowski.  Rakowski did not have the time to complete the board when his term was up.  However, he did appoint me to this incomplete board.   After the 1993 election, I wrote "letters to the editor" urging the completion of this board by Mayor Schundler.  Then, Mayor Schundler was talking about "empowering people" and was trapped by his words.

In September of 1993, Mayor Schundler invited me to his office.   First, he asked me to resign.  He was very annoyed this board existed and said, "You are not an elected official, you should not have this power."  I reminded him that our legislators in Trenton wrote this law, they are elected and have the power!   Needless to say, the Mayor lost it.  When people oppose him, Schundler turns into a spoil brat. He was banging on his desk and I wonder if I was the next target.  

This temper emerged when Judge D'Italia ruled there must be a new election for 1997.  Mayor Schundler called him "corrupt".  Again, it appeared   when Schundler went after the Tax Assessor.

Bret Schundler manipulated this board by choosing loyal supporters.   Unknown to Rakowski, Father Degnan, Rakowski's appointment, was also a supporter of Mayor Schundler.  Even the attorney for the Board, Donato Battista, is a good friend of Council-President Tom DeGise. By the way, Battista, told the Board that he would step aside if a case arose involving DeGise, a promise he did not keep.

Earl Morgan, reported in his column on August 31, 1994 on some the the activities of the Board of Ethics. Apparently, Father Degnan, a Jesuit and the President of St. Peter's College, contributed $1,000 to Schundler's campaign and a second $1,000 in the name of the college. 

This same column reported my questioning a bill by Battista.  He wrote, "At the board's meeting last meeting.  Degnan clashed with Commission Yvonne Balcer.  At one point he yelled at her to shut up when she refused to drop an inquiry about a bill attorney Donato Battista submitted for a phone conversation he had with mayoral aide Greg Corrado, a powerful figure in the city's personnel office.

"Degan accused her of 'nitpicking and insulting Battista,' in asking the question.  Balcer replied commissioner have a right to question all expenditures, because they must vote on them.  That didn't seem to impress the chairman, who continued to insist the attorney's billing is none of her concern."

Another supporter on the Board of Ethics is Arthur Fabian.   Fabian ran on the Mayor's Board of Education ticket, while a board member for the Board of Ethics.

When my term expired, Bret Schundler appointed Rose Marie Viciconti. She was a trustee on Schundler's Golden Door Charter School as well as Principal of a school that Schundler's daughter attended.

The boards purpose was and still is to see and hear no evil.   Cases came before the Board by the public but the board members voted they did not meet the criteria for investigation.

The Board just concerned itself with collecting financial disclosure forms-but even at that it did a poor job. 

After my term expired, I filed a complaint to the Board on 346 Claremont Avenue, the Board of Education Building.  The owners, 345 Claremont Associates LP contributed $1,000 to the Mayor Schundler' re-election campaign on 9/9/96.  

On October 23, 1996, Schundler's council introduced city ordinance 96-111 to buy 346 Claremont for $8.9 million.  Council-President Thomas DeGise, a teacher who hold a real estate license did not know the assessed value of the building but he and most of the council voted yes on the ordinance.  The assessed value was listed at $2.3 million. All of the documents were listed in the complaint to the Board of Ethics, but they voted to dismiss.

I appealed to the local finance board at that time.  They sent me a card that they received my package, but never responded to my complaint.  Like the Office in Administrative Law on the state level, deals are made.