JC Incinerator Authority
The JC Incinerator Authority ended FYE June 1999 with a $2 Million DEFICIT, according to the "Summary of Audit Reports" as published in the JJ 4/00. In May 2000, the JCIA requested to borrow $3.5 million to pay bills. Seems that the City wouldn't approve the loans but came up with the money. City Hall has to realize, you've got to come up with the bucks to cover that patronage. In addition, spending increased for garbage collection due to the increase of new, luxury, residential, tax-abated, high-rise buildings that have gone up on the waterfront.
Hudson Jersey Sanitation Inc., CAMPAIGN FINANCES, had the $16 million-a-year garbage collection contract with the JC incinerator Authority until HJS was sold to a firm who eventually merged into the national firm Waste Management Inc. Waste Management's contract expired November 2000. The new kid in garbage collection, HC Container Service, which includes former principals from HJS, bid on the contract. HC Container's bid was higher than Waste Management's. HC sued saying the bid specified that only trucks newer than 5 years were allowed! A city strapped for cash worries about the age of the trucks? Waste Management countered sued. The judge threw out the bids. Waste Management's new proposed rate is LOWER than the current rate the JCIA/city is paying but the City must continue to pay the old, higher rate until the contract is re-bid, but now all the parties know the numbers! No new bid date has been set. Certainly sounds like a bid tailored to HC Container Service since they're the new firm with new equipment. Waste Management, which has contracts in every state, could pull enough newer trucks to meet the bid specifications and the taxpayers save money!!! What a new concept for Schundler but I guess Schundler wouldn't get his big campaign contributions? In JC, what's more important: Schundler's political contributions or saving the "Distressed City" / taxpayers tax dollars?
In 1997, "Peggy Guzman, friend of Councilman At-large Rev. Fernando Colon, (who is running on Council President Tom DeGise's ticket), was hired quietly for a public affairs post in the JCIA. Colon had been driven from his Pentecostal Church pulpit last year when a scandal surfaced regarding his marital fidelity. That matter is still in the courts. Colon is a member of the JCIA board." (Jim Kennelly's "Holiday disorders", JC Reporter, 12/21/97) The congregation dismissed Colon and he lost his battle in court and was forced to return the church's cash kitty.
"In one instance, Peggy Guzman, whose title was changed to human resources coordinator, received a $4,000 -a-year salary hike two months ago…. Instead of the entire (JCIA) board voting for pay increases, only its personnel committee- commissioners Gloria Esposito, Maureen Corrado, and Jersey City Councilman Fernando Colon- make those decision. But you gotta wonder why, with orders from City Hall to cut its budget, the JCIA is handing out any salary hikes at all." (Earl Morgan's 11/12/98 column, "Raises, no matter what")
February 12, 2001 "Rap sheet for pound employee" headlined the Jersey Journal. Damon Williams, a convicted drug dealer, had been hired as a JCIA yard attendant to "'keep an eye'" on the car pound. The car pound is under the jurisdiction of the Incinerator Authority after the JC cops "mishandled" the pound (See POLICE ). In November 2000, Williams was indicted on assault and weapons offenses that are pending. The Incinerator Authority videotaped him "allegedly" stealing car stereos and speakers out of impounded vehicles in the JC car pound. Now Williams is linked to Councilman-at-large Rev. Fernando Colon (See AUTONOMOUS AGENCIES - JC PARKING AUTHORITY) a member of the Incinerator Authority's Board of Directors. Williams is living with one of Colon's daughters. For those whose cars get impounded, you have my sympathies…
In December 1996, Thomas Killeen, Director of the JC Incinerator Authority's recycling program and son-in-law to then Ward C Councilwoman Nancy Gaynor, pleaded guilty to stealing six trees. He had city personnel plant them at his Livingston home and faked expense reports for the transportation and lunches for the workers at his home. He was fired and as part of his sentence was banned from future public employment. Prior to his conviction, but despite his indictment, the City Council had reappointed him to head up the City's $207,000 Clean Communities program. That ended with his conviction.
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