With no public comments from any parties involved in the settlement and release agreement with the former city administrator, we turn to the minutes of two executive sessions last month that led to the deal.
Continue reading Exec minutes provide few details on settlement
Tag Archives: Rick Proctor
Council rejects legal contract proposed by mayor
The City Council last week unanimously rejected a resolution proposed by the mayor that would have awarded a $75,000 contract to a Parsippany law firm.
Continue reading Council rejects legal contract proposed by mayor
City administrator on the way out
The nearly two-year battle within the city administration is coming to an end — City Administrator Peter Pelissier is on the way out, along with $163,000 – but will remain as redevelopment director.
Continue reading City administrator on the way out
Is it still cold in here? Pretty much…
The relationship between the mayor and city administrator/redevelopment director doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
Continue reading Is it still cold in here? Pretty much…
New commissioner for Redevelopment Agency
Michael Staryak was unanimously confirmed by City Council on Monday night as a commissioner to the seven-member Redevelopment Agency, replacing Nancy Saliga, whose term expired. His four-year term runs through 2016.
Saliga was a commissioner since the inception of the agency more than a decade ago. She first was elected as an at-large City Council member in 1990, and her current term expires in 2014. Staryak has served for many years on the Board of Education and his current term concludes this year (.pdf); no word on whether he’ll seek re-election to the school board.
Unlike a few other recent appointments put forth by Mayor Rick Proctor, Staryak’s appointment was confirmed unanimously by the governing body, along with a new Republican commissioner on the Alcohol Beverage Control Board (Eric Rickes, 2014) and a member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment (Andre Bryant, 2015).
Council rejects pair of mayoral re-appointments
The City Council tonight unanimously rejected two re-appointments proposed by Mayor Rick Proctor amid several others that were approved, while also dismissing a local “pay-to-play” ordinance.
Rejected were the re-appointments of George Wagenhoffer, a Republican, to a three-year term on the Alcohol Beverage Control Board and Josh Donovan to a four-year term on the Zoning Board of Adjustment. However, two other re-appointments to the Zoning Board — William Hering (term through 2015) and Paula Braxton (alternate, 2013) — were approved. In a separate resolution, Ray Lopez was approved to fill a vacancy on the Zoning Board through 2012.
City Council members had no comment, not even any comments unrelated to business on the agenda, which they sometimes offer in their end-of-meeting reports. Council President Samson Steinman, who pulled the affected resolutions from the consent agenda, declined to comment on the failed re-appointments following Monday night’s meeting. (The consent agenda allows the governing body to combine routine resolutions into one vote but a council member can pull them out to be voted on separately, as was the case with several tonight).
Among the appointments that gained approval were two to the Parking Authority (James Walker, 2015, and Eric Kabel, 2016), one to the Planning Board (City Councilman Sal Mione, through 2012), and another to the Redevelopment Agency (Matt Dobrowolski, unexpired term through 2014).
When Ordinance O-3-12 (“Pay-to-Play”) came up on the agenda, 3rd Ward Councilman Jerry Scaturo and 4th Ward Councilman David Brown both pulled their sponsorship of the measure, which was set at last week’s pre-meeting conference. Neither addressed the move publicly. A copy of the four-page ordinance can be found in this Google Document file. The mayor had mentioned pay-to-play in his State of the City message last week (another Google Doc).
The mayor and City Council, all Democrats, have been at odds over the last half year or so, over a number of items, including reducing his salary and other staff appointments in the mayor’s office.
State of the City 2012
In what could be called dueling State of the City addresses, Mayor Rick Proctor and City Council President Samson Steinman both delivered remarks at tonight’s annual reorganization meeting, assessing the city’s position as it enters a new year.
More than 100 properties win tax appeals
More than 100 properties successfully reduced their tax assessments for 2011, securing reductions in their property tax bills totaling $117,704.
The tax appeal amounts were approved by City Council at its November meeting, following property judgments by the county Board of Taxation. The 104 properties successfully reduced their collective tax assessments by more than $2 million, from $16.74 million to $14.7 million. Included among the reduced assessments were two dozen Riverwalk townhouses and two units at Carriage City Plaza. These judgments were appeals that reached the county level, and could be appealed to the state Tax Court. In all, the city received about 200 individual property appeals this year, according to Tax Assessor Richard Kulman.
The number of appeal judgments approved are twice as many as the 52 settled at the county level in 2010, which were twice as many as 2009. The totals do not include the tax appeal settlement with Merck. The pharmaceutical giant had its assessments for 2010, 2011 and 2012 reduced as part of the settlement.
Averages among the 100+ properties, followed by high/low, were:
Original assessment: $162,551 — $82,800 / $305,700
New assessment: $142,729 — $61,200 / $250,000
Reduction: $19,822 — $2,100 / $47,900
Appeal amount: $1,143 — $121 / $3,211
Here’s a Google Docs spreadsheet with all the properties and details on the assessments and reductions. If that’s not cool enough, here’s a link to a Google Map of all 104 sites (which can also be found below). [It was pretty tedious and laborious to put together, so it’d be great if you could click the link to at least make me think it was worth the time and effort…].
There seem to be a couple of pockets or clusters around town. In addition to the new construction, some two dozen properties around the Rahway River Park neighborhood won tax judgments and another handful in the Inman Heights area.
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In case you missed last week’s drama between the City Council and Mayor Rick Proctor, Sunday’s Star-Ledger had an editorial about the ongoing debacle (“Rahway mayor’s overreach may cost him his job”). In addition to calling Proctor’s veto of an anti-nepotism ordinance “tone deaf,” the 258-word piece essentially said the council is trying to push Proctor out by reducing his salary.