Jersey City cop to be stationed at every council meeting

Jan. 10, 2013

Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson
Jersey Journal file photo

There will be a Jersey City police officer stationed at every City Council meeting until 30 minutes after it adjourns, thanks to a measure adopted by the council tonight.

The ordinance, a request of Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson, was adopted by an 8-1 vote, with only Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop voting against.

Richardson has told The Jersey Journal she doesn’t want to wait until a “tragedy” occurs before the council decides it needs more protection. Though she first proposed the idea after the Dec. 14 Newtown school massacre, she said that was not the impetus for the plan.

Fulop said tonight he thinks stationing a police officer at the meeting would be “overkill.” City Hall has a security guard on duty during the meetings, and anyone who enters the Grove Street building has to walk through a metal detector first, he noted.

“We don’t need police here when people are getting shot in the streets every day,” Fulop said.

Richardson, a former police officer herself, responded by saying that one officer standing inside the council chambers during meetings is not going to affect the city’s crime-fighting initiatives.

“You don’t want to wail until something actually happens and then say we wish we had the police here,” she said. “There is crime right here.”

The council also adopted, by a 5-4 vote, a measure championed by Fulop that would tighten the city’s pay-to-play laws aimed at developers. Richardson was joined in opposition by council members Peter Brennan, Bill Gaughan and Michael Sottolano.

The council adopted a similar measure in December aimed at restricting campaign donations from city vendors. Mayor Jerramiah Healy vetoed that measure, saying it would not withstand legal scrutiny.

source: nj.com