Hudson County Facts

MR. BYRNE: Patrol O’Melia, you
are our keynote speaker. You get five minutes
or less.

MR. O’MELIA: I will do it in
less, Robert.

MR. BYRNE: Okay. Sir.

MR. O’MELIA: Hello. My name is
Pat O’Melia. I reside at 130 Congress Street in
Jersey City. I am the public relations person
for the Jersey City Parking Authority. I come
before this Council today asking for a complete
investigation of the Parking Authority. And
now, if you want to ask me some questions as to
why, I will be happy to answer them; but I will
tell you right off the bat this is an
organization that is out of control. It is run
by intimidation and thuggery, for that matter.

Yesterday a 28-year employee of
Parking Authority, the deputy director, was
threatened with termination. There is no
conversation. There is no medium that you can
express your opinions at the Parking Authority
without it becoming confrontational and your
jobs are threatened. This goes from the
management right down to the PEOs who write the
tickets. If you contact the union, you will
find out complaints have been made there.

The morale at the Parking
Authority is the pits. And these are the same
people I put out on the streets with a ticket
book. We got to change the morale. And public
relations starts from the inside out, and it’s
going to have to start at the top.

I have spoken to the Mayor about
this. He is not interested in hearing this. So
I come before yous. I have just spoken to the
Mayor just prior to arriving here. I wanted to
tell him face-to-face that I was coming before
the Council. I will say he didn’t take that
well. But I am asking you to investigate the
Jersey City Parking Authority.

MR. SMITH: Alex.

MR. O’MELIA: Now, you people have
known me for three years with my other role as
the radio show; and you know I am a straight
shooter. I don’t screw around. We have been on
different end of the arguments sometimes, but
you know I don’t kid around. This is serious.
There is a tremendous problem at the Parking
Authority.

MR. MALDONADO: Can you highlight
some of these problems?

MR. O’MELIA: Intimidation is a
big deal there now with the new director.
Joining associations has become a big deal.
Purchasing tickets to events; whether you want
to go or not, you are going to buy a ticket.
Ticket quotas — believe me. we got to write a
certain amount of tickets. Don’t come back if
you don’t. If we don’t go forward with this
investigation — and we can leave the
individuals held harmless without —

MR. MALDONADO: Immunity?

MR. O’MELIA: You got it. You are
going — you are going to get a lot of
interesting stories, believe me. You don’t have
to have a rain coat and be Columbo to crack this
case.

MR. SMITH: Alex, would you —
would you — you and Carlton need to deal with
these allegations, particularly in regards to –
these are some serious allegations on the record
that we need to address.

Also, it brings me to mind,

Peter, in your ward I need to ask you about
between Stegman and Bergen Avenue. Bergen and
the Boulevard. Is that no parking for — from
three to nine for anyone, or is it two-hour
limit?

MR. BRENNAN: That is not zoned
parking there.

MR. SMITH: Huh?

MR. BRENNAN: That is not zoned
parking.

MR. SMITH: According to what I’m
told — I stopped and talked to Parking
Authority official who was booting cars, an
officer. He said that their hours there are
from — there is no parking except for
residents.

MR. BRENNAN: East of the
Boulevard you are talking?

MR. SMITH: Yes.

MR. BRENNAN: No, it’s west of the
Boulevard.

MS. RICHARDSON: Would have to be
posted, anyway.

MR. SMITH It was not posted; I
brought that point up. Alex, that is an issue think that needs to be addressed with the
Parking Authority. I was in this area last —
the beginning of the week. It was brought to my
attention. People were being booted, and there
was no sign posted. I was told by the — told
by the Parking Authority officer that this is
between Bergen Avenue and the Boulevard.

MR. MALDONADO: There is no
residential parking there?

MR. BRENNAN: No, it’s west of the
Boulevard. It’s from —

MR. SMITH: And I told them I
didn’t think the ordinance was in effect for
that area. So we need to clearly define what
that — what is happening there because we may
have illegally booted and fined people who were
parked there.

MR. BOOTH: Stegman Street?

MR. SMITH: Stegman — Stegman
Street between Bergen and the Boulevard. Is it
Stegman Parkway or Stegman Street?
22

MR. BRENNAN: Stegman Parkway.

MR. HEALY: Stegman Parkway is
west of the Boulevard.

MR. SMITH: Stegman Street, as

well as Culver Avenue between the Boulevard
and — between the Boulevard and Bergen Avenue.

MR. HEALY: Boulevard and
Westside.

MR. SMITH: Okay. It’s not
Culver: it’s Audubon. I’m sorry, Audubon.
Audubon Avenue.

MR. LIPSKI: Pat, have you ever
been the recipient of any of this intimidation
or coercion?

MR. McGEE: (This seems to be an error in the transcript. It appears to actually be Pat O’Melia speaking.) Oh, sure, but I am a
big boy: I can handle myself. There are
situations between me and the director, but that
I’m handling on my own. And for that matter, I
have just retained an attorney. But that is —
that I will take care of myself.

But this all came to a head
yesterday with the situation with the deputy
director. And this has just got to end. Today
I had a meeting with commissioners from the
Jersey City Parking Authority expressing the
same concerns as to an agency gone out of
control.

MR. HEALY: The commissioners
expressed that concern to you?

MR. O’MELIA: Yes, they did, at a
secret location called Vinnie’s Pizzeria on
Kennedy Boulevard today. But — I don’t know
why they picked that spot, but that’s where we
went. The Parking Authority meeting — I
haven’t attended any of the meetings in a while.
They now go about eight minutes. Somehow, some
way the contract is signed by the director,
supersedes the commissioners; they are no longer
required to vote on anything. The
commissioner —

MR. SMITH: That is not true.

MR. O’MELIA: — has the power to
hire and fire.

MR. MALDONADO: Pat, what they do
is they vote on the consent agenda. So what
they do is they take whatever amount of items on
the agenda, whether it’s five or ten or 20, they
condense them to one vote; and they get through
the agenda rather quickly.

MR. O’MELIA: Junior, I think you
ought to talk to some of the commissioners,
then.

MR. SMITH: I don’t know if they
can legally do that. I don’t know if they can

legally do that.

MR. O’MELIA: For that matter —

MR. SMITH: You Sunshine a meeting
and you Sunshine the items in that meeting. We
need to —

MR. LIPSKI: Orders the —

MR. MALDONADO: They don’t have
the ability to hire and fire without board
approval.

MR. O’MELIA: You got it.

MR. MALDONADO: That’s one of the
reasons I had earlier, before you got here,
requested for records in terms of what the employment status or how many employees have
been hired in the City and all the autonomous
agencies and authorities within the City.

MR. O’MELIA: I can’t speak for
the other agencies, but I believe there is going
to be some interesting reading at the Parking
Authority.

MR. BYRNE: Okay. Thanks, Pat.

MR. O’MELIA: Is that it?

MR. BYRNE: I think so.

MR. VEGA: I just wanted to ask
our Corporation Counsel, would we be able to add
to our resolution that gives the municipality
investigatory powers to include the Parking
Authority as part of our purview and our
jurisdiction?

MR. BOOTH: You can declare
yourself an investigatory body for any purpose
connected with the City government. You can do
that. I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t
amend the resolution that you have for tonight
to include the Parking Authority or do a
separate one at another time. But if you want
to amend tonight’s, let’s do that.

MR. VEGA: I think it’s
appropriate for the severity of the allegations
that we amend this and schedule these
investigations at the appropriate time. They
don’t have to be scheduled for the 28th. But
they could be scheduled at a later date which
these allegations that — that are being made
can be tested, in fact, if there is any truth to
them.

MR. BOOTH: If we are not going to do anything before the 28th, which we are
probably not, it might be a good idea to hold
off and do a separate resolution.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Talk into the
microphone, please. microphone.

MR. BYRNE: In the microphone.

MR. BOOTH: I could — I could —

MR. BYRNE: They need to hear you
in Harrison.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Microphone.

MR. BOOTH: I could — I could
interview Mr. O’Melia maybe and find out a few
more specifics and prepare a resolution for your
consideration at the next meeting.

MR. VEGA: I would appreciate it,
if you did that.

MS. RICHARDSON: I have a question
for you. Alex. Do you need a resolution to vote
subpoena powers by this body?

MR. BOOTH: What you need to do is
to form a — a — to form yourselves as a
committee of the whole for purpose of conducting
an investigation. Then, as a — as a body under
that auspices you do have subpoena powers. If
you form an ad hoc committee, as opposed to a
committee of the whole, then, in my opinion,
it’s questionable whether you would have
2subpoena powers or not, and I would say that you
didn’t. So you have to form yourself as a
committee of the whole. Then you require
subpoena powers for City business.

MR. SMITH: Alex, I think it would
be hard for us to exclude anybody in matters
like this, so a committee where all of us would
be able to ask questions is a — an appropriate
action.

MR. BOOTH: I think that’s why the
legislation was designed that way. Subpoena
powers, it’s a very serious matter and really
shouldn’t — it’s better to conduct it with all
of you, rather than some of you. And you can —
you can have an ad hoc committee of a few of you
and with that you can — you can ask people to
come in and talk. But if they don’t come, you
don’t have the power to go to court and have
them held in contempt or — whereas, under
tonight’s resolution, as a committee of the
whole you have subpoena power. If people don’t
comply with the subpoenas, you go to court, hold
them in contempt: and judge takes care of
business.

. . .