Jersey City Councilman James Solomon Reveals Anti-Corruption Plan

JERSEY CITY, NJ —Ward E Councilman James Solomon released his anti-corruption plan Monday ahead of next month's election. Solomon is running against Jake Hudnut, a Jersey City municipal prosecutor.

Before outlining his anti-corruption plan in an in-depth post on his website, Solomon highlighted what he has done to fight corruption and maintain his independence since taking office in 2017.

But he suggested corruption remains an issue in Jersey City, and Solomon highlighted a few key reforms he said would help reduce, or punish, corruption within the city.

"We can't go back to the days when Jersey City was a punchline because of corruption," Solomon said in a statement. "My anti-corruption plan will continue to tighten our ethical rules so that people can keep building trust in our city's government."

In highlighting his anti-corruption bona fides, Solomon said that when he took office, he promised to remain independent from the notoriously corrupt Hudson County political machine.

"I'm proud to have upheld that promise," Solomon said.

As examples of his independence, Solomon cited his rejection of campaign contributions from Jersey City developers, fighting against the inequitable water tax, which the MUA passed in the dead of night, leading the fight against billionaire Paul Fireman's attempt to privatize Liberty State Park and holding SUEZ and the administration accountable after a delay in alerting the public to e-coli in the local drinking water.

But Solomon said there still is much to do to fight corruption. He pointed out recent local corruption scandals, like: 11 JCPD officers pleading guilty for receiving money for jobs they did not perform in 2018, the local school board president found to be taking illegal bribes in exchange for political favors in 2019 and the manager of the Department of Recreation being charged with stealing more than $80,000 by adjusting the department's payroll, also in 2019.

"If we are going to change corruption, then we need to change how it is investigated and punished in city government," Solomon said.

The councilman said his plan is driven by three main reforms: reforming the Ethical Standards Board, revising the city's existing ethics code and establishing mandatory ethics training.

Solomon said the Ethics Standards Board consists of six Jersey City residents who are appointed by the mayor.

"Most corruption scholars argue this type of appointment board does not ensure independence because the board members are appointed by the person they one day might have to hold accountable," Solomon said.

Instead, Solomon said board members should be appointed by an independent commission and that they no longer should be non-salaried workers, who have no incentive to proactively initiate investigations or respond to complaints.

However, Solomon said the ethics board is only as good as the ethics code it is charged with upholding, which is why the councilman believes the ethics code needs reform.

Among the areas in which the current code is lacking, Solomon said, are the absence of an "obligation to report" provision and protections for whistleblowers.

Solomon pointed to major cities like Chicago, New York and Minneapolis, which have passed more comprehensive whistleblower protection laws.

Finally, Solomon said that the other reforms need to be paired with mandatory ethics training.

"(There must be a) robust education campaign to ensure all government workers are informed of their obligations and the ethical standards they should be held to," Solomon said. "To achieve this goal, we should require mandatory yearly training of government and public officials to be designed and implemented by professional public ethics educators."

Solomon even suggested that Jersey City's ethics training materials could be modeled after works by ethics experts that are used by schools and municipalities throughout New Jersey, experts like: scholar Christina Fullam, who is the ethics training officer for the New Jersey State Ethics Commission and Harry Pozycki, former advisor to multiple New Jersey governors.