Good morning! If you’re reading this, you survived the earthquake — hooray! Here’s your newsletter for the week. Thank you for reading! — Amy
The Iftar dinner that didn’t go well.
Well, things continued to get very messy this week between the “new” president of the JCBOE and, uh, the rest of us. An article from Hudson County View detailed the controversy that arose between Dejon Morris and Councilman Yousef Saleh during an Iftar meal. The whole thing spilled over all over Facebook, which is a platform I hope never to log onto again, but just if we stick to what John Heinis wrote and posted on Twitter/X there’s plenty. From the article:
“I was invited to the annual Ramadan Iftar at Al Huda [sic] Islamic Center as a guest to celebrate the break of the fast, To be told by Ward D Councilman Yousef J. Saleh I was not WELCOME. THE councilmen [sic] verbally attacked me at the front door while i just arrived to the Islamic Center stating ‘you have some nerve coming here’ ‘your not welcome [sic].’ I was invited,” Morris wrote on his Facebook page last night.
From screenshots on John Heinis’s Twitter/X of Morris’s Facebook post:
[Dejon Morris:] I stated. [sic] Are you threatening me Councilman Yousef J. Saleh. [sic] And I reminded him that not only am I an elected official but I’m also a 20 year veteran police detective he should caution himself.
Ward D Councilman Yousef J. Saleh became louder and more disrespectful. While sheriffs [sic] officer and Jersey city [sic] police officer “my colleagues” [sic?] attempted to calm the councilmen [sic] who was behaving like a baby in search of being nursed by his mother.
The sheriff himself along with top Hudson County and Jersey City elected officials stood and watched in disbelief.
Ward D Councilman Yousef J. Saleh was then rushed off by the leader and some police officials after displaying himself like a disgruntled school girl dumped on her first date.
All right, I’m gonna stop there. Lots more misspellings and grammatical mistakes quoted in the article, and this whole thing just such a disaster I don’t want to even deal with it. Basically, it sounds like Morris had a complete freakout at an important community event; arguably Saleh didn’t help that much, but I give him way more grace and room to be a little bit off in this situation because this isn’t his third meltdown since the start of the year, as it is with Morris. Saleh has been in office for a few years now and hasn’t had any major public issues and has generally shown himself to be a reasonable person; Morris has been in since January and this is at least his third incident of getting into a huge public fight with an elected.
Shortly after the HCV story broke, the Mayor wrote a Twitter/X post where he basically said he can’t do anything, and oh boy what a mess, huh? Lol. Which, like — thanks, dude — me and my friends have been talking nonstop about what we can do to support teachers and kids during this situation, but I guess it’s great that the guy who gets paid to run the actual city is just shrugging and walking away from this and somehow that’s fine.
So on one hand we have the JCBOE seemingly falling apart, the Mayor shrugging and walking away, and meanwhile the NJ DOE has been looking into the situation for five weeks now and hasn’t made a move. It looks pretty clear to me that if anything is going to get done to fix this situation, it’s going to take regular folks in JC to come together and start organizing and doing something, because no on in charge seems to be stepping up.
Okay. So with all that said, what are our options? Here’s some options of things we could do, and some things we can’t/shouldn’t.
Recall
A lot of you have written in to ask about this, and I don’t think it’s a good option. For starters, JCBOE trustees have to vote on things that might seem minor to you or me but also highly controversial to others (oh, I don’t know, but I’m thinking about something related to prom locations or football jerseys or something like that), and I’d hate to see the recall option get trotted out whenever anyone disagrees with a decision they’ve made. But to this situation specifically, according to the rules of recall elections, Morris would have to be in office for at least a year before a recall could be in play, so that’s not gonna work for us.
Petitions
These, I think, don’t hurt. I’m not 100% how effective they are — probably depends on the person and the situation — but they’re pretty easy and can be done from home and don’t cost anything, so they may be worth a try It’s pretty easy to set up a petition through Change.org or Actionnetwork.org. I think these are most effective if they come from a parent or family member with a kid in the school system, but they could be started by anyone.
Ok, but a petition for what, exactly? I think this could be phrased as calling for Morris to step down as president, or for the NJ DOE to hurry up and step in, or any of a bunch of different options. The most important thing, I think, is to show that a great number of people in JC are outraged over what’s happening, that we’re paying attention to this story, and we want it resolved immediately. I don’t think the petition itself is going to necessarily do anything directly, but the act of getting a group of people together and expressing collective outrage can be really powerful and can apply pressure, especially in a situation like this. For this same reason, I don’t think it’s a problem if there’s multiple petitions going at once.
Letters
In some ways, this may be the best. Maybe? At this point, Morris may have pissed off enough members of the JCBOE trustees to have a majority rally to vote for his removal at the next meeting. Would not hurt to let them know that you support them doing so, and that in fact you expect them to do this, by sending them a polite email. (You can find all their email addresses here.) As always, be courteous and calm in your correspondence — anything else doesn’t really help the situation.
What’s not going to work
Screaming at Dejon Morris on Facebook. Screaming at the trustees as they walk down the street. Screaming, in general. It feels good, but I don’t think that’s going to help right now.
The number one thing we need in this situation is cooler heads. Applying pressure is important, but adding to the chaos isn’t helpful. By all means post about this story on social media because it helps to let people know what’s going on, but posting a curse-filled rant and tagging every trustee just adds to the noise. Options that would be much more helpful: write a thoughtful letter to the trustees, send it, and post a transcript of what you wrote; start a petition and post a link to that; attend a JCBOE trustee meeting, make a statement, and post a transcript of what you said.
C’mon, people. Providing a solid, free education for children is one of the most important jobs of our government. It is crucial that we get back on track and talking about issues of importance, and that we put an end to this soap opera. (If you need any help putting together a petition or writing a letter or anything like that, reach out and I’m happy to help as much as I can.)
Lastly — do you have better/different ideas of how we, as a community, can help resolve this? I am all ears. Reach out.
Opportunities for local artists
I’ve got two for you! First, from the NJ State Council on the Arts:
Call for artists! The New Jersey State Council on the Arts is now accepting submissions for a digital mural project to be installed at the PATH Exchange PlaceStation in Jersey City.
This project is open to artists/artist teams who are at least 18 years of age, legally able to complete a contract with the Port Authority of NY/NJ, and meet the eligibility criteria stated in the call for artists. Artists must be either a NJ resident or live within 150 miles of the border of New Jersey. Preference will be considered for artists with a strong connection to Jersey City.
Applications are processed through Call for Entry. There is no entry fee to apply.
Deadline: April 30, 2024
Please direct any questions to the State Arts Council: Danielle Bursk, Director of Community Partnerships and Artist Services or Steph Nerbak, Artist Services Manager.
These NJSCA opportunities are really legit and really do go to local residents! And the budget for the above is $15,000, so it’s definitely worth it to consider applying.
Meanwhile, Art Fair 14c is introducing a new one year artists’ live/work residency downtown, and will have an open house to show off the new spaces and offer more information about what that will entail, how to apply, and so forth. More info can be found here, or stop by to check it out at 157B First Street on the following dates: Saturday, April 13, 5-8pm; Saturday, April 20, 1-4pm; Sunday, April 21, 1-4pm.
ICYMI
There’s been at least two texts sent to JC residents that relate to Liberty State Park. These texts are paid for by a group that seems to be associated with Paul Fireman, aka the billionaire who is weirdly fixated on the park and will not stop being incredibly annoying about this whole thing even though there have been countless times residents have shown up to say they like LSP pretty much the way it is. There’s a story here, if you want to read more. Meanwhile, Jerry Walker — a Hudson County Commissioner, potential mayoral candidate, and one of Fireman’s associates — had a “town hall” this Thursday to further push this agenda. As is my way, I can’t write about the ongoing LSP situation without mentioning how sick I am of this story and how this has been asked and answered by the community more times than anyone can count, and how I really wish we could finally be done pouring money into this and just leave the park alone.
It would appear, based on a real estate listing that was forwarded to me, that NJCU has listed their Fine Arts Gallery at 100 Culver Avenue for sale, along with adjacent buildings that include an auditorium, classrooms, and other spaces (it is “half a city block” based on the listing). It’s a real shame that NJCU would jeopardize (that may be too light of a word) its Fine Arts department by selling something as crucial to the development of the department as this. But if they’re going to do that, this could be a great opportunity for the city to gain a pretty massive community center right in a part of the city that has nothing of the sort, as opposed to just another row of “luxury condos” or whatever will take its place otherwise. Let’s hope some good can come out of this.
Hudson County jail update: as an update from my previous post about the jail, I submit to you this, quoted from the NJ Monitor daily email brief:
Last month, the state’s acting comptroller, Kevin Walsh, told Hudson County officials they have illegally awarded contracts worth $50M+ for health services at the county’s jail to one vendor without properly putting the contracts out to bid.
The county’s response? To award the same contract to the same company without putting it out to bid, Ron Zeitlinger reports.
Hudson County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tony Romano said the county’s legal team told commissioners the state is wrong here. This is the same legal team that previously told Walsh’s office that if it had put the contract out to bid then the county might receive bids from companies it didn’t want to work with, an objectively insane thing to say on the record to state investigators.
Never change, Hudson County!
Enjoy the eclipse everyone!!! I found a mixed drink recipe that would go well with not staring at the sun. My day-drinking days are long behind me but maybe you would enjoy it?
Great article! Excited to know about the mural project.
Saleh's FB post make the exchange seem even uglier. The contentious issue has to do with setting the date for the observance of Eid by the Board of Education. Saleh had complained that date needed to be adjusted to reflect the religious observance, and but Morris had refused that. The observance can't be determined far in advance for interesting reasons but (according to Saleh) Morris will never accommodate the needed flexibility (https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/moon-sighting-rules.html).