Ethics Reform Thwarted by Machine Politics

Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop's ethics reform referendum appeared ready for the ballot come November. Fulop worked for months to gather signatures to make his proposals a ballot referendum, putting the ballot reform to voters rather than council members.

The original ethics package was rejected by the city council when Fulop introduced it as an ordinance because among other things, the legislation would prevent council members from lining their pockets with taxpayer dollars and cut off their source of campaign cash by limiting contributions from patronage contract holders. In short, Fulop's ethics reform bill would have prevented Jersey City's elected officials from living large off taxpayers.

City officials originally told Fulop that he needed a little over 1,500 signatures for the referendum to appear on the ballot. Fulop, to the chagrin of city officials, produced petitions with enough signatures, at which point the city decided Fulop actually needed more than 12,000 signatures, as reported by the Journal.