Gloucester City: ‘The James Gang’ Saves Taxpayers $1 Million in Their First Year in Office

By: John P. Schmidt

NEWS Correspondent

Gloucester City Councilman Jay Brophy informed the public at the reorganization meeting held Thursday, Jan. 3 of Mayor and Council that the city did not spend $670,000 that was appropriated in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 budget and that it will be carried over in FY 2008, for revenues purposes.

Photo: James Gang, from left, Councilman Bill Hagan, Councilman Jay Brophy, Mayor Bill James, Councilman Nick Marchese

Councilman Nick Marchese added \”We saved close to a million dollars from FY 2007. He explained the City saved over $500,000 on legal fees as a result of hiring a new City Solicitor, John Kearney.

Marchese explained, \”For fiscal year 2006 the law firm of Parker and McCay, who employed City Solicitor James Maley charged the City $570,000 for legal fees. In comparison the present City Solicitor John Kearney billed the City $43,000 for legal fees in 2007.

Marchese also mentioned that there is $335,084 in the Urban Development Grant (UDAG), and when they came into office last year it was $3,783.

Before the 139^th Annual Reorganization meeting was held a brief Sine Die meeting of the outgoing council took place.

Present in the audience were U.S. Representative Rob Andrews (D-NJ), Camden County Surrogate Patricia Egan Jones, and Former Camden County Freeholder Tom Gurick, and Former Mayor Bob Bevan.

Outgoing Council Members Elsie Loebell, Jean Kaye, and Rocky Kormann, all thanked the residents of their wards and the people of Gloucester City for their support.

In an emotional farewell address Loebell recognized and thanked her son Ted, who was in attendance as well as the employees of the City and second ward residents.

She said that people may not have always agreed with her but that she only wanted the best for Gloucester City. Loebell left office after 19 years, which is the longest tenure of a member of Council in City history.

The Re-organization meeting began with an invocation by Fr. Michael Goyette of St. Mary\’s Church.

Andrews administered the oath of office to three new council members: John Hutchinson (First Ward), Bruce Parry (Second Ward), and Kellie Ferry (Third Ward).

see photos by Karen Jackson

Andrews spoke briefly thanking the outgoing members of council and welcomed the new members of council. He spoke about Gloucester City and mentioned how the basics are always at the front of people\’s minds, and that it is a close nit community. He said he was humbled to represent the people of Gloucester in Washington D.C.

The Council and mayor then proceeded to pass the first 35 resolutions of 2008 by a unanimous vote. They appointed Bowman & Company, LLP, as Auditor, John B. Kearney as City Solicitor, Edward Vernick as City Engineer, Paul Dougherty as Prosecutor, Charles Wigginton as Public Defender, The Waetzman Planning Group as the City Planner, T & M Associates as the Redevelopment Engineer, Parker McCay, P.A., as Bond Counsel, and Paul J. Kain, City Administrator all for a one year term.

Also on the agenda for the evening were Appointments to the Board of Health. Bernadette Gorman, Eleanor Kain, and Anna Marie Smith were all appointed to a three-year term, Joseph Hartzel was appointed for a one-year unexpired term, which he has held since Effie Hagan resigned earlier this year.

Bruce Marks was appointed as the first alternate for a two-year term, and Dan Dobleman was appointed to the second alternate unexpired term for one year.

Mayor appointments to various boards included: Tim Carpenter (Mayor\’s Designee), Robert Bevan, Michael Smollock, Patrick Cerrone, Steve Martarano, and Lynn Bucher were appointed to the Planning Board. Councilman Nicholas Marchese was re-appointed by mayor and council to be the Councilmanic Member of the Planning Board.

Dave Townsend, Rae Whelan and Louisa Llewellyn were appointed to the Gloucester City Historic Preservation Commission. Jean McLaughlin, and Joanne B. Gurick were appointed to the Gloucester City Library Board of Trustees.

In the public section of the meeting Gurick spoke about the new members of council, and he also mentioned how nice it was to see a lot of young adults present in the audience.

Following the public sector Mayor James gave his state of the city address to the residents of Gloucester City (see below). He said that accountability would be the word in 2008. Read State of the City Address

In other news Councilman Jay Brophy told people that student Rory Gallagher had asked him to ask the citizens of Gloucester to pick up the trash in front of there houses to make Gloucester cleaner.