Booker vs. Council: Budget & Restaurant Security Bill
The City of Newark’s Municipal Council voted against Mayor Cory A. Booker’s $755 million calendar year 2011 city budget, which comes the same day that Booker put the Municipal Council's plans to further regulate late night restaurants on at least temporary hold since July 18.
Booker, as the city's chief executive, introduced the budget that called for a seven percent property tax increase. The spending plan also calls for plugging a $57 million deficit without resorting to employee layoffs or furloughs by, in part, asking for advance airport and seaport payments from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The standard operating procedure calls for the council to receive the budget. City legislators then have the ability to change the budget - or come up with one of their own - before adopting a final version. The council may adopt that last edition after holding public and/or departmental hearings.
The council voted 6-3 July 19 to reject Booker's proposed budget. Council members Augusto Amador, Ras Baraka, Mildred Crump, Luis Quintana, Anibal Ramos, Jr. and Ronald C. Rice voted for the denial. Colleagues Donald M. Payne, Jr., Carlos Gonzalez and Darrin Sharif voted to receive.
Several council members expressed not being sure of the Booker Administration's figures on federal and state funding as well as on the seven percent increase.
Booker has the opportunity to re-introduce the budget at the council's Aug. 3 meeting. Aug. 3 may also be the first chance for the council to attempt to override Booker's veto on their late night restaurant security bill, which called for such eateries to hire night-time security guards and to establish a Restaurant Review Commission.
The mayor's veto comes 13 days after the council unanimously passed Ordinance No. 11-0650 after a public hearing and second reading July 7.
That bill's provisions, as read by "Local Talk" July 20, would affect restaurants operating within a residential zone or within 200 feet of a residence. The eateries would be responsible for quality of life conditions in or adjacent to the premises. The bill, furthermore, calls for a 2-6 a.m. curfew.
A 15-member Restaurant Review Commission would enforce the security guard and related provisions. The uncompensated panel would include a community member from each ward, two members representing the restaurants, the Police Director and a representative from the city's code enforcement office plus, as honorary members, the council president and mayor.
The RRC would gather information from police reports and resident complaints.
"Local Talk" remembers discussion among council members and public speakers about limiting the so-called "chicken shack" eateries' hours for the last two years. South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka added the security guard requirement to the bill and sponsored it through a council committee in the last two months.
Some observers have considered the council's passage of 11-0650 as its response to the fatal May 26 shooting of Newark Police Officer William C. Johnson. Johnson had ordered a pizza slice at Texas Fried Chicken and Pizza, 250 Lyons Ave., when a drive-by assailant shot him and wounded two other restaurant patrons.
It is thought that Johnson was misidentified by the gunman. Two suspects, the other man driving a reportedly stolen car, are in custody.
11-0650 calls for food serving establishments holding 15 or fewer patrons to have a security guard on duty between 9 p.m. and closing time. Failure to comply with that provision would force the establishments to close between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Booker, in his veto announcement, said that such eateries are linked to two percent of violent crime in Newark.
"There are many businesses that would be caught up in these extreme costs associated with armed security that never even had a problem in these neighborhoods," said the mayor. "I believe that the council, working with our police can come up with pro-active legislation that is a win for the community, a win for the business community and a win for public safety."
Subscribe to this comment's feed
