Booker - Ledger - Pink slips delivered to department heads

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Published in the Star-Ledger, Saturday, June 10, 2006

Mayor-elect delivers pink slips to Newark's department heads

Saturday, June 10, 2006

BY JEFFERY C. MAYS
Star-Ledger Staff

Newark Mayor-elect Cory Booker told 59 department directors and other City Hall workers yesterday to start looking for new jobs.

In short, hand-delivered letters, Booker told the directors of every major department and other staffers they would be dismissed on July 1, the day he takes office.

Pablo Fonseca, Booker's senior adviser, said the fired workers may reapply for their jobs. He also said more city workers could receive termination notices.

"Please be advised that you are being removed from your position effective July 1, 2006. I have made the decision to remove you in my capacity as Mayor. Please be guided accordingly," Booker wrote.

Booker could not be reached for comment yesterday. Fonseca, himself a former city employee, said the letters went out as part of the transition process.

"All of these positions are appointments by the mayor. An incoming mayor has the right to appoint the people he'd like to those titles," Fonseca said. The Star-Ledger obtained copies of 30 of the letters, written on the letterhead of Newark In Transition, the organization Booker formed to aid the first mayoral transition in 20 years.

Fonseca said all the major department directors, from engineering to finance to the water and sewer departments to the business administrator, received letters.

Also receiving termination letters were Elliot James, son of outgoing Mayor Sharpe James, who earns $63,720 as an aide to his father; Cheryl Johnson, James' longtime chief of staff; and James' spokeswoman, his speechwriter, the entire office of communications and various mayoral secretaries and aides.

Many on the list, including department directors and mayoral aides, serve at the discretion of the mayor. They are also some of James' strongest supporters. The outgoing mayor criticized Booker for the firings yesterday, saying Booker reneged on an election promise not to excise city workers.

During the campaign, Booker told workers at various forums he would not engage in firing purely for political reasons.

"This is the same individual who said you don't have to worry about wholesale firing and wholesale dismissal," James said. "He hasn't even taken over as mayor yet."

Fonseca said Booker is sticking to his pledge. He said the directors who were fired are invited to re-apply for their jobs.

Mike James, president of Newark Council 21, the union that represents the city's white-collar workers, said some of the people Booker appeared to remove might have civil service titles that provide some protection from being arbitrarily fired.

For example, he said, while fire director Lowell Jones serves at the pleasure of the mayor, he occupies a deputy chief-level civil service title.

"They have to check the civil service title to see what opportunities that person has to return to their previous position," said James, who is not related to the mayor.

So far, Fonseca said, he has gotten only one call from a recipient of the letter notifying Booker's transition team that they hold a civil service title.

Those employees will be handled according to the law, Fonseca said, dismissing James' charges that Booker's action is being driven by politics.

"We will not become what we are trying to replace," Fonseca said.

David Rebovich, director of the Rider University Institute for New Jersey Politics, said Booker is not doing anything out of the ordinary.

"It's a time-honored tradition," Rebovich said. "Booker presumably has a different policy outlook than James and he wants people loyal to him and not the former mayor."

Police Director Anthony Ambrose said he told James last month that he intended to retire at the end of his term on June 30, so Booker's announcement didn't surprise him.

"It's his prerogative," Ambrose said. "He's the mayor elect."

Business Administrator Richard Monteilh said he had planned to serve for only four years. He sent out letters to all the department directors as preparation for returning all city-owned vehicles and equipment.

"I told the directors two weeks ago to prepare to exit," Monteilh said.

Staff writers Jonathan Schuppe and Jonathan Casiano contributed to this report.

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