A brief note on the Town Meeting with Mayor Malloy

I was able to attend the town meeting tonight in person where Mayor Malloy presented his state of the city address. There were approximately 31 people present, though many were city employees or other particular interests. The number of actual citizens unconnected to any city agencies was below 10. Four of those people addressed the mayor in the Q & A session.

The new Bayonne Medical Center operators made a short presentation and took some questions prior to the Mayor making his address. Of particular note during their presentation was their canceling of contracts with major health care insurers such as United Health Care. They assured those present that nothing would change in terms of service, and that customers with insurance companies that are effected will still be treated as in network. They say they are pressing the insurance companies for better reimbursement rates. However, one has to wonder how long new owners of a once failing hospital that was recently bailed out by the city can sustain such a practice.

One particular highlight of the Mayor's speech to those who read the Advocate was the issue of ethics. The Mayor acknowledged that many in the city are concerned with the openness of Government. He is appointing an ethics officer who will be unpaid, and not connected to the city, to listen to possible ethical complaints, and presumably bring those to an ethics board. I was told by an unnamed city source that this will most likely be an attorney from out of town.

During the Q and A session, Mayor Malloy was asked whether there would be any layoffs in the 08-09 budget year in FD & PD. The Mayor promised no Police or Fire layoffs, however he said that some people who would retire would not be replaced, thus bringing the departments in line with the Matrix Report that was recently done, suggesting lower manpower numbers.

Also during the Q and A the Mayor spoke with a citizen who was concerned with integration of the newer immigrants to Bayonne. While addressing her concerns the Mayor said that it was his wish that the open Board of Education seat be filled by a person of Arab descent in order to begin to better represent the city of Bayonne more diverse population.