By David Giambusso and James Queally/The Star-Ledger

NEWARK — In the wake of massive layoffs in 2010 and allegations of rampant police misconduct, Newark Mayor Cory Booker said today he would hire 50 new police officers and seek to create a civilian review board for the first time in the city's modern history.

Booker made the announcement today before The Star-Ledger’s editorial board, during a preview of Tuesday night's "State of The City" address. The new police officers and the citizen review board represent major developments aimed at healing two of the most serious police controversies of Booker’s mayoral tenure.

He was widely criticized when a city budget shortfall led to the layoffs of 163 officers in 2010 and again faced vitriol when the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation of the department after an American Civil Liberties Union report revealed the city rarely disciplined officers for serious misconduct.

Booker was the latest in a long line of city officials resistant to the idea that city police required monitoring or reform, but said today he and Police Director Samuel DeMaio will reverse that trend.

"We want to get a citizen body to oversee police accountability," he said. "This is what police directors going all the way back into the (former Newark Mayor Kenneth) Gibson days didn’t want. And this police director wants it."

Newark Mayor Cory Booker answers questions during a Star Ledger editorial board meeting today.

Beyond the changes to police, when Booker takes the stage at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Tuesday night, he is expected to focus largely on his legacy in the city as he weighs a run for U.S. Senate.

"We really want to give people an appreciation of what this accomplishment really entailed," Booker said, referring to his 2013 budget and Newark’s progress since he took office in 2006.

"I think it’s clearly part of his effort to sell himself nationally," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, adding that when Booker takes the stage at NJPAC Tuesday night, he will be "putting together some of the different pieces of his policies so people can see what he has done for the city."

Among the gains Booker is expected to point to will be 1,600 new affordable housing units, an unprecedented population increase, an expansion of the tax rolls, increased productivity in City Hall, a modest reduction in crime and $1.5 billion in economic development.

According to numbers crunched by the real estate research firm Jones, Lang and Lasalle, Newark was responsible for at least 30 percent of the commercial and multifamily residential development in the state during 2012.

"It’s been an incredibly painstaking, difficult seven years," Booker said. "Despite it all, Newark is going through its biggest economic development boom since the 1950s."

But Booker said his most important self-administered pat on the back will be for the city budget.

"The big announcement really is that this year’s budget will not rely on gimmicks," Booker said, promising a balanced 2013 budget without one-time revenues or emergency state aid for the first time in more than a decade.

"Find another government in New Jersey that has separated with 25 percent of their employees and increased productivity," Booker said.

Booker’s claim of increased productivity relies on metrics the city uses to monitor things like inspections, absenteeism, and even the number of streets plowed during snowstorms.

City leaders said the news of the review board and new police officers were welcome.

"We’ll look at how he is proposing to pay for this, with the introduction of the budget over the next few weeks," North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos said. "But I’m excited about it."

Others expressed skepticism about the mayor’s claim that city workers were more productive despite layoffs.

"City workers are busting their humps — they’re killing themselves," said West Ward Councilman Ron C. Rice, but added, "What I see are residents complaining that basic things are not getting done."

Rice pointed to abandoned lots, illegal dumping, delayed trash pickup and inspections as areas where productivity needs to be significantly improved.

"I have always said that the mayor has been moving this city toward ending the structural deficit, even when I’ve disagreed with how he’s tackled it," Rice said, but added that the city needs to come up with new ways to generate revenue, other than taxes, in order to provide residents with adequate services.

"It’s not enough to end the structural deficit," he said. "The idea is to create abundance."

Booker said that abundance is on the horizon and that the past seven years eases the path for the next mayor.

"All the hard work is done," Booker said. "We now have a growing tax base, growing revenues. The question they’re going to have to ask themselves is how to invest."

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