A Jersey City councilman was allegedly drunk when he was seized at a Washington nightclub after urinating on attendees of a Grateful Dead tribute concert.

City Councilman Steven Lipski, who represents the Journal Square area and directs a charter school, was charged Friday with simple assault at Nightclub 9:30 on V Street, a spokesman from the Metropolitan Police District of Columbia said today. Staff at the club spotted Lipski, 44, at the Dark Star Orchestra concert, urinating from a second-level balcony onto the crowd below, The Daily News reported today.

Club employees hauled Lipski from the club and held him until police arrived and arrested him around 9:50 p.m., the report said.

A "source" told The Daily News that Lipski was "very drunk," and said it wasn't the first time he acted up at the nightspot.

"We've dealt with this man before," the source is quoted saying. "He's never peed on anybody, but he gets really belligerent and drunk."

Lipski, founder and director of CREATE Charter School in Jersey City, didn't return several phone calls left for him at his home and on his cell phone.

But one of his city council colleagues, Willie Flood, said Lipski called her this morning and said the incident was a big misunderstanding. Lipski claimed he spilled a drink and a someone thought it was urine, Flood said.

"It is an allegation," Flood added. "We need the facts first and then make a determination what happened. It seems out of character."

Flood, who also is the Hudson County Registrar, made headlines earlier this year when it came to light she hired her son for two government jobs even though he had previous run-ins with the law.

Richard Heinecke, owner of Nightclub 9:30, declined to comment today.

Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop called Lipski's arrest "embarrassing" for Jersey City.

Coupled with Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy's conviction for resisting arrest and obstruction of administrative law during a tussle with cops in Bradley Beach in 2006, Fulop said these incidents would lead investors to "question the leadership" of Jersey City.

"It is very humiliating," he said.

Healy was unavailable to comment and his spokeswoman, Jennifer Morrill, called the Lipski incident a "private and personal matter."

The mayor has characterized his thrice-appealed disorderly persons arrest in Bradley Beach in 2006 in much the same manner. The state Supreme Court refused to consider a final appeal of the charges earlier this year. Healy has maintained he was just trying to help the police sort out a domestic dispute.