The Jersey Journal endorses Downtown Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop for mayor.

There are four people who are asking the voters to elect them to the city’s highest office. With Fulop, this newspaper believes the city has the best chance to use its superior inherent qualities — its geography, people and resources — to become one of the nation’s prominent municipalities.

Fulop has the leadership and sound decision-making abilities to select the right path for Jersey City’s journey through the 21st century. He has the vision and commitment to make this city a place that will sustain its residents and improve their lives and that of their children.

The smoke and mirrors employed by the current administration for the last eight and a half years have not allowed all of Jersey City to reach its potential. The city, and more important its people, deserve so much better.

Jersey City is a vital city in the New York metropolitan region with a dense but very diverse population of about 250,000 people. We are a transportation hub with a deep water port, rails, buses, light rail trains, ferries and many major roadways that intersect the Hudson County seat. Located across from the Big Apple, Jersey City is a major financial center with an ever-growing service industry.

Usually, this is how the city is described. There should be much more.

There’s untapped potential in city landmarks like the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre and the Sixth Street Embankment — places that, with proper planning, could be destinations. Artists have always been attracted to the city, and its institutions of higher learning — St. Peter’s University, New Jersey City University and Hudson County Community College — are growing in capital improvements, curriculum and student populations.

Since being elected to the City Council in 2005, Fulop has been the major voice of reason in local government.

In his first term, he was the lone council member to challenge an administration that lacked transparency and imagination but controlled the legislative body. Labeled a reformer, Fulop managed to bring together a council coalition interested in better serving their constituents. Since November, with the election of Ward F Councilwoman Diane Coleman, Fulop’s power on the City Council has grown. The coalition he helped create has been able to block administration efforts that were wrong for Jersey City.

One of his prominent accomplishments is adoption of a strict pay-to-play ordinance designed to ban vendors from using campaign donations to secure contracts with the city. The councilman backed an effort to have city government employees put in 25 years of service before being entitled to lifetime benefits. He co-sponsored a living-wage ordinance to improve pay for workers of companies that have contracts with the city.

FULOP GOT THINGS DONE

In a city facing annual financial problems, despite decades of waterfront development, Fulop helped end costly health benefits for board members of the city Municipal Utilities and Incinerator authorities. Among his other accomplishments, the administration agreed to place government-identifying decals on a dozen city-owned cars used by selected individuals — a watered-down version of Fulop's request for decals on all vehicles, except those used by public safety. He also calls for more rational use of tax abatements to stimulate development in the older sections of the city.

It should be noted that this election is also a referendum on the present administration headed by a mayor whose time in office took on a surreal quality this week when a controversial issue from his 2004 run for mayor resurfaced.

While being interviewed by a Star-Ledger columnist, incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy decided to clarify how a photograph of him, naked and sitting on the steps of his front porch, became public on the Internet during the 2004 special election campaign. The mayor felt he had to explain that "three Hispanic girls," whom he’d never mentioned before, were to blame for the incident. At the time, his campaign portrayed him as a victim of a political dirty trick.

In fact, in Healy's eyes nothing during his years in office has been his fault. This includes a 2006 scuffle with Bradley Beach police that led to a disorderly conduct conviction that the mayor appealed and lost. The mayor never apologized for his behavior.

The worst was yet to come.

In 2009, Operation Bid Rig III, a federal investigation into dishonest government in New Jersey, led to massive arrests. Those who were indicted and convicted of or pleaded guilty to corruption included members of Healy's administration, such as then-deputy mayor Leona Beldini, then-council president Mariano Vega, then-council member Philip Kenny, and then-city Housing Authority commissioner Edward Cheatam. Beldini was also Healy's reelection campaign treasurer that year.

The mayor was never charged and says he did nothing wrong.

He also never strongly denounced, or apologized for, these corrupt officials. His administration also helped stonewall Vega's resignation. The councilman didn't step down until it was too late to hold a special election to replace him, allowing Healy's majority on the council to hand pick a successor.

On Feb. 5, 2010, The Jersey Journal wrote an editorial: "Healy must resign as mayor of Jersey City." Healy was described as being disengaged from reality and as posing as a caring public official. An excerpt of that editorial:

"As in his Bradley Beach conviction, Healy does not believe he did anything wrong in his meetings with purported developer Solomon Dwek, an FBI informant and cooperating witness. This mayor even sees the videos in the Beldini trial as vindicating him.

"What the hidden camera lens caught was a mayor who is willing to talk development and campaign contributions over a dish of potato salad. Is this how business gets done in Jersey City?"

Remember, the mayor is a lawyer and former municipal judge, an officer of the court who should be held to a high ethical standard.

CRIME A MAJOR ISSUE

Ironically, a major issue in the current election is crime.

Healy has always run on a public safety platform. He joined a group of East Coast mayors who demand stricter gun control laws. The city has also initiated gun buyback efforts. Yet, when residents have complained about what they see as high crime, the mayor has repeatedly said he has statistics that show that crime is down. His reaction seems more political than sympathetic.

The mayor solicited and received a number of political endorsements, including those from President Obama and Mayors Cory Booker of Newark, Michael Bloomberg of New York City and Thomas Menino of Boston. While Obama does not know this city and is paying back Healy for his early support of his own first campaign, Menino is in his last term and helping out a gun control comrade.

It is easy to make the argument that Booker and Bloomberg made the endorsements for the same reason as Menino, but one could also argue that the heads of two rival municipalities wouldn’t mind seeing Healy remain as an ineffective chief executive.

INNER CITY IGNORED

Healy’s administration can be summed up by a stretch of Bergen Avenue, from Montgomery Street south. While one could argue that dealing with crime is difficult and the poor economy can be an impressive foe, there is no excuse for not providing basic services.

Taxpayers along this stretch have been clamoring for years for the city to pave the road and fix the curbs, only to be ignored. Potholes and bare patches are the norm along the forgotten avenue, a metaphor for older sections of the city. It is not the waterfront.

Besides Healy and Fulop, the mayoral candidates are Abdul Malik, a local activist who was a physician in his native Pakistan, and Jerry Walker, a former basketball star and co-founder of Team Walker, a nonprofit academic and recreation organization for city children.

Malik is passionate about his desire to represent local residents, criticizes the constant use of tax abatements for mostly waterfront development and chides politicians for making running for office a career. The Journal feels Malik does not have the administrative skills to handle the day-to-day grind of the second-largest city in New Jersey.

Walker is an intriguing prospect in that he is a convincing speaker — no doubt a skill he has developed in seeking funds for the nonprofit he created — and argues that he has learned administrative and budgeting skills working with his nonprofit. He seems very capable of bringing people together. The Journal believes he has yet to hone governmental and political statesmanship skills. Walker bears watching as a future city leader.