Bret Schundler's Success

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Mayor Schundler Has Re-Built City Hall!


After over eighty years of corruption, incompetence, and indifference, Jersey City'sCity Hall received yet another insult on September 12, 1979 when a fire destroyed the roof. Repairs wait for over a decade!	Bret Schundler assumes office and immediately begins to reverse the damage.Through the leadership of Mayor Schundler, a restored City Hall now reflects the promise of Liberty andJustice for all.

SUCCESS
"Get competition involved in the provision of these essential government services."

Summary of Accomplishments by Mayor Bret Schundler(Through June, 1995)Bratislava hotels Bret Schundler was elected mayor of Jersey City in a November 3, 1992 special election. He is thefirst Republican to hold that post in Jersey City since 1917. Schundler was re-elected to a fullfour-year term on May 11, 1993, where he won 68% of the vote -- the highest percentage ofpopular vote ever received by a Jersey City mayoral candidate. Jersey City is the second largestmunicipality in New Jersey, with approximately 230,000 residents. According to the Almanac ofAmerican Politics, Jersey City is also one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States. Approximately 30% of the city's residents are African-American, 11% are Asian, and 24% areHispanic.

Hoteles Cercanos KatowiceWhile in office, Mayor Schundler has worked aggressively to implement an urban empowermentagenda that focuses on three principle issues: community policing, school choice, and lower taxes. The goal of this agenda, he says, is to put power in the hands of the people, rather thangovernment.

Community Policing = LESS CRIME

discount hotels in BrightonMayor Schundler Demonstrates ZERO TOLERANCE
As The Answer To The Drug Scourge

To combat crime, Mayor Schundler has implemented an aggressive community policing plan. Currently over 80 police officers are assigned to neighborhood foot patrols. In addition, theMayor has reorganized the structure and work schedule of the police department and civilianizedstation house clerical positions to increase police presence on the street. These changes will makemore officers available for patrol when they are needed most -- in the evenings and on weekends. As a result of these changes, there is a 19% increase (669 vs. 564) in the number of police officersactively patrolling Jersey City's streets.

"Main Street" Shopping Areas RevitalizedIn addition to these reforms, the Mayor has helped local merchants in two of Jersey City's mainstreet shopping districts, Central Avenue and Journal Square, to create special improvementdistricts (SIDs). Within special improvement districts, business owners pool their tax dollars,which are matched with city funds, to contract with private vendors to provide supplementalsanitation and security services, to promote businesses located within the district, and to makeneeded capital improvements in their storefront facades and streetscapes. Given the increasinglystiff competition that main street merchants encounter from shopping malls, Mayor Schundlerbelieves that this public/private partnership will help make shopping districts within the heart ofJersey City an attractive place to shop.

At No Burden To TaxpayersMayor Schundler has increased services in these areas without passing additional taxes onto theCity's taxpayers. In the year prior to his election, Jersey City billed its property owners $98.2million for municipal services. The Mayor has passed four consecutive budgets that have askedtaxpayers for less money: 1993: $84.6 million, 1994: $61.4 million, 1995: $90.5 million, 1996: $89.5 million. Over this three year period, a typical homeowner in Jersey City (with a propertyassessment of $150,000) has saved over $1,100 in municipal property taxes as a result of thesebudgets.

Labor Costs Reduced Through Increased EfficiencyThe Schundler administration has been able to improve services while stabilizing taxes by makingthe workforce more efficient. Through attrition, early retirement incentives, voluntary severanceprograms, privatization initiatives, and limited lay-offs, Mayor Schundler has reduced themunicipal workforce from over 3,000 full-time positions to 2,540. He has successfully privatizedtraffic signal maintenance, municipal security, and public health nursing services, and iscurrently negotiating with United Water Resources, Inc. to operate the city's water utility.

Innovation In Health Insurance Slashes Costs While Maintaining BenefitsIn an effort to restrain the growth of the city's health benefit costs, which have doubled in the lastfive years, this year Mayor Schundler has enrolled the city's 174 management and unclassifiedemployees in a two-year pilot program with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey to explorewhether offering Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) to employees will help reduce the City'shealth premiums. When given the choice between traditional insurance, a health maintenanceorganization (HMO), a point of service plan (PPO), or a medical savings account (MSA), 97 ofthe 174 (55%) management employees chose the MSA option, resulting in an immediate savingsof $21,500 to city taxpayers. Schundler hopes that if the MSA option continues to provesuccessful in reducing the city's future health insurance premiums, the State of New Jersey willoffer MSAs as part of the State Health Benefits Plan, which is used by many of New Jersey'smunicipalities, counties, and school districts.

Pioneering Bulk Lien Concept Puts Cash In City TreasuryIn addition to restraining the cost of providing services, the Schundler administration has alsoincreased revenues to the City treasury by successfully securitizing municipal tax liens. Ratherthan sell municipal tax liens on individual properties, which would allow investors to "cherry-pick" the city's portfolio of tax delinquencies by purchasing the most lucrative and least riskyliens, the Schundler administration has developed an approach to sell large portfolios of liens toinstitutional investors. These "bulk lien sales" have been recognized nationally as an innovativeway to liquidate municipal tax delinquencies efficiently, and have helped the city increase its taxcollection rate from 78% to 94%. In addition to raising the city treasury, these lien sales insurethat diligent homeowners are not paying more than their fair share of property taxes.

Award Winning Public-Private Partnership Saves $3.5 Million Every YearJersey City is saving $3.5 million per year on its water system and anticipates saving $17.5 million by the 2001. In 1996, the city entered into a public-private partnership with United Water Resources, Harrington Park, to operate its 80-million gallon-per-day water system. The savings comes from selling un-needed water to neighboring municipalities, enhancing bill collection and cutting the workforce by 40 percent while allowing workers to move to other city jobs.

Click HERE To See A Video Clip
Of The Jersey City/United Water Partnership

ClickHERE To See A Video Clip
The US Conference of Mayors Presented
Jersey City And United WaterWith The 1999 Public-Private Partnership Award

Lugano hôtelsBret Schundler, 40, is a graduate of Harvard University. Before his entry into politics, Schundlerworked on Wall Street as an account executive for Salomon Brothers, the securities firm, and asan economic analyst for C.J. Lawrence, an economics research firm. Bret Schundler is marriedto the former Lynn Greenfield, an adjunct faculty member of the Seton Hall School of Law. Theyhave a daughter, Shaylin, six years old, and an infant son born on Saturday, July 25, 1997.

Jersey City's
Economic Renaissance

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