MAYOR STEVEN M. FULOP
1ST TERM ADMINISTRATION ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Stable Taxes:  Since an initial decrease of 2.1% with the first Fulop administration budget, municipal taxes have remained flat each year since, delivering stable taxes for residents for four consecutive years.

Credit rating upgrades: The Fulop administration has received four credit upgrades since 2013, from Fitch, Standard and Poor's and two from Moody's, illustrating how the administration's long-term fiscal planning has and it serves as a strong validation that JC is on the right track.  This is partially due to a fiscal management policy designed to improve spending control and oversight. 

Development away from the waterfront: The Fulop administration has incentivized development away from the waterfront and for the first time in decades, development off the waterfront has become a steady reality, with multiple projects in Journal Square, Bergen Lafayette, McGinley Square and throughout the city. We have another record breaking year of development with over 10,000 residential units under construction right now and over 18,000 more approved.

Affordable housing:  The Fulop administration has placed a major emphasis on affordable housing, creating the first 80/20 housing developments on the waterfront in more than three decades and developing the first affordable housing plan in the city’s history.  In four years, the Fulop administration has created or preserved more housing than during the previous eight years, including new senior housing at the Catherine Todd Housing on Montgomery Street.   In collaboration with the Hudson County Building Trades, the Fulop administration built the first ever housing for homeless veterans, answering First Lady Michelle Obama’s call to end veteran homelessness.  After initially constructing 34 units, there are 20 additional units in the pipeline. 

Public safety:  Public safety has been a top priority of the Fulop administration.  While most crime categories have seen double-digit decreases, there is still more work to be done. Recognizing advances in public safety require a strong partnership with the community, the Fulop administration established the city's first Public Safety Citizen Advisory Board and works closely with groups like BLESC and local block associations. 

Overhaul of the city's outdated CCTV crime camera system, with a new, $4 million state-of-the art program that will bring more cameras (200+) using better technology to the areas they are needed most, using crime stats data and community feedback and also including parks.

Police expansion: The Fulop administration has hired more than 300 new police officers, bringing the police force to over 932 officers -- its largest size in over two decades.  At the same time, Jersey City has gone from an example of department lacking diversity to a national model for minority based recruiting.  

Fire Department:  The Fulop administration has grown the Jersey City Fire Department to its largest size in recent years, hiring over 100 firefighters (partially through federal SAFER grant dollars) to bring the size of the department top 604 firefighters.  The Fulop administration has also made much-needed upgrades to fire equipment and trucks, and required all new recruits to be fully EMT certified.   

Parks:  The Fulop administration has invested over $6 million to revitalize parks across the city, the largest investment in open space the city has seen in years, in addition to acquiring the grant funds and fast tracking the completion of the $40 million, 17.5-acre new municipal park, the city's flagship park, Berry Lane, in the heart of Bergen Lafayette.  New parks include Boyd-McGuinnis Park, the 5-acre greenway under development in Country Village, and renovations such as First Street Park, the Pershing Field Playground, Venator Watson Park, and more.

Pedestrian Mall:  The Newark Avenue Pedestrian Mall has been an ongoing collaboration with the local neighborhood and small businesses downtown to create a safe, family friendly, welcoming environment that serves as a destination for residents of the local neighborhood and throughout Jersey City, as well as tourists and other visitors from around the world.  It is a flexible and unique space, allowing for multiple types of uses in a shared space (pedestrians, bikes, small business patrons, vehicles, deliveries, and emergency access).

Small Businesses:  Through the office of Innovation (a new team started from a $2.2 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies), Jersey City has worked to better support small businesses with more than 650 new ones opening since 2013 and revitalize key neighborhood business districts, and has rolled out a variety of initiatives including:

• Forming the first Office of Small Business Services
• Creating an online Small Business Navigator 
• New funding opportunities including
• $10 million in small business loans through the 504 company
• Micro loans
• Location based, forgivable loan (businesses get loan payments reimbursed over time and the loan becomes a grant; up to $10k)
• Streamlining the permitting and licensing process (ongoing)

Preserving Historic Neighborhoods: We approved a new historic district, the first new one in decades, in West Bergen East Lincoln Park, to ensure we maintain and protect the historic elements that make Jersey City special.

Youth Development: Investing in the city's youth has been a top focus of the administration, launching an innovative Jersey City Summer Works program that has placed over 3,000 youth in summer jobs and internships where they gain real life experience and college and workforce development through a partnership with dozens of corporations and non-profits. Through the recreation department, the city has also expanded programming to 36 diverse sports/activities including lacrosse, scuba, cricket, boxing, hockey and fencing, in addition to growing traditional offerings like tennis, football, soccer, baseball and basketball.  The recreation department has also expanded its after school offerings in a partnership with the BOE and has added such new programs as teen mentoring, to provide our youth with positive, enriching activities.

Schools: For the first time since 1989, complete local control will be returned to the Jersey City Public School district.  This is a result of a strong effort by the administration, the superintendent, dedicated teachers and engaged parents to improve the quality of education throughout the city. While there is still much more work to be done, it is a positive step in the right direction.The administration has also worked with the BOE on the creation of new schools in Jersey City, including the newly opened PS20 in Greenville, the new elementary school in the Heights, the new Head Start pre-k facility on West Side, and a new public school in downtown.

Innovation and Technology: The Fulop administration has placed a huge emphasis on leveraging technology and utilizing data to drive results, build efficiencies and make government more transparent.  Some of the examples include:

• The first open data portal in the State that provides easy access to data and other documents relating to city operations and activities
• Using police calls for service data to reallocate officer manpower to areas that need it most
• Collaboration with WAZE to automatically add street closures (for construction, events, etc) to navigation routes
• Transitioning paper based processes to digital forms (ongoing)
• Developing, piloting, and testing a new type of body camera technology using cell phones aimed at lowering costs and improving quality of the product (this will come with a study of the impact and value of body cameras)
• United Rescue, an app-based volunteer emergency first responder program that leverages human capital and GPS technology and has over 100 volunteers throughout the city trained to handle medical emergencies and equipped with supplies and tools to quickly provide care within the first few minutes of a call.

Progressive issues: Jersey City has been a leader in progressive issues under the Fulop administration, illustrating that government can be both fiscally responsible and socially conscious.  Jersey City was the sixth city in the nation and the first in New Jersey to provide earned sick leave, raised the minimum wage for municipal employees to $15/hour, and has advocated for a statewide increase to the minimum wage.

LGBTQ Issues: Jersey City is one of the first in the country to provide coverage for gender reassignment treatments and procedures to our employees.  In fact, we were the first client to ever even ask our healthcare provider if this would even be possible.  The Fulop administration has provided LGBTQ training for its police officers and has a dedicated detective to handle any LGBTQ issues in the community.  Jersey City also received a 100% or higher each of the last 4 years on the Human Rights Campaign’s municipal equality index.  

Prisoner re-entry: Jersey City’s prisoner reentry program - launched by Mayor Fulop in 2013 - has become a national model, with leaders around the country looking to Jersey City as an example of how reintegration can be successfully replicated in other cities.

Immigration/naturalization services & sanctuary city policy: Jersey City has always served as America’s Golden Door and is one of America’s most diverse cities.  The Fulop administration took swift action to re-affirm Jersey City as a sanctuary city and has 

been a leader on offering immigration services, establishing the first office in Jersey City history to provide services to our immigrant community including assisting  nearly 200 residents to become naturalized American citizens in the past four years.      

Eliminating autonomous agencies:  In an effort to cut red tape and eliminate wasted resources, the Fulop administration aggressively dismantled autonomous agencies that cost taxpayers greatly with duplicative services and bloated.  The Parking Authority was dissolved into the Public Safety Department and the Jersey City Incinerator Authority into the Department of Public Works saving millions annually.

Mural program: Launched in 2013 by Mayor Steven Fulop to foster arts and cultural awareness, the Jersey City Mural Arts Program has effectively transformed the City into an outdoor gallery with nearly 100 murals by local, national and international street artists, including Shepard Fairey, Pixel Pancho, and local artists Mustart, Fermin Mendoza, Lissanne Lake and Catherine Hart, amongst others.