The person identified as “JC Official 3” in the federal complaint against Jersey City political consultant Joe Cardwell is Carl Czaplicki, a former chief of staff to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy who heads up the city’s Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce.

Two Jersey City sources confirmed that Czaplicki is JC Official 3, who is identified in the complaint as “an official who had responsibility for housing and economic development matters in Jersey City government.”  He served as Healy’s chief of staff from 2004 until his promotion in 2007.

Cardwell, who is close to Czaplicki, allegedly solicited money from a cooperating witness – later identified as developer Solomon Dwek – to expedite “approvals” for a real estate project on Garfield Avenue.  According to the complaint, Cardwell told the witness that JC Official Three was one of his “guys.”  

After a series of meeting with Dwek in Atlantic City, Cardwell brought him in on a Jersey City meeting with the official, where Dwek told the official that he didn’t want to come into Jersey City “naked” to be “shafted” or treated like any other developer.

“In response, JC Official 3 told the CW that JC Official 3 could offer the CW advice and only wanted what was good for
Jersey City. JC Official 3 further added that if he could “fast track” matters, then he would do so,” read the complaint.

The official then left the meeting, and was followed into the restaurant’s parking lot by Dwek, who said he had something to give to him in his car.   

“JC Official 3 then told the CW that he did not do that, and that the CW should deal with defendant Cardwell, who knew both JC Official 3 and the mayor. JC Official 3 told the CW that there would be events and tickets and that defendant Cardwell knew the “playing field.”

Shortly after that conversation, the official returned to the meeting with Dwek and Cardwell.  The complaint does not go over what was said in the remainder conversation, skipping instead to when the official left for the second and final time.

“After JC Official 3 departed, defendant Cardwell again reminded the CW that JC Official 3 trusted defendant Cardwell; that JC Official 3 did not know the CW and that JC Official 3 wanted the CW to go through defendant Cardwell,” it read.

Czaplicki could not be reached for comment.