Nidia Rivera Lopez

Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez will pay thousands of dollars the State of Florida claims she owes because she is, in fact, a Jersey City resident, her attorney argued in a brief submitted Friday.  

The attorney, William Northgrave, says that Lopez mistakenly continued to claim a homestead exemption on her Orlando, Fla. house that was intended only for permanent Florida residents after she moved to Jersey City in 2000.  She has “taken steps to correct that error” and will pay more than $30,000 the state says she owes in back taxes and penalties.  Even the letter informing Lopez of her mistake “recognizes that taxpayers are often not aware of the legal requirements for the exemption,” Northgrave wrote.

Lopez, who overwhelmingly won the May election to represent Ward C on the Jersey City Council – becoming the city’s first Latina councilwoman – is fighting to hold on to her council seat over allegations that she is technically a Florida resident.  In the brief, Northgrave seeks dismissal of the lawsuit on the grounds that Lopez has been a Jersey City resident since “at least” 2000 and that it was filed well past the 30 days statute of limitations for challenging election results.

The case is set to go to trial in Hudson County Superior Court on October 26. 

Jersey City good government activist Dan Levin, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in May, wants Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy to resign and the municipal government to install a host of reform measures in the wake of this week's corruption bust that gutted the city's political scene.  

“Given Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s confirmation that he is indeed the “JC Official 4” cited in FBI criminal complaints, we call for his immediate resignation, as well as that of Council President Mariano Vega.  The implication that both men have engaged in activities that compromise their ethical responsibilities to their constituents warrants their immediate removal from office,” said Levin.  

Healy was not arrested, but is mentioned frequently in the federal government’s complaint against Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, city official Ed Cheatam and political consultant Jack Shaw, who allegedly solicited money from a federal informant to funnel into Healy’s reelection fund.

A lawsuit aimed at removing Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez from office  is going to court.  Hudson County Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli refused to dismiss a suit filed by Lopez's former opponent, Jimmy King, and says he will hear evidence that she did not meet the residency requirements to run for office last May because she was actually a resident of Florida.  Depositions will be held in August, and a trial has been set for the first week in October. 

Lopez defeated King for the seat held by Steve Lipski, who did not seek re-election after he was charged with urinating on a crowd of people during a concert in Washington, D.C.

If Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez (D-Orlando) resigns or is forced out before early September, Ward C voters would elect a replacement in a November 2009 special election to fill the remaining 44 months of her term.  If Lopez holds off until mid-September, the special election will not be held until May 2010.  Either way, the City Council would appoint someone to fill the vacancy until a special election is held.

Update: Lopez, who attended a Council meeting last night, is in Orlando today. 

State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) jumped into Jersey City politics yesterday, suggesting that embattled Councilwoman Nidia R. Lopez could be a “casualty” of high taxes under Gov. Corzine.

“It looks like the high tax policies of the Democrat leadership in Trenton may cause yet one more job loss, and an especially ironic one at that” said Bucco.

Lopez, who was sworn into her first term last week, faces a lawsuit from former council candidate Jimmy King that claims she is technically a resident of Orlando, Fla, where she owns a home.  He’s seeking to vacate the results of the election based on a tax exemption Lopez took for her Orlando home that required her to be a Florida resident.

Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez (D-Orlando) could break the record for brevity in office set by Assemblywoman Evelyn Williams (D-Newark) in 2006. 

Williams was sworn in on December 12, 2005 after winning a special election convention following the death of Speaker Pro Tempore Donald Tucker (D-Newark).  She was arrested on shoplifting charges one week later; two days after that, she was fired from her job with the Essex County Corrections Department for filing for and receiving illegal pension checks from the state Police and Firemen's Retirement System.  Williams was a no-show when the State Assembly reorganized on January 10, 2006, limiting her career as a legislator to just 28 days.

What’s bad for Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez could be good for her predecessor, Steve Lipski.  

If former council candidate Jimmy King’s challenge to the validity of Lopez’s May election is successful in forcing her to step down, Lipski might be willing to replace her.

“That option – this is the first I’m hearing about it.  I’m somewhat dismayed that the election would be questioned.  I think the world of Nidia Lopez and if in the end the seat becomes vacant, I would have to consider whether I would want to step back in and take it,” said Lipski, who declined to seek another term after being arrested for urinating from a balcony onto a group of concertgoers in Washington, DC – an incident that made international headlines and became fodder for late night television jokes.  

Lipski said he barely caught wind of the controversy surrounding Lopez and her Florida house, for which she received a tax exemption meant only for permanent residents.  He had been vacationing in Maine, where he stayed in a cabin without electricity or running water.  He talked to PolitickerNJ.com on the phone from a hospital, where he was at the bedside of his wife, who broke her leg on the trip.   

The story of newly-elected Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez allegedly being a resident of Florida is reminiscent of another Jersey City politician with a residency problem.  Thomas Gangemi was forced to resign as Mayor of Jersey City in 1963 after it was disclosed that he was not a U.S. citizen.

Gangemi was born in Italy and emigrated in 1913, at age ten, but he was never naturalized.  He became part of Mayor Frank Hague's political machine, and was elected Hudson County Supervisor in 1960 and Mayor in 1961.  Gangemi applied for a passport to travel to Italy in 1963 and listed Jersey City as his place of birth.  His career unraveled when the U.S. Department of State was unable to verify that. 

Former council candidate Jimmy King’s complaint against Nidia Lopez has grown some legs in Jersey City and Orlando.

The Jersey Journal reports today that Florida officials are investigating Lopez for claiming a tax break on her Orlando home that required her to be a permanent resident, and that they’re seeking repayment of the money she saved from it.

PolitickerNJ.com first reported on Tuesday that the recently defeated King filed a complaint against Lopez attempting to invalidate her election.  

Lopez was sworn in yesterday.  At the inauguration ceremony, she said that she did not want to talk about the charges because it was a “day for celebration,” but referred inquiries about it to her attorney, William Northgrave. 

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy today called former council candidate Jimmy King’s residency challenge to newly sworn in Councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez “sour grapes to the 10th power.”  

“This is an effort to achieve through the courts what couldn’t be achieved through the election process, and you know, the election wasn’t even close,” said Healy just after being sworn in to a second full term as mayor.  “Her not living here is a joke.  She of course lives here. She does have a house in Florida.”

Lopez, who ran on Healy’s slate, beat King, who ran on former Assemblyman Lou Manzo’s, on the first ballot.  Manzo and his at-large running mate, former Hudson County Sheriff Joseph Cassidy, tried to knock Healy out of the race through legal challenges, alleging that he tried to use his position as Jersey City Mayor to dissuade Bradley Beach police officers from arresting him for obstruction of justice in 2006.