Sammy Rivera

Ritzy Morales of Passaic: Politicker photo 

DENVER - You can’t stray far from New Jersey’s ward politics here, not if you’re at the Hotel Inverness, where Ritzy Morales told PolitickerNJ.com that she definitely intends to run for mayor of Passaic.

A longtime director of constituent services for U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), Morales, 41, said she plans to submit 700 petitions to the municipal clerk in advance of the Sept. 12th filing deadline, and expects to have at least 400-500 of them certified to earn well over the required 200.

"The public has known me for a long time," said Morales, born in Paterson and a resident of Passaic for ten years. "I have strong values, and I wouldn’t even accept a cup of coffee from someone as mayor, because of the negativity left by Sammy Rivera. I would definitely stop corruption."

Acting Mayor/Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic): Politicker photo 

PASSAIC - To be in Trenton, or not to be in Trenton, that is the question for Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), who became the acting mayor of Passaic in May when a federal judge found Mayor Sammy Rivera guilty of corruption.

Initially, Schaer, who received the chief executive’s job by virtue of his position as council president, figured he would serve long enough to hand off to whoever wins a Nov. 4th special election.

But about three weeks into his service as acting mayor - with no stunning personality on the city’s horizon line, by his reckoning - Schaer began mulling the idea of pursuing his own mayoral run. 

"We can’t afford to have a mayor who’s not going to build on some of the positive things we’re doing," said Schaer, who implemented local ethics reforms, imposed a 37% cut to the mayoral salary (from $117,000 to $72,000), and a municipal hiring freeze.

When a fire started by two children devoured the industrial base of the City of Passaic in 1984, Vincent Capuana remembers trying to summon some good during the aftermath.

"I thought, ‘Thank God nobody got killed, and now we have 25 acres open, which we can develop,’" he says.

That was almost 25 years ago, and all Passaic has to show for its rebuilding effort along the river are a Shoprite and a handful of small, scattered stores.

"Fifteen acres are still empty," says Capuana, 59, longtime director of community development, and president of the school board.

Five days into his service as acting mayor of Passaic, Gary SchaerPassaic Acting Mayor Gary Schaer pledged to remove the taint of corruption from a city whose former mayor pleaded guilty to extortion last Friday and resigned hours before Schaer assumed office.

"Throughout my over 18 years of service to Passaic, I have sought to serve with distinction and honor, always taking into account what is best for all of Passaic," said Schaer, 57, an investment analyst broker who served as commissioner of the Passaic Housing Authority for five years prior to his election to the council.

As the successor of Sammy Rivera, Schaer continues in his role as council president, and as the legislature’s first Orthodox Jewish assemblyman, now serving his second term in the 36th district.

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announces criminal charges against 11 public officials, including two legislators
The ironic presence of a framed portrait of Washington crossing the Delaware was not lost on two courtroom artists crouched over their easel with erasers and pastels Thursday. In their rendering, they took some license in centering the framed and famed heroic portrait of 12 men braving the elements over the heads of the 12 men in the docket, who crowded together, resembled another band of ragtag shipmates.

The trouble was they weren’t crossing the Delaware, but stranded this side of the river in handcuffs and leg-irons in Trenton’s Clarkson S. Fisher Federal Building, in the uncomfortable position of fighting off U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.

Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovanni acknowledged the charges of either conspiracy to extort corrupt payments or attempting to extort corrupt payments that Christie’s office brought against the men - 11 of them elected or former elected officials from Pleasantville to Passaic, among them dual-officeholder Mims Hackett, an Assemblyman and the Mayor of Orange, Assembly Deputy Speaker (and Passaic County Undersheriff Alfred Steele), and Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie continues his war on corruptionU.S. Attorney Christopher Christie today announced indictments against eleven current and former public officials on bribery charges, including Assembly Deputy Speaker Alfred Steele, Assemby State Government Committee Chairman (and Orange Mayor) Mims Hackett, Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera, and Pete Callaway, a member of a prominent and controversial Atlantic County political family.

City Council President Gary S. Schaer said that he became aware of the arrests of Mayor Sammy Rivera, Councilman Marcellus Jackson and former Councilman Jonathan Sorto this morning.

“I have been in contact with the Administration and Business Administrator and I am confident that the business of the City will continue without interruption," Schaer said in a statement. "As City Council President, the Council and I will make every effort to ensure that Passaic residents will continue to receive the City services that they have come to expect.”

Rev. Alfred Steele is the Assembly Deputy Speaker and the Passaic County UndersheriffThe list of eleven public officials arrested today by FBI agents: Assemblymen Alfred Steele and Mims Hackett, Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera, Passaic City Councilman Marcellus Jackson, former Passaic City Councilman Jonathan Soto, Keith Reid, the Chief of Staff to the Newark City Council President, Louis Mister of Pleasantville, and five current and former members of the Pleasantville Board of Education -- Jayson Adams, City Councilman Maurice "Pete" Callaway, James McCormick, James Pressley and Rafael Velez.

Callaway is the brother of former Atlantic City Councilman Craig Callaway, who was sentenced today to 40 months in a federal prison for taking bribes from an undercover FBI agent.

Soto, viewed as a rising star in North Jersey GOP politics when he was elected to the City Council in his early 20's, is the Passaic Republican Municipal Chairman.  He has endorsed Rudy Giuliani for President.