Omar Dyer v Hudson County

Omar Dyer had a public debate as an outsider about the process of how New Jersey should reorganize the district maps in Hudson County and all of New Jersey. The fight was how Hudson County would redraw the maps, and what leaders had the most imput into the debate Omar Dyer had public battles with Congressman Sires, and is currently fighting Mayor Jerramiah Healy: in what is the biggest political war in Hudson County. And Omar Dyer whose a state activist, and private / public advocate --approached the panel -- giving them his idea of what to do with the maps, and how Hudson County Leadership was shaped.

M A Y O R J E R R A M I A H T. H E A L Y: Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity. I thank the members of the public for coming down here today, the elected officials, and of course all of you Commissioners.

Jersey City, as you know -- the census is done -- different from most major cities, we have grown. We went-- Our population went up 3 percent. We plan to challenge the count anyway because, once again, we’re convinced that we were undercounted by at least 20,000 people. The numbers came out to be 247,000 and change; and just by the number of buildings that went up in this city in the last 10 years, to have our population only have grown by 7,000 is indicative of another big undercount for our city.

But what we have always said about our city: we’re the most ethnically, culturally diverse city in the state. Well, that was borne out once again by this census. The population numbers here, in this city: 22 percent white, 23 percent Asian, 24 percent black, and 28 percent Hispanic.

And there’s something listed as 4 percent other -- I don’t know exactly what that is, but it confirms what we’ve been saying: we’re very much ethnically diverse in this city.

One of my big concerns -- I don’t believe it’s a concern anymore; I think the law is on our side, the U.S. Supreme Court case. And from what I’ve heard through the grapevine about this Commission, my concern was our city being into (sic) three districts. And I believe representation in a case like that -- our representation -- gets diluted. So at some point (applause) -- somebody agrees with me; thank you. (laughter) I think that was my wife and children. (laughter) They clap every place I go.
But at any rate, getting two districts for our city, I think, will ensure that we get 100 percent representation, rather than diluting it.

Also, there were a couple of articles that I read recently by former Assemblyman Caraballo, and by our Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, and I want to warn this Commission to keep that in mind: the stacking issue. I don’t think it helps Jersey City; I don’t think it helps any of our minority people in Jersey City or Hudson County, or the State of New Jersey, for that matter. So I’d ask you to keep that in mind and please avoid it.

And, once again, thank you for serving here; and I wish you all the wisdom, the patience, and the diligence that you’re going to need to do a good job in this very, very difficult task. So I wish you all luck.

And I’ve kept my remarks under five minutes. Thank you, and good luck.

C O N G R E S S M A N A L B I O S I R E S: Good afternoon, everyone; welcome to Hudson County. Welcome to Hudson Community College, and welcome to the Culinary School here. This is one of our proudest buildings, and one of our proudest schools. This is one of the outstanding places in the state.

And I want to thank you for coming, and I want to thank you for serving. I don’t know if anybody has said that, but at the end of the day you have a very difficult job, and I don’t think you’re going to make a lot of people happy. But, knowing that, you still care a great deal about the state; you still care about the presentation and that you get a fair map. And I know all of you think that, because I know most of you.

I’m here as someone who came from a district in this county that has performed extremely well in terms of giving opportunities to minorities to hold office. When you look at this district, and you look at the people who come out of this district, you have people who have been elected to the Assembly; you have people who have been elected to the --minorities, I’m talking about -- to the State Senate; you have people who have been elected to represent in Washington -- Congressmen; and you have people elected here that have been elected to the U.S. House as Senators. You also have people out of this district who have been elected as mayors, and a Speaker of this great State -- all of them minority.

So what I’m talking about is a unique district. You have 40 districts that you have to make a decision on. This happens to be a very unique, well-performing, high-performing district in terms of getting minorities elected. I think that the makeup of the district is extremely important: it is very diverse in terms of -- within its own ethnic composition, and of the people who serve it. I would just point out that, currently, we have freeholders who are minorities; we have Assembly people who are minorities -- including a woman, which is something that we always strive to make sure that they have an opportunity to get elected.

By saying that, I guess one of the things that I want you to consider when you’re making your decision is that you cannot have a blanket position for all 40 districts. There are districts that have different makeup, and you might have to not use something standard for the 40 districts, and take into consideration the district that you are going to put together.

As I look at this district, I can tell you that the community that I come from, West New York, and the community of Union City are almost one. You start on 5th Street, you go to 67th Street -- you can’t tell the difference. When they move from West New York to Union City, Union City becomes the most highly populated mile in the country. When their relatives move back to West New York, West New York becomes the most populated mile -- square mile in the country. (laughter) That is the type of district that it is: it is a district that is unique. I don’t know where you’re going to find that in this state anywhere; because I know a little bit about the state having traveled throughout the state.

So I think that gives you an idea when I say to you that there’s a uniqueness to every single district that has to be taken into consideration. If you’re going to go by just blanket this or blanket this all over the districts, I think you’re going to have a difficult time drawing some of these maps.

I came from this district; I was a mayor in this district; we have freeholders -- right down to the County Committee. You even look at the County Committee, the opportunities are there for minorities to serve. And I think that the people who are represented in this district, all of the time, are represented well.

In terms of what you have to do: Look, I have no magic bullet to tell you that this is how. I’ve been involved with this once before. You have a hard job. The Asian-American community has grown. In this city, the population is very diverse. I think the Mayor will probably testify that there’s like 27 languages spoken in this community, and we all speak it every time we go to a different event -- right, Mayor? (laughter) -- even if we just say hello.

But that’s how diverse this County is, and that’s how diverse this state is. So what I’m saying to you is this: Please take into consideration the little nuances that some of these districts have. It is not just “we cut here, we cut there” -- if it was that easy, New Jersey wouldn’t be the kind of place that it is. New Jersey is just a great place where many people come to this country, start their lives, and continue to stay in this state.

So I thank you for allowing me to participate and be a speaker. I know that my redistricting is coming up, and you’re not going to be there; but it is important for me to let you know how I feel because I’ve been such a part of this community. I came to this country in 1962; and I’ve been in this County and in this district -- and in the same district ever since. Even at one time, we had two Republican Assembly people elected, and a minority by the name of Jose Arango was elected as a Republican out of this district.

So it’s a well-performing district, and I guess that’s the comment-- I’ll stop here because you have so many people that you have to hear.

But I thank you for allowing me to say a few words. Thank you very much.

 
O M A R D Y E R: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Can you hear me? (affirmative responses)

I’ve listened to everyone here for the past couple of hours, and what I say is we don’t have a population problem; we don’t have a density problem. We have a political patronage problem. And what that problem is, is that there’s no representation before taxation. That’s the number one rule when we brought in the Articles of Confederation, which is representation for taxation. If we break that rule and we have a political patronage system, where dual offices are not reprimanded, then we don’t have the adequate representation that we need.

It’s not an attack on the Latino community, but there are too many dual offices in those subjective (sic) communities. Let’s say if I have a problem with the mayor, and I want to go to the State Senator. Well, I can’t get the State Senator because he’s also the mayor. So I’m continuously growing the same problem: it’s the State Senator that’s a mayor; and I can’t go to the mayor because he’s the State Senator; I can’t go to the State Senator, because he’s the mayor. So there’s no representation, therefore there can’t be taxation. And taxation means that subsidies come to the designed area.

So if you have an area where there are two seat holders in one spot, then the subsidies can’t adequately come to that position because there’s no taxation without representation.

And I say you just leave the maps as they are, and enforce the dual offices, and we won’t have this problem where we’re losing congressional leaders every 10 years. And I thank you for the time, and that’s it.

MS. CRUZ-PEREZ: Just a point of clarification.

ASSEMBLYMAN WEBBER: Mr. Dyer.

MS. CRUZ-PEREZ: Very good, thank you. Just a point of clarification: No longer in the State of New Jersey can a person hold two dual offices. If you are a legislator, you cannot be a-- It was grandfathered in—

UNIDENTIFIED MEMBER OF COMMISSION: It was grandfathered—

MS. CRUZ-PEREZ: --for the people who are already in office; I understand that point. But upcoming members, they no longer can do that, okay?

MR. DYER: Well, but it’s not the fact that it’s -- no longer doing it; it’s not enforced. That’s the thing; it’s not enforced. And the way you enforce it is with clean elections. So we can go on and on.

ASSEMBLYMAN WEBBER: Thank you.

Blog Notes:

New Jersey's legislative branch made a choice to break up parts of Hudson County, making the 32nd districts more favored to fit Jersey City, removing the 33rd out of the picture, and breaking up Mayor Jerramiah Healy's trusted base.

Further-more breaking up Hudson County's power base, where leaders and journalist say that Hudson County Democratic Organization is walking slow -- or as Auggie Torres from the Jersey Journal out of Jersey City NJ would say: HCDeadO.

Omar Dyer has been very active in working hard on bring social change to Jersey City, Hudson County and all of New Jersey. He may not be respected as a power base in Hudson County, by the news, or even political monitors; will never mention his name but Omar Dyer (TheFanNJ writer of this blog) has been the hardist working, most active and strongest advocate for social change in Hudson County.

Read the Atricles and Transcripts on what happened at that meeting. Which includes the civil debate with a member of the assembly.