BRIDGETON — Appeals from government insiders, as well as owners of major area businesses, were not enough to save a new contract for the head of the Cumberland County Improvement Authority.
The county Board of Commissioners held a special meeting Friday specifically to veto a new contract approved at a June 26 meeting of the authority’s own governing board. The vote to veto was 6-0, with Commissioner Sandra Taylor absent.
CCIA board members are appointed by county government but operate with autonomy, typically. Gerard Velazquez III is its president and chief executive officer, a position held since April 1, 2013.
Velazquez’s current contract is good through 2024. The new contract would have been for a three-year term starting in 2025.
Under New Jersey law, one way that county government can rein in the authority is to veto the minutes of its board’s monthly meetings. That effectively cancels whatever votes were held at the meeting in question,.
In this case, the county commissioners overrode the board's approval for Velazquez’s new contract. The veto has rarely, if ever, been used here.
After the vote, county Commissioner Director Joseph Sileo read a statement defending the timing of the meeting and stressing that Velazquez is not fired. The CCIA governing board still can approve a new contract, he said.
“We’re here today, in my opinion, because the CCIA has hastily and without adequate consultation with the Board of Commissioners (voted) to renew Mr. Velazquez’s contract for three years … with a substantial salary increase,” Sileo said.
Sileo finished with a reference to a claim the veto would be unprecedented. “We made history,” he said.
Velazquez appeared at the meeting and addressed criticism that there is a lack of information made public and offered to county government. He checked off a list of regularly scheduled informational meetings with county officials. Attendance records show county officials usually do not come to those meetings, he said.
The improvement authority’s most visible, and arguably basic, task is running the county landfill. However, the authority has significant power to engage in financing and managing a wide variety of public programs and partnerships with private sector members.
Velazquez has a financial analyst and economic development background and has worked on numerous public and private development projects since taking over at the authority.
Members of The CEO Group vociferously defended Velazquez, who has collaborated with many of them. The group is an independent organization of owners of business across the county.
“Every taxpayer will be a loser,” said Bruce Riley, owner of Ultra Clean Technologies Corp. in Upper Deerfield Township. “The businesses in Cumberland County that rely on that economic development that he brought (will be losers). We’ll all be losers because of your decision, or bad decision, that you may make today. You really need to think about this.”
CEO Group President Sam Pipitone, owner of F&S Fresh Foods, said Velazquez has been important to his business in multiple major projects. It would be a “travesty” not to rehire him, he said.
“I concur with every comment that has been made this morning in favor of maintaining Jerry’s position,” Pipitone said.
Attorney Louis Magazzu, who is executive director of The CEO Group, said the underlying reason for the veto was opposition to the authority’s involvement in plans to expand Internet access.
“And one way to get rid of broadband is to get rid of Mr. Velazquez,” Magazzu said. “Everything else is subterfuge.”
Magazzu is a former member and director of the county Board of Freeholders, now Board of Commissioners.
Commissioner Victoria Groetsch-Lods made the only other comment. She said her vote was based on a resident’s request, at the last commissioners meeting, to have Velazquez make a presentation to the board.
“And I know the contract is not ending until this year,” Groetsch-Lods said. “So, I believe the public does have some time and this is what the public has demanded. I would like to give the public the answers that they asked for.”
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
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