|
Jersey City's Schundler In For The Long Haul
Originally appeared in City & State in the December 6-19, 1993 issue
JERSEY CITY, N.J.
"That's the first time I heard the name," one woman
typical of the crowd replied when asked about Bret
Schundler, tabbed by the national press as Jersey City's
"boy-wonder" mayor.
Mr. Schundler, 34, has been recognizable enough to
win two mayoral elections in six months. But even he
admits he is "millions of miles away" from bringing on
the revolution in government that some voters expected
when this Republican took over an ailing city
historically dominated by a Democratic machine.
"I think there are people out there who believe in me,
but I don't think the notion of empowerment has
connected yet," Mr. Schundler said.
More than most politicians, Mr. Schundler is driven
by notions. Observers separate him from others in the
new generation of reform-minded mayors, like Los
Angeles' Republican Richard Riordan and Philadelphia's
Democratic Edward G. Rendell, because they say he is
more
idea-oriented and less pragmatic than the rest.
Elected to a partial term in November 1992 after his predecessor was jailed on bank-fraud
charges, then re-elected six months later, Mr.
Schundler spent his first year repairing the city budget and shaking up the ranks of the Police
Department.
But those were marginal changes compared to what
he sees ahead. He would like to convert the urban
community of 230,000 into a laboratory for
empowerment, a philosophy of government that
provides basic services and hands needy citizens the
tools for turning around their lives.
"We have made the poor into the equivalent of
vegetables," Mr. Schundler said. "We hook them into
life support, but we do not allow them to walk or
breathe on their own."
Mr. Schundler wants to give empowerment the
hearing it never received while its national spokesman,
Jack Kemp, served as housing secretary under
President George Bush. As part of his quest, Mr.
Schundler has coined a new verb, saying that many
city services should be "voucherized."
By giving citizens the money government
traditionally spends and allowing them to use it as
they please, Mr. Schundler sees the public making
wiser decisions than its leaders in housing, education
and health care.
Mr. Schundler's philosophy will fuel what could
become a bitter debate next year, when the mayor asks
the New Jersey Legislature to allow a pilot program in
Jersey City for school vouchers.
Accomplishments so far
If he wins that battle, it would overshadow any of
his accomplishments so far, which despite their
significance have won him little mention in New
Jersey, and national attention limited mostly to
conservative columnists.
During the six-month term before being reelected in
May, Mr. Schundler erased a $40 million shortfall in
the city's $290 million budget without raising tax rates,
through improving an abysmally low tax-collection
rate.
A former securities broker at Salomon Brothers, the
mayor lent his Wall Street expertise to a first-ever bulk
sale of municipal tax liens. Jersey City bundled $45
million in liens and sold them to a trust from First
Boston Corp. Mr. Schundler also has tried to tackle
violent crime. He has spearheaded the move of scores
of police officers from desk jobs to street patrol. And
he also hopes cost savings in other areas will free
money to add up to 200 employees to the 840-member
police force, to ensure a lasting police street presence.
He also is intrigued by the idea of privately financed
security for downtown merchants concerned about
crime. He will push for the creation of business
improvement districts similar to those in New York
City, where business owners pay an assessment to
receive public safety services and street cleanup above
and beyond what the city traditionally provides.
It is clear that Mr. Schundler's primary goal for 1994,
however, is to advance the idea of a school voucher
system.
With the help of the conservative, Washington-based Heritage Foundation, the mayor is drafting a bill
with three purposes: public school reform, creation of
"charter schools" subject to little oversight, and a
voucher program in which parents would receive state
money that could be applied to tuition at a private or
parochial school.
Despite some bipartisan legislative support, the idea
will run into resistance from teachers' unions and state
officials who have run Jersey City's beleaguered
school system since it was placed under state control
in 1989.
"We've heard Mayor Schundler describe his plan
and we stand opposed to it," confirmed Lynn Maher,
spokesperson for the New Jersey Education
Association. "It would redistribute state money and
thereby drain the public schools of resources."
Mr. Schundler believes a voucher system would
make public schools more competitive. He said that
where vouchers have been tried, they have not led to
an exodus of higher-income families from the public
school system.
Groups like the Heritage Foundation applaud Mr.
Schundler's position. In fact, these outsiders seem to
be his biggest cheerleaders.
Jersey City reform comes first
"All he wants to do is fix Jersey City and give his
ideas a chance," said Allyson Tucker, manager of the
Heritage Foundation's Center for Educational Policy,
who is helping the mayor write the school-choice
legislation. "If he reforms Jersey City, he doesn't care if
he does anything else."
That may disappoint some of the columnists who
had labeled Mr. Schundler a national figure with a
bright future, even before he had reached his first
anniversary as mayor. But Ms. Tucker's comments ring
true when one considers the reason Mr. Schundler is
in Jersey City in the first place.
Young and upwardly mobile in the mid-1980s, the
Harvard University graduate did something
uncharacteristic of his materialistic age group. He
moved to Jersey City and pondered entering the
ministry.
"I wanted to live in a distressed city," said Mr.
Schundler, now an elder at a Jersey City Presbyterian
church. "Service is something I would have been
involved in regardless of what I chose to do."
But despite his passion for improving Jersey City,
Mr. Schundler does not shy away from placing his
agenda in a national context. He believes young
Republicans like himself eventually will dominate the
political scene, as the prevailing philosophy of
government moves from entitlement to empowerment.
He only hopes the Schundler-watchers do not get
discouraged if Jersey City does not transform itself
overnight.
"People expecting to come to Paris will have to
realize we're still talking about a relatively distressed
inner city," he said. "But after 15 years of people
working and schools teaching,
this could be Eden yet."
|
