 The ACLU released their report card yesterday grading Mayor Booker and the city of Newark on four criteria: Immigrant rights, Open Government, Free Speech and Police Practices. The report card is the first prepared by the ACLU on a specific city, and focused on Newark, because it is the state's largest city.
They were very critical of the police practices in Newark and also tough on the city regarding the free speech analysis. You can see the whole report for their concerns and analysis.
Mayor Booker wasn't thrilled with the Report Card results: Booker last week said he welcomed, "constructive input on how to get better," but said the report card failed to recognize progress that was being made in addressing ACLU concerns. He noted that ACLU had been given a level of access to city officials the agency never had under his predecessor, former Mayor Sharpe James.
"We think we've made some pretty incredible strides," Booker said.
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Booker said a B grade for open government was "outrageous," after he pushed for reinstatement of a citizen's right to speak at city council meetings.
The city, also under the Booker administration, the mayor said, created a constituent concerns office, has heard residents at open-office-hour events around the city, established the state's first "4311," information line, for non-emergency citizen issues, and even has used the social networking website, Twitter.com, to communicate with residents. And there was additional criticism of the report:Julian Neals, Newark's Corporation Counsel, said the low grade on police practices alone was unwarranted because the lawsuits remain unresolved.
"It's like giving somebody a final grade during mid-term season," he said. "I think it's a little bit premature." I've seen him talk about many of these issues, but the ACLU doesn't feel like the actions have backed up all of his words. Even the Mayor himself acknowledges regularly that there is more work to do, but he seemed pretty disappointed by this report as not giving credit for the strides they have already made. He just doesn't seem to see some of the points as constructive criticism. |
