Wednesday’s City Council meeting in Jersey City finished in little over an hour, but it stood out for what was not on the council agenda.

An ordinance that was withdrawn at the previous council meeting on Jan. 12 was supposed to reappear at a future meeting, but was not brought up again on Wednesday, except when the manager of a local bank commented on it. Officials say they still hope it will come up at a future meeting.

The ordinance will make several changes to Jersey City resident parking policy, including preventing Jersey City residents from getting a “boot” on their vehicle for a first parking offense. Specifically, residents are currently booted for parking for more than two hours on a street zoned for two-hour parking. The new ordinance would give them that penalty only after three such tickets.

Also, if someone is found to have a boot in error, they would be refunded fully for the fine they had to pay to have the boot removed.

The ordinance also would extend resident-only parking hours in several of the city’s nine permit zones. Those that run from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. would change to 8 a.m.-7 p.m. This way, residents won’t have to fear losing their spots to visitors.

The boot is a steel contraption placed around one of the tires of a person’s car for violations such as parking without a residential permit for the right zone. The Jersey City Parking Authority (JCPA) also doles out $42 tickets when they place a boot on a car. In order for the boot to be removed, a driver has to call an automated collector and pay the $110 fine over the phone.

Then, the customer will receive a code that he can enter into the computerized keypad on the boot, to unlock it. Seventy-five dollars of the fine goes to the JCPA budget, and $35 goes to the company responsible for the boots.

Kicking it forward

City Council President Mariano Vega said at Wednesday’s council meeting that the reason the booting ordinance was removed at the earlier meeting was that there needed to be “more vetting” by Mayor Jerramiah Healy and other city officials.

At Wednesday’s council meeting, Tim Carlen, branch manager for the Chase Bank at 56 Christopher Columbus Drive (at the base of the 50 Columbus luxury rental tower downtown), told the council that customers sometimes return from the branch see a boot on their tire. The only spots near the bank are for residents and employees of the city who work in that zone, and anyone without a permit may be booted immediately, without even getting two hours.

There are no metered spaces nearby, and the bank doesn’t have a parking lot.

Carlen wanted to know some of if those spaces could become metered spaces.

That’s when Fulop asked when the booting ordinance he had created would be put back on the agenda and hopefully re-introduced at the next meeting, which would have been this past week.

But the city’s business administrator, Brian O’ Reilly, said last week that instead, the ordinance is “expected to be” introduced at the next council meeting.

O’Reilly also met with Carlen during the council meeting to discuss the issue further.

It’s a go for green

The Jersey City City Council also improved unanimously at its Wednesday meeting four ordinances making Jersey City more like “Green City.”

The ordinances establish environmentally friendly and energy efficient standards for city-owned buildings and future municipal projects.

Also, the city is creating a committee made up of representatives from various city departments to oversee and offer input on the implementation of the initiatives.

The ordinances were crafted by Mayor Healy and his staff for over 18 months. Healy said recently, “It not only preserves the environment and reduces our carbon footprint, but also saves money in the long run.”