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Joey Torres

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Preceded by
  
Jeff Jones

Political party
  
Democratic

Role
  
Mayor of Paterson

Preceded by
  
Martin G. Barnes

Name
  
Jose Torres

Party
  
Democratic Party

Joey Torres Joey Torres
Residence
  
Paterson, New Jersey, United States

Office
  
Mayor of Paterson since 2014

Joey torres for mayor of paterson accountability


Jose "Joey" Torres is the Mayor of Paterson, the third largest city in New Jersey. He was elected May 13 and was sworn-in July 1, 2014. Torres served two terms as mayor between 2002-2010 and had previously served five terms as a city council member.

Contents

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Background

Torres is Puerto Rican, born and raised in Paterson. He is the youngest of eight children of Juan Torres, who had migrated to the city in 1949, and Catalina Torres. The family lived in the Christopher Columbus public housing and owned and operated bodega businesses. He is married to Sonia Torres, who ran in a special election to represent of the 2nd Ward of city's council in 2012.

Political office

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Torres first won a seat on Paterson's city council in 1990 after having previously run five times. He served on the City Council for five terms. He later became the purchasing agent for the city's housing authority.

Torres first became mayor in 2002, winning the seat from Republican incumbent Martin G. Barnes, and won a re-election bid in 2006. He was defeated in by Jeff Jones in 2010. He became the first Latino mayor of the city, which has a Hispanic-Latino majority. Torres was a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG).

Joey Torres WolfeNotescom Something Is Rotten in the City of Paterson NJ

Torres ran for election as an independent in the 2014 mayoral race which took place on May 13, 2014. He won the seat garnering 8,069. votes, in an election in which 22,896, or 30%, of the city's 76,059 registered voters participated. Voting was characterised an unprecedented 2,413 mail-in votes, almost 800 more than the total absentee ballots cast in the previous three elections combined and more than twice as many as in 2010. Torres received 930 of the absentee ballots, 38.5 percent of the total and more than twice as many as any other candidate. The mayor's salary was set at $119,000 per year after approval by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.

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In 2015, Torres has created the position of "deputy mayor", which are multiple, unofficial and unpaid. Their role is to advise the mayor on various aspects of city planning and to act as liaisons to Paterson's various ethnic communities.

Fines and vacation payments

In 2012, Torres was fined $14,350 by Election Law Enforcement Commission for failing to include information on donors (names, occupations, employers and addresses) to his campaign for election in 2010.

In January 2014, a 26-page report compiled by the city council reviewed payments made to Torres regarding salary payment irregularities. On July 29, 2008 Torres had written a memo to the city's treasurer "requesting a pay check for ten (10) vacation days from 2007". In March 2014, he returned $2,238 that he received in 2008 from $3,169 he claimed, saying it was a payroll error.

During his last week in office in 2010 Torres received $73,996 lump sum payment claimed for sick leave and vacation time. The city council asked that the funds be returned and questioned whether such a payment was legal or ethical. Torres said he was willing to repay the only if the New Jersey Attorney General’s office or the Passaic County prosecutor’s office found wrongdoing.

Bunker Hill SID and Jackson Township administrator

After Torres' defeat in the mayoral election he was appointed business administrator for the municipal government of Jackson Township on Ocean County, New Jersey. Amid criticism that he had abandoned the position to campaign and to take up his role as mayor of Paterson, he resigned on May 30, 2014. Based on his work there, Torres is collecting a $68,000 pension.

He was also appointed director of the Bunker Hill Special Improvement District, a business improvement district and Urban Enterprise Zone, established in 1994 in the Bunker HIll neighborhood, a mostly industrial area in the northwest of city along the Passaic River. In May 2014 Torres said he would discuss resignation from the position after being sworn-in as mayor. After his resignation the position was taken up by his wife Sonia.

Retiree/Employee compensation controversy

As of 2014 Torres receives a full-time annual salary of $119,000 as mayor. He also receives free health coverage as a retiree based on his pension. based on the fact that the New Jersey treasury department approved his retirement and pension.Torres filed his pension application in May, one week after winning the mayoral election, at a time when he was working as business administrator in Jackson Township. The state approved a $68,000 annual pension for Torres that took effect June 1 and was based on 29 years and eight months of cumulative service time in his jobs with Jackson Township, the City of Paterson and the Paterson Housing Authority. The situation has led to questions about how he can be an employee and retiree of the city at the same time.

Investigation of misuse of municipal workers

In March 2016 WNBC (Channel 4) broadcast surveillance videos obtained from Harry Melber of AHM Investigations, a private investigative company. The videos were of Paterson municipal workers conducting work at Torres's personal home and the business of a relative which led to coverage in other press and the start of a state investigation. Salary records show that the workers each received considerable overtime payments.

In February 2017, the FBI subpoenad all records relating to work conducting at Torres' home since 2012.

References

Joey Torres Wikipedia