NJCA Year in Review 1999
Highlights and Victories |
January – February
- NJCA won key protections and rate reductions in the Electric Discount and Energy Competition Act, signed into law February 7th. EDECA reduced rates for all electric customers between 15-20% and allows customers to choose an alternative electric supplier if they wish. While NJCA’s goal of a 25% rate reduction and the disallowance of utilities’ uneconomic investments were not completely realized, we had a significant impact by securing the substantial rate cut, tough consumer protections, environmental reporting, universal service and, for the first time, mandatory consumer education. A multi-year campaign won these safeguards through numerous actions featuring giant scissors, "bailout bucks," small Styrofoam buckets, and "Shields for Citizens."
- NJCA opened its fifth Home Improvement Counseling office in Trenton, joining sites in Hackensack, East Orange, Passaic, and Paterson. The service helps homeowners avoid unscrupulous contractors, ask the right questions, evaluate financing packages, and access below-market rate loans.
- NJCA’s lead poisoning prevention project hosted a "Lead Abatement Financing Forum" in Irvington (and later in East Orange), informing homeowners with lead hazards of their responsibilities, and providing information about low-interest loans for abatement. We continued efforts to encourage lead abatement through greater financing and enforcement.
March – April
- NJCA is featured in national media such as ABC World News Tonight as the group that first exposed the problems that led to a major health crisis. HIP of NJ, the state’s oldest and fourth-largest HMO, was declared insolvent, leaving 200,000 patients scrambling for health care, 1000 workers unemployed, and doctors and hospitals owed $150 million. Praised by editorials, NJCA raised the first red flag about the state’s approval and subsequent lack of oversight of nonprofit HIP’s secret and ill-fated deal to transfer its assets and operations to out-of-state, for-profit PHP. NJCA organized a task force of patients and organizations to speak about their concerns and outrage.
- To increase access to health insurance for thousands of children, the NJ legislature, with NJCA’s support, changed the NJ KidCare program to expand eligibility and remove barriers that NJCA first criticized when the program was initially implemented.
- After a year of organizing by NJCA, the Board of Public Utilities finally proposed new regulations to lower rates, by opening up local phone market against the local incumbent monopoly, Bell Atlantic.
- NJCA signed a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) agreement with Broad National Bank in which the bank pledged to make more than $20 million in loans available to low- and moderate-income residents and businesses. Independence Bank, which soon acquired Broad National, agreed to honor the commitment. NJCA also signed a CRA agreement with Sovereign Bank doubling its commitment to over $174 million over 3 years for below market-rate mortgages, discounted home improvement construction, small business loans, and other targeted products.
- NJCA hosted a sixth and final session of monthly "Women’s Rights at Work" forum held throughout the state, with helpful presentations for victims of sexual harassment by lawyers, mental health professionals, and labor organizers. In its run, the program assisted over 250 women through the forums and a toll-free sexual harassment hotline.
May – June
- After instigation by NJCA, the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services finally proposed regulations to enforce strong HMO patient protections. These rules would implement the Health Care Quality Act, won by NJCA in 1997.
- NJCA organized a coalition of over 15 groups who oppose restrictions on the rights of asbestos victims to meet with Senator Robert Torricelli, as part of our ongoing civil justice activities. NJCA also arranges meetings with Reps. Rothman and Pascrell.
- NJCA hosted its 12th "A Home of Her Own" women’s housing forum in Newark, bringing over 200 women, mostly minority, single heads-of-households, to learn about the possibilities of achieving the dream of home ownership. NJCA did similar forums in Jersey City, North Bergen and Camden, and will increase the frequency of these forums in 2000.
- NJCA initiated an aggressive energy consumer education project, through an unusual partnership with Public Service Electric & Gas Company. In addition to developing the curriculum, NJCA hired and trained five staff people to conduct the supplier neutral presentations to community organizations, with an emphasis on the urban centers of PSE&G’s area. To date, the project has conducted more than 400 presentations, many to NJCA affiliates and allies, reaching over 10,000 individuals. The project expects to reach 2000 organizations in the year 2000.
- With the active support of NJCA, Meryl Frank won the Democratic primary in the Highland Park mayoral race. NJCA contributed our canvass director and other volunteers, publicized our endorsement, and sent out letter to over half of the electorate educating people about Meryl’s past work with NJCA. The letter explicitly pointed out the bad vote of her incumbent opponent, who as a Middlesex County freeholder voted to privatize and sell the county’s nursing home to a disreputable for-profit company.
- With over 250 people attending, NJCA hosted its 16th annual dinner honoring Sherryl Gordon, Jay Sidhu, David Weiner, and Rev. Raiford Wheeler. Sy Larson received the newly-announced Evanoff-Schucter Award for Organizing.
July – August
- NJCA finished Phase I of its new Financial Education Project, after completing a string of presentations to senior and disability groups around the state about EFT ’99, giving information to citizens about choices and consumer safeguards as government benefits get shifted to electronic deposit. Phase II has started, and will include a Financial Education Center to be opened in Newark in 2000.
- The Department of Banking and Insurance approved the merger of Aetna and Prudential with many conditions to prevent abuse of market power advocated by NJCA. Our activities opposing the merger included mobilizing groups to testify at public hearings and organizing meetings with the anti-trust office of the Attorney General.
- The City of Newark increased the number of lead inspectors, after NJCA exposed the fact that the city only employed one lonely inspector. NJCA organized community groups to send over 120 letters to the Mayor and the City Council, which appropriated an extra $100,000 for lead inspectors.
September – October
- At a Camden luncheon, Fleet announced the availability of $3000 grants to go with first-time homebuyer mortgages. NJCA also sponsored a breakfast with the Department of Banking and Insurance to introduce new banks to their CRA responsibilities.
- NJCA celebrated the passage (with the unanimous support of the NJ delegation) of a strong Patients Bill of Rights in the U.S. House of Representatives. NJCA hosted a press conference the next day with Rep. Rush Holt at the East Brunswick Senior Center. Over fifteen senior, labor, patient, disability, and community organizations participated, also supporting efforts to strengthen Medicare and "Don’t Dump Seniors into the High Costs of HMOs." The event was the culmination of a full campaign around patient protections, including six press conferences in the past year, with two in the previous month with Rep. Frank Pallone and Rep. Bill Pascrell, and others with Holt, Pallone, Pascrell, Rep. Robert Menendez, and Sen. Robert Torricelli.
- Featuring food, fun and prizes, NJCA hosted its biannual convention with 100 people at the Rutgers Labor Education Center, with a plenary on "Building a Multi-Racial and Multi-Ethnic Coalition for Social and Economic Justice," and with workshops on quality health care for all, fair banking and housing, lead poisoning prevention, affordable utilities, campaign finance reform, and social and health security. A new board was elected, and issue resolutions were passed, governing NJCA’s future activities.
November – December
- NJCA actively participated as a founding member of US ACTION, a new national progressive organization made up of over 20 sister state coalitions and other organization committed to social and economic justice, including support groups like Midwest Academy and Progressive Action Network and national groups like AFSCME, SEIU, and the United States Student Association. The convention included a protest at the office of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, featured in Time magazine.
- NJCA continued its successful Loan Counseling program, empowering close to 1000 families in 1999 through mortgage counseling to be first-time home buyers. NJCA facilitated over 6000 mortgages since the program’s inception in 1993. At the end of the year, NJCA had more than 3400 families in the counseling program pipeline.
- Mobilizing homeowners who purchased homes through our loan counseling service, NJCA generated over 300 letters to NJ members of Congress about their concern over H.R. 10, the Financial Modernization Bill, which passed this month. These homeowners were uniquely able to tell their representatives, especially key banking force Rep. Marge Roukema, about how they got their home through the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The bill threatened to decimate the CRA, but it was ultimately kept intact.
- Through four "Train-the-Trainer" session held this month and earlier, NJCA educated over 60 community leaders and agency staff on lead poisoning prevention in 1999, developing a network of leaders on this important environmental justice issue.
- The BPU suspended Energy America’s sales after NJCA uncovered evidence of its practice of "slamming." Our staff assisted customers, documented complaints and testified to the BPU, all of which resulted in Energy America’s suspension of sales and $240,000 fine. The company was forced to re-train its sales program.
- NJCA initiated a series of weekly informational pickets against HUBCO, who refused to meet about community reinvestment despite its poor lending record to communities of color and low-income borrowers. In 1998, the bank only made nine mortgages or loans to refinance to African-Americans in the entire state. The pickets started in Newark and expanded to Union City, Woodbridge, and Paterson.
- After a campaign by several health care unions and NJCA, the NJ legislature passed a Safe Needle Systems bill to prevent 2,000 needlestick injuries a month in the state to health care workers and patients.
- Fifteen NJ elected leaders signed statements of support for "Clean Money Campaign Reform," as NJCA kicked off its effort to curb the influence of special interests in policymaking, as part of the Elected Leadership Project of Public Campaign. NJCA also established a relationship with the National Institute for Money in State Politics to set up a database of NJ statewide campaign contributions to release in 2000.
- The NJCA Board elected Wayne Smith of the Black Urban Alliance and Ira Stern of UNITE to serve as co-chairs. Vic De Luca stepped down to a board position after five years of leading the organization as chair. Leni-anne Shuchter was re-elected as Secretary-Treasurer.
