A recently unsealed federal lawsuit filed by former Bayonne Business Administrator Melissa Mathews says that the $20 million Maris High School land sale “was to enrich an influential political donor.”
Bayonne’s Marist High School. Photo via Google Maps.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The two-count complaint, filed under the Federal False Claims Act, was filed in New Jersey’s U.S. District Court back on June 6th, 2024, but it was not unsealed until March 10th of this year after both the state and federal government declined to litigate the case.
The Alessi Organization, via related LLCs, then-Mayor Jimmy Davis, now the Hudson County Sheriff, City Planner Sue Mack, Council President Gary La Pelusa, 1st Ward Councilman Neil Carroll, and then-2nd Ward Councilman Sal Gullace are named defendants.
“This action arises out of a scheme contrived by politicians in Bayonne, and the Enterprise [Alessi Organization], who conspired to transfer certain real property controlled by Bayonne to the Enterprise knowing that the property would be subject of an eminent domain taking by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority,” the lawsuit states.
“To ensure that the Enterprise would reap a significant but ill-gotten windfall, Bayonne held special meetings to upzone the property immediately prior to the taking by the NJTA. The NJTA had expressed interest directly to the Bayonne Officials and the public at large prior to the upzoning of the property and transfer to the Enterprise.”
The NJTA used eminent domain to acquire the aforementioned property from the Alessi Organization for $31.1 million in June 2024, which the Alessi’s had acquired for $11.4 million, as HCV first reported.
Mathews filed an amended lawsuit in Hudson County Superior Court days later making many of the same allegations, though the federal case contains additional information.
She also has an unrelated gender discrimination case against the city that was set to go to trial this month, but has been postponed again.
The federal complaint that was unsealed this month notes that the Bayonne City Council approved a redevelopment plan for the shuttered high school on February 16th, 2022, despite the matter potentially being under state investigation.
“The Alessis improperly influenced the Bayonne Officials via campaign donations made to Mayor Davis and the councilmen who were up for re-election in 2022 to adopt the Redevelopment Plan and assign the Purchase Contract to the Alessis thereby resulting in a financial windfall to the Alessis …,” the complaint contends.
Alessi Organization Vice President of Asset Management Francesco Alessi donated $2,090 to Davis between April 2017 and May 2021, well within New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJ ELEC) guidelines, but exhibits in the case alleged that they utilized straw donors to contribute greater sums of money.
Then in March 2023, the New Jersey Comptroller’s Office announced that the city ignored but an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) and subpoena looking into the land sale.
Further, exhibits in the case assert that the city never conducted an appraisal of the property, that Davis met with representatives from the Alessi Organization 11 times in 2021, and that Mack sent an email to Alessi Organization Chair Vincent Alessi on November 18th, 2021 noting that Davis asked her to inquire about Marist.
“Last week the Mayor asked me to discuss possible uses of the Marist site with you specifically Vince. As you may be aware the prior developer Joe Forione and Steve Kalafer were developing supportive housing on the site,” she wrote at the time, as depicted in the court exhibits.
“As part of their concept they were going to dedicate a small space up to 2500 square feet on the ground floor for a RESPITE/community center. The Mayors Idea is to have a space properly outfitted that parents of special needs children. The Bayonne Schools currently have 650 students on the autism spectrum could leave their child in the care of trained professionals for a couple of hours while they would be free to run errands and the like.”
That plan never ended up coming to fruition, either.
Mathews and the City of Bayonne declined to comment on pending litigation, though the municipality typically does not comment on unresolved lawsuits.