Fernando González (politician)

Fernando A. González (born December 1, 1947) is a Democratic Party politician who was elected to the Perth Amboy, New Jersey, City Council on May 13, 2008 and took office on July 1, 2008. González, with 3,429 ballots, was the top vote-getter among five candidates for city council, leading his running mate Kenneth Balut, who got 3,347 votes; Joel Pabon, 3,049; incumbent David Szilagyi, 2,744; and Republican Maria Garcia, 776.

González served as chairman of the Perth Amboy Housing Authority, of which he has been a member since 1996, and he was previously elected to three terms (serving for nine years) on the Board of Education of the Perth Amboy Public Schools. He is also a member of the Puerto Rican Association for Human Development board of directors.

González and his wife, Obdulia, a retired educator who was elected to the school board in April 2009, are the parents of two adult children: Marisol, a special education teacher who works with infants and toddlers in Puerto Rico, and Daniel, an attorney practicing law in Perth Amboy.

González is a graduate of City College of New York, where he served as an instructor from 1972 to 1978, and he earned a Masters degree at Kean University.

González is a real estate agent with Century 21 Main Street Realty in Woodbridge, and he has previously been manager of the Weichert Office in Edison and broker/owner of DanMar Realty and Atlantic Realty in Perth Amboy.

Gonzalez is considered one of the pioneers in the city's civil rights movement, owing to his activism in the early 1970s to integrate the Latino community into Perth Amboy's body politic. With Lou Cabassa, who was also a candidate for mayor in 1988, González unsuccessfully sought election to the City Council in 1976. The following year, he won the first of three consecutive terms on the Board of Education.

School board record

González led efforts to initiate bilingual education in the public schools during the 1970s, when the Latino population began to grow significantly in the working class community. He also achieved great advances in diversity among the faculty and staff.

He helped the Education Law Center take several cases before the New Jersey Supreme Court, resulting in the landmark Abbott decision that widely expanded state funding for poor school districts. Today, less than 1½ percent of the Perth Amboy school district budget is funded from local property taxes: of the entire $157.2 million spent on education, local taxpayers contribute only $2.2 million.

Housing authority record

González served as chairman of the Perth Amboy Housing Authority when the agency made some of the most significant changes in its history. Among his first acts were reforms to prevent the kind of corruption that had previously plagued the agency.

As an advocate for fair housing, González has disputed the position taken by Mayor Wilda Diaz, a member of Gov. Chris Christie's Housing Opportunity Task Force, which called for the elimination of the Council on Affordable Housing. Gonzalez said that the state's affordable housing program is required by the NAACP's long fought victory in the Mount Laurel cases and while some reforms may be helpful, the system should be preserved.

In 1999, Perth Amboy was one of five housing authorities in the state selected as part of a $280 million federal program designed to help unemployed families who are on welfare or recently left welfare rolls become independent. The city received $1.3 million from the grant to allow those needy families to rent a more costly apartment closer to available jobs or freeing up funds for transportation.

González won funding for the John E. Sofield Gardens project, a development of 16 homes for large families in new duplexes, plus 18 similar homes at Dzema Gardens, through a $5.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The authority administers 437 conventional public housing units in seven locations. Two are high rise buildings for senior and/or disabled citizens, and five are multi-family complexes, where residents pay rent equal to 30% of their income and are required to fulfill community service requirements.

González more than doubled the number of people in the city served by federal housing subsidies. In Perth Amboy, where González got the Housing Authority to establish an apprentice program to train painters and repair workers, 380 families received Section 8 vouchers in 1999. Today, the agency assists about 850 families, senior citizens and persons with disabilities under the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

As a result of another González initiative, temporary housing was provided at the Delaney Homes complex, a 252-unit housing complex on a 15.5 acre site along Convery Boulevard and Chamberlain Avenue, for families with young children that were victimized by Hurricane Katrina.

City council record

González has made job creation and property tax reduction his top priorities. He was the only member of the governing body to oppose a tax increase in 2011 and also the sole objector to residency waivers that allowed the appointments of high-ranking city employees who live outside of Perth Amboy. He also made an issue of 'double dipping' -- which is the hiring of retired public employees who already collect from the state pension system.

González raised objections to moving the nonpartisan municipal election to coincide with the general election in November. Among his concerns were that the move would allow elected officials, including himself and the mayor, to extend their term of office by six months without voter approval and the consequence of affording local issues less public attention during while the electorate makes presidential choices.

Months before a fire wiped out five Cortlandt Street houses, Gonzalez said there should be separate water lines for fire suppression systems during a discussion at a Council meeting. No action was taken to address the situation and Fire Chief David Volk said some of the hydrants in area had either low pressure or no water as firefighters were battling the devastating inferno, which broke out around 4 a.m. on Sunday, June 3.

Residents plan to honor González for his distinguished record of 36 years of service with a testimonial dinner on July 27, 2012 at the ZPA Hall on Grace Street