Jamel Holley says Motor Vehicle agency returning to Elizabeth

A new Motor Vehicle Commission licensing center is expected to open Elizabeth this summer, after an absence of about 10 years.

A Motor Vehicle agency located in the city closed in 2010, as a result of budget cuts imposed by Republican Governor Chris Christie and then-Assemblyman Joe Cryan, who provided the deciding vote in the Legislature to implement the 2010 package of GOP spending cuts.

Assemblyman Jamel Holley, who is running against Cryan in the Democratic primary for state Senate, said the office will be located at 17 Caldwell Place, just off Broad Street and near the Superior Courthouse of Union County.

The location will provide licensing services, vehicle registrations, and other services but not road tests or inspections. Those services will remain accessible at nearby offices in Rahway or Newark.
New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission Chief Administrator Sue Fulton said the new MVC facility in Elizabeth that will open later this summer will be about 7,000 square feet.

“This agency represents a creation of 45 new jobs and about 7,000 square feet should be able to do upwards of 1,000 transactions a week to serve the residents of Elizabeth, Union County, and the 20th Legislative District,” said Fulton, who expressed the importance of providing improved service and greater convenience for MVC customers in Union County and nearby communities.

Fulton said an agency in Elizabeth facility closed in 2010. The Christie administration at the time said the Elizabeth office and others were closed to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 2011, Bollwage appeared at an Assembly State Government Committee hearing in Trenton, where he castigated Cryan for voting for Christie’s draconian spending plan and argued that the closure was pure politics on the part of then-MVC chief administrator Ray Martinez and the Republican administration.

Bollwage did not specifically call out Cryan at the time, but Christie could not have passed a budget in his first year as governor without the Democratic lawmaker’s support because Cryan provided the 41st or deciding vote to enact Christie’s cuts.

“Chris Christie screwed the City of Elizabeth when he took the motor vehicle agency out of our city for a political vendetta,” said Bollwage. “It was a strictly partisan call, one that I believe the governor and Mr. Martinez will work with their political supporters and eventually find a new location in months or years to come — probably around 2013 for the re-election opportunity.”

That did not come to pass, but Cryan did eventually issue a press release that placed blame on the governor without mentioning that he provided the deciding vote to enact the Republican budget with the spending cuts that caused the agency to close.

The Elizabeth mayor was reportedly hopping mad after learning that the Elizabeth office was on the closure list.

Bollwage immediately sent a letter to then-Gov. Chris Christie requesting he reevaluate what he called a major setback for New Jersey’s fourth-largest city.

“Thousands of people use the Elizabeth DMV. It’s located on the bus routes. It’s located two blocks from a train station. People in this area rely on the DMV,” said Bollwage.

Bollwage said it was cruel that the state did not discuss the situation with the local government before deciding to shutter the agency.

Bollwage appearing at the event with Holley is considered by some to be a big help to the challenger's Senate campaign. Bollwage's most senior running mate, Councilwoman Patricia Perkins-Auguste, is Holley's Elizabeth campaign coordinator.

Assemblyman Jamel Holley and Elizabeth Councilwoman Patricia Perkins-Auguste