>> Major funding is provided by NJM insurance group, serving the needs of residents and businesses for over 100 years and by the PGC foundation.

>> Time to move on.

Jersey City's mayor takes aim at the embattled U.S.

Senator and his son, making it clear he will not support Robin Junior for reelection.

>> They feel entitled to the seat and they put themselves first and that is what the problem is.

>> After weeks of cash for both claim, the city Council runoff election is tonight.

>> Try anything you can, win at all costs.

>> A former golf club employee files a harassment lawsuit, alleging that she was tricked into signing an NDA.

>> She does not want to be silenced by the people who put her in the position of being sexually harassed.

>> Seeking reparations, efforts underway to recommend ways to repair the damage caused by slavery.

>> What kind of reparative system does New Jersey need to build to invest in for black people here to finally be very -- be free to thrive.

>> News starts now -- New Jersey Spotlight News starts now.

♪ >> From NJ Spotlight Studios.

>> Thank you for joining us.

The state is in the midst of another old-fashioned political slugfest with the first punch thrown by Jersey City's mayor Steve follow-up.

Saying unequivocally this week Bob Menendez Junior should be dumped from his seat because of his father, Bob Menendez's criminal charges.

This came after the powerful Hudson County Democratic organization endorsed Menendez a Junior and his 2024 reelection bid and unleashed a war of words between their supporters.

Brenda has the story.

>> The Menendez's have shown that they feel entitled to the see.

>> Steve Bullock fired the first salvo online tweeting I am not on board with supporting Bob Menendez for another term in Congress.

It is time to move on.

He represents the eighth district in Hudson County's Democratic stronghold.

He has the son of indicted Senator Bob Menendez who is accused of wielding his political influence in return for piles of cash in gold bars.

The mayor claims that robbed and as should disavow his own father or forfeit his seat.

>> Do you expect the sun to condemn the father?

>> Yes!

If you are elected and working on behalf of your residents, the expectation is you will do right by your residents.

The disqualifier is the fact you have put your family interests in front of the public interest.

>> Bob Menendez has been silent about his father's indictment, the Senator has furiously denied the charters and have resumed -- refused to resign despite calls to resign by colleagues including Ian Federman who called George Santos to record a audio message for the senator.

>> These people who want to make you get in trouble, and want to kick you out, and make you run away, you make them put up or shut up.

>> The mayor is accusing the younger Menendez of benefiting from his family connections while ducking the consequences of his family scandal.

Bob Menendez Lob this back at the mayor who is running for governor in 2020 five, that he showed his true colors for everyone to see.

Instead of addressing his policy failures and the impact they have had on Jersey City residents, Steve chose to go low.

For those of us who have dealt with him, it is nothing new.

For those who he is looking to introduce himself to, you can expect more of this petulant behavior.

He says follow-up's administration has seen its own scandals.

-- the mayor's administration has seen its own scandals.

The Democratic organization faces reelection next year.

>> He needs to keep his head down, he needs to do try to -- he needs to try to keep some distance between him and his father's problems and that is not what the mayor wants to let him do.

>> writers say there is no denying the bad blood, but the mayor's assertion that Bob Menendez is a now baby who won his seat because of his father's influence evoked a backlash.

Folks cited the mayor's support for Tammy Murphy who won endorsement from her husband's political allies as she seeks Senator Menendez's see.

>> You are talking about a frontloaded campaign that is relying heavily on the family influence.

That applies as much to Tammy Murphy as it does to Bob Menendez.

>> There is a groundswell of opposition that you see and I think that they are questioning that relationship and that is fair for them to do.

It takes the approach of solely defending the governor, I think she will open herself up to criticism.

>> They had but it will continue, as for the administration it is politics, the senator's trial is set to start May 6.

He refused to resign and has not said whether he will seek reelection.

His son will not be on the New Jersey primary ballot June 4.

NJ Spotlight News.

>> It is election day again in Hoboken.

Voters are deciding a run of contest for a council seat in the city's first Ward.

A significant race that could shift the balance of power on the nine-member counsel either for or against current Mayor Robbie Bala.

This comes after neither of the two candidates secured at least 50% of the vote during the election.

As Ted reports, the campaigns have been full of mudslinging that could spurn investigations once the votes are counted.

>> Hoboken being Hoboken, try anything you can, win at all costs.

>> That is how one is reacting to accusations that he is paying people to vote for him.

Hoboken city Council elections got more salacious after the campaign behind Ravi Cordova saying that individuals in this apartment building were given money to vote against opponent.

Neither of the candidates got half of the vote, propping the runoff election.

>> Some residents came forward, they were nervous about retribution, I helped them on their behalf in a letter to the Attorney General.

We made it public.

If people -- we wanted people to be aware.

>> We had nothing to do with it, even our opponent's side us as we have nothing to do with it.

>> Cordova's campaign called the office to investigate.

A woman was told that I denied paying anyone to vote.

I am looking into filing a defamation suit against those who have made these false allegations.

City Council members in Hoboken are split on if they think these claims are legitimate or if they are last-minute mudslinging.

>> Everything about that story is literally a made up a story.

>> I do not know what to believe coming out of there.

I'm focusing on helping the residents in respect to this particular issue.

>> The opponent's supporters have a tendency in the last weekend of election to create awful allegations and do not care about who they hurt along the way.

>> I am not saying that Paul is correlating it but when your supporters are out there, sowing discord, and adding confusion to the mix, it makes me wonder.

>> Once understood more clearly what the assertions were, and how they were saying it was happening.

They were not consistent with what we have known to be what a paid for vote operation looks like.

>> The Hoboken Mayor has endorsed Cordova and would have majority support from counsel if he wons.

A spokesman says that Councilwoman Tiffany Victor and Ruben ramose are demonstrating that they will do or say anything to come to the rescue of the candidate that they deem key to their own personal ambitions.

Do not know any of the facts or willing to smear a council colleague who has a well-earned reputation for honesty.

Both candidates would welcome an investigation.

>> If there is anything wrong, they should be an investigation.

Things should happen swiftly on that.

>> People should want to get to the bottom of it.

It is not the first time.

It has happened time and again in Hoboken.

Whoever is responsibility should be brought to justice.

>> The candidates say their first priority are focused on tenants.

>> Housing justice, public safety, and quality of life issues, specifically I would like to tackle questionable rate hikes, in Hoboken they are getting out of control, they are getting 40% increases.

>> The first thing we should tackle is the right situation.

Nobody wants to talk about the rat crisis, but they are going to sleep for the winter, when they wake up, let us have a comprehensive plan.

>> It will end when the polls close.

>> The Trump National Golf club in Bedminster is being hit with a lawsuit from one of its former employees.

Alice, a former server at the club alleges she was sexually harassed by her supervisor and tricked into signing a nondisclosure agreement by the former president's personal lawyer.

The lawsuit includes allegations dating back to 2021 when she was 21 years old.

She has obtained a prominent New Jersey attorney, Nancy Erica Smith to represent her case who joins me now.

>> Welcome to the show.

Let me ask you first, lay out for me what this lawsuit alleges on behalf of your client?

>> Is alleges that she was subjected to the worst kind of sexual harassment, we call it quid pro quo, she was forced to perform sex acts in order to keep her job.

By the long-term food and beverage manager at Donald Trump's golf club.

When another woman complained and you will note that she complained repeatedly about sexual harassment at this club, before righting a letter, putting it in riding, she related that they were being forced to perform sex for keeping her job.

Protection as he called it.

When that letter, the her coworker wrote was hand-delivered to Donald Trump's personal staff and a lawyer wanted to conduct an investigation from his New York office, Allie got a lawyer and experienced -- she got a lawyer and she was contacted by a member of the club and a lawyer who pretended to be her friend and said she was neutral and wanted to help her, two good friends, Allie and Donald Trump and she encouraged Allie to have a very poor relationship with her lawyer, not to comply with her lawyer's complaints and texts, she disparaged her experienced employment lawyer until that relationship failed.

She then proceeded to get Allie to agree to a legal, nondisclosure agreement.

Various other terms that are very favorable to Donald Trump all pretending that she did not represent Donald Trump.

We all know that Alina is her lawyer, she'd sits next to him in court every day now and one of his many trials.

>> Who does this suit name?

It is Alina Hardball named?

It was included?

>> The defendant is the golf club.

The defendant was the employer who is a party to the agreement.

We hope that the ethics of authorities in New Jersey will look at this, you cannot do for people and pretend you do not represent a party, you cannot encourage somebody to sign an illegal agreement.

The agreement included that if my client Allie violated the nondisclosure agreement which was illegal, she owed all of the money that they paid which was not much for this kind of sexual harassment and $1000 a day.

>> You said illegal because New Jersey as I understand it had band and DA's from employment several years ago?

-- banned nda's?

years ago.

>> They were bad for harassment and other claims, a provision that she owed Trump $1000 a day if she enforced it is blatantly illegal.

>> What is your client seeking and where do you go from here?

We know how a lot of these cases play out.

They tend to be a and quite expensive.

-- lengthy and quite expensive.

>> The people who come to make do not want to be silenced or live their lives afraid that if they talk about their own lives and their own abuse that their abusers are able to sue them.

My client wants is her voice back and to have the agreement voided, she does -- right now she does not have any interest in suing and going through that long process, she wants to be done with them and she does not want to be silenced by the very people who put her in this position of being sexually harassed.

She wants other women to know.

Thank you.

>> Nancy Erica Smith on this latest lawsuit brought against the Donald Trump National Golf course in New Jersey.

Thank you so much for your time.

>> Thank you.

>> An Ed Buck man corrections officer is facing charges in connection with a violent incident that took place nearly three years ago at the state's only women's prison.

Matthew is one of 15 present employees indicted in the case in which inmates were allegedly assaulted in a brutal January 2021 overnight extraction leaving two victims seriously injured.

It resulted in a criminal investigation and the governor's decision to shut down and replace the prison.

The man was charged with a records tampering but a superseding indictment handed out on November 17 adds charges of conspiracy, aggravated assault, and tampering with Public records to name a few.

The state Attorney General's office alleges that the individual did not record the forced removal of inmates and try to deceive the Department of Corrections into believing the extraction was justified.

Publicly released videos show officers punching, kicking, and pepper spray and the inmates.

The other indicted officers have been suspended without pay and include employees up to the highest ranks including a lieutenant and a major.

In our spotlight on business report, even with recent estoppels in New Jersey's offshore wind programs, state leaders say they are fully committed to reaching wind power goals.

Moving forward with plans for the emerging industry, despite a recent setback, a Danish developer's decision to back out of two major wind farm projects here.

State Board of Public utilities showed a vote of confidence in the program by requesting more offshore wind projects proposals.

For more what the future holds I am joined by the PP you president -- by the BPU president.

Thank you for coming on the show.

Let me ask you about the state's overall goals for wind?

It was over a year ago when the mayor signed an executive order directing this to ramp up by 2040.

I am wondering that if the decision to move forward with plans for offshore wind, I am wondering how orstead's decision to pull out will affect our ability to get there?

>> As you said, the state is moving forward.

The governor set the goal of 11 gigawatts and that is the goal that we are moving towards.

There are of course, was a setback, that is not going to prevent New Jersey from taking advantage of this really transformational initiative that is offshore wind and realizing both the economic and environmental benefits that offshore wind is going to bring to New Jersey.

The recent announcement from the governor about moving up the next solicitation timeline is a demonstration of his commitment and my commitment and the commitment of the agency to move forward with offshore wind in New Jersey.

>> What can you tell us about that timeline?

This would be the fourth round out of five to solicit these bids.

When should we expect that to start?

>> We recently announced that we are moving that timeline up to the first part of 2024.

We do not have an exact date or month at this time.

We are moving as quickly as possible to open that next solicitation.

>> Given your involvement with the state's energy master plan, the goals to reach 27% of electricity through wind by 2050, short wind still be the linchpin in this plan?

Does the state have any other choice?

>> So, absolutely offshore wind is a cornerstone part of the energy master plan and the governor's goal of 100% clean energy.

As you continue to be that part.

Offshore when the -- offshore wind has such potential for energy.

We are focused on as we move forward.

We are looking at the full energy portfolio.

And all of our clean energy resources as we think about the goals from the energy master plan.

Offshore wind is and will continue to be a cornerstone of our clean energy agenda.

>> For folks who are going to be customers or our customers here, what does this mean for what the future will look like both for energy provided and also for what they can expect to have available to them for choices?

>> Yes.

I think the important thing to remember about offshore wind is that it is going to provide that clean energy generation and it is providing that, the generation to New Jersey to help power the homes and businesses and provide electricity for the people of New Jersey and that is clean energy that does not have admissions.

It is something that we want to make sure that the residents of New Jersey know.

>> That is the president of public utilities, thank you so much.

>> Thank you.

>> Turning to Wall Street, the market rally appears installed on the heels of fresh data showing the labor market is cooling.

Here is how stocks closed today.

♪ >> Support for the business report is provided by Newark alliance, a collaborative calendar of holiday events in Newark's arts and education district.

More available at Newark.com.

-- more information available at Newark.com.

♪ >> A State Council test was exploring the impact of slavery in New Jersey last night held its second ever public meeting.

They focus on segregation.

Taking input from residents who shared family stories about that experience here in what was once known as the slave state of the North.

As Melissa Cooper reports, their reports are helping compile a group of recommendations and humanize how slavery affects black lives today.

>> The question we often confront around the work here is why I convene a New Jersey reparations counsel?

The answer is although that slavery shape every aspect of New Jersey, too many people in our state believe that it never happened here.

That racial inequality is not a New Jersey issue.

As you will hear tonight, New Jersey's original sin of slavery and its lasting stain tell a different story.

>> Brian Haygood of the New Jersey suit for social justice kicking off the second public meeting of the New Jersey reparations counsel.

For two years members well studied the history of slavery and the current racial landscape and an effort to improve disparities within the Black community.

>> The Council and the only prepare the enduring harm to black people from slavery, but it will answer the foundational question, what kind of reparative system does New Jersey need to build to invest in for Black people to finally be free, free to win.

>> Housing inequity is one of the main issues the Council says that is proof of the batch of slavery -- of slavery's long-lasting impact.

>> Through home rule, New Jersey being a home rule state, to ensure that the kind of housing that is affordable to Blacks were not people in those areas and that discrimination, garden-variety discrimination and not allowing Blacks to live in certain neighborhoods, to borrow, not allowing Blacks to take advantage of federal programs that made homeownership possible would be much more effective.

>> New Jersey currently according to the civil rights project at UCLA is of the six segregated school state in the country.

That has serious consequences.

Although New Jersey is known for being a state with very high educational levels, that is not experienced equally by all of its students.

Some of that harms comes as a result of the funding formulas that is true throughout the United States and also in New Jersey.

Which link the amount of funding that schools get to property values.

In the school district.

>> My Chanel Simmonds also says -- Ms. Simmons also says it is linked to increasing gaps in health care.

>> The foundation is clear in our stance that the time has come for New Jersey to create a shared understanding of the harms caused to block New Jerseyans over the past two centuries.

Embarked on a process -- and embark on a process to reverse those injustices.

>> It will publish its final report on Juneteenth, 2025.

>> That does it for us tonight, but do not forget to download the NJ Spotlight News podcast so you can listen any time.

For the entire NJ Spotlight News team, thank you for being with us and have a great evening and we will see you back here tomorrow.

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♪