♪ ♪ >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

Coming up, we talk with New Jersey City Mayor James Solomon on a range of topics, from their World Cup events to the city's fiscal health and discrepancies in recent crime reporting data.

Plus, we take a look at the impact of rising costs and a brutal spring freeze on New Jersey's farming industry.

But first, how's the state handling health concerns during the World Cup?

New Jersey's Department of Health Commissioner joins us to discuss that and more.

That's Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by the members of the New Jersey Education Association and RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at rwjbh.org.

We're just days away from the first World Cup match at MetLife Stadium, and the entire state is gearing up to host this global event that'll bring some 1 million tourists into the region.

One of the departments gearing up is New Jersey's Department of Health that's created a hub to help visitors stay safe and healthy and navigate the health system if they need to at any point during the tournament.

I'm joined now by Commissioner Raynard Washington to talk all about it.

Commissioner, it's great to have you on the show.

A lot of things to talk about, but let's start with the World Cup.

Your department recently launched the World Cup 2026 Health Hub.

Obviously, health is a primary concern for you as 1.2 million visitors are coming into this area.

Can you just talk us through what are some of the concerns that you have outlined in this hub?

Sure and thank you for having me.

This is a excellent opportunity for us to help all of our visitors who are coming from not just across the country but from across the world navigate health care and health care resources here in New Jersey.

So the health hub provides for visitors access to health care resources, health care providers in our community, also provides a lot of really important tips that we want residents and visitors to be mindful of during the World Cup.

Things like heat health, heat safety, making sure folks stay hydrated, as well as some important tips for helping folks navigate through weather at MetLife.

Yeah, give us some of the tips that people can find when it comes to heat health, sun safety.

Yeah, I think the most important thing we're worried about as it relates to a lot of folks gathering in the sun in the summer time, of course, is folks having heat exhaustion or even having more severe heat consequences.

And so it's really important, first and foremost, that folks stay hydrated.

We really encourage folks to continuously drink water while they're outside.

Also making sure folks are using sunscreen, because it will be hot if it's like it is today.

It might be a little bit humid as well.

So we just want folks to be mindful.

Check on one another.

Take a break from the sun if you need to.

And obviously monitor how much alcohol consumption you're having, as that does contribute to dehydration as well.

Yeah, great points.

Also, I see on there some tick and mosquito protection.

folks might be coming from areas where they are not dealing with those types of bugs.

What should people be aware of, be prepared for?

Yeah, we just encourage folks as anytime you're outside to use bug repellent to just make sure that you are minimizing the risk of you being bitten by a mosquito.

Again, just basic regular things we do when we're outside in Jersey over the summer.

You mentioned healthcare services.

I'm curious with so many people coming in, are you helping them try to navigate the health systems?

Where are you sending people to if they do have a health concern?

Sure.

So in the Health Hub, people are able to, one, we want our global visitors to understand how health care works in the U.S.

And so there's some very basic information about how our systems work to help people just understand how do you enter and what's the right place to go for the right level of care.

And so on there, you'll find information about urgent cares, our emergency departments and hospitals, of course.

And then there's also available for individuals to actually get directly connected to the websites and other resources for those providers so they can connect to them.

How are you getting this information out to folks from dozens of countries who are coming here?

Yeah, so certainly we're going to be promoting it throughout the entire World Cup experience, but also it's going to be available and other technology solutions are going to be available to our visitors.

The state police has a web app that will also link directly to this.

So again, I would appreciate you all's partnership helping us get the word out that this is available and certainly want to make sure that all our visitors are able to access resources while they're here.

Yeah, there's a certainly so much there in terms of what you're all doing, but I want to switch gears a bit and bring up Delaney Hall because I know that's another issue that's top of mind for so many folks.

A couple weeks ago, you attempted to make an oversight visit at Delaney Hall.

This is at a time when a lot of congressional representatives and the governor attempted to do the same.

You were only granted a partial tour.

Can you just tell us specifically what parts of Delaney you were able to visit and what parts you were not?

So obviously this is currently in litigation, so not too many comments on it, but I will tell you that we were able to do a complete inspection of the food facilities there, and that was the extent of our inspection.

And so we are looking forward to being able to, again, continue to follow up on any complaints we've received and do a more comprehensive inspection at a later date.

When you say only food facilities, what does that mean you were not granted access to?

The lodging and medical facilities.

Right.

You did issue a report and that was made public.

Can you tell us what you were able to put out in that report that's public?

So again, it's just a standard template report for inspection of a food facility and that is available publicly for folks to be able to review.

You said that there is a pending litigation just for our audience sake.

I'm going to fill in the gaps there.

The Attorney General did file suit against GEO Group asking that the court grant your department full oversight capability, full oversight access.

I know you can't comment on the pending litigation, but just for context, can you tell us, as the head of the Department of Health, what types of oversight you have over similar facilities or facilities that house people here in the state of New Jersey?

Sure.

Our mission at the Department of Health is to protect and promote the health of New Jersey residents and folks who are in our state.

And so our responsibility is to ensure that regardless of where people are, whether it doesn't matter the circumstances or the facility, that they are being cared for in a way that is respectful and obviously is safe.

We are also really concerned as always when we have congregate settings, you're always concerned about potential for infectious disease spread, of course, which is not just restricted to the facility.

It also impacts the staff who are there, who are coming home into our communities.

So with any facility, we are going to be looking for those kinds of, you know, safeguards and policies and procedures to ensure that folks are being, that healthcare is being delivered and that infectious disease risk is being managed.

You mentioned infectious disease spread, cued up my next question.

With so many people coming to the region, is that a concern?

Are you putting out any information about concerns?

Maybe it's measles, maybe it's COVID.

Where do you stand on that?

It's certainly a concern when you have a lot of folks coming from all over the world.

And there are different infections that are endemic in different communities or in different countries.

And so we are watching very closely.

We have stepped up our surveillance activities across the state to ensure that we are prepared as possible.

We're working very closely with our local public health departments, as well as our healthcare systems.

And the Department of Health has been planning for more than a year to welcome the visitors to our state.

And so we will be monitoring very closely, as well as prepared to respond in the event that we have any issues or concerns.

We've been communicating with all of our healthcare partners pretty consistently over the last year about the types of illnesses that we might be looking for, the types of things that are concerning.

And we have our syndromic surveillance system that's going to help us ensure that if people are starting to leverage or go to the hospital, we're going to be able to provide them with the services that they need.

So if we have any symptoms that we're looking for, And so we're going to be able to provide them with the services that they need.

And so we're going to be able to provide them with the services that they need.

And so we're going to be able to provide them with the services that they need.

Raynard Washington, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health.

Thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you.

As World Cup fans begin pouring into New Jersey from all over the globe, the state's hosting more than just the tournament.

For those fans who don't have a ticket to the match, they can go to any one of the seven flag cities events happening around North Jersey.

They could be part of the action there by experiencing some of the immersive fan events with food, entertainment, and of course plenty of soccer.

The first city to host is Jersey City, and I recently spoke with Mayor James Solomon about that and so much more.

Mayor, great to have you.

Thanks so much for talking to us.

This is definitely an exciting week for New Jersey, for Jersey City.

This Friday, you are kicking off the first of the Flag City's events, one of seven that will be held across the state all month.

Just tell us what folks can expect and where it will be.

Absolutely.

So thank you for having me on NJ Spotlight.

I always appreciate to be here.

And we are hosting a huge watch party for Team USA's first game.

So that's going to be Friday, June 12th from 6 p.m.

to midnight.

It's going to be right in the heart of Jersey City next to our Grove Street Path Plaza on Columbus Drive, between Marin and Warren Streets.

We're going to have vendors, food, music, YMCA.

The Village people are going to be performing, so it's really going to be a fun, fun day and a real chance to celebrate the global game coming to America's most diverse city.

Jersey City, of course, was originally slated to host this huge Fan Fest event.

That plan changed early on in Governor Sherrill's tenure.

Why did that plan change, and was that change good for Jersey City?

It was good, and we were grateful for the governor for making that decision.

For those who don't know the geography of Jersey City well, the Fan Fest was going to be in Liberty State Park, which is a gem for our city, but it's largely removed from the rest of Jersey City, not easily accessible.

And there wasn't opportunities for local vendors to participate.

Most of the attendees were going to be ferried from New York or bused.

So they weren't going to be on our streets supporting our local businesses, but they were going to impose costs on us, police costs, transit costs, extra congestion.

And so actually removing the flag, the Fan Fest was a good thing.

And now we're gonna have four events across Jersey City, Flag Cities being the first, but there's gonna be a one in each neighborhood.

We're gonna have real ability for our local businesses to participate, to earn money, get people and visitors to see different parts of Jersey City.

So we're really excited about where we ended up, where we have four activations across different neighborhoods in Jersey City.

Yeah, tell us about the other three.

Where will they be?

When will they be held?

Absolutely.

So on Friday, Sunday, June 21st in Bergen Square.

So it's right in the heart of General Square.

We're going to be watching the Egypt New Zealand game.

New Jersey City is proud home to a very very large Egyptian community.

So with respect to my constituents from New Zealand, I'll be rooting for Egypt in that game.

Then on July 10th and 11th, we're going to have the world on Central in the Heights on Central Avenue watching some of the knockout phase games and then on the final July 19th on the West side by the light rail.

We're going to have another watch party and activation that Sunday.

So you'll get a chance to experience every neighborhood in Jersey City.

I can imagine that there are going to be costs associated with it for the city and you're already dealing with a $254 million budget hole.

Juan, how do you balance those costs and then we're going to get into that budget?

Yeah, absolutely.

So we're grateful that these are going to be done entirely through philanthropy and through sponsors.

So first we got to thank the New Jersey EDA through both Flag Cities and World on Central.

They've given us generous grants and then we've received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of support from different philanthropic partners.

We're really really grateful because we have to celebrate this incredible moment this once in a generation opportunity to have the World Cup.

But I couldn't put taxpayer money in.

And so the philanthropy is going to cover our police overtime our public works the cost of streaming the games the rentals really the full costs are going to be covered through philanthropy starting with the New Jersey EAA grants.

So when we look at your overall budget and that budget hole that you're facing early on in your tenure as mayor you said hey you know me to alert that we've got this big hole.

It immediately drew criticism from your predecessor who you have criticized for that hole.

He says look you sat on the city council for eight years you should have seen this.

The Rutgers Blaustein local government center says that there were many one-off revenues that were used to grow the budget from four and a half percent to twenty five percent excuse me four and a half percent to twenty five percent were one-off revenues that were used.

Is this something is that what you blame for the hole the massive hole that you're facing and should you have seen it?

It's a big portion of it.

So I'll start with just the facts which are important.

As a councilman I voted against the budget all eight years.

And I voted against it for these very reasons.

Because one time revenue was being used to cover recurring expenses because revenues and costs were being shifted and hidden.

And I was very clear.

I said that very clearly both while as councilman and during the campaign.

We put out a full plan about how we need to clean house in the budget department back during the campaign.

So you know I knew that things were broken.

I knew that we needed to fix them.

And that was part of why I ran for mayor was to fix the problem that the city's financial problem the city was in.

However, I didn't know that the budget was $250 million in the hole.

Basically the worst fiscal crisis in Jersey City's modern history.

And part of that is some of these costs were hidden.

We had $52 million in unpaid and unbudgeted for health care bills from 2024 to 2025 that were never shared with the city council.

Never shared with us so that we could know that was happening.

And I do wish that I had done more to convince my colleagues on the council to vote no with me.

So we could have been able to put a stop to these practices.

But now it's all about fixing it.

So we got to work.

We immediately started canceling projects that we simply couldn't afford.

The Pompidou Museum was going to cost the city an additional $40 million.

We shifted that to affordable housing and no cost to the city.

We've kind of either canceled or shifted other programs like the Via Ride Share or the Liberty Science High School.

Costs we couldn't afford, programs we couldn't afford.

We've asked every department to cut their budget by 10 percent.

So we are making real progress in tackling our budget gap, but we cannot do it.

We cannot get to a balanced budget without the support of Trident.

Again, this is the worst fiscal crisis.

I want to jump in here because you have asked the state for $150 million to help plug that hole.

And it's come with a lot of criticism.

Many Republicans in particular have said it's not Trenton's job to balance a bad budget that was bad for years.

One, do you have any indication that lawmakers will support this move?

And two, how do you respond to their criticism of that?

Absolutely.

We've had really productive conversations with Governor Sherrill and her team, as well as the Senate President and Assembly Speaker.

And I'm confident at the end of the day, Jersey City will get what it needs to be able to balance our budget.

And we'll definitely be a tough year no matter what.

But keep Jersey City on its feet.

And my message to the Republican lawmakers, to Democratic lawmakers, to pretty much anyone in the state of New Jersey, who says, well, why should I do this to help Jersey City?

My message is, it's an investment in the entire state of New Jersey.

Jersey City's economic growth has been a boon to the entire state.

We are 3% of the population, but we've produced 15% of the new homes and new housing in our state.

We've increased our revenue to the state budget by $400 million each year through our economic growth.

And that money doesn't benefit really Jersey City, it benefits the entire state.

So if we keep Jersey City's economy on its feet, we keep Jersey City growing, that is going to benefit every taxpayer in the state of New Jersey.

And conversely, if Jersey City falls or economic growth stalls, that actually means people across the state pay more.

So think of it as an investment, I think of it as a type of costs that are actually going to pay dividends for the entire state, not just us in Jersey City.

And just the short time we have left, you are critical again of your predecessor, full up for under reporting crime in the city.

We don't have a lot of time, just tell us what you found.

He says, of course, this is all bogus.

But what have you found?

Sure, absolutely.

We're just reporting the facts and being transparent.

We wanted to accurately tell voters in Jersey City what the true crime numbers were.

And so I ordered an audit, and the audit found that over 3,200 crimes had not been properly entered into the federal database.

So what's important to know is they were investigated, so you don't have to worry about criminals going free, but they artificially lowered Jersey City's crime rate.

And so we wanted to just tell the truth, let people know what we found.

And now going forward, we're going to be announcing next week our launch of our public crime tracking database.

The public is going to have unprecedented transparency and access to Jersey City's crime statistics, and you will know that they are accurate.

We've done the audit, we fixed the reasons and the causes that led to this under and misreporting, and we're going to make sure that we're always honest and transparent with the people of Jersey City.

And the mayor did say that it was simply entry gaps in a federal system.

But Mayor James Solomon, thank you so much.

We wish you the best of luck during the Fan Cities events this week and as we go into the future.

But thank you.

Thank you so much for having me.

New Jersey's farmers are facing a one-two punch this year.

Fuel and fertilizer costs are rising as a result of the war in Iran.

And warm spring weather followed by a freeze caused widespread crop damage across the state.

Governor Sherrill requested emergency federal funds after that weather event.

And this week, U.S.

Senator Cory Booker announced that he has secured a disaster declaration from the U.S.

Department of Agriculture.

Now, this declaration unlocks low-interest emergency loans for farmers, but many say more support is still needed.

Our budget and finance writer, John Reitmeyer, has been looking at the fallout from these events and what relief may be available at the state level.

He joins us now as part of our Under the Dome series.

John, it's great to see you.

You've been covering this issue now.

What have you heard from farmers just in terms of how their crops have been impacted, particularly with this wild swing in the temperature that we saw earlier in the spring?

Yeah, it's great to be with you today.

And I think what you're hearing from the New Jersey agriculture industry is this was a really tough year from a weather standpoint because there was that big early hot spell which may have caused crops or fruit to flower earlier or ripen and then we had this really deep freeze coming right after.

And according to estimates compiled by Governor Mikey Sherrill's administration, this has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage at farms across New Jersey, pretty widespread and with fruit farms hit particularly hard.

And anyone in New Jersey who likes to go to a farm stand knows whether it's strawberries or peaches or even apples and cranberries, we do have a pretty robust fruit growing community in New Jersey and so you know it's hitting the farmers hard and for those of us who love to eat that Jersey fresh fruit it's we'll probably notice that as well.

John in some cases some of these farmers depend on these seasonal crops right for so much of their annual income and did I see that in some cases farmers lost about 90% of their crop?

90 to almost a total loss in some cases and so that's a really hard hit especially to as you said some of these farms that don't have sort of a all-year business and really rely on growing a specific product and having that product sort of carry their their revenues for the whole year.

absolutely.

so of the one-two punch we'd call that maybe the gut punch but there have been some other hits that they've taken along the way when it comes to war overseas, the war the conflict in Iran and the impact on fertilizer and fuel right?

can you talk us through what they're experiencing there?

yeah there's a report from the American Farm Bureau that estimates the cost of diesel fuel is up nearly 50% since the beginning of the military conflict and the cost of fertilizer is up nearly 30% and so those are two really big costs for farming operations.

In other places the farms may be bigger and you might be able to spread out the increases across your business.

In New Jersey we have smaller farms with more specialized products and so when you're taking that type of hit think about a lot of farms really rely on diesel fuel for a lot of their operations and are really intensive with fertilizer and so these are two major inputs for the farming industry and they're trying to absorb these really significantly increased costs at this time.

Yeah, and we should make the point too that they already run on very thin margins, right?

So absorbing these additional costs, what we've heard from them is that it really puts a strain.

As you noted, you know, New Jersey farmers coming into this price increase, coming into the crop damages that were suffered over the earlier months of the spring.

New Jersey farmers already face very high costs of operation relative to their peers nationally.

If you think of things like the property taxes that many people pay in New Jersey, farmers do get a discount generally.

However, that's still higher in New Jersey than in a lot of other places.

And labor costs are really high for farmers in New Jersey compared to other states as well.

So being profitable, you're sort of already running into that headwinds as a New Jersey farmer.

And then you add on some of these challenges that have come up just over the last few months.

And I think that puts into context sort of what the agriculture industry is facing right now here in our state.

Could the state step in and offer some type of financial relief?

Can the state afford to do that right now?

What are you hearing from the administration?

Those are really good questions and there is some precedent in New Jersey for state policymakers to come in and provide relief, even monetary relief or say access to grants or some other types of incentives to help bridge you know troubles like these for the state's farming industry which maybe not is not what it used to be but is still you know generating about a billion and a half in product sales a year according to U.S.

census data and so there's already been some talk in the legislature there are actually some measures moving through committee this month that are looking at ways to help farming farmers with things like bulk purchasing so that can cut their costs.

We'll have to wait and see whether there's any larger scale sort of rescue package or financial aid put forward.

As you noted, it is a tough time for the state itself.

The state's been running a budget with a structural gap, meaning spending more than the state has been taking in in revenues annually.

And so it is not as if the state budget these days is printing money.

But at the same time, this is still a pretty significant part of the state economy with some 25,000 employees statewide in the farming industry.

And just quickly, would that have to be if that allocation was made these emergency funds, would that have to be approved as part of the state budget overall, which we know the deadline is coming up June 30?

I think this is the time of the year when these types of things would advance and be funded, but that wouldn't necessarily have to be the case.

Certainly, they have a record of passing supplemental appropriations from time to time.

So as we get deeper into this and let's see what happens to fuel costs going further, they could go up even more.

We'll have to see if something is advanced.

All right.

Thank you for that analysis.

Our budget and finance writer, John Reitmeyer.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Under the Dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

For the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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