(theme music) From NJ PBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vannozzi.

Hello and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagas, in for Brianna Vannozzi.

Tonight, a few stories we'll get into later in the broadcast.

Black community leaders outlined their priorities for the Sherrill administration after they turned out record numbers of voters.

And as ICE ramps up operations, one resident is questioning the tactics of ICE enforcement.

And later, we talk with one reporter following the Seton Hall clergy abuse investigation and how the latest ruling in the case may shed more light on the school's failure to protect students.

But first a few of today's top headlines.

Governor-elect Mikey Sherrill will resign from Congress Thursday night.

She'll now focus entirely on her duties as New Jersey's next governor leading the transition team that will become her cabinet when she takes office in January.

In a letter to Governor Murphy on Tuesday Sherrill said it's been an honor to serve the residents of the 11th district, a seat she's held since 2019, and that she's looking forward to serving all of New Jersey as governor for the next four years.

During her four terms in Congress, Sherrill fought for funding for the Gateway Tunnel Project, for improved flood mitigation efforts.

She supported bipartisan infrastructure legislation and voted against President Trump's spending plan.

Her resignation from the House of Representatives will trigger a special election to replace her, and already nearly a dozen candidates are throwing their hat in the ring.

That primary could be held as early as January, and the special election in April or May.

Sheryl's resignation gives Democrats one less vote in an already narrow minority in the House.

And a Jersey City police sergeant who just ran as a Democrat for the Assembly in the 39th district has been charged with sexually assaulting a child.

Andrew Lo Bruno who's the former mayor of Dumont allegedly met the child on social media and arranged a meeting at the child's home in Englewood.

Lo Bruno was arrested and charged on Monday.

And according to the complaint he sprayed something into his hand and covered the child's mouth, leaving the victim incapacitated before the alleged assault.

Lo Bruno has been a police officer for 20 years and came within a narrow margin of winning his assembly race earlier this month.

The Jersey City Police Department has now suspended him without pay while they conduct their own investigation.

Coming up, we'll hear from activist and community leader, Reverend Dr.

Charles Boyer, about what's top of mind for the black community with a new administration in the governor's office.

That's next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, and by the PSCG Foundation.

Black voters turned out in record numbers during this month's gubernatorial election, rallying behind now-governor-elect Sheryl.

And given the impact they had in her win, they're now looking for bold action and to see how Sheryl keeps the promises she made on the campaign trail.

Today, leaders from the New Jersey statewide Black Agenda held a press conference to lay out those issues.

Here with us now to share what that outline looks like is Reverend Dr.

Charles Boyer, pastor of the Greater Mount Zion AME Church and head of Salvation and Social Justice.

Pastor, Reverend, great to have you with us.

I just want to thank you so much.

I want to ask you, obviously the black community is not a monolith, right?

But what are some of the priorities?

What are some of the concerns that you have that you want to see Governor-elect Sheryl tackle when she takes office?

Well, yeah, thank you again for having me.

And there's certainly a multitude of issues.

One is even before she takes office, even within the transition, it's important that black folks are represented in the way that we represented during the vote and the way that we're represented in the state, certainly in and amongst the appointments for cabinet positions and other positions throughout the administration.

Representation matters.

And then from there, within the first 100 days, we're looking forward to them convening a bi-annual meeting with black leadership, the governor, lieutenant governor, and the cabinet to talk about ways to move policy issues forward.

We're looking for things like discussions in the state budget around restorative youth employment programs, housing for first-generation home buyers, deeper investments in freedom schools, looking towards building on the affordable housing movement, particularly working with the black faith community and other faith communities to do that.

Convening really targeted action-oriented work groups to move on economic and community development in cities like Trenton and Newark.

An introduction of black maternal health legislation to address the black maternal health crisis in the state.

And finally, within the first 100 days, convening a task force to look at and deal with and take action on the racial wealth gap.

You outlined a whole lot there.

And I want to break in -- I want to break that down a bit and get into some of these topics.

But let's start with the fact that, right now, Lieutenant Governor-elect Dale Caldwell is leading her transition team.

He said in the first meeting as governor -- as lieutenant governor-elect that he would be looking to put people in positions that reflect the diversity of New Jersey.

Do you have confidence with him at the helm that that will, in fact, happen?

I absolutely do.

I have tremendous confidence in the lieutenant governor-elect.

I mean, he's a man of deep integrity and he has been extremely engaging.

And I think it was a very strong sign that he was put ahead of the transition.

And I fully expect him to follow through with that.

One of the measures I know you want to see taken is rejecting some of the punitive youth waiver bills that are before the legislature.

Can you just explain what that is and how you want to see that rolled back or addressed.

It is several things in the lame duck that need to be addressed and put the bid finally, because this election was not only beneficial for the Cheryl Caldwell team, it was also beneficial for the Assembly Democrats who come in with a super majority.

So these very punitive youth waiver bills, waiving young people to adult sentencing, that needs to be killed, as well as this attempt from the New Jersey State Police to come up from under the Attorney General's authority.

Black folks overwhelmingly rejected a punitive policing, prison and sentencing agenda from the right.

And therefore we expect the Assembly and the Senate to hear that cry very loudly.

I have to ask you Governor Murphy put stronger penalties in place for any youth involved in carjacking schemes.

Do you include that.

Do you want to see those measures rolled back by Governor-elect Sherrill.

We certainly would like to see that roll back.

I mean listen all anything that's punitive that has gone on to in our state has been been a lean towards the right in response to the growing MAGA movement and frustration of mostly white voters who did not vote in majority for this current administration and legislature.

So we we ultimately would like to see all of that move back.

We've seen crime decrease in this state when we have taken affirmative policies and restorative policies and therefore folks come in with a mandate from black voters and we expect them to respond that way.

Although I would say there has been push from the community as carjackings have increased to see punitive measures put in place.

And I wouldn't say that that's entirely a MAGA issue.

But I do want to get on to the homebuyers first time homebuyers because I know this is an issue that's really important when we look at the broader wealth gap that exists between white communities and black communities.

Mikey Cheryl has said that she will have affordable housing.

She wants to increase affordable housing and she wants to put in place first time homebuyer credits.

Do you think that there should be additional credits for first time black homebuyers.

Well I think we have to do things in a way that's constitutional and targeted for sure, especially when we know that during the mortgage crisis, banks targeted with predatory lending black folks in particular.

And that led to one of the most, the largest divestment of black wealth in the state's history right here in New Jersey.

And so these types of investments need to be very targeted to get at the wealth gap.

Absolutely for sure.

But it has to be done in a constitutionally smart way to make sure that those investments get to where they actually are but that they also lift up everybody at the same time.

Yeah we know the redlining is not a thing of the 1950s as some people might envision it was happening even in the 2020s.

When we look at black maternal health that's clearly an issue that the Murphy administration took on.

They put a lot of reforms in place from additional Medicaid reimbursements for pre and postpartum care to doulas in nursing homes and hospitals.

What would you like to see done in that space to expand on that work or perhaps to deviate from that work.

Well, certainly we appreciate what the Murphy administration did, bringing this issue to the top and really making major investments in it.

What we want to see greater investment is now is making sure that those kind of resources actually get to the smaller grassroots, black women-led initiatives that are all throughout the state.

In addition to that, New Jersey has a midwifery-a black midwifery lack.

And so there are not enough black midwives in in the pipeline.

And so we need some serious investments in the black midwifery pipeline particularly because we know that a lot of what is taking place in the black maternal health crisis has to do with embedded and subconscious racism in the hospital systems.

So we need more black midwives black nurses black doulas folks who actually understand the people that they're caring for and can deliver to them a culturally competent experience that doesn't marginalize them.

Yeah.

And I'm going to ask you a big question with only a little bit of time left.

So I'm going to ask you to keep it short if you can.

But do you believe that Governor-elect Sheryl has