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The fight for democracy
In 2016, activists filed a lawsuit seeking to return to an elected school board. They cited a provision in the 2010 law that gave Redd and Christie the power to appoint school board members but said residents could decide in 2014, whether they wanted an appointed or elected school board.
Tambussi, George Norcross’ long-time personal lawyer and another co-defendant, represented the school district. He argued that the state’s takeover supersedes the original law.
Judge Michael Kassel ruled in favor of the school district in 2016. Dickerson recalls the legal fight that ultimately took three years.
“Every judge that we went to said, ‘This is not a case,’” she said. “Then we finally get to appellate court in Trenton.”
Dickerson recalls the three-judge panel rigorously questioning Tambussi.
“[They] asked, ‘Where’s the state takeover, the Urban Hope Act, QSAC and the ability not to vote for your school board? Where’s that happening?’ They couldn’t name where,” she said.
Though the Appellate Division of Superior Court ruled in favor of the activists, Dickerson said they had new challenges including educating voters on the ballot question: “Shall the Camden City Board of Education remain a Type I school district with the Board of Education members appointed by the Mayor of the City of Camden?”
To regain an elected school board, residents needed to vote ‘no.’
Oglesby said it was “a long, long fight.”
“We went door to door,” he said. “We had to make sure that people understood that we would have no voice if we were to lose the Camden advisory board for the schools.”
Dickerson remembers the establishment, George Norcross and his supporters, would outspend activists, encouraging residents to vote “yes.”
“There was a letter that was sent out from [then-Mayor] Frank Moran … from him and every former mayor of Camden City, telling everybody to vote ‘yes,’” she recalled. “Every time that we put a mailer out that was paid for by us, and [Camden Education Association] and [New Jersey Education Association] and other people [that] were supporting this educational fight … saying vote ‘no,’ they would put three out, saying vote ‘yes.’”
On Election Day, Dickerson recalls tactics used to discourage them from campaigning for an elected school board.
“They brought the person out that does the line from how far you can stand next to the door to the polling site,” Dickerson said. “We were standing out there, and we fought to get everyone we could possibly think of to go out there and vote.”
Ultimately, Camden residents voted to restore their elected school board, but it continues to operate in an advisory role.
The fight is ongoing for advocacy groups because the candidates who ran for school board were being backed by Camden City Democrats. Seats on the school advisory board are supposed to be nonpartisan. With the Democratic Party in Camden still heavily influenced by George Norcross, party backing is tantamount to earning his endorsement.
“We’re screaming ‘Is this legal for them to have the school board candidates who are nonpartisan to be on a ticket with people who are clearly Democrats and saying they’re saying, these are our picks?’ Dickerson said, adding that the party was giving money to their preferred picks, and defeating candidates supported by grassroots organizers.
“It’s a takeover again of what the people worked hard for,” she added. “Now … you have who the mayor and the superintendent … are favoring to be the new seats of the school board.”
Where are the promised jobs for Camden residents?
In 2014, Holtec International, an energy equipment company where George Norcross was a longtime board member, received $260 million in tax incentives through the Grow NJ program. It was one of the largest tax breaks in the history of the Garden State. The deal required the company to move from Marlton to Camden, build a factory and create 250 jobs. The Grow NJ is at the center of the indictment against the Norcross Enterprise.
Tax credits are an element of the indictment against George Norcross. The same incentive programs that lured companies to Camden are the same ones prosecutors say George Norcross used to enrich himself and his allies.
Darnell Hardwick, who is a former president of Camden’s NAACP chapter, said he and others inquired how many Camden residents were on Holtec’s payroll, but they never received an answer.
“[The company representatives] would point to the African Americans or minorities working there, but they would never give us any data to support that they do have Camden residents working there,” he said. “From talking to people there, those minorities that they did show us there, they weren’t Camden residents. They were from surrounding counties.”
Dickerson and others scrutinized legislation and other government records to make their case about Norcross and his allies.
“We forced the hand of the idea of ‘Camden moving forward, Camden’s rising’ to show that no one from Camden is getting good jobs at these places,” she said.
Holtec is one of several companies with ties to George Norcross that collectively received $1.1 billion in tax incentives, according to a 2019 WNYC and ProPublica investigation. Gov. Phil Murphy created a task force earlier that year after a state audit found “numerous significant deficiencies” in the EDA’s oversight of tax incentive programs.
At Senate hearings, where George Norcross testified and defended the tax credits companies received for moving to Camden, activists invited state officials to tour Camden on what they called an “equity bus tour.”
“We invited the chair, we invited other people and also anybody from the governor’s office that want to come and hop on the bus with us to talk about what we call the front yard and the backyard of Camden,” Dickerson said.
In Dickerson’s analogy, the front yard is the waterfront where new construction was taking place, while the back yard represents the forgotten areas of the city.
“You drive less than a mile up Broadway, you’ll see drugs, you’ll see less landscaping, you’ll see prostitution, you’ll see all these things, but in the middle of that is schools, it’s community parks, it’s people who live there,” she said. “Our question was, what is this money going towards? Where will it help to build when you’re bringing in these corporations that are paying no taxes? How would it benefit the people who live inside the city?”
Activists, again, turned to the referendum process.
They sought an ordinance requiring companies of at least 25 employees that received tax breaks to disclose how many Camden residents were hired.
The city denied the petitions for referendum and rejected a chance for activists to remedy the petitions.
But, Mayor Vic Carstarphen and City Council President Angel Fuentes came out in support of the ordinance. George Norcross endorsed the idea as their initiative in a newspaper op-ed.
The ordinance, adopted in 2022, requires companies to report semi-annually to the city the number of Camden residents they’ve hired. To date, some companies are still not complying with the new law, according to city officials.
Antionette Miles, state director of New Jersey Working Families Party, hailed getting the ordinance a victory for activists who “have asked for democracy every step of the way.”
The party has worked with activists in Camden for several years. Miles called the indictment vindication for the city’s grassroots activists.
“There are not many people who are willing to speak [up] and stand with Black and brown community organizers and say the things that need to be [said] in the face of a very powerful and very influential political establishment,” she said.
‘It was tea’
The criminal indictment is bringing a renewed sense of optimism among Camden activists. Many who were interviewed for this story said they now feel seen and heard.
Keith Benson Sr., a longtime community activist in Camden, said the charges against Norcross reminded him of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s quote, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“I had started to doubt that, but I said, ‘Oh, that’s what he meant,’” he said. “There’s a little bit of justice. It’s not full justice yet, but there’s a little bit of justice right there.”
Benson said despite what Camden residents had to endure, and their simmering frustration over lack of intervention from state officials, residents and community activists are thrilled with the end result.
“Because maybe, just maybe, we can get some normalcy and some democracy, some decency, and, quite frankly, some resources to the people again,” Benson said.
For Ronsha Dickerson, the real story of Camden is finally unfolding.
“As the young kids say, it was tea,” she said.