A part-time employee for the Jersey City Parking Authority said his job description and hours were changed for the worse after he refused to contribute to Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham's state Senate campaign, and that other employees were being pressured to buy and sell tickets to fund-raising dinners.

Both the Mayor's Office and the Jersey City City Council say they'll investigate allegations made at two public meetings this month by Pat O'Melia, who was hired by the JCPA in December for $30,000 a year to do part-time "community outreach and public relations" work.

JCPA Executive Director Jimmy King, meanwhile, refused to comment on the allegations, saying he first wanted to speak to his lawyer, Peter Varsalona, who is ill and couldn't be reached for comment.

On Tuesday, O'Melia told the JCPA board at its regular meeting that he received a memo from King last month saying his duties would be changed. He was told he'd be inspecting parking lots for damage and signs of trespassing, attending block association meetings and filing daily reports.

He was also told he'd be working new hours.

"Your hours are Monday through Thursday, 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.," read the memo from King, dated April 21. "You are to punch in and out on the time clock every day."

That schedule conflicts with O'Melia's other job - as the host of "Jersey City Is Talking," a live local radio call-in show on WNSW-1430 AM from 9 to 10 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays.

O'Melia told the board that King sent the memo after O'Melia refused to buy a $1,000 ticket to a fund-raising dinner for Cunningham's state Senate campaign for the 31st District.

O'Melia said the job description he was given when the board hired him doesn't include inspecting parking lots, and he refused to comply with King's memo.

Three weeks later, O'Melia said, King ordered him to report to JCPA's Central Avenue office.

After a heated exchange over the phone, O'Melia said he arrived at the JCPA and met King as he stepped off the building's elevator. Again the conversation became heated, O'Melia said, with King threatening to punch and fire him.

After that confrontation, O'Melia said, he received two "write-ups" charging him with insubordination.

The board listened to O'Melia, and JCPA Board Chairman Lonnie Sobel would only say that the board would consider his comments.

A week before he attended the JCPA meeting, O'Melia told the Jersey City City Council that some JCPA employees were being forced to buy and sell tickets to fund-raising events for Cunningham's 31st District state Senate primary campaign, with each worker responsible for a set "quota" of tickets.

But the president of the union representing JCPA workers said yesterday he hasn't heard those complaints from his members.

"I've had no union members come to me complaining about pressure or wanting to file a grievance," said Jack Shaw, president of the city's Campaign and Professional Workers union. "I'm not saying it's not happening, but I am saying nobody's complaining."

The City Council - with eight of nine members usually opposed to Cunningham - announced it would launch an investigation after hearing O'Melia's complaints.

Councilman Steve Lipski of Journal Square, a political adversary of Cunningham's, said yesterday that the investigation will happen "in due course."

"No formal action has been taken, but this is certainly a red flag," Lipski said. "However, while Mr. O'Melia's allegations are serious and will be taken so, until we determine that these abuses have occurred, we're going to go on the premise of innocent until proven guilty."

Reached for comment this week, Cunningham's spokesman, Stan H. Eason, said: "Any city employee's allegations of abusive treatment we take seriously and will be thoroughly investigated."

Journal staff writers Jason Fink and Craig Garretson contributed to this report.