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The proposed Hoboken BoE budget is available and includes a detailed explanation on its tax increase and cuts detailing:

• Sequestration of federal funds used to
  support our students in greatest need;
• Increased costs for insurance;
• Increased requirements for funding
  to charter schools due to enrollment
  increases;
• Increased enrollment at lower grade
  levels require some staffing changes;
• Requirements to reduce a long-time
  deficit for our food service operations,
  and
• Increased costs for tuition to schools
  for the disabled. 

Hoboken taxpayers see approximately 26% of their tax bill go to the district with the the other two tax components being County and Municipal taxes.

About $1.8 million was needed to fill a budget gap.  The amount consisted of: salary increases, the expansion of a Hoboken Charter school, health care costs and budgeting toward the Obama Sequestration at approximately over 400K.* Read More...

=&0=& =&1=& Chairman Jake Stuiver announced in a statement he’s received legal clearance to remain as the Chairman of the Hoboken Housing Authority.  Yesterday, he stated he was awaiting a legal review on his status from HHA counsel Charles Daglian after moving his family out of Hoboken a week ago Monday. In an email to MSV, Stuiver wrote:

Yesterday afternoon, Hoboken Housing Authority General Counsel Charles
Daglian confirmed my eligibility to continue serving on the Hoboken
Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. I am thankful and honored to
receive corroboration of my belief, that am able to continue serving
on the HHA in full compliance with all local, state and federal laws and
consider it not only lawful and proper to serve out my term but in
fact imperative that I honor my commitment.

In a memo yesterday responding to my inquiry, Mr. Daglian concluded that “After
all of my research, my answer would be that there is no residency
requirement for a Housing Authority Commissioner and therefore, even
though you no longer reside in the City of Hoboken, you can remain as
a Commissioner for the Housing Authority of the City of Hoboken.”

I look forward to continuing to advance the cause of transparency,
accountability and reform in the HHA, and invite all
good-government-minded members of the community to attend the next
Board meeting, on Thursday, April 11, at 6 p.m. at Fox Hill Gardens,
311 13th Street. Read More...

From the desk of HHA Chairman Jake Stuiver:

Effective Monday, March 18, my family and I have moved out of Hoboken
after nearly 10 extraordinary years in this wonderful community. The
decision to leave town was a very difficult decision for us, but
ultimately a necessary one on account of a confluence of personal
circumstances that rendered it impossible to continue living in our
apartment building and also difficult to remain distant from relatives
with rapidly increasing needs for our direct assistance. We are
incredibly grateful to all the amazing people we have come to know
during our time in Hoboken and thank each and every one of you for
enriching our lives in so many ways throughout this highly memorable
decade.


My commitment to the federal programs of the Hoboken Housing Authority
remains steadfast, and my obligation to my oath of office remains open
through the duration of my term, which ends in a few months.   On
Monday morning, I submitted an inquiry to HHA general counsel Charles
Daglian seeking his legal opinion as to whether there is a residency
requirement for continued service on the HHA board.  I have not yet
received a response from him on this issue.  If I am, in fact eligible
to continue serving, it is my intention to continue to do so until a
new commissioner has been appointed by the City Council to replace me
after the conclusion of my term.   While I have not yet received Mr.
Daglian’s guidance, he has assured me that he has been working
exhaustively throughout the week and I am confident that he will be in
a position to provide his answer, together with citations to the
specific statutory authority and case law upon which he is relying,
within the next several days.


I take my commitments and obligations with the utmost degree of
seriousness, and am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to
fulfill my duties as a Hoboken Housing Authority commissioner and
pledge my full ongoing attention and work ethic to ensuring the best
possible policies, practices and administrative oversight in the
interest of the residents of the Authority and the fiduciary duties to
which I am sworn to uphold. Read More...

The following was submitted to Da Horsey by lifelong Hoboken resident Margaret O’Brien:

Sour grapes and scuttlebutt is presently all over town from those who lost both public opinion and favor from the powers in charge. Their argument which doesn’t hold water is that moving the elections to
November and getting rid of time consuming runoffs and illegal fliers on cars and poles is an insult to
Democracy. Read More...

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If you wanted to be an Assemblyman in the State of New Jersey, the first thing you’d want to do is find a listing of openings.  You’d discover in due course, there’s a spot open for 33rd Assemblyman currently expiring with Ruben Ramos.

So how would you submit your application?  Well one Hoboken resident appeared a month back asking just that question but not in any state forum choosing oddly enough of all places, a Hoboken City Council meeting.  2011 second ward candidate Franz Paetzold suggested if there was an interest in the Assembly seat on a Brian Stack ticket among council members Beth Mason and Ravi Bhalla, it would be great not to have that decided behind closed doors but in a public forum where everyone could listen in to those two candidates. Read More...

The blowback from the 9-11 Memorial vote where the Hudson Sopranos shot down approval flexing their muscle from blocking Jim Doyle’s council appointment is reverberating around town.  A brand new satirical magazine just published on Grafix Avenger introduces Councilman Michael Russo in a new light to his legion of fans in the third ward and beyond.

This should help folks understand what’s truly important to the third ward councilman.

In this issue of Poser Magazine:

• City Councilmen who pose for pix then cry about it
• Shutting down Pier C Park for Fun
• What to wear when you vote NO on a 9-11 Memorial
• Grifting or Sex: Which is more satisfying
• Public housing for the well off: Why Not?

Don’t miss this important issue.  Place your order at Grafix Avenger now! Read More...

The Rebuild Hoboken Relief Fund announces:

Read More...

A recent sign pointing to Councilwoman Terry Castellano’s blocking funding to repair and reopen Pier C Park has led to another, this one starring a second member of the rat pack Hoboken Sopranos.

Congratulations Timmy Occhipinti, here’s your moment of truth atop the Hoboken Sopranos page:

A guerrilla Hoboken resistance movement having hit out letting people know about the sabotage by Councilwoman Terry Castellano and the Hoboken Sopranos to keep Pier C closed has struck again on their street repair sabotage. This sign was discovered one day after their voting down the Hoboken 9-11 Memorial.

Clearly frustrated with being limited in power even while they have blocked the fifth swing vote on the council with their manufactured lawsuit out on appeal, the Hoboken Sopranos took maybe their most audacious obstructive action, voting down an emotional issue in the form of the 9-11 memorial.

The project, a replacement for the smaller scale, interim glass design that broke was ready to go ahead in its new form, but in the end, flexing their political power courtesy of the legal wrangling, the vote failed 4-4. Read More...

Pt. 3 – http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/30146879

The City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30 tonight and one political operation could be the unofficial kickoff to an Old Guard mayoral candidacy.

Money has been getting behind Occhipinti at least in the form of a hired gun to do press releases and Hoboken Patch correctly notes there’s been two in recent weeks and is confirming rumors the Hoboken Sopranos: Beth Mason and the Russo clan will be getting behind and financing a mayoral race for Timmy against Hoboken’s own Ruben Ramos. Read More...