Year: 2013

News

Former City IT Manager Patrick Ricciardi pleads guilty for looting and sharing emails in Mayor’s Office

by SmartyJones1 Min Reading
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The US Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey announces:

FORMER CITY OF HOBOKEN IT MANAGER PLEADS GUILTY TO ILLEGALLY
INTERCEPTING AND DISCLOSING E-MAILS INTENDED FOR
HOBOKEN MAYOR AND TOP CITY OFFICIALS
NEWARK, N.J. – A former management information systems specialist for the city of
Hoboken pleaded guilty today for intercepting communications meant for the mayor of Hoboken
and top city officials and passing some of those communications on to other officials, U.S.
Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Patrick Ricciardi, 46, of Hoboken, entered a guilty plea – before U.S. District Judge Esther
Salas in Newark federal court – to an Information charging him with accessing a computer without
authorization, interception of wire and electronic communications and disclosure of intercepted
wire and electronic communications.


According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Ricciardi was a longstanding employee of the city of Hoboken and worked as the chief
information technology officer for the mayor’s office. As part of his job duties, Ricciardi was
responsible for keeping the city’s network running and had access to email accounts within the
city’s computer system and other aspects of the city’s computer network.


 Read More...

News

Gristy chewable: Police Chief Falco – ‘I’m suing Hoboken for overtime pay’

by SmartyJones1 Min Reading

Late last night, a Hoboken resident not of the legal persuasion passed along some breaking legal news:

Anthony P. Falco as Chief of Police of the City of Hoboken and individually v.
Dawn Zimmer; City of Hoboken 3/18/2013 2:13 cv 1648
Cecchi (Newark)

Violation of civil rights and due process. Defendant Zimmer, the mayor of defendant City of Hoboken, has been relentless in trying to undermine the plaintiff and his authority as Chief of Police.  In addition the plaintiff is not protected by a collective bargaining agreement and defendant Zimmer has refused to provide the plaintiff with an employee agreement.  The plaintiff “doesn’t even know how many vacation days he is entitled to per year, or whether he will continue to enjoy health insurance or other benefits upon retirement.” Read More...

News

Mayor updates park progress for Southwest, Pino and Henkel in western Hoboken

by SmartyJones1 Min Reading

Office of the Mayor announces:

3 19 13 Mayor Zimmer Open Letter Parks Western Hoboken

Timmy Occhipinti has a plan for far more expensive and much smaller pocket parks in Southwest Hoboken.
He hopes people won’t distinguish those from the continued efforts for far larger and more inexpensive parks
around western Hoboken detailed in a letter from Mayor Zimmer.

Tim Occhipinti issued the following press release Tuesday afternoon:

 =&0=& Over 350 Hoboken Residents Signed The Petition in Just A Few Weeks (HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY)

 – At tomorrow night’s Hoboken City Council meeting, 4th Ward Councilman Tim Occhipinti will present a petition to Mayor Zimmer and the City Council to turn vacant lots at 1st and Jackson Streets into open space. In just a few weeks, the petition already has over 350 signatures and continues to gain steam. Read More...

News

Legal conflict versus defensible action? HHA legal contract issue burns…

by SmartyJones1 Min Reading
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The HHA Chairman Jake Stuiver requested as allowed under law, an analysis of the awarding of its legal counsel contract last month to the Hoboken Corporation Counsel Melissa Longo.  The memo, subject of much discussion but no public examination is released for the very first time here on MSV.

HHA counsel Charlie Daglian submitted his own memo in reply.  Both are included below.

Read More...

News

HHA Executive Director Carmelo Garcia ‘I’m a victim’

by SmartyJones2 Min Reading





HHA Executive Director Carmelo Garcia’s defense rushes to throw mayor, Stuiver and MSV under the bus

In defense of his HHA contract Thursday night, Executive Director Carmelo Garcia began his “unlimited time” approved by the board discussing what he described as his victimization at the hands of the mayor for advocating Jake Stuiver move up from commissioner to chair.

Garcia had himself obtained the position of Director of Health and Human Services in 2001 according to one source by using the threat of Hispanic protests at City Hall to convince former Mayor Dave Roberts to back his appointment to the municipal position.  “He’s not ashamed of how he played that card, he’s proud of it,” said the source.

Detailing what Garcia called “intimidation, retaliation, pressures” causing him ill health he referenced a series of discussions and emails exchanged on the mayor’s interest in seeing Jake Stuiver move up from commissioner to HHA Chair.
Garcia pulled out a group of folders with communications with Stuiver and other HHA members
complaining about “online harassment” through “the proxy”  that MSV is “falsely distorting information and using personal attacks against me” back in the spring of 2012.
Garcia continued claiming “censoring” of maintenance and security officials naming Nick Calicchio as another person on his victim list.
More vague references to residents and gossip followed with Garica “playing ball or he would be gone.”  It wasn’t clear who the quote was being attributed to and Garcia who has acted domineering, insolent and insubordinate to the Stuiver led board majority on many occasions has not seen any disciplinary action taken against him since last June, the time of his complaints. Read More...

News

Tim Occhipinti thrown out of HHA meeting by police

by SmartyJones1 Min Reading
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Tim Occhipinti, the occupant of the fourth ward council seat in Hoboken wanted to put on a show at the Hoboken Housing Authority last Thursday night.  The resolution topic for the public to speak on here in this video was the release of a memo by Corporation Counsel Melissa Longo.

Tim Occhipinti poses rhetorical questions and vehemently argues AGAINST the public document’s release which outlined a legal conflict by HHA counsel Charles Daglian who participated extensively at the HHA meeting on a contract for himself as the sole agenda item of a special meeting.  He incorrectly alleges Longo needs the City Council’s approval to render a requested legal opinion to the HHA.  The legal approval came in the request by Chairman Stuiver. Read More...

News

Connecting the dots then and now: Tim Occhipinti and his HHA army of $40 paid ‘campaign workers’

by SmartyJones1 Min Reading

At the HHA meeting, Da Horsey had the surprising pleasure to chat with Timothy Carroll in attendance. A former reporter at the local paper, PolitikerNJ and communications maven for NJ State Senators, Carroll’s currently working for Assemblyman Ruben Ramos so Hoboken may see him back in these parts leading into the mayoral election.

Carroll wrote a PolitickerNJ story back in late 2010 on the astronomical “coincidence” of paper ballots for the army of ‘campaign workers’ in the Tim Occhipinti campaign referencing a MSV story. Read More...

News

Michele Russo lectures Jake Stuiver on ‘character’

by SmartyJones2 Min Reading

Affordable housing squatter Michele Russo, wife of former mayor and felon Anthony Russo spoke at the HHA meeting last Thursday.  She directed her pointed criticism at Chairman Jake Stuiver.

The infamous Russo couple, the first clan of corruption has cleaned up in Hoboken “making” untold millions (even while holding a debt to Hoboken of over $300,000) while living in Church Towers, a tax subsidized centrally located series of building where minorities are notoriously absent and no one gets in as residents there whisper without their approval.

The HHA’s approximately 4,000 residents consist of mostly minorities.  Those who see their income status improve are never given opportunity to move “uptown” as they call it to Church Towers.

The attack here on Jake Stuiver is less personal and more about green as in the loot.  The 20/20 plan came up more than once that evening, a desperately sought cash cow bonanza for Old Guard connected developers, realtors, brokers, construction firms and of course – the OG themselves.

Executive Director Carmelo Garcia is expected to deliver that bounty.  Initially, he eagerly proposed a gigantic monolith of buildings, dwarfing the current HHA area double in size and even more density – with no open space or parks.  It was wall to wall towering cement blocks maximizing profit – for those connected to the Old Guard. Read More...

News

Rent control wars flare again with new appeal on overturned election

by SmartyJones3 Min Reading

The battle in Hoboken over rent control took another turn with an appeal by rent control advocate Cheryl Fallick last week.  MSV heard from both sides.

The Hoboken Fair Housing Association announces:

=&0=& Hoboken, New Jersey, March 15, 2013.  With the full support of Hoboken Fair Housing Association (HFHA), Ms. Cheryl Fallick has filed an appeal of New Jersey Superior Court Judge Christine Farrington’s ruling to overturn the results of last November’s vote on Hoboken Public Question # 2 (HPQ2). Ms. Fallick was the campaign manager for HFHA’s successful effort to defeat HPQ2, a ballot initiative sponsored by a small well-funded group of landlords, developers and realtors, the Mile Square Taxpayers Association (MSTA), that asked voters to approve the elimination of Hoboken Rent Control protections for all new tenants.  The judge’s ruling revokes the certified results and orders a re-vote to be held on either November 5, 2013 or in an earlier special election. =&1=& When the results were in on election night, the “NO” vote prevailed on the machines by 560 votes.  Afterthe Vote-by-Mail ballots were counted, the lead dropped, but HPQ2 was defeated by 52 votes.  The final tally was 8,248 to 8,196. In December, fifteen supporters of MSTA filed an election contest to overturn the result. Ms. Fallick originally filed a motion pro se (without an attorney) to intervene in this case because HFHA lacked funds to afford legal representation.  Ms. Fallick’s position was that she had a separate and substantial interest in the outcome of the election contest, and that neither her own interests nor those of HFHA and the 8,248 residents that voted to maintain existing rent control protections were being adequately represented by defendants specified by the MSTA lawsuit.  These defendants, the City of Hoboken, Hudson County, and the State of New Jersey, stated that they had no interest in the election outcome but only a fair election result. By denying Ms. Fallick the right to intervene, Judge Farrington denied the voters of Hoboken the right to have representation that would have demanded an evidentiary hearing and questioned Hoboken’s vote-by-mail tally.  Unfortunately, neither the defendants nor the Judge challenged the flawed arguments or lack of legitimate evidence that the MSTA plaintiffs presented to the Court to support their motion to overturn the election. It is HFHA’s position that Judge Farrington’s ruling to overturn the election result is egregious and is based on the false assertion that 114 voters who voted provisionally outside of Hoboken were denied their right to vote on HPQ2.  Neither the Judge nor the defendants questioned the plaintiffs’ false claim that these voters had the right to vote outside of Hoboken on a Hoboken issue. =&2=&