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Be on the lookout for a Beth Mason paid robocall coming your way. Yesterday, the first reports of a Beth Mason funded robocall struck the Mile Square.

As one reader remarked on the call they received yesterday:

“With a real person saying he was calling for Beth Mason… saying we need to do more to protect the civil liberties of Hoboken residents. I hung up at that point from sheer laughter.”

We could of course ask Beth Mason to confirm but she won’t talk unless it’s scripted through her political operatives in an advertising friendly publication. Read More...

City of Hoboken announces:

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Loan Will Also Fund City Hall Sustainable Stormwater Improvement Project

The City of Hoboken’s application for a low interest loan from the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust, in partnership with North Hudson Sewerage Authority, has been approved by the State of New Jersey. The $11.7 million loan will pay for the construction of Hoboken’s second wet weather pump station (WWPS) to be built underground near 11^thStreet and Hudson Street. The wet weather pump station will be designed, constructed, operated and maintained by the North Hudson Sewerage Authority (NHSA) on a long-term lease from the City. Read More...

A week after the termination of Carmelo Garcia’s contract, Hudson County View’s John Heinis interviewed the HHA Chair to discuss the current issues.

From the interview:

The HHA’s elevator agreement was cancelled as of last month lacking payment of $125,000 owed and the service provider was no longer responsive to elevator issues.  The HHA Board was NOT informed of the vendor cancellation and monies owed.

A problem with the locksmith vendor owed thousands of dollars led to major problems for residents who could not obtain keys and locks.

Those problems should be resolved by the end of this week.

The HHA is bringing back Bob DeVincent though an agreement with West New York with Richard Fox – over 60 years of Executive Director experience between them to “right the ship” by the end of the year.

It’s “absolutely untrue” residents are all being evicted. 

It’s unclear who is spreading the bad rumors.

“We need to bring the HHA buildings into this century.”

The generators “have been sitting out for a long time.” Another issue to rectify.

Read More...

Hoboken Housing Authority Special Meeting 8-04-14

Hoboken is “special” or so the rationalization goes when malfeasance or corruption surfaces. It’s a way of excusing certain behavior and actions doing great harm to residents, its institutions and often the taxpayers.

Coverage and frustration with the termination of former HHA Executive Director Carmelo Garcia’s contract is causing the Old Guard much agita. A fascinating perspective on the change posits the termination as a temporary loss, couching the contract’s ending as “for now.” There’s been a complete lack of interest in the damning audit findings covered on MSV just last month. Hoboken is an odd political environment. Facts are called lies, telling the truth is deemed spreading hate and revealing corruption generates complaint for putting Hoboken in a bad light. Yes, Hoboken truly is special. There’s more “special” coming our way in the Hoboken Housing Authority. In the interim let’s aid some in the fourth estate with facts they refuse to digest. Nowhere in the Hudson Reporter does it even mention last weekend the severely problematic audit findings released only last month.  Here’s a summarized list below from MSV’s original July 14 story: Among the more than a dozen and a half serious problems delineated in the HHA Audit Report:

• Five vendors were paid over $26,000 where a bid process is mandatory under law
• None of the five vendors fulfilled a required sealed bid requirement
• Two of the five above vendors were paid over $100,000
• “Questioned costs” totaled over $573,000
• Payments to numerous vendors was out of compliance with prices authorized by the HHA Board of Commissioners
• The HHA accounting department was “unable to print a vendors history report” 
• One vendor overpaid without contract authorization exceeded $753,000
• The partial period of emergency is no excuse for the excessive unauthorized payments
• All contracts should be properly reviewed when reaching 70% of approved contract expenditure
• Fiscal controls relating to HHA procurement are not “as required” by law
• No emergency procurement reports were filed with the state as required under law
• The HHA is “not in compliance” with state and federal procurement laws and regulations.
• Detailed required bills submitted for payment to the HHA examined lacked required vendor certifications in all examples examined.
• Internal control over aspects of procurement are “ineffective”
• More than $100,000 in expenditures with the illicit use of a credit or store card
• Section 8 files contained major problems and are “materially incomplete”
• Costs deemed problematic connected to Section 8 can’t be fully determined due to the lack of required documentation
• The HHA is “not in compliance” with the Housing Choice Voucher Program and the Low Rent Public Housing Program regulations

In addition, the audit report findings state payments throughout the year to a host of suspect vendors totaled almost $800,000 and the “state of emergency” due to Hurricane Sandy shows most of the expenditures “occurred outside the scope of the emergency.” Read More...

For MSV subscribers: Another unedited 25 minute segment of last Monday’s HHA special meeting held in City Council chambers is available and sent via email.

A picture of the camera bag stolen with all contents within feet of assembled media. No other media reported their gear stolen. The MSV bag was a secondary prize for Carmelo Garcia’s crew at Monday’s special meeting.

=&0=&: Which Beth Mason political operative was thrown out of the meeting Monday in the first ten minutes but magically is seen at various points later? Contrary to a signed letter by Councilwoman Terry Castellano in the weekend paper, it was Matt Calicchio, a Beth Mason political operative who was the first person ejected from the meeting. The Chair gave the order within the first 10 minutes of the meeting. Calicchio exited but returned in miraculous fashion. A second person was escorted out before the stoppage and that may have been driven largely by safety concerns after a minor misunderstanding led to the first full meeting stoppage and melee. Carmelo Garcia and his “spokespeople” swung into action. More on that later. Contrary to a confirmed false report, MSV left the meeting after a second troubling approach by Carmelo Garcia occurred in the City Hall lobby during the stoppage. Acting Chief Eddie Garcia along with others stepped in restraining Carmelo Garcia. After, Chief Garcia asked MSV to go to the police station and report the theft of property at the meeting and the request. His polite request was fulfilled.

Matt Calicchio ejected last Monday but a Hoboken miracle saw him soon return. We’ve seen this before.

The epitaph for one “destined for greatness” Carmelo Garcia has yet to be written.  The political class within the HHA (yes there is one) will sing his praises and remember his favors for their unyielding support but if the damn is not broken, the seams are already tearing.

There’s going to be one big mess to clean up at the Hoboken Housing Authority. It’s day four since the former Executive Director’s termination and the problems covered up are already beginning to pour forth. In the weeks and months ahead, revelations will come to the fore. For a few, this will not be a surprise. For others, a quick disavowal and forever shall their mouths cease uttering the name Carmelo Garcia. They didn’t like him much. Once he couldn’t deliver on the million dollar profits of Vision 20/20, the Hoboken Sopranos had little use for a guy who’d throw them under a bus on a whim to advance himself. Everyone knew it and if they’d forgotten, Mister Carmelo’s little tape recorder reminded them.

Carmelo Garcia, former Hoboken Housing Authority Executive Director on Monday night in council chambers. The truth of what’s been transpiring in the HHA is only beginning to emerge. There’s far more coming.

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An identified man repeatedly follows up on the urgings of Sigsby Cheatham strongly suggesting “a solution” to   MSV’s presence Monday night in council chambers. Carmelo Garcia Assembly aide Patricia Waiters is on the right.

On Monday night at the Hoboken Housing Authority meeting in City Hall, this video during the unscheduled stoppage offered some illumination on the proceedings.

Of the council members present in front and Beth Mason not several feet from Sigsby Cheatham, how do they respond to the less than democratic actions taking place?

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With the onset of the HHA special meeting, it didn’t take long for deploying Old Guard tricks in a vain attempt to salvage the Banana Republic of de facto leader Carmelo Garcia and all the goodies that goes with it.

Previous standbys for the Old Guard deployed a plan to derail the meeting under the guise of “public safety.” Mere minutes into the meeting after Councilwoman Beth Mason declared the publicly noticed meeting “illegal” for failure to house all demonstrators brought in to save the Executive Director’s contract, Bayonne resident Nick Calicchio would hijack the microphone stopping the proceedings. (Approximately just over four minutes into the meeting.) Read More...

MSV will not be covering this meeting but for those who wish, it’s available below:

Main portion of the meeting: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/51023476