Claiming a conflict in the law firm representing the mayor and a former Christie official last week, Councilwoman Beth Mason is attempting to remove the top flight representation of Gerard Krovatin from the firm Krovatin and Klingeman adopted by the City Council for Mayor Dawn Zimmer.

Gerard Krovatin successfully represented the mayor in the Carmelo Garcia “ethnic cleansing” case thrown out of court last month. It’s been amended changing its unsubstantiated allegations to “patronage.” Read More...

The legal team representing Gov. Christie reached out to Hoboken recently but there’s no Sandy mitigation funding on their mind. The objective sought are documents and an interview with the mayor and four other officials who were aware of the conflict alleged by the mayor regarding Hurricane Sandy relief.

Both the mayor’s lawyer and Hoboken Corporation Counsel declined the request referencing an ongoing federal investigation of the US Attorney’s Office. Since the allegations emerged regarding Hoboken consenting to a billion dollar development project in the northwest tied to Sandy aid, additional questions have been raised about state directed hurricane relief given to other New Jersey municipalities where damages were far less than Hoboken but millions more were spent.   =&0=& was directed to a New Brunswick luxury tower approved eight months by its planning board before Hurricane Sandy hit. A Rutgers study placed New Brunswick 254 on a list of New Jersey towns hit hardest after Hurricane Sandy. NorthJersey.com which reported the story of Christie legal beagles seeking interviews and documents in Hoboken also linked to a Star Ledger story where another municipality with little hurricane damage receiving significant Sandy relief aid, the town of Belleville. But it’s the latest escalation in a war emerging with lawyers coming to the fore on behalf of the governor who are looking to interject themselves into an ongoing investigation commenced earlier by the US Attorney’s Office.   NorthJersey.com writes: “A team of attorneys retained by Governor Christie’s office in the aftermath of the George Washington Bridge scandal is seeking documents and a private interview with the Hoboken mayor, whose explosive allegations have added to the governor’s woes. The mayor herself has been subjected to national partisan attacks.  Former Republican National Chair Haley Barbour dismissed her in an interview as the “lady mayor.”  In another national story, the mayor ‘s actions were questioned by “ethnic cleansing” attorney Louis Zayas who equated her note taking in meetings to personal diary entries claiming the two were one and the same and she had not answered truthfully in a deposition. Previous criticism the mayor had told no one of the quid pro quo for state aid after Sandy have been undermined with news =&1=& Interviews were partly completed only a day after the mayor went public with her allegations against Christie officials. Legal observers have noted unlike the allegations surrounding the closure of lanes at the George Washington Bridge, Mayor Zimmer’s allegations involve federal funds making the potential for wrongdoing far more serious. NorthJersey.com has the full story and letters from the Christie Administration lawyer, the mayor’s lawyer and Hoboken Corporation Counsel.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer in City Hall refuses to yield to mega development hijacking Hoboken. Based on recent allegations, she has taken on all comers including a popular governor defending Hoboken’s sovereignty.

=&2=&: There will be no more hugging it out between the governor and Hoboken mayor. Beyond the obvious, let’s add that most in Hoboken recognized Mayor Zimmer had little to gain in exposing the City to the wrath of Governor Christie who directs federal block grants to municipalities in addition to state aid. There may be losses in the state aid Hoboken receives annually adding to a tight budget even with Mayor Zimmer and a aligned reform council running a tight ship since taking the reigns in 2009. The mayor must have recognized all this when she went public but clearly saw Hoboken’s sovereignty weighing in the balance with a billion dollar project by the Rockefeller Group breathing down the Mile Square City’s neck. Since that news went public, the monster on the southern end, =&3=& to move forward with Hoboken development plans turning Hoboken into something resembling midtown Manhattan. =&4=&: The Hudson County political website, “Hangin’ on the Vine” has more on all of this and the recent foray reported into Bayonne by Beth Mason’s favored political operative who was allegedly a ready mole for insertion into the mayoral campaign opponent to Mayor Mark Smith.

MSV has no idea on the author of the Vine, so stop asking. Da Horsey thinks it’s a good idea to have a muckraker looking over HudCo. That’s a big and perhaps dangerous job but it’s absolutely needed. Read More...

The scandals in Hoboken run into one another not unlike weekly episodes of the Sopranos except HBO threw in the towel on the popular series years ago.

In the Mile Square City dreams of enrichment using government as the leverage whether the “develop or die” tool or more direct financing methods re: looting right out of City Hall keep the Hoboken Sopranos up at night and flashes across their minds during waking hours too.

Independent reports have been coming in to Da Horsey of John Corea sightings, the former parking utility director who carted out millions of silver little quarters out of town to a south Jersey arcade firm connected to the mob.  Corea’s thought to be out on a work release program but there’s additional speculation it’s a scam. Two theories abound. One he’s pretending to be working for a local municipal employee who has a contracting side business and another that he’s claiming to be working on New Jersey’s Gold Coast in Edgewater for a tobacco shop.

John Corea

MSV will confirm if it’s possible the seven years sentence Corea received has been converted into a work release program but for the moment it’s an eyebrow raiser.  Read More...

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The beating from the election in November for the Old Guard council isn’t forgotten but the bitterness is welling up some. When it comes to the foul, wretched taste for the public backlash against bad behavior and worse governance, it’s Councilwoman Beth Mason who’s chugged it down by the quart.

The firm hired to aid the City in the bankruptcy proceedings to save the hospital has a final bill, approximately 13K. It’s been languishing since 2012 having been rejected at least twice when the Old Guard council locked up the City Council with the Mason family lawsuit and voted it down. Read More...

Office of NJ Assembly Democrats announces:

=&0=&             (TRENTON) – Assemblyman Raj Mukherji was appointed to serve on three critical Assembly committees dealing with various issues including New Jersey’s budget, labor and business and industry.

Mukherji (D-Hudson) is the only freshman legislator appointed to a seat on the Assembly Budget committee. He will also serve on the Commerce and Economic Development and Labor committees. Read More...

One big item tonight is the City’s efforts toward purchasing the land for the Southwest Park. While some had said the matter would be tied up endlessly at significant legal cost, the process applying eminent domain actually went smoothly. Whether you agree with the eminent domain powers or not, if you can’t liberate a parking lot for a broader public use, well then there’s no time when it’s applicable.  It appears some details will be sorted out in a closed session. The haters will have to find some space on their faces for more egg yolk. The park is one step closer. Read More...

Former Parking and Transportation Director Ian Sacs held a first row seat to the problems Hoboken inherited in its “traditions,” development run amok being just one in a just published feature “The pluck of Dawn Zimmer.”

Sacs inherited the parking director role from a predecessor convicted of embezzling approximately four million quarters and saw firsthand the controversy of the mayor’s actions, first demoting John Corea before seeing him convicted of looting the City in a backdoor operation where quarters would be collected and transported to a mob connected south Jersey firm where the “count” was taken. Read More...