Hudson County View weighed in with a detailed news story on the breaking news this week with the Hoboken Housing Authority slapping back at former director Carmelo Garcia in a detailed complaint filed in Hudson Superior Court last month.

The story highlights the lawsuits on both sides noting Garcia’s original filing going back almost three years and thrown out of Court back in 2013. It lists the numerous contractual problems uncovered when HHA Chair Dana Wefer reviewed the contracts and discovered a long list of HUD violations, many usurping the authority of the board allegedly under federal law.

Of many items worth featuring, the public comments on both sides are vastly entertaining.

Hoboken Housing Authority Chair Dana Wefer said little but spoke volumes about the huge hole uncovered in the wake of Carmelo Garcia’s contract termination.

“This housing authority has really struggled. There is literally nothing in this housing authority, that when our new director Marc Recko came in, was running well. So we have a very big hole to dig ourselves out of and it’s unfortunate that we have to engage in this litigation because frankly, we need to be focusing on more important things,” Wefer said.

Attorney Louis Zayas wildly lashed out with the the HHA’s complaint surfacing in public view saying, “This complaint is entirely frivolous. To suggest Carmelo Garcia was overpaid makes no sense given that the board and their counsel approved his contract. This is a politically motivated lawsuit, using taxpayer funds to go after a whistleblower.”

The reference to being overpaid is a mention in the HHA complaint Carmelo Garcia never qualified to be given a five year contract under HUD guidelines in the first place. Zayas points to the counsel paid by the HHA who structured and endorsed it: Charles Daglian. (That may be the first of Mr. Daglian’s problems developing in this almost three year legal saga.)

Zayas took more potshots reportedly saying, “The complaint is really a vehicle to legally defame a whistleblower without consequences. By making these allegations, which are false and defamatory, Carmelo cannot sue since they’re protected by litigation privilege.”

HHA Chair Dana Wefer looked less than impressed with what became a litany of excuses why Carmelo Garcia hid millions in illicitly issued contracts from the HHA board. Garcia as it turns out took thousands of dollars from those vendors too and according to the complaint, it’s just one in a sizeable list of unauthorized illicit activities by Mister Carmelo. The HHA is seeking unspecified damages hitting back. How does about $1,000,000 plus sound to the residents and taxpayers?

For the complete Hudson County View story see:
http://hudsoncountyview.com/2-years-after-termination-carmelo-garcia-hha-file-dueling-lawsuits/

Talking Ed Note: Carmelo Garcia has claimed for years to be a whistleblower victim back to the original 2013 filing of his “ethnic cleansing” infamy. MSV has stated its analysis weighing considered opinion throughout and will do so below.

In order to claim whistleblower status, you have to blow the whistle on wrongdoing – not be the party of wrongdoing.

Over three lawsuits going back to 2013, Carmelo Garcia has shamelessly alleged a political now a RICO criminal conspiracy to implement Mayor Zimmer’s policies – never once stating what exact policy she’s tried to implement he finds objectionable.

That the mayor hasn’t actually proposed or implemented any policies in the HHA or an alternative as Garcia alleged in his failed never documented real estate scheme Vision 20/20 reveals much. The original 2013 “ethnic cleansing” lawsuit was intended to damage Mayor Zimmer’s 2013 election bid and help deliver Garcia’s friend Councilman Ruben Ramos a mayoral election win.

The mayor in the face of the attempted political intimidation refused to stand down to the demand she back an undocumented HHA building plan in Vision 20/20 and coasted to an easy victory that fall taking her entire at-large ticket along with her to a sweep.

The Carmelo Garcia complaints are a con; the type of con you hear from a cornered rat that believes in their sociopathic storytelling ability.

Zayas’ comments are the full equivalent to the legal art of projection. His “ethnic cleansing” suit was lambasted in open court before being summarily thrown into the ash head. The Hudson County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Maron told him it was a disgrace to real victims of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and not to repeat the term in his courtroom.

Zayas meekly emoted noise about “hyperbole.” He’s declared the damning specific line by line itemized list of wrongdoing in the HHA complaint “entirely frivolous.” From millions in unauthorized expenditures, to outright insubordination, to pocketing monies from actual vendors and a severely probelmatic audit, Carmelo Garcia is in a heap of trouble.

Putting the two complaints side by side, one reads like a political treatise of a dethroned banana republic dictator and the other the methodical listing of less than ethical if not outright illicit activities.

How the reality would play out in a courtroom could be a delicious treat. Stay tuned, more to come.