hobokenhorse.com

Hoboken’s nine member City Council is a maze of different political campaign directions with not one, not two but count’em, three bonafide mayoral candidates: City Council President Jen Giattino, Councilman Ravi Bhalla and shinny penny Councilman Mike DeFusco.

Then there are the council members who are contending for seats to remain on the job. Councilman Dave Mello is said to have had a treasurer in place who filed papers with ELEC and is planning a fundraising event on Tuesday while weighing further options and Councilman Jim Doyle took the path of least resistance staying on with the Bhalla campaign. Doyle ran with Bhalla and Mello back in 2013. Read More...

Hoboken NHSA Commissioner Kurt Gardiner submitted the following official statement from Executive Director Richard Wolf of the North Hudson Sewerage Authority on today’s spill that has been remediated. “At approximately 6:30 AM this morning, employees at the North Hudson Sewage Authority discovered a leaking pipe inside a building on the Authority’s premises at 1600 Adams St. The pipe valve was immediately shut off, and a small amount, approximately one gallon, of parasitic acid (a commercial form of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide) leaked onto the building floor.”

“The Hoboken Fire Department was immediately summoned to the site, and in turn requested the presence of the Jersey City Hazmat division of its Fire Department. The fire departments established a safety perimeter that included NHSA’s building complex, a small portion of the light rail and the PSE&G substation.  No hazardous materials escaped the building either in liquid or vapor form. The fire departments determined that at no time were residents of either Hoboken or Weehawken in any danger from the small contained spill. “ Read More...

The following is public comment by former Hoboken Housing Authority Chair Dana Wefer. She was instrumental in uncovering massive malfeasance in the HHA, seeking a national solution in a replacement and helping to turn around the agency after the hole left by an autocratic political despot with political ambition and power the focus.

Last Thursday was my final Hoboken Housing Authority meeting. For those of you who follow Hoboken politics, you’re probably familiar with the very public battle I had with my former assemblyman and former Executive Director of the housing authority. But that public battle was just three months of the three years I was chair. In August 2014, I was able to walk into the housing authority for the first time with actual authority. I got my first glimpse of the financial and physical state the Hoboken Housing Authority was in, and it was awful. The rebuilding that we have been working on for the past three years is the more interesting and more important aspect of my tenure there. David Dening, who is now chair, and LaTrenda Ross, who is vice chair are the leadership team on the board, and I am 100% confident that they are the best the HHA could get. Marc Recko, the executive director, is kind, principled, transparent, dedicated to the preservation of public housing, experienced and capable. Serving with my fellow board members, Councilman At-Large David Mello, Judith Lee Burrell, James Sanford, Jean Rodriguez, and Hovie Forman, has been an incredible experience. They have all demonstrated that they have the courage and principles to stand up and do the right thing, even when the easiest thing to do is to walk away. They encapsulate the word “public servant,” and it’s been a privilege to work alongside them. Jeannie and I started off on rough footing, but she was an essential part of the rebuilding and ensuring that the HHA got a permanent executive director who is experienced. =&0=&

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Hoboken’s Carmelo Garcia who left in a huff as Executive Director at the Hoboken Housing Authority back in 2014 when his contract was terminated is out again. 


This time it’s connected to a short-lived one year contract quickly rescinded at the Irvington Housing Authority. Last April, the Irvington Housing Authority approved a contract to see Carmelo Garcia assume the role he had performed in Hoboken. Not a month later, another vote by that board’s body terminated the agreement.


According to a May report by the Essex News Daily: Read More...

The following report comes courtesy of the Hudson County View:

Hoboken Council President Jen Giattino hosted her first mayoral campaign fundraiser at Moran’s pub last night, talking about her goals for the Mile Square City and setting the record straight by stating she did not vote for President Donald Trump.

For the complete story, please see the Hudson County View:
http://hudsoncountyview.com/hoboken-council-pres-giattino-hosts-first-mayoral-campaign-fundraiser/

Last night the last of the four major mayoral campaigns reached liftoff and now all the campaigns are competing for the hearts and minds of Hoboken voters.

It’s clear this Hoboken race will be competitive and the four major campaigns, funded. Any thought of intimidating, pushing or shoving a competitor to the sidelines is off the table. That is unless the Feds show up and do some pushing and shoving of their own. Which raises sidebar questions, who is former mayor and convicted felon Peter Cammarano supporting? Or who does he see as most like himself? Read More...

Eric, Jen and the munchkins

Hoboken’s former HHA Chair Dana Wefer, Jen Giattino and Hoboken’s no. 1 George Best fan and Moran’s owner, Lenny

Das Giant kickoff: NHSA commissioner & Hoboken Democratic Committee Sargent at Arms Kurt Gardiner and eight year Hoboken City Councilman Dave Mello

Hoboken’s authentic “save the hospital” heroine Toni Tomarazzo, Sue Pregibon and Kurt Gardiner pose for a shot

The crowd outside Moran’s to hear City Council President Jen Giattino

Remarks by City Council President Jen Giattino as prepared for delivery.

City Council President Jen Giattino with Reform supporter Nial at her mayoral kickoff event at Moran’s.

Thank you all for being here tonight. My name is Jen Giattino and I am honored to be
running for mayor of Hoboken.

I am running for mayor because I love Hoboken. I am all about Hoboken and the people of
Hoboken – newcomers, oldcomers and people who’ve been here for generations. I will be mayor
for everyone. People of all colors and ages. People of every faith or no faith, people of ample
means or limited means, people of all sexual preferences, all political parties, and everybody else.
Mostly I just see people as people and our amazing diversity is one of the reasons that I love
Hoboken.


Read More...

Tonight the kickoff event for City Council President Jen Giattino who is running for Hoboken mayor was held at Moran’s and a blowout overflowing crowd beyond capacity forced 125 who blew through the event to the sidewalk outside causing much rubbernecking by the cars on midtown Garden Street.

Among the luminaries: Councilman Dave Mello, Council candidate Kurt Gardiner, Parking Director John Morgan, Hoboken Zoning Board Chair Jim Aibel, Hoboken Housing Authority Chair David Dening, former HHA Chair Dana Wefer, former Hoboken Business Administrator Quentin Wiest, former council members Carol Marsh, Michael Lenz, former BoE trustee Theresa Minutillo, hospital authority board member and bonafide Hoboken heroine Toni Tomarazzo and council members Peter Cunningham and Tiffanie Fisher amid a buzzing throng. Read More...

Tonight the last of the four major mayoral candidates, City Council President Jen Giattino is hosting a kick-off for her launch tonight at Moran’s.

This won’t be your typical reform movement kick-off. With four major campaigns in the mix, there’s a sense anyone can emerge between now and November and win the chair to the mayor’s office on the second floor at City Hall.

This of course is nothing like what anyone has seen since the fall of 2009 when Reform united under one banner behind Mayor Dawn Zimmer, the unlikely mayoral candidate who threw in her hat to claim that mantle. The quiet council member as many saw her, was viewed as the silent one among two reform oriented members coming on board in the 2007 election and the current senior reform statesman Peter Cunningham. When Dawn Zimmer got ahead of the competition declaring her intent for mayor, many Hoboken observers saw her dividing the nascent reform movement’s effectiveness by splitting it with another now notorious name: Beth Mason. Read More...