hobokenhorse.com

City of Hoboken announces:

=&0=& =&1=& The Zimmer Administration announced today the appointment of Police Lieutenant Kenneth F. Ferrante as the City of Hoboken’s next Chief of Police effective December 1, 2014. Previously on July 1, 2014, Edelmiro “Eddie” Garcia was appointed as Provisional Chief of Police following the retirement of Chief Falco. Chief Garcia announced that he will retire on December 1, 2014.

“It was a very difficult choice, and Hoboken was lucky to have three outstanding candidates for the position,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer. “I thank Chief Garcia and Captain Pasculli for their willingness to serve, and I congratulate Lieutenant Ferrante on his appointment and look forward to working with him as our new chief. On behalf of the citizens of Hoboken, I thank Chief Garcia for his lifelong commitment to the City of Hoboken and for leading our Police Department through this transition.” Read More...

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There’s no building permits approved, but if you asked Ironstate, re: Michael and David Barry there’s no reason why two towers built over a pier in northwest Hoboken should be problematic. Tennis courts and parking originally designated as part of the approvals for 1,000 units of the Shipyard were part of the agreement with the City but things changed as historically many developer promises. The four digit units of buildings got built, the waterfront views on Hudson blocked.

No tennis courts for Hoboken’s recreation loving residents and now an all out legal war with the Barry family. When it comes to developer political control in Hoboken, the Barry family is the model. 

David Barry, scion of Ironstate development

Michael Barry, Ironstate and Barry family leader

=&1=&. Hoboken residents need to know what they are up against and it’s a learned, skillful private developer enterprise with a history of making government work – for the developer. From the original article: Construction of additional roadway to extend several Hoboken streets to access the Waterfront Walkway and The Shipyard was another part of the project. In 1995 and 1996, the Local Aid Division of the New Jersey Department of Transportation allotted approximately $1.064 million to the Hudson County Engineering Department for the needed construction. Another street required similar extension and in 1999, through NJDOT funding, Applied Companies received $365,000 from the Hudson County Engineering Department. Constructing the Waterfront Walkway and making it accessible to the public were conditions Barry and Applied had to meet in order to build The Shipyard. The Walkway was to be part of a continuous 18 mile path along the Hudson County waterfront, a long time vision of local greenspace activists. Because the Walkway was open to the public, Barry wanted the public to pick up the cost. Despite the fact that as a condition of the New Jersey state waterfront permit, private developers are expected to construct and maintain the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway at their own expense. But thanks to NJDOT and the HCIA, Barry got paid. In 1999, a nonprofit association of private developers including Applied, joined with Robert Janiszewski, the HCIA, the Port Liberte Condominium Association and other interested parties to try and have the entire Walkway declared a Special Improvement District (SID). Which would transfer authority over the Walkway from the state Department of Environmental Protection to either Hudson County or the HCIA.=&2=& approving state legislation giving municipalities the ability to block pier construction, the Barry family shows no sign of relenting. With their track record of success and getting what they want from local, county and state government; it’s not likely to occur before all legal remedies are exhausted. Add their historical powerful political influence, (they also are the founders and power behind the pro Old Guard Hudson Reporter) they’ve demonstrated a can do attitude to make government work for them. Which brings us to the Hudson County Board of Freeloaders, Freeholders. Absolution has been issued to Hoboken Freeholder Anthony “Stick” Romano who has been busy running around the area making every photo op possible in recent months. Romano sits on the Hudson County Planning Board and is told by the Hudco Freeholder lawyer he can’t vote. No legal opinion has been rendered on the matter and made available to the public. Is Romano legally conflicted by his Planning Board vote? Or is this a political get free out of jail card for when some bad news comes with the Freeholder vote tomorrow night? The Freeholders agreed to hold their meeting in Hoboken. Is it to show their metal to the Barry family in the face of some organized well to do Hoboken opposition or to make a big show of “standing with the people,” as Councilwoman Beth Mason attempts to reinvent herself with the family checkbook from her current title as the scourge of Hoboken? She was for the Monarch before she was against it; well she was for the Barry family and getting those Applied Housing votes to scratch and climb by any means possible for a better political job than second ward council member.

Beth Mason stands with her hand out for some chow with her political operative escort Matt Calicchio last week in line with hundreds of others applying to be put on a wait list for Applied Housing in Hoboken and Weehawken. Does Beth Mason need another home? She needs Applied Housing and the Barry’s backing for votes in next year’s 2nd ward election. She is desperate to get a better political job but needs to leverage the lowly second ward seat. She’s trying with her political operatives to position herself above the job she does badly at BethMasonNJ.com, As she said to her former campaign manger of the ward seat, what’s the point of that?

=&0=& In its 2009 ruling in LoBiondo v. Schwartz, our Supreme Court declined to read into the common law a mechanism to filter out so-called SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) suits, which are often brought by corporations, real estate developers, government officials and others against individuals and community groups who oppose them on issues of public concern.  SLAPP suits use claims such as defamation, conspiracy, malicious prosecution, nuisance, interference with contract and/or economic advantage to derail public debate and put those exercising their free speech rights on the defensive for activities as innocuous as writing a letter to an editor, reporting unlawful activity, circulating petitions, erecting signs on their property or speaking at public meetings. Numerous states, most notably California and New York, have enacted statutes that require prediscovery judicial review that would determine whether these suits are meant to stifle free speech or include bona fide claims, thus avoiding the “chill” of expensive discovery… Recently, the state Assembly Judiciary Committee sent to the full Assembly A3505, a bill allowing judges to dismiss a SLAPP suit without requiring the defendant to undergo lengthy and costly discovery before considering a motion for summary judgment. As currently written, the bill allows a SLAPP defendant to file a special motion to dismiss within 45 days of receiving the complaint. The motion would be granted if the defendant makes a prima facie showing that the claim arises from an act in furtherance of the right of advocacy on an issue of public interest, unless the responding party demonstrates that the claim is likely to succeed on the merits, in which case the motion would be denied. Discovery would be stayed pending the outcome of the motion to dismiss unless a judge determines that some limited discovery would not be too onerous for the defendant. Under the bill, a successful attorney would be entitled to attorney fees and costs, in addition to a $10,000 statutory penalty. Most SLAPP lawsuits are not designed to be legally successful, and most have at least a trace modicum of merit that would allow it to proceed without any real possibility ofLoBiondo‘s SLAPP-back sanctions. In any case, we know that judges are loath to issue such sanctions… The cost of prosecuting such suits are part of the cost of doing business and defending a SLAPP suit—even when defenses are strong—requires a substantial investment of money, time and resources that most defendants and organizations do not have. This not only removes the dispute from the public body that should be determining the issue, but it chills participation in the public debate—something that is at the heart of the First Amendment.  “The point is not to win the lawsuit but to push back against people,” Assemblyman Joseph Lagana, the bill’s chief sponsor, told the committee. “The whole point of this legislation is to dismiss these cases as soon as possible.”

The full unedited article is available at the link below:
 http://www.njlawjournal.com/this-week-in-print/id=1202674585119/Pass-the-AntiSLAPP-Bill?mcode=1202615128661&curindex=1

The New Jersey Foundation for Open Government announces:

A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) is the common term for a suit brought by a powerful plaintiff to intimidate and silence the opposition.  The defendant in a SLAPP is unfairly burdened with the cost of defense, and those costs may not be recoverable.  A public agency that files a SLAPP against a records requestor unfairly denies that person the recourse he or she would have had under the Open Public Records Act, which mandates reimbursement of the plaintiff’s costs in a successful suit.

On October 9th, the Assembly Judiciary Committee passed a bill that will provide a measure of relief to defendants and make well-funded entities think twice about filing a SLAPP.  Bill A3505 assesses a $10,000 fine for SLAPP suits brought in bad faith and creates a process for a defendant to obtain quick dismissal and recover his or her costs.  There is currently no companion bill in the Senate. Read More...

Greg Bond, a supporter of the Reform Movement in Hoboken pens his thoughts on the endemic battle of corruption in the Mile Square and the importance of the upcoming Hoboken Board of Education election.

The Evolution of Reform: The Next Wave

Public School No. 6 at Willow and 11th Streets c. 1907- 1914 (credit: Hoboken Historical Museum)

As someone who’s assisted reform slates in every school board and city election since 2009, I’ve occasionally thought about a future where we’d get past the stark “good versus evil” state of Hoboken politics to arrive at a more nuanced, normal state of political affairs. When I describe Hoboken’s bloody knuckle political scene to friends from the Jersey suburbs, they’re amazed. They’re amazed that millions of dollars were pillaged from the public schools, that the current mayor’s private emails were wiretapped, that a sitting councilman agreed to accept a bribe from an FBI informant, that two of our recent mayors (Russo and Cammarano) were jailed for corruption, and that’s just a small sample off the top of my head.

The Long Path to Reform

But you see, this corrupt state of affairs has a very long history in Hudson County, as recounted in the excellent books Five-Finger Discount and Killing the Poormaster. Until recently it was understood that whoever won a majority would loot the taxpayers to reward friends, family and business partners. And this is how Hoboken operated until 2009 when a majority of reformers were elected to the Public School Board, and a reform mayor was elected to City Hall.  At the city level, the path to reform has been rocky. Since 2009, Mayor Zimmer has only had majority support in City Council for two years: between November 2009 and November 2010 when Michael Lenz served as interim Fourth Ward Councilman, and since November 2013 when James Doyle was elected Councilman-at-Large. In contrast, the Kids First reform slate have maintained a majority on the Hoboken School Board since 2009 and not surprisingly, they have accomplished a lot. So much so, that I think we may be on the cusp of a long-awaited change in Hoboken’s political climate.

How Corruption Survives

As I’ve written about elsewhere, Hoboken started to actively encourage gentrification in the mid-80s aiming to refill nearly empty coffers. On the one hand, there was resentment directed towards the “newcomers” that came to occupy the new developments. On the other hand, the money started flowing again. Moreover, the newcomers were, generally-speaking, politically ignorant.
Today’s Hoboken is famous as a temporary home to 25-35 year old young professionals, renting shares, getting their careers on-track, partying, meeting life partners, and then moving to the suburbs a few years later to settle down and have families. I can tell you that, as someone who’s accompanied candidates door-to-door canvassing over the years, I’ve been through big rental buildings where virtually no one is registered to vote nor interested in registering to vote. Local politics just isn’t on their radar. Hoboken is only a temporary stop on the road of life. And this suited the corrupt powers-that-be perfectly. Over the years local voting blocs were created and exploited by Hoboken’s old established political factions. Some of these blocs still exist, primarily in the city’s assisted housing developments and in the Third and Fourth Wards, parts of the city that haven’t yet been overrun with new developments. Although these blocs get smaller each year as long-time residents sell and move out, retire to somewhere more affordable, or simply die, they’ve been a force to reckon with given the relative apathy of the vast majority of Hoboken’s population. 
When they’re not squabbling amongst themselves and join forces, these blocs can win elections that disrupt and even set back reform. Some examples: in 2010 Tim Occhipinti was elected Fourth Ward Councilman with 

an unprecedented number of vote-by-mail submissions from paid “campaign workers.” Read More...

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A line forming outside the Elks Club last night to apply for Section 8 Applied Housing in Hoboken and Weehawken stretches around the block at 11th and Washington.

A line outside the Elks Club began forming last night. People in the line said they were applying for housing through a Section 8 Applied Housing program.

People have been queuing to submit applications for Section 8 housing, a federal program subsidizes units in town at the Hoboken Housing Authority, Applied Housing and other locations in town. People on line including some residents in the HHA said it was for applications to the Section 8 program in Applied Housing. The applications are to be added on a wait list for both Hoboken and Weehawken. Read More...

Hoboken has an election in two weeks although most do not know it. There’s three slates in a hunt for votes. What are some of the issues they are running on? Other than the tribalism vote the Hoboken BoE’s elections are infamous for year in and year out?

Are Hoboken schools for education or it is a jobs program? Most often, over many years this is part of the unwritten ideology within the system.

It’s been weeded out both as a result of direct action in recent years and most recently State funding cuts which have led to a lawsuit, internecine warfare with charters at the epicenter and Kids First not even running a ticket under its name. Read More...

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Jeff Bell a candidate for US Senate from New Jersey appearing in Hoboken last week had a direct message to Mile Square and NJ voters: “Liberate the economy.”

Bell knows much about liberation. He was an advisor, speechwriter and observer to President Ronald Reagan making him a witness to what led to unbridled growth in federal revenues during the greatest peacetime economic expansion in US history. That engine came about through the historic Tax Reform Act of 1986, a point of controversy then and consternation to liberals since but the record of increased revenues and decades long prosperity are a model the nation only hopes it could repeat today. Read More...

A Taste of Hoboken 2014

The Hoboken-North Hudson YMCA’s gala fundraiser celebrates its twenty-second anniversary this year on Tuesday Novemebr 11, 2014 at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken.

In addition to tasty bites from over 40 restaurants, bakeries and cafes, this years event will feature an expanded selection of quality wines from all over the world.  For the first time in the fundraisers history, guests will be able to sample beers and wines from around the world.

The $80.00 Champagne Preview, 6pm to 7PM and the $60.00 General admission ticket, allows you to enter after 7PM to close at 9:30.  All tickets are fully tax deductible. Read More...

Last night the Republicans of Hoboken sponsored guest speaker and NJ Senate candidate Jeff Bell at the Clinton Social.

With an election less than three weeks away, some late arrivals to the event showed up to mingle with the public and shake hands after the Q&A with the audience. They also posed for Da Horsey who is known for snapping a good pic now and then.

BoE trustee Peter Biancamano and Freeholder Anthony “Stick” Romano both made an appearance at the Clinton Social last night.  Both are running for re-election in November.