In the din of the primary yesterday lurks the ghost of Hoboken present and another City Council meeting. Spared from the relentless grinding scheming of the Hoboken Sopranos one extra week, the follies return tonight with the lawsuit preventing Jim Doyle’s appointment (and swing vote) pushing Hoboken into a tipping point on its budget.
There isn’t a fifth vote in support of the reasonable Hoboken budget featuring a two percent tax cut. There’s no way Hoboken’s Old Guard will stand for that so the City is headed for trouble and chaos if the appeal before the NJ Appellate Court forestalls Doyle much longer.
Chaos is the political choice for the Old Guard, embraced as a tactic previously to bankrupt the City and close Hoboken University Medical Center. With that having failed, in large part to the intervention of Gov. Chris Christie, they need something to shake up the election in November with a popular and effective mayor sitting in City Hall.
How to do Mayor Zimmer maximum harm? Do the worst whenever possible against the City of Hoboken. That means killing the budget and then blaming the mayor for the murder is job number one.
On the agenda is a non-binding resolution protesting the Hudson County proposed 10% tax increase for Hoboken. The real public protest begins at 6:00 PM Thursday evening in Council Chambers.
Also, the same candidate who failed to obtain approval to the HHA as a commissioner is back on the agenda. For the purpose of sparing further embarrassment, MSV will not name the candidate. Can you say Hoboken Soprano pawn? Just another example of the cynical exploitation of the people in the HHA.
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| Councilman-at-large in waiting Jim Doyle can be expected to be seen in the council audience with the appeal to keep his appointment stayed continuing. Without his presence on the dais, the ugliness from the Hoboken Sopranos will continue. Recent meetings have revealed their true colors for everyone to see: midnight power grabs without a quorum, KKK charges and greed to score millions on a developer deal non-existent on paper. |
=&0=&: What oversight should the City of Hoboken have over the Hoboken Housing Authority? A closed session resolution will explore this issues pointing to the oversight powers the HHA “is an instrumentality and agency of the City of Hoboken.”
Former Chair Jake Stuiver attempted a standard rotation of professionals re: an attorney and auditor. For that professional effort, he and his family have become targets of the ugliest personal attacks organized by the HHA’s contracted “leadership.”
Some whether in pay, naiveté, or ignorance call this being “good” to people. Let’s call it what it really is: gutter politics of the most cynical kind.
What the Old Guard wants is to discourage =&1=&, =&2=& and =&3=&. Then the Machine can do as it wishes: massive tax hikes, 10% courtesy of HudCo this year alone in the county portion of the tax bill, =&4=& and maintain complete control over all City institutions with an eager compliant media that can’t even tell the truth about the racial makeup of different subsidized housing units. (The Hudson Reporter in response to the racist KKK garbage strewn about mustered the understatement of the year calling the Church Towers buildings “not as well integrated” as the HHA.)
As for HHA commissioner appointments, at a minimum a selection needs the ability to fulfill fiduciary and oversight responsibility. It’s not a tenant group helping to change burned out lightbulbs or being part of a friends and family program to a contractor hired by the HHA Board – no matter who holds the title of Director.
