| A sign hangs outside Pier C showing the fine effort of Terry Castellano to keep it closed. Sign reads bottom: “Terry voted against repairing damage from Sandy along with Tim Occhipinti, Michael Russo and Beth Mason.” |
In a letter sure to have major repercussions in the Hoboken Housing Authority, the Housing & Urban Development (HUD) agency, a federal department with guiding oversight issued a letter citing major problems within the HHA procurement process calling the repeated efforts since August last year to appoint a legal counsel “legally flawed.”
The letter issued by Director Sonia Burgos advises the governing body, the HHA board of commissioners’ actions must be “properly adopted” if they “can be held to be legally valid.”
The City of Hoboken faces potential sequestration type cuts this spring as the gun to its head on passing the budget will likely require at least one emergency appropriation due to the court maneuvering blocking the legal council appointment of Jim Doyle.
The City budget requires five votes for passage. Last year it passed on a party line 5-4 vote but the swing vote working with the mayor will be unavailable after MORTe’s defeat in Hudson County Superior Court was appealed.
The scheduled hearing with the NJ Appellate Court panel of judges is set for oral argument on May 21st. Final written argument are due mid-April, meaning an unusual five week period of time separates the two. The deadline according to sources familiar with the case is firm with no extensions.
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Not to be outdone by Councilman Michael Russo’s announcement the 2013 budget is Dead-On-Arrival, Tim Occhipinti the occupant of the fourth ward council seat at the end of Saturday’s hearing announced mockingly a similar fate saying, “good luck passing the budget.”
As Public Safety Director Jon Tooke was finishing his presentation, Occhipinti said he had one more question for the Business Administrator Quentin Wiest. Following an obvious preplanned line during the temporary budget discussion by Michael Russo, the question was asked if the municipal employee contract was complete.
The first of a series of budget hearings may begin with a subcommittee hearing to kick the sessions off open to the public inside Council Chambers in City Hall at 2:00 today. As MORTe has made clear at the council meeting last week, their four members have little interest in meaningfully participating in the budget hearings.
If there are not five members present, there is no quorum for the noticed budget hearing. Councilwoman Jen Giattino will hold the proceedings as the head of the finance subcommittee under that umbrella . (The council is one member short due to Mason-Russo-Castellano-Occhipinti’s lawsuit. They lost in Hudson County Superior Court but have made another appeal.)
At the latest farce of a council meeting sans the councilman-in-waiting Doyle, MORTe unleashed its secret weapon with the City’s budget held hostage at the point of a gun. If you are going to sue Hoboken people for months on end, keep losing and get admonished by a judge for your “gamesmanship,” it doesn’t mean you can’t get paid while the case is out again on appeal.
The man giving the orders, at least in his mind is Councilman Michael Russo or as he would like it, Third Ward Councilman Godfather.
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Wielding the power of their legal appeal preventing Jim Doyle from taking his court won appointment, MORTe flexed its obstructive powers and showed the introduced budget is in trouble out of the gate while shooting down varied funding measures for good measure: from alternate public defenders for the poor, repairing Pier C, capital equipment to million dollar street improvements/repair.
The Pier A bond for $2.5 million bond for major structural repairs was to be paid by the South Waterfront O&M board was killed on introduction. * MORTe killed $3 million for street repairs.
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It’s the first post-Lepercon council meeting and one question among many, will there be people coming to speak about it and/or the parade two years removed? Even with the obvious Hoboken Quality of Life issue reflected in dramatically improved statistics this year from 2011, there’s moaning and accusation moving from calling the mayor an Irish racist to the latest descent with an all but apparent charge of anti-Catholicism. (MSV hears the mayor is part Irish but isn’t Catholic so this must be an elevation of Hoboken politics, a reversal “On the Waterfront” style.)
Hoboken resident and HHA Chairman Jake Stuiver sheds light on the difference between brass vs. chutzpah. This is the second letter correcting numerous false assertions by Beth Mason surrounding the legal appointment of Jim Doyle.
While Doyle’s appointment was directed by the Hudson County Superior Court with a conclusive vote, he remains unseated as =&0=& with the NJ Appellate Court. The appeal may be heard next month. Beth Mason claims the lawsuit should end with the City dropping the matter. =&1=& If the Mason family with their MORTe allies dropped their latest appeal today, Jim Doyle could be legally seated at the City Council meeting tonight. Tonight another council meeting is scheduled for 7:00 and Jim Doyle will not be seated and participating on the introduction of the budget or any council matter as his appointment is appealed by a manufactured lawsuit concocted by Beth Mason, Michael Russo, Tim Occhipinti and Terry Castellano. =&2=&Last week, Hoboken resident Phil Cohen described the actions of Council members Mason, Russo, Castellano and Occhipinti as “chutzpah.”