The repeated utterances from Councilman Michael Russo about going to court was not mere grandstanding as he was joined by his cousin Terry Castellano and Tim Occhipinti from the beginning in complaining about the council appointment throughout the evening.

We’re not sure about Waldo, but the earlier theory Beth Mason was in Italy as her excuse for not attending the City Council meeting was proven false when a reliable eyewitness saw her in Hoboken Wednesday afternoon.

The latest political angling is part of a rumored Old Guard legal attempt to wrest control of the council from a popular mayor who is moving Hoboken forward even without a required sixth vote blocking bonded capital improvements.

(You don’t see any new HOP buses on the roads for Hoboken seniors do you?  Thank Terry Castellano when you get a chance.)

Based on the NJ statute, the Old Guard hopes the lack of specific reference to a majority vote of the full eight members would mean five council votes are required.  How that legal reading would support their position is unclear. The mayor as a precaution went ahead and placed a fifth vote making the final margin 5-2 with one abstention.  A legal reading of an abstention in this vote however is considered a no vote.

As soon as the mayor cast her vote for Jim Doyle, Tim Occhipinti then declared her vote illegal saying she could only vote if there’s “a tie.”

Does that explain why Beth Mason seen driving around Hoboken just hours before the meeting was absent?

At the previous council appointment in 2009 when the mayor stepped down from her fourth ward council seat, she cast the fifth vote sealing the issue even with Beth Mason abstaining, apparently in the hope that without a 4-4 tie, the mayor could not cast a decisive vote.

It’s unknown what legal view the Old Guard believes a combination of Beth Mason’s intentional dereliction of duty hiding from the meeting and Mike Russo abstaining will offer.  Their apparent hope lies in a Hudson County Superior Court judge enacting election law in response to their complaint resulting in an order removing the appointment of Jim Doyle.  Preventing his fifth vote would tie up the City’s business in a 4-4 deadlock over months until an election sometime next year.

Should the council be legally forced to manage with eight votes, nothing of substance would pass.

Russo played down the potential for such a logjam saying not all votes that evening were 4-4.  But how often have you seen MORTe break their own ranks and approve capital improvements? Anyone seen works trucks lined up to repave Washington Street?

If the Old Guard council has their way, nothing will get done in the City short of city employees getting paid and the trash picked up.  MORTe would love nothing more than to create chaos and use it as a campaign issue against the mayor up for re-election in 2013.

Council President Peter Cunningham inquired about the whereabouts of Beth Mason likely aware of the true reason for her being MIA but the other remaining members of MORTe remained silent to his question and apparently there was no notification to the council Mason would be absent.

The ruse by Hoboken’s Old Guard Trojan Horse Metrosexual Scott Delea didn’t fool anyone earning him a nomination or single vote at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

Talking Ed Note: Will the Hudson Reporter harp on this Strategic Litigation Against the People of Hoboken (SLAPH) or an untimely resignation of a council member for personal family reasons?

Will there be a feature story on the Old Guard’s excessive litigation against the City with a quote from Beth Mason in this weekend’s paper?

Don’t expect it.

What back room agreement did Scott Delea sign up for to play the Trojan Horse role trying to obtain a vote among the majority council members?  One report had him hanging around the voter registration booth at the Sunday festival where Councilman Ravi Bhalla was working.  One eyewitness found it odd and was creeped out by his lurking presence.

Delea took to the microphone Wednesday night to plea for votes and sat down to watch the humiliation of not one council member willing to even put his name into nomination.  This time the Old Guard did not put up their votes behind a candidate most unlikely to succeed and then pivot to a contradictory position within seconds as they did with the HHA seat to replace Maryanne Camporeale.

Exactly in what universe would Scott Delea believe he would be able to have a council seat handed to him after his “independent” fifth ward run against Peter Cunningham where he mocked him in a very Swibinskish Prince of Darkness flier using stolen copyrighted material from this website.  Cunningham never bought the independent schtick and said so at the Our Lady of Grace forum.

Expect Scott Delea to appear on an Old Guard council slate seat in 2013 if he hasn’t already arranged it.  That’s probably the price for his public humiliation Wednesday.