In addition to the faltering U.S. economy, property owners in a six acre area of  Hoboken, N.J. designated  as “Southwest Six (SW6)” will now have to contend with the City’s threaten use of Eminent Domain to acquire their  property for a Park.

All of the past year’s political battles were on display again at a marathon City Council meeting Wednesday night. Among the biggest issues was a plan to demote 12 police officers – a number that was reduced to nine by the end of the week.

The council is often split 5-4 on controversial votes right now, with the majority voting against the policies of Mayor Dawn Zimmer.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Councilman Michael Russo, a sometime Zimmer critic, sported his yellow “Stop the Zimmer Police Layoffs” t-shirt. Demotions for 12 top officers in the Hoboken Police Department were scheduled to take effect the next day, and Zimmer confirmed her administration would carry out the demotion plan by issuing a press release around 10 p.m. while the meeting was in progress. (On Thursday evening, the mayor announced that another retirement had taken place, which limited the demotions to nine officers.)

Former Hoboken Fourth Ward Councilman Chris Campos is suing Sgt. James Peck of the Hoboken police and New York City police officer Joseph Liotta in a civil lawsuit over his DUI arrest more than three years ago. The cities of Hoboken and New York were also named in the suit.

Campos, a private practice attorney in Hoboken, is seeking injunctive, compensatory damages from the defendants who arrested him on DUI charges more than three years ago.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment’s approval of the construction of a 12-story residential building on 509 Newark St., in Hoboken was rebuffed by the City Council on Wednesday night. The City Council appealed the Zoning Board’s granting of five D-type (or, the most severe) variances regarding the building’s size at the special meeting in City Hall.

Fourth Ward Councilman Michael Lenz motioned and Councilman-at-Large Ravi Bhalla seconded a rejection of the height and bulk variances on the grounds that it was completely unsupported. All variances regarding the size and intended use of the property were overturned.

Councilwoman Beth Mason

Mason requests more transparency from the DCA

July 12, 2008, Hobokennow.com

2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason is requesting more transparency from the state of New Jersey as they review Hoboken's budget.

Mason says the DCA is only talking about Hoboken's financial health with the mayor -- she wants the City Council in on the conversation, too.

After the jump, read a copy of a letter Mason sent to Susan Jacobucci, Director of Local Government Services for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, this past Thursday. Mason is basically asking the DCA to keep the City Council in the loop regarding their financial takeover of Hoboken.

The state Superior Court Appellate Division upheld a trial court's decision to nullify a 2005 "memorandum of understanding" between the City of Hoboken and Tarragon/URSA.

The appellate court agreed that the memorandum "effectively appointed Tarragon as the redeveloper" of a 10.75-acre site adjacent to the Northwest Redevelopment Area without following the proper steps under the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law.

Record requests that, in the opinion of the Hoboken Law Department, create a legal concern/liability for illegal dissemination of "lawfully protected information" should only be made available to City Council members who have attended a "government official" OPRA training seminar.

For several years, Hoboken Community Activist Beth Mason has been in the forefront advocating "transparency" in government.  Mason and I, along eleven Hoboken citizens, were founding members of People for Open Government, a Hoboken-based civic organization dedicated to campaign finance reform, ethics, OPRA, public access and other open government issues. 

In addition, Mason serves as the president of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government which seeks to increase transparency, accountability, honesty and democracy in government at all levels by defending and expanding public access to government records and meetings. Mason, as a private citizen, built a reputation across the State as a leader in government reform.

POLITICAL TRANSITION:

On July 1, 2008, Mason's political status changed from "private citizen" to "government official" when she was sworn into political office representing Hoboken's Second Ward as "Councilwoman Beth Mason." With several "private citizen" initated OPRA lawsuits against the City of Hoboken still pending in the Courts, Councilwoman Mason now finds herself in the political quagmire of suing herself as a Hoboken Government Official.

The proposed rule states that residents addressing the council "shall not make personal, impertinent, slanderous or profane remarks." If they do, the council would have the right to throw them out.

A resolution to update the City Council's rules of procedure was tabled Wednesday night after a stir over a section on proper "decorum."

The proposed rule states that residents addressing the council "shall not make personal, impertinent, slanderous or profane remarks." If they do, the council would have the right to throw them out.

The rule would also ban other "disorderly conduct" and "loud, threatening, personal or abusive language," and would also include the conduct of council members, prohibiting them from interrupting each other and disturbing the proceedings in other ways.

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In case you missed it on January 2, 2008, the Hoboken City Council adopted an open space tax that will generate millions of dollars to buy land for new parks.
 
The ordinance, adopted Wednesday night, requires property owners to pay $20 for every $100,000 in assessed value. The money will be put into a trust fund, which the city will use to acquire and develop new park land.

Hoboken resident HELEN HIRSH spoke before the Council and expressed her concern that there appeared to be "no written guidelines" and "Council confusion" as to how the trust fund money would be allocated for new park land.  Her question triggered a debate among some Council members who believed that the City could tap into the trust fund for the maintenance of both existing and newly created park lands.

The issue was resolved when Hoboken Corporation Counsel Steven Kleinman provided a legal opinion that the the money from the open space tax is divided into two parts: 75 percent will be used for acquiring land or funding a bond to acquire the land, and 25 percent will go toward turning newly acquired land into parks.

Kleinman went on to say that the city ordinance, as approved by referendum in the November, 2007 election, provides exclusively for 1) aquisition of the land, 2) developement of the land, and 3) payment for debt service. 

The restrictions would also control the terms of any Open Space bonding.   There are no provisions within the ordinance that would allow the use of the trust fund for maintenance of existing or new parks.

All park maintenance will continue to be funded out of the City's general funds.

HOBOKEN - Dawn Zimmer was elected to the 4th Ward City Council seat in the "do-over" balloting last night, defeating Christopher Campos in a special election called after both candidates agreed to set aside the results of the June runoff.

Zimmer got 1,070 votes to Campos' 956, including absentee ballots. There are 41 so far uncounted provisional ballots, not enough to affect the outcome.

"I did it! I'm stunned," Zimmer said by cell phone last night on her way to her victory party. "I can say that I truly didn't know that this would happen when I gave up my seat. I'm grateful to my supporters, I'm overwhelmed by the amount of support I received by everyone in the 4th Ward and Hoboken."

Dawn Zimmer is now the official winner of Hoboken's Fourth Ward City Council runoff, having been certified earlier today, officials said.

But the man she defeated, incumbent Councilman Christopher Campos, said he will ask for a recount tomorrow.

Circus like atmosphere....  Ignore the Clowns!

Seems like the big Hoboken news this past weekend was the New York City arrest of Hoboken Fourth Ward Councilman Chris Campos for DUI (Driving Under the Influence).

While Roberts Administration foes are no doubt experiencing multiple orgasms over the arrest of the pro-Roberts councilman, the fact remains that under our justice system CAMPOS is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a Court of law. 

No matter what your political opinion is of Mr. CAMPOS, give him the same respect and rights under the law as you would want for yourself or a member of your family.   

HOBOKEN Mayor David Roberts is looking to slash the number of City Council members, saying it would make government more efficient and take some of the politicking out of the process.

Although the mayor said he wants to open up the idea for public debate, any change would likely be timed for the next mayoral election, in 2009.

"The amount of politics that goes on in Hoboken becomes unmanageable," said Roberts. "There should be less."