On May 2, 2012, the Hoboken City Council passed an Ordinance amending Chapter 68 "Alcoholic Beverages" to change and update the hours of operation of licensed liquor establishments.

Viewing the City Council meeting video, one would tend to believe the City's reason for making the changes “the City Council wishes to more closely align the City's hours of operation for licensed establishments with the modern holidays recognized and celebrated by the City of Hoboken."

There were no public speakers and no substantive discussion among Council members.  Short, sweet, and the ordinance passed on the second reading.  

Upon closer examination of the “well intentioned changes,” Hoboken now has THREE late night bar closings!  Either by accident or design, Thursday night joins Friday and Saturday nights with lucrative 3:00a.m. closings.

A former police officers’ private investigation into the dealings surrounding the hospital sale has come to a screeching halt after he was barred from accessing records from a related agency.

Ex-Hoboken cop Ed Mecka filed a lawsuit in the Hudson County Superior Court last week against Hudson Healthcare, Inc., (HHI) after his request for access to the organization’s records was blocked.

According to the complaint, Mecka filed an OPRA (Open Public Records Act) request to obtain materials from a July HHI Board of Directors meeting, including a list of attendees at the meeting, and a resolution passed by the board. Mecka’s request, however, was blocked by the HHI, who, according to the complaint, claimed that it was not a “public agency,” and therefore not subject to the Open Public Records Act.

The City of Hoboken moved one step closer to using Eminent Domain as a “tool” to force the sale of privately owned property to the government for use as a park. 

In a unanimous vote, Hoboken City Council members passed two Resolutions that are necessary to initiate the eminent domain process.   The Resolutions approve the November 21, 2011 property value appraisals and authorizes the issuance of an “OFFER LETTER” based on fair market value to the record title owners of the properties. 

Not everyone in the audience was happy with the Council’s actions as two public speakers made their feelings know, one stating that Hoboken officials engaged in “price-rigging and zoning manipulation.

More than a year after the city of Hoboken laid off 13 city workers in a well-publicized layoff plan, Mayor Dawn Zimmer and the city are spending hours fighting one employee’s appeal in the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) court in Newark. Testimony obtained exclusively by the Reporter shows that the laid-off employee’s attorney has sparred with Zimmer over many controversial political issues that have occurred in town over the last year, including raises for Zimmer’s two aides, and internet blogs that appear to favor Zimmer.

Zimmer recently testified for more than four hours in one day in the OAL court regarding the appeal of former city Public Information Officer Bill Campbell’s layoff.

On Nov 9, 2011, Mayor Zimmer testified in William Campbell v. City of Hoboken.  After three hours of testimony, Mayor Zimmer advised the Court that the FBI was at Hoboken City Hall and she needed to return to Hoboken.   The case was adjourned and rescheduled for continuation on January 3, 2012.  Attached is the 77 page Court transcript of Mayor Zimmer’s Nov 9th testimony.

The debate over the future of the 17-building Neumann Leather complex located at 300 Observer Hwy. is heating up again after the Hoboken City Council declared an area including the property in need of rehabilitation.

On Oct. 19, the council unanimously agreed with the Planning Board's recommendation that the area's deteriorated sewer and water systems merited rehabilitation.

The city will form a committee to create a recommended plan for the area. It cannot, however, take its propertes or force owners like Neumann Leather's William Bernheim to follow their recommendation, said Planning Board attorney Clifford Gibbons.

Donald Scarinci, Esq.

To be honest, I don't give a flying fcuk who buys Hoboken University Medical Center, nor do I care about the day to day jousting between Mayor Zimmer and the Anti-Zimmer foes. 

But what really gets my attention are allegations of criminal misbehavior made by an “officer” of the Court against the Hoboken Hospital Municipal Authority with respect to their overseeing of the Hoboken University Medical Center.

Less than three weeks before the operator of the city-owned Hoboken University Hospital filed for bankruptcy — putting millions of dollars in taxpayer money and union pension funds at risk — the hospital’s chief executive received a six-figure payout, records show.

Spiros Hatiras, 46, stepped down as chief executive on July 16 after two years on the job with a severance package that includes:

• $600,000 in compensation,
  
• full medical benefits for a year,
  
• and stipulated that the hospital authority will pay all of Hatiras’s legal expenses stemming from the agreement.

Hoboken Councilwoman Beth Mason spoke out about the $600,000 severance package the former CEO of the Hoboken University Medical Center received after resigning.

"This morning the Star Ledger and Jersey Journal began to shine a light on what is really going behind the scenes as the sale of our hospital moves forward," Mason wrote.

"Financial records reveal that the hospital's former CEO was awarded a $600,000 severance package shortly before the hospital's management company filed for bankruptcy. This golden parachute was approved by Mayor Zimmer and the members of the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority...The parachute is an absolute disgrace and should be terminated immediately," she wrote.

Hudson Healthcare, operator of Hoboken (N.J.) University Medical Center, filed for bankruptcy on August 1, 2011.  As required by Federal Bankruptcy Rule 1007(d), the debtor is required to submit a list of the 20 largest unsecured claims.

Included in the list are claims from "PSE&G - $2,502,670",  "Hoboken Parking Authority - $1,007,740", "City of Hoboken - $903,638", "District 1199J, the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, AFSCME, AFL-CIO - $1,055,045 and $494,417" and "Verizon - $306,647".

On August 9, 2011, the Jersey Journal reported that the former chief operating officer Spiros Hatiras will receive a $600,000 severance package from the Hoboken University Medical Center even though the agency that oversees the hospital is not obligated to pay it.  Hatiras, who resigned on July 14, was CEO for just two years.

Former chief operating officer Spiros Hatiras will receive a $600,000 severance package from the Hoboken University Medical Center even though the agency that oversees the hospital is not obligated to pay it.

And what Hoboken taxpayers may find more appalling is that they are on the hook for $100,000 of that package. Hatiras, who resigned on July 14, was CEO for just two years.

According to a resolution approved by the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority, the city-created agency that oversees the city-owned hospital, new owners HUMC Holdco LLC are responsible for 80 percent, or $500,000, and the city is responsible for the remaining $100,000.

Right now the residents of Hoboken are facing a stark reality: the pending sale of the Hoboken University Medical Center (HUMC) to buyers with a poor track record in protecting jobs, maintaining needed community services, and providing quality healthcare services. This rushed, backroom deal should be prevented before Hoboken loses an asset it cannot replace. Applicable state law is already on the books to block this sale and start this process again to ensure more community input and transparency.

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.

Fifteen days after the attorneys for Appellant CAMPBELL (WILLIAM D. CAMPBELL vs.
CITY OF HOBOKEN) submitted an OPRA (Open Public Records Act) request to the City of Hoboken, the law firm finally received two response packets.  The first packet, dated October 14, 2010 City OPRA LOG # 10-1696, consists of 10 pages while the second packet, dated October 15, 2010 City OPRA LOG # 10-1695, consists of 29 pages.   

For the record, there is no question that the law firm faxed the OPRA request to the Hoboken City Clerk’s Office on September 29, 2010 @ 4:02pm and entered into the OPRA LOG file the following business day, September 30, 2010 @ 9:36am. 

The recent layoff of Hoboken’s Assistant Public Information Officer has added yet another lawsuit to the growing and costly list of Hoboken legal challenges.

The Law Office of C. Elston &Associates, LLC, Wall, New Jersey filed a Notice of Appeal with the New Jersey Civil Service Commission on behalf of WILLIAM D. CAMPBELL ("Appellant “ or “Campbell”) for his recent layoff from the permanent position of assistant Public Information Officer in the Department of Administration for the City of Hoboken.

Mayor Zimmer’s last-minute rescinding of layoffs in the police department is little more than a cynical political ploy at election time. Hoboken 4th Ward Councilman Tim Occhipinti called on the mayor to reveal her plans for future layoffs, after Election Day.

“The plan to rescind the layoffs, which the mayor admits she had nothing to do with creating, was accomplished with the sacrifice of veteran police officers and the critical cooperation of the Hoboken Housing Authority (HHA). Both should be commended for their efforts,” said Occhipinti. “Now the mayor should tell Hoboken residents what her layoff plans are for after the November election.”

Occhipinti says the mayor is playing politics with public safety. “First they berated our police force, suggesting the department was bloated and that their layoffs would not affect public safety. Now, after a major public outcry, the mayor has changed her story and is saving the very cops she said we didn’t need. That’s classic political double-speak.”

Dear Mayor Zimmer:

I have reviewed the PBA funded analysis of the DLGS (Division of Local Government Services) audit of the Hoboken Police Department.

Unfortunately, I agree with the conclusions of Northeast Labor Consultants, Inc. that the DLGS report regarding first line "patrol" officers is based on errors, miscalculations, omissions, and contradictions.

oboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has hired Michael Kates as the city's new corporation counsel, she announced today.

Steve Kleinman, who has served as corporation counsel since April of 2007, has resigned as of Monday, to go into the private sector, but will serve in a transitional capacity as an assistant corporation counsel through Jan. 15, according to to a news release from Zimmer.

Kates, who is currently a partner at Kates Nussman Rapone Ellis & Farhi, will start the position Monday, according to Zimmer spokesman Daniel Bryan.

Mayor Elect Peter Cammarano

Hoboken Mayor-elect Peter Cammarano shakes hands with opponent Dawn Zimmer after all the ballots were counted yesterday at the Hudson County Board of Elections office in Jersey City.

After a drawn-out election process, Councilman-at-Large Peter Cammarano edged out Fourth Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer by 161 votes yesterday to become mayor of Hoboken.

"This election has been a long and arduous one and a very close one, but it is over," the 31-year-old Cammarano told Hoboken Now's Carly Baldwin shortly after provisional and newly found absentee ballots were tallied at county Board of Elections offices in Jersey City. "I'm satisfied with this margin of victory."

2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason

Wednesday night, the council voted to approve a redevelopment study for the now-19 block area near the Burlington Coat Factory, where a subsidiary of the Rockefeller Group has been buying land. The area now under review by the Planning Board was expanded westward to the Palisade cliffs, including the land occupied by the Academy Bus Company.

If a city declares an area a redevelopment zone, the city can change the zoning, seek developers with plans that conform to the new guidelines, take over certain property by eminent domain if necessary, and possibly offer a tax abatement agreement.

Mason said, “If [Hoboken] stops building, it will die. It will die. You have to continue to grow to some extent. You cannot stop.”

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."