The City of Hoboken received an additional unexpected retirement on Wednesday evening before the police demotions took effect at 12:00 am. The retirement will be effective March 31, 2011. Due to bumping rights, this reduces the number of demotions from 12 to 9.
“I’ve said from the beginning that any police retirements would offset the number of demotions, so I’m very pleased that we will need three fewer demotions,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer.
The format is workshop style, and residents may come in at any time during the meetings at their convenience. There will be a brief discussion at the beginning of the meetings to go over the main issues that have been raised. Tables will be set up so residents can provide input on each of those issues.
Wednesday night's City Council meeting was far more than a mere marathon. It contained elements of raw naked power used for the sake of advancing more naked power and with it of course the spoils from a controversial fourth ward election last month that is over in name only.
With the state's law enforcement an open question for the moment, the true will of the people is hardly clear, but on the matter of the Hertz Connect Corner Cars, the verdict has clearly arrived.
That a battle could be waged for over three hours over a program the Council of No Four (Occhipinti has now been added to Castellano, Russo and Mason, Giacchi gets to live for another day) in the end claimed to support was farcical. Three plus hours on a program you support? Really?
Who said this on Corner Cars? - “During my campaign, I did a lot of door knocking and talking with residents, and the majority of the residents were not in favor of the Corner Cars program and its original intended use of removing existing cars from Hoboken,.." Councilman Tim Occhipinti
The pretense the Council of No Four had not voted against this very same program at just the last City Council meeting hung in the air like a heavy mist. At one point, MSV spoke to a colleague who returned to the scene and remarked on the hilarity the pretense those four votes did not exist. There was nothing but assent in his non-verbal response.
Here's an overlap of two Council warriors who refused to accept the No's at face value. It's a short overlapping clip of each but worth the five minutes as it came at the end of the three hour plus Corner Cars war.
And don't let anyone try to snow you it was anything less than a war. It's a war to sabotage, destroy and/or scuttle the Corner Cars program in any way possible. For the moment they are putting it on yet another life support system of 200 days even with the program exceeding every conceived benchmark.
To make matters worse, the majority voted to ignore the legal advice of Corporation Counsel the program required an ordinance for the balance of the two year contract. Instead they imposed a dangling death sentence with legal jeopardy attached. Councilman Nino Giacchi said he would review the matter with Corporation Counsel and get back to us with a legal opinion on what's the proper way for the program to be legally positioned.
It was beyond disappointing to hear Councilman Giacchi gloss over the state ordinance required and focus solely on the possible misstep an initial resolution was in fact the incorrect approach at the program's inception.
Time to catch up to the responsibility of today Councilman. MSV is waiting.
