December 13, 2011: Rogue Revisitation

Remember the guy from Hoboken who allegedly couldn’t help himself from walking off with fine art and superior wines? Well, in late October he confessed to strolling out of the Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco, Picasso’s pencil sketch, “Tete de Femme” in hand. He was sentenced to 16 months, credited with 256 days, actually served 138 days, and given the bonus of a flight, under close supervision, to New York. There he was arraigned for allegedly similar activity, in greater quantity, in various Manhattan galleries. He pleaded not guilty. Currently he is enjoying not terribly fancy accommodations provided by New York. It seems New Jersey, as usual, takes a back seat – we’ll have to wait our turn about that fancy wine, I guess. Here’s a particularly lovely montage from the San Francisco Chronicle!

Here’s the full Chronicle article, as well as one from The New York Times on the December proceedings.

I’ll let you know about that wine. But let’s move along to some local civil proceedings grounded in – of course – Hoboken politics. First, my advice:  If you ever find yourself on the short end of the stick in some possibly nefarious matter in Hoboken, one of your go-to guys is clearly one Louis Zayas, Esq. My most attentive readers (assuming I have even one) just might recognize that name from an earlier essay in these pages.

Do go back and peruse by all means, but very briefly, my one-time Ward 4 representative to the Hoboken City Council, Chris Campos, was really unhappy about losing his run for re-election, not keeping his job as a nearby community’s prosecutor, and more generally seeing his political career go down the tubes. It could all be traced to an evening when he ran a red light in Manhattan, was pulled over by New York’s Finest, and earned a less than stellar score on a Breathalyzer test. But still, bummer.

Somehow it became evident to the arresting officer that Mr. Campos was a member of the Hoboken Council; indeed somehow (I can’t possibly imagine how!) that officer even had the impression that Mr. Campos was the current council president, which he was no longer. (Wait – he must have been a close, but not TOO close, follower of Hoboken politics, of course!) Somehow. SOMEHOW!  The officer called a counterpart at Hoboken police headquarters – and was told to “do his duty,” rather than, oh, I don’t know, maybe something other than his duty.

Campos’s then lawyer (not Zayas) subsequently released a statement in which read in part that Campos “realizes this was a lapse in judgment and admits he made a mistake … and wants to assure everyone that this will never happen again.” Campos, after many delays (and losing that election, a runoff … and a do-over!) finally, in October 2008, pleaded guilty to doing some bad driving, paid a fine, and “volunteered” not to drive for three months.

Fast forward to April 2010. Campos obviously had thought about all this quite a lot, and now decided to sue the two police officers – and the two cities, to boot – for ruining his life, this step taken with the help of Mr. Zayas. Impressive! Well, just like you, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, found this pretty rich, and on August 12, 2010 (though it didn’t make it into the news until September 10) he dismissed the case “with prejudice.”

For those of you not up on legal lingo, “with prejudice” means, “get lost, you idiot.” And that’s the sanitize version.

I’m not done. Of course. My eyes have not been trained to widen slightly whenever they come across the words “Louis Zayas,” and they were treated once again several days ago, this time in news about a suit brought against our now-incarcerated former Mayor, Peter Cammarano. Also naming Hoboken as a defendant. Of course. Here goes:

First of all, be it remembered that you personally contributed $25,000 to Mr. Cammarano’s campaign. OK, your federal tax dollars, in the form of $10s and $20s forked over to Cammarano’s handlers by an FBI informant, Solomon Dwek. (For some reason, this particular detail is one of my favorites in the Cammarano saga.) But that evidently wasn’t enough to tide him over.

The suit accuses Cammarano of breach of contract for not paying back money he owed three parties. One, the owner of a local supermarket, claims that he was “intimidated” into “cashing” $35,000 worth of campaign donation checks – presumably in return for $35,000 in cash up front though this detail isn’t dwelt upon for some reason – all of which bounced. But the Supermarket Guy adds that Cammarano “promised that as a city councilman [emphasis added], the checks would not bounce.” Promised!! Gee whiz.

Another, this one a member of a family long-established in Hoboken politics, claims that Cammarano asked her to loan his campaign $20,000, “citing his status as a councilman and future mayor [me, again on the emphasis!] when he promised to pay her back,” but that she only collected $4,000 and was really ticked off! (OK, that last phrase isn’t in the legal papers.)

The third was a political consultant for Cammarano, in charge of “hiring campaign workers” among other things. He says he was pressured into paying campaign workers $14,000, which was to be repaid with the loan of the one who loaned the $20,000. The consultant wrote the checks, but the $14,000 from Cammarano never appeared in his account, and $6,000 of the checks bounced for insufficient funds in the consultant’s account. The suit stated that this pushed the consultant’s agency into bankruptcy, but anyone who pays attention to local politics knows that the same agency seems to be doing just fine on the dole from Beth Mason, who has been featured here at some length to say the least. How fascinating!

Now, let’s parse this a bit.

According to New Jersey law, a loan (except from the candidate himself) is considered a contribution until it’s repaid, and therefore the rules about amounts also apply. Since individual contributions are limited to $2,600, there’s a math problem here. In fact, $5,200 would have been possible because Cammarano had a running mate in the election (a runoff) who was seeking an at-large council seat, so this was a “campaign committee.” But that still leaves a very wide discrepancy in every case.

So, plaintiff #1 – Supermarket Guy as I like to call him – and plaintiff #2 think it makes a lot of sense to draw attention to the fact that they made illegal (i.e., on their face excessive) contributions to a candidate in the form of loans, and then when things don’t go quite right decide that the City of Hoboken is among the parties that should make them whole, evidently because the guy who allegedly duped them was an elected official. And let’s dwell on Supermarket Guy a little more. Assuming I follow this correctly, he thought it was OK to take $35,000 in checks intended as campaign donations to deposit in his own account? Let’s put it this way, if Supermarket Guy decides to open up a Laundromat, perhaps located next to a check cashing store?, I think I’ll pass.

Then there’s plaintiff #3. First of all, as a political consultant he perhaps should have been a little cleverer?  Oh, never mind. But let’s see:

1. It’s not obvious to me that it’s OK for a consultant to pay campaign workers rather than the campaign itself, the reason being that election law is set up so that it’s simple to trace who give money to campaigns. But possibly this somehow slides by, and this same consultant has done the same for Ms. Mason. However, some feel this is at best shady, the reason being that the point of the required ELEC reports is so that fools like me can easily look up who is giving money and getting money from a political campaign. If the report simply lists some large number as being paid to the John Smith Political Consulting Agency (do you think that name is taken?) something perhaps is not working as intended. Or then again, maybe it is working exactly as intended.

2. It can probably be claimed that fronting the money is a loan, and as we know a loan of $14,000 is a no-no.

3. OK, this bankruptcy thing. A local blogger, Grafix Avenger, called the consultant out on that given that his business seems to be humming along just fine. The consultant and Mr. Zayas were evidently confronted with this and the lawsuit will be amended.

So, why is this suit appearing now, all of a sudden, almost two and a half years after the Cammarano juggernaut went down the toilet? Well, Mr. Cammarano is due to be released in mid-March, and that is in fact quite a bit earlier than would normally be the case according to federal guidelines. No one knows why (or at least no one who is telling), but there is plenty of speculation that his sentence was significantly shortened because he had some very interesting and fulfilling conversations with the FBI or other law enforcement agencies, which are evidently continuing to investigate some less than nice things about various other local residents. The further speculation is that this maneuver is intended to try to further discredit Mr. Cammarano in any testimony he may offer.

Further discredit Cammarano? Now, that’s not easy!

Perhaps, but the touch of real brilliance in this lawsuit is bringing Hoboken in as a defendant, something it shares with the Campos suit, and thus I attribute this bit of artfulness to Mr. Zayas. Picasso would be impressed! Even Mr. Lugo! Do you think the case will end up in front of Judge Rakoff?

But maybe Mr. Zayas in onto something and it just requires a bit of tweaking. Perhaps Mr. Lugo should give him a call. I do think that the estates of Picasso, Léger, et al., are responsible for the mess he finds himself in. I mean, how can you keep your hands off the stuff? There ought to be a law!

November 3, 2011: Rogue Math

November 3, 2011

Hoboken Alleged Rogues Gallery: Part 2

Hoboken Math: Part 2

True crime. Hoboken politics. Same difference. The stuff of song. (You’ll see.)

I was pleased to see that my 1st grade youngster is already doing word problems in school. I don’t know about you, but I adored word problems. These days for me, my greatest math skill is firing back 20% of any number you can name. I work on commission, you see.

Here’s a good word problem for you:

Beth and Dawn are neighbors. Not exactly friends, but neighbors. They both work for the city. How nice.

Dawn tells Beth that with a few simple signatures the city can get 50,000 M&Ms every year. That’s almost exactly one M&M for every person who lives in the city, every year! For keeps!

Beth thinks it’s a better idea for the city to pay out over 60,000,000 M&Ms. RIGHT NOW! And, send 1,200 neighbors who work at the hospital home from their jobs without any M&Ms to share with their families. And also send hundreds more neighbors who work for the city, including police officers and firefighters, home from their jobs without any M&Ms to share with their families. For keeps!

Which do you think is the better deal, Dawn’s or Beth’s?

As I was considering my answer to this word problem, a tune entered my head. Somehow the lyrics had changed, though. This is how they came out:

Lizzie Mason took an axe

And gave Dawn Zimmer forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done

She gave Hoboken forty-one.

Some of you will recognize this as a song about Lizzie Borden. Lizzie grew up in Fall River, the city nearest my hometown, New Bedford, Massachusetts. New Bedford being the seat of Bristol County, that’s where Lizzie’s trial took place. The fascination with Lizzie isn’t limited to our rival towns, however. There was even a made for TV movie starring none other than Elizabeth Montgomery that aired in 1975. It won three Emmy’s! The song appears at the end. (Yes I really remembered that after 36 years. I’m serious.) This sends you straight to the song, which comes in at the very end of the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4dTVT1ZC2k&feature=related#t=6m24s

But I digress. Or do I? And what am I talking about?

Beth Mason, today’s Hoboken Alleged Rogue, is the Second Ward member of the Hoboken City Council. Dawn Zimmer is Hoboken’s Mayor. Which you know if you live here or read this blog. The hullabaloo has to do with the sale of Hoboken University Medical Center to new private owners, a sale arranged by the Hoboken Hospital Authority, which entity was created when the former St. Mary’s Hospital was about to close at the end of 2006. Then-Mayor David Roberts and the City Council passed $52 million in guaranteed bonds to keep the hospital open, and set up the Authority, an independent agency, to run it. The hospital didn’t exactly bounce back, bleeding money steadily. When Dawn Zimmer came into office in mid-2009, she made it a priority to find a private buyer, with the goals of keeping the hospital operating as an acute care facility and getting the bond guarantees hanging over Hoboken’s head paid off. It is worth noting that in late 2006 and early 2007, months before she was elected to the City Council, Ms. Mason and her husband, a very well-heeled bankruptcy attorney, strongly and very publicly opposed the $52 million deal as fiscally irresponsible, and a serious potential future disaster for Hoboken. The New York Times even picked up on it.

Following Zimmer’s lead – she sits on the Hospital Authority – the HHA solicited bids. The conditions for acceptable bids were that the buyer had to pay off the bonds and agree to operate the hospital as a full-service acute care facility for at least seven years. The Authority approached approximately 150 potential bidders. Eight responded. Exactly one bid met the two major criteria. The other bids either didn’t pay off the bonds, or didn’t guarantee acute care status, or both, or didn’t show any financing for the purchase. But the one bid that did the job had it all, and came from the same outfit, called Holdco, that took over the hospital in Bayonne a few years ago.

In the meantime, the Hoboken hospital was itself on life support. The state kicked in $11 million in special aid to pay off the $52 million debt as part of a sale package. The staff took a voluntary 10% pay cut. But eventually the hospital couldn’t meet payroll and filed for bankruptcy. Getting to a closing got rather urgent and now included settling the bankruptcy in a way to satisfy creditors ranging from the power company to the nursing staff.

Mason would have none of this, instead apparently championing, behind the scenes, the insufficient bid of group called P3. The P3 bid offered to take over management ofthe hospital, not buy it, so it was rejected by the Authority out of hand. But then when things started to get hot, and long after the HHA had entered negotiations with Holdco, P3 submitted a do-overbid to buy the hospital, but showed no clear route to financing in it. They also had no history in hospital ownership.

It remains mysterious why Mason would champion this particular bid, and more generally try to shoot down the Holdco bid. She claimed it was a matter of transparency. Her stated problem comes down to that the bids were sealed, and as the stated process was that the Authority would pick one bid and go into exclusive, confidential negotiations, this was not fair to the public. She also noted that the owners of Holdco had written some nice checks to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. She did not note that they had also written some nice checks to Hoboken State Assembly member Ruben Ramos. Ramos, a Zimmer foe and Mason ally, evidently didn’t notice either.

However, this is a normal bidding process, and the entire reasoning behind it is that to make the City Council the arbiter would turn the process into a political football. It can’t be argued that Holdco made contributions to help smooth the process; indeed they were clearly also anxious to get support in the State Assembly. Just ask Ruben Ramos. (The P3 bid became public because P3 voluntarily released its revised bid; the Mayor in turn released their original bid. As you can read in the link, Ramos has stated that he did not realize the source of these contributions. He has donated that money to charity. He also has stated that he did not realize the precise purpose the $11 million the State support would serve and would not have supported that.)

The fact remains that Holdco’s was the sole bid meeting the basic criteria. And given that, plenty of people reached the conclusion that Mason’s underlying goal, in tandem with her Council allies, was to somehow, anyhow, prevent Mayor Zimmer from getting credit for closing a deal. But it seemed there was nothing she could do because the City Council did not have oversight of the deal process, only the Hospital Authority.

Then things got hot in the bankruptcy proceedings. The creditors wanted more than what was on the table and seemed ready to scuttle the deal. Zimmer asked the Council to vote for the city to chip in $5 million, making the case that paying $5 million, which could be bonded, would be a lot better than having to pay off $52 million right now. Good material for a word problem?

However, a vote of that sort requires a two-thirds supermajority, and the Council comprises five members who strongly support the Mayor, and four, including Mason, who bitterly oppose her. What’s two-thirds of nine? You do the math, then guess the result.

The situation seemed grim. Zimmer approached Governor Christie, with whom she has struck up a good working relationship despite crossing party lines. Christie pledged $5 million from the state to help settle the bankruptcy.  He also had some pretty strong words for the Council members who blocked the $5 million Zimmer had requested from them, “It is completely unacceptable that the city council placed local politics ahead of the 1,300 employees at the Hoboken University Medical Center and the people in the community who rely on the critical services provided by this hospital.” (Anyone who follows Mr. Christie knows this is in fact a mild rebuke.)

Curiously, the Council minority took credit for saving Hoboken $5 million, but if you think that money isn’t going to be fungible for something else you’ve got another think coming.  However, $5 million from the State is cheaper to the City than $5 million from its own coffers. But whom do you thank?

Whatever the case, a bankruptcy agreement was reached. Mason in particular bitterly opposed that. The nurses’ union, JNESO, which sat on the creditors committee, apparently teamed up with Mason, making public statements criticizing the deal. But then on getting some modest further concessions for their members, the union signed on. Mason didn’t publicly support that, but it seemed like a happy ending.

It wasn’t.

The lawyers figured out that because the new hospital was going to be for-profit, rather than non-profit as it was previously, that changes were needed as related to the parking garage adjacent to the hospital. The history of the garage is that St. Mary’s donated the property to Hoboken. They didn’t want to be in the business of operating a garage, so in return for Hoboken building and operating it, they gave the city the property. But the bonds were non-profit bonds and in addition the parking agreement itself had to be rewritten. A simple majority is sufficient to change the parking agreement, but such change takes 20 days to go into effect. As to the bonding change, that requires six votes. 

The good news was that at current rates, the refinance of the $4.5 million in garage bonds would cost the city $50,000 less per year. Saved! Hurrah! Seems a no-brainer. Evidently not! The vote was 5-4 in favor – not good enough. Zimmer has said this will require significant layoffs of municipal employees as the bonds will become payable immediately upon closing. Estimates indicate it could cost more than 100 jobs. But the Mayor pledged the deal would go forward.

How are you doing on the word problem?

The majority was able to pass the new garage agreement, 5-4, but the minority blocked a subsequent vote to make the changes an “emergency” and go into effect immediately, again 5-4 in favor but that’s not enough because that kind of measure requires a two-thirds vote. They claimed it “wasn’t necessary,” and one councilor, Michael Russo (we’ll talk about him another time) taunted the city’s attorney who told him this would kill the closing, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

Well, it did kill the closing which had been scheduled for the next day. The problem is that the longer it takes for the new owners to take over, the more debts the hospital builds and that messes with the bankruptcy agreement. Much fulminating ensued. Would the entire deal now fail because the minority members of the council didn’t want to roll over the parking agreement sooner rather than later? Would over a thousand jobs be lost? Would Hoboken go into bankruptcy as a result of being hit with about $60,000,000 in bonds due immediately? (I have read that there are reasons the parking agreement couldn’t be dealt with sooner, and the 20-day matter avoided, but I can’t substantiate why. Call me gullible, but if someone makes a mistake on a deal with me, but comes in, fixes everything, and offers me $50,000 a year to boot, I usually accept the situation. Said another way, it is not clear to me that it is sufficient reason to send the city into bankruptcy simply because it’s possible. Beth Mason and her colleagues evidently feel otherwise.)

A special council meeting was set for Sunday, October 30. The minority, looking to save face (or such is my interpretation) went to Holdco to ask for … something.  Holdco wrote them a letter pledging to keep the hospital operating for seven years (already in the deal with HHA), to explore enhancing certain services like maternity and sports medicine (already in the deal with HHA), and offering to appoint a designee of the four council members to the hospital’s board. Now, this last condition was what raised eyebrows, some claiming this was extortion.

The vote on Sunday was 8-0. (Councilor Theresa Castellano, a “minority” member, was rumored to be too busy doing Halloween decoration to attend.)

On October 31st, Beth Mason marched in Hoboken’sHalloween Parade as a nurse. I am not sure if that included payment of dues to JNESO. The hundreds of nurses who came within inches of losing their jobs because Mason and colleagues were so stubborn might wonder.

On November 1st, Holdco sent a letter to the Mayorand the four minority members stating that it needed to make a clarification to their October 30 letter. The hospital will operate as a Limited Liability Company under Delaware law, and doesn’t have a governing board of directors. Rather it will have an “advisory Board of Trustees” which will have no managerial power. It is not clear whether Mason and her cohorts understood this.

Do you think it adds up?

On November 2, at a regularly scheduled Council meeting, there was a “first reading” to revisit the refinancing of the garage bonds, in order to resurrect that $50,000 annual free money deal and save some 100 or so municipal jobs. For a first reading, the purpose of which is to introduce an ordinance in order to have it debated and voted on at a “second reading,” a simple majority is sufficient. But for a bond ordinance, at the second reading it will require a two-thirds vote (six) to pass.

Here’s another word problem. How many votes did the ordinance get at the first reading?

The hospital closing is scheduled for November 4.

You may be wondering why I focus in particular on Beth Mason rather than her minority colleagues Theresa Castellano, Timothy Occhipinti, and Michael Russo. The reason is that Ms. Mason is the one with the money and (at least as to this matter) the biggest mouth. For example, she paid for television announcements denouncing the hospital deal. One local blogger commented that running this ad on Fox News might not get the effect Mason was seeking, given its intent to politically marry Zimmer and our Republican Governor Christie. In this ad and various mailings and press releases, as well as the homepage of her website, Mason states that Zimmer has endorsed Christie for re-election. The ad draws the quote “I’d endorse Christopher Christie” supposedly from the Star-Ledger May 30, 2011 edition. I sure can’t find it.

I think Mason is relying on a Wall Street Journal article, from May 31, 2010 (what’s a year and a day between such good friends?), Zimmer stated, “My position was, if [Christie] won, I would definitely work with him. It’s important for the city of Hoboken to have a good relationship with the governor.” Zimmer was elected Mayor the same day as Christie won the governorship. Zimmer had endorsed the re-election of Democrat Jon Corzine, who is having yet another bad day. At the end of the Journal article, it states that Zimmer said “she’s not about to endorse the opposite-party governor for another term – at least not yet.” Call me a nit-picker.

As to the rest of the ad, the matter at hand was not a “lease,” but rather it gives the hospital use of some 400 transponders that allow their users to park in the garage during business hours. At market rates (payable to the city). Expiring at such point that the facility is no longer operating as a hospital (or 99 years, whichever comes first!). The ad also refers to an “out of state developer” as the recipient of this largesse, somehow toted up to being worth $155 million. That recipient would be Medical Properties Trust, an Alabama-based, New York Stock Exchange-listed, corporation that is providing the financing for the deal. I would be hard pressed, based on cursory research to simply refer to them as a “developer,” and in any case what they are providing is a loan, not taking control or direct profit. Nit-picker me, again!

Oh, and by the way, Lizzie Borden was acquitted. However, if you watch the TV movie (spoiler alert!) you’ll find that in fact it was Elizabeth Montgomery who did it. Speaking of crime, the FBI investigations in Hoboken presumably continue. We have yet to see what, if anything, the G-men think of Lizzie Mason.

October 17, 2011: I Am from Hoboken, but...

October 17, 2011

... I’m Not This Guy
Hoboken Alleged Rogues Gallery, Part 1

To see how inactive I’ve been with this blog, you’d think Hoboken has suddenly become boring.  Alternatively, perhaps you think it’s so exciting that I’ve had no time to write.  Or perhaps you think, my being from Hoboken, I’ve landed in jail.  Well, none of the above.  I swear.

Today I will introduce a sort of Hoboken Alleged Rogues Gallery, comprising vignettes on the colorful local fauna.  I’ll let you decide whether I wish I were any of these people, or even allegedly wish so, whether I’m writing out of envy, or perhaps otherwise.  And just for a breath of fresh air, I’ll start with someone entirely (to my knowledge) unconnected to local politics.  Here goes:

Pop Quiz:  What do the following have in common?:

• Pablo Picasso
• Fernand Léger
• Jean-Michel Basquiat
• Alexander Calder
• Three bottles of Chateau Petrus Pomerol (2006)
• The Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan
• The Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco
• Per Se (4 stars, “the best restaurant in New York,” review of October 11, 2011, The New York Times)
• BLT Fish (3 stars, The New York Times)
• Lefty O’Doul’s (San Francisco)
• Gary’s Wine & Marketplace in Wayne (New Jersey, of course)

Hoboken, of course!  And specifically – allegedly, anyway – one Mark Lugo, a resident of our fair city.  Mr. Lugo was arrested on July 6 in San Francisco, accused of pulling a Picasso pencil sketch, “Tete de Femme,” off the wall of the Weinstein Gallery during business hours, plunking it under his arm, and walking out the door.  Allegedly Bold!  Allegedly Daring!

Allegedly Nuts!

No literal alarm bells went off, but that state of affairs was bound to change at least figuratively given that the sketch was valued at over $200,000 (not to mention that odd open space on the wall surrounded by works by Chagall, Dalí, and Miró.), and with the use of some pretty successful sleuthing, San Francisco’s Finest found their way on July 6 to the apartment Mr. Lugo was staying at in Napa, and the sketch.  What got them started?  Some footage from the security camera at the neighboring bar, Lefty O’Doul’s.

Hoboken Detective Sgt. Edwin Pantoja paid a visit to Mr. Lugo’s Hoboken apartment on July 12 – Mr. Lugo was for some reason not there to greet him – and was subsequently quoted in the New York Daily News as follows: “The Picasso was hanging on his wall,” Pantoja explained.  “The others were displayed all over his apartment.  He had a nice little gallery going on.”  Detective Pantoja was referring to yet another Picasso (the San Francisco Police seem to have felt it appropriate to hang onto “Tete de Femme,” though I can’t understand why), “Sculpteur et Deux Têtes,” worth some $30,000 and somehow missing from the William Bennett Gallery in Manhattan.  But the real prize on the wall (sorry Pablo) was Fernand Léger’s “Composition aux Elements Mécaniques” (India ink on linen) allegedly borrowed from that well-known lending library known as the Carlyle Hotel lobby – valued at $350,000.  The Skot Foreman Fine Art Gallery, also in Manhattan, had allegedly evidently arranged with Mr. Lugo for the temporary showing of a Basquiat photo.  There was more.

But wait, there IS more.  How can one truly appreciate fine art without a glass of fine wine in hand?  I know I can’t.  Well, perhaps I can, but it does help.  It seems that Mr. Lugo also allegedly availed himself of some, shall we call it unauthorized shopping, at Gary’s Wine & Marketplace.  They have some great stuff on display there!  Like $2,000 bottles of 2006 Chateau Petrus Pomerol.  Or at least they used to.  Hoboken has some nice wine shops, but I have to say I haven’t noticed any 2006 Chateau Petrus Pomerol at arm’s reach.  Maybe it’s because I’m short.  Maybe it’s because I tend to avert my eyes when the price tag is more than about $25 (and even that’s on a really, really, good day).  So, I guess to be able to really handle the good stuff, you need to head out to Gary’s in Wayne.  It’s a pretty easy drive – just a 1/2 hour from the Hoboken Police Department building (seems a good place to start, or end?), assuming you don’t get lost (this being New Jersey).  Mr. Lugo allegedly made several visits to this fine emporium, and on one occasion allegedly walked off with two bottles, and a subsequent occasion yet a third bottle of the elixir.  The Wine Spectator comments that it must have been hard not to come back given it was on sale for $0.  I couldn’t agree more, and wish I’d caught that sale.  Was it on Groupon, perhaps?  I still haven’t signed up.  Silly me.

Mr. Lugo is that he for some reason missed the June 9th court date he had related to the Petrus.  Perhaps was just too busy, what with all the necessary alleged visits to galleries, dropping in at the Carlyle, packing for the trip to California.  You know, stuff.  The San Francisco Chronicle found out that another court date for the wine thing was set for July 14, and no doubt he would have been there except that he was, er, tied up, on $5 million bail.

I’m sure I’d enjoy a taste of the Petrus Pomerol right now, but I have to confess I don’t really know what it would be like.  I even confess that I wouldn’t even know it has that sort of price point.  Somehow Mr. Lugo allegedly did, and indeed, it was his job to know that as sommelier at TheNew York Times 3-star rated BLT Fish in Manhattan.  He also did some time (wait, maybe that’s awkwardly phrased) at Per Se.  I’ve never set foot in those hallowed halls.  What can I say?  In fact, Lefty O’Doul’s is probably more in my price range.  (I checked.)  I’m not exactly the object of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

I have been in the lobby of the Carlyle Hotel, however.

Wait!  The attentive among you realize I left something out.  Why is Alexander Calder on the list?  Was one of his mobiles in Lugo’s apartment?  Well, not according to any reports I’ve seen, but in 1919 Calder did get his Bachelor’s degree, in mechanical engineering (are you surprised?; according to Mechanical Engineering Magazine he “excelled in mechanical drawing, descriptive geometry, mechanical engineering laboratory, and applied kinetics”; still surprised?) from Hoboken’s very own Stevens Institute of Technology.  I realize that may seem a tangential connection to the list above, but my theory is that the collection Detective Pantoja  allegedly uncovered in Lugo’s apartment needed a Calder to balance off the other acquisitions he’d made for his personal art gallery.  The problem was clearly that it’s a serious challenge pulling the typical Calder mobile out of the ceiling, shoving it under your arm, and walking out the door undetected.  It’s hard to do even detected, come to think of it.  You need a degree from Stevens to solve that, I guess.  Don’t look at me.

Speaking of rounding off the collection, there’s something that’s NOT on the list that I think really should be.  I wonder if Hoboken’s finest remembered to check Lugo’s refrigerator.  I think they must have forgotten.  I’d recommend the 2008 Domaine de la Romanée Conti Montrachet.  Then again, perhaps they don’t have that at Gary’s.  Be sure to call ahead.

UPDATE: October 28, 2011
Mr. Lugo entered a guilty plea for the Picasso heist in San Francisco. The sentence: Time served. He is to be released on November 21, when he will be sent to New York to face charges there. I guess Gary's Wine & Marketplace in Wayne has to wait.

December 21, 2010: Hoboken Math

December 21, 2010 (updated December 22)

Hoboken Math: 4-4 = 543 524

Anyone who follows Hoboken politics would immediately understand the above seemingly strange mathematical equation.  The part to the left of the equal sign is shorthand for Ward 4, District 4.  The part to the right is a quantity of absentee ballots.  In truth, I have taken a bit of liberty with the right side – 524 is the total number of absentee ballots cast for the entire ward in the November 2 special election (see official results from Hudson County Clerk, page 12; correction to Hoboken Math formula based on this, as cited in a post in BlueJersey.com) for a seat on the City Council, including 99 that were thrown out for irregularities.  I have not been able to find the number that came out of the fourth district, but it is widely understood to be a considerable majority, with a large dollop coming from the third district – and far fewer from the first and second districts.  My devoted readers know that the 3rd and 4th districts of Ward 4 are almost entirely taken up by federal housing projects, while the 1st and 2nd districts largely comprise recent condominium developments.

So what?  Well, the total number of ballots cast (including the 99 discarded) was 2,173.  Thus, just shy of 25% of the total votes cast were absentee.  That may seem normal enough if you live in Oregon, where all voting is done by mail, but in Hudson County, the average percentage of absentee ballots in an election is under 5%.  Interesting!

Now, of the 524 absentee ballots completed and returned to the Hudson County Clerk, as noted above, 99 were thrown out, (possibly every single one of them cast for Mr. Occhipinti, though the information on this is not entirely clear).  Three were received late.  Of the remaining 96, the vast majority were tossed because the signatures on the ballots didn’t match what the Clerk’s office had on file.  That’s very unusual to see about 18% of absentee ballots in a given election thrown out.  Fascinating!

Of the remaining 425 absentees – the ones that counted, in other words – 390 were cast for Timothy Occhipinti, 34 were cast for the incumbent, Mike Lenz, and 1 was a write-in.  That’s 91.76% for Occhipinti, 8.00% for Lenz, and 0.25% for someone (perhaps me! – but no!).  When it came to the votes tallied on the machines on election day, it was 841 (plus 9 provisionals) for Occhipinti and 791 (plus 9 provisionals) for Lenz, or 51.5% to 49.5% (plus one write-in, still not me!).  Curious!

Occhipinti’s filings with New Jersey’s Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) show that he had some 575 casual election workers, some 560 of whom were paid precisely $40, and the remainder $100 or more.  In the filing submitted 11 days before the election, there were 80 such workers documented so far, and it has been found that 79 of them submitted absentee ballots.  The fruits of similar research about the nearly 500 others who were paid in the final days of the campaign has not yet been revealed (And no, I don’t have time for that – you think I’m nuts?  Should I rephrase that?), but there are, well, suspicions.  Gosharoonie – about 575 campaign workers to help gather a total of 1,240 votes in an election in which 2,075 votes were counted.  Holy Cow!

Mike Lenz’s filings show that he had 17 campaign workers, each paid $50 to $75, all cut checks in the week following election day, totaling exactly $1,000.  He also had several dozen volunteers doing similar work, including my upstairs neighbor.

Wow, $1,000 for people to walk around on the street holding signs.  No comment!

Mr. Lenz is quoted in the Hudson Reporter as follows:

“I’ve lived in the 4th Ward for a long time,” Lenz said. “I’ve seen days with 500 workers on the street. [Nov. 2] wasn’t one of them. [Occhipinti] wasn’t paying people to work on Election Day.  I don’t actually know what they did for their money.  They didn’t distribute flyers, and they didn’t work on Election Day.  It very much looks like they were paid for something other than working.”

Mr. Occhipinti, in the same article:

“You have to get your name out there,” Occhipinti said. “You don’t have a voting record to stand on. You have to put out your message.”

Wow, about $25,000 for people to walk around on the street holding signs – or to do something, anyway.  Indeed!

By the time of the 11 day pre-election ELEC filing, Mike Lenz had raised $30,521.  He upped that by 22% in the final days to $37,379.  Not bad!

By the time of the 11 day pre-election ELEC filing, Tim Occhipinti had raised $41,495.  He upped that by 89% to $78,353 in the final days.  Must have been shocking for all that to materialize at the last minute, and shucks, the final filing wasn’t due until 20 days after the election, so who knew!  Such an avalanche, too!  Zounds!

In the final 11 days before the election, Mayor Dawn Zimmer made in-kind contributions valued at exactly $3,002.79 to the Lenz campaign for such things as printing, mailing, the fee due to a mailing house, and postage.  That’s just over 8% of the total Mr. Lenz raised.  Nice!  They didn’t send anything to me, though!  (Sob.)

In the final 11 days before the election, Beth Mason, the Second Ward Councilor (and two-time losing Mayoral candidate, outdone on both occasions by Ms. Zimmer and once by convicted felon and former Mayor Peter Cammarano, despite spending about $1,000,000), and her husband, contributed $13,400 to the Occhipinti campaign, just shy of 18% of the total Mr. Occhipinti raised.  Of that $8,200 was in cash from Friends of Beth Mason for City Council, and precisely $2,600 each was in-kind from Ms. Mason and Mr. Mason.  Beth Mason spent exactly – not a penny more, not a penny less! – $2,600.00000 for “Campaign lititure” according to the ELEC filing.  I enjoyed reading some of that “lititure.”  For example, I learned that Mr. Occhipinti is “An Independent Voice.”  And Mr. Mason’s contribution, again $2,600.00000 (on the nose!) covered the cost of T-shirts, food/drinks for headquarters, and “signage supplies (staples, 2x4s, and nails).”  No, that’s not Staples.  That’s staples.  And nails.  I don’t know how many staples and nails, but pretty cool that it came out to exactly $2,600.00000 – same amount as Beth, the maximum allowed by law for an individual.  Astounding!

With the Ward seat on the council going to Mr. Occhipinti, the 5-4 majority previously supportive of Mayor Zimmer became a 4-5 minority.  The new majority, at the first meeting with Mr. Occhipinti in the seat, introduced an emergency ordinance to allow for there to be a “vote of no confidence” on the Council President and Vice President.  But emergency or not, no hurry!  They waited to introduce the ordinance until shortly before midnight!  Oh my!

The person who is reported in PolitickerNJ to be in line to become Council President is Beth Mason.  Surprise!

$13,400÷$40 = 335, er, somethings.  Useful!

Now, if you’ve read carefully, you know that Mr. Occhipinti could have done without all the absentee ballots, having tallied 841 machine-cast votes to Mr. Lenz’s 791.  Mr. Lenz obviously failed to attract as much enthusiasm as did Ms. Zimmer when she won the 4th Ward seat in 2007, though a look-back at earlier entries here will certainly substantiate Ms. Zimmer took no cakewalk in the process.  Mr. Lenz has not contested the result of the election, per se, though some would have it that certain voters might have been willing to make certain, um, arrangements without the need to acquire absentee ballots, hundreds of which were turned in by “bearers” rather than trusted to the United States Postal Service.  But Mr. Lenz did get a hearing from the County Clerk, who then referred the matter to the County Prosecutor, who in turn has now referred the matter to the New Jersey Attorney General.  Evidently some 190 absentee ballots are under particular scrutiny.  The latest is that the matter remains under consideration for a possible “investigation.”

Possibly – just possibly…

4-4 = KABOOM!

I’m not ducking for cover yet.  Rapacious reaping of absentee ballots in Hoboken’s 4th Ward is an ancient practice.  But in any case, Mr. Occhipinti only holds the seat for a few months to complete the four-year term Dawn Zimmer won in 2007.  There will be another election in May.  Hurrah!

October 26, 2010: Introducing...

October 26, 2010

Introducing…

This blog originated as an occasional feature on a business website and newsletter. The material was created solely for the entertainment of myself, my clients, and my friends. That is its continued purpose. My writing is primarily about Hoboken politics, and was inspired by the July 2009 FBI arrests of various New Jersey politicians and rabbis, including our then-Mayor, Peter Cammarano.

Given the political content and the nature of Hoboken politics (“fraught” might be a good start in describing the state of things here), I will disclose that I have voted on every possible occasion for Dawn Zimmer, formerly Ward Four City Councilor and now Mayor, but have not contributed to any of her campaigns or those of any other Hoboken politician, nor have I worked (on a paid or volunteer basis) for her campaign or that of any other Hoboken politician.

I hope you enjoy.

October 26, 2010: Every Election in Hoboken Is Special

October 26, 2010

Every Election in Hoboken is Special

On August 5, ex-Mayor of Hoboken Peter Cammarano was sentenced to two years in federal prison by United States District Court Judge Jose L. Linares.  On October 4 he reported to the U.S. Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania to begin his sentence.  That may be a 3-hour, 175 mile drive from Hoboken, but somehow, and perhaps fittingly with the approach of Halloween, his ghost continues to haunt our fair city.

Well, it’s not Halloween’s approach that is the critical factor.  No, it’s a special election, on November 2, for the City Council Fourth Ward seat.  The followers of this story will remember that not only do I live in the Fourth Ward, but (much) more importantly so does Mr. Cammarano’s successor, Dawn Zimmer, and that as President of the City Council at the time he resigned, she became Acting Mayor, was subsequently elected last November to serve out the remainder of Cammarano’s four-year term (he only served one month), and that as a result she vacated her Council seat.  Michael Lenz was appointed by the City Council to serve in the seat until this special election, which election will determine who will serve out the remainder of Ms. Zimmer’s elected term.  That – of course! – is only until the end of June.

If you thought that special elections are generally somewhat sleepy affairs, that surely is not the case on this occasion – and neither will be the subsequent election for a full term in May.  It was a very big deal that Ms. Zimmer won this seat in 2007, and took an election, a runoff, and a do-over (see earlier entries) to accomplish that victory.  That victory in turn was a major factor in the downfall of Mr. Cammarano’s predecessor, Mayor David Roberts, when the City Council refused to pass his budget, which was presented to them in incomplete, or at least somewhat cryptic, form.  This led to the appointment of a State Fiscal Monitor.

(Full disclosure:  I have voted for Zimmer every time I’ve had the opportunity, and will vote for Lenz.  I have not made contributions to any Hoboken candidates nor have I ever been affiliated with any local campaign.)

It is uncontroversial to say that Ms. Zimmer, and her allies on the Council, including Mr. Lenz, are not beloved of real estate developers.  Emblematic of this was Zimmer’s successful push, as City Council President, the day before Cammarano’s arrest, to reinstate the City Council as the body to choose members of the zoning board.  This rather than the Mayor, as had been pushed through by Roberts’ (convicted) predecessor, Anthony Russo.

They are also not beloved of the municipal workforce because Zimmer, in response to a State-sponsored audit, this fall directed that there be a reduction in the size of the Police Department, by 18 officers, which also involved a similar number of demotions.  The audit stated that the force was very top-heavy – the ratio of chiefs to braves way off the norm – and also simply too large in comparison to other forces in the New Jersey, by as many as 60 officers depending on the method of calculation.

In a showdown with the police union – which included public demonstrations, mailings, and television commercials – Zimmer did not blink.  Instead the union ultimately pressed several senior officers who were so eligible to retire, an escape hatch to layoffs that Zimmer had offered from the start.  (Some of the resignations are still officially pending as of early December; if those officers do not retire, Zimmer has held the layoffs of several officers in abeyance.  Five of the jobs were saved by an agreement with the Hoboken Housing Authority – the federal “projects” that happen be located in the fourth ward, to pay their salaries – this rather than hiring the same officers through overtime wages, which is demonstrably a more economical approach to deploying this force.)  The Mayor and Chief of Police more recently announced a redeployment of the force to increase officers on the street by 38%.

An audit of the Fire Department is pending.  And the reductions of in the Police Department were accompanied by layoffs of 18 non-uniformed city employees (who seem to have earned no public sympathy).  A 5% reduction in the city tax levy – equivalent to just under a 6% decrease per $100,000 of assessed value in municipal real estate taxes, was just passed by the City Council.  That amount – 5% – is the maximum allowed by State law without special dispensation.  It has also allowed for the accumulation of a cash surplus of about $10 million, which in turn allows for the procuring of substantially better bond rates, as well as a rainy-day fund.

One might interpret this as a remarkable set of victories that would set up the Mayor and her allies as heroes among taxpayers.  But as already alluded, her actions have not won them the adoration of the largest sources of money for political campaigns or from certain very substantial portions of the voting public.  Zimmer’s opponents aver that the reduction of the police force was dangerous and claimed that the audit was inaccurate.  They also feel that the cash surplus should have been used to retain the size of the force, but at the same time that a 5% (maximum allowed) tax reduction was not sufficient.  (And it must be said that Zimmer had promised in her Mayoral campaign that there would be a 25% reduction.)

All of this relates to the Council seat currently held by Lenz because he is one of the five Council members who support the Mayor’s agenda, with the four others bitterly opposed, led by third ward Councilor Michael Russo, son of the ex-con ex-Mayor Anthony Russo.  (Second ward councilor and twice-failed Mayoral-candidate, Beth Mason, might object to my stating that the opposition is led by Mr. Russo.)

The Fourth Ward of Hoboken is a curious place demographically.  There are a good number of recently-built condominiums, particularly in the Ward’s District Two.  And there are also the federal housing projects, in District Four.  What is interesting if one researches the history of voting in this ward is if one looks at District Four, there has generally been an enormous number of absentee ballots cast, and of those virtually every single vote is in support of the a single candidate who would typically be considered the “establishment” choice.  Such candidates included Peter Cammarano, David Roberts, and Anthony Russo.

Those who consider this suspicious would point to two powers acting behind this process.  One would be real estate developers, and a particular person in this category would be Frank Raia, himself often a candidate, who describes himself when running as a “developer of affordable housing,” though that is generally received by locals with at least a bit of a chuckle.  The other group tapping these votes would be what those who don’t support it might call the “machine,” more specifically the range of politicians and political operatives who have generally held sway in Democratic politics in Hudson County.  This “machine” was harmoniously behind Peter Cammarano.  The interests of these two factions are not always entirely identical.  Indeed, there are even competing factions within the Democratic “machine,” and this writer gets a headache every time he tries to decipher this internal conflict.

An example of the power of these absentee votes is the most recent election in Hoboken, for the Board of Education.  Initially, Frank Raia was a candidate to try to regain the seat he’d lost.  But he withdrew when he realized he would have to make a choice of being on the board of a new charter school in Hoboken and serving on the Board of Education of so elected.  Instead, he endorsed a slate of candidates and campaigned for them.  Raia is known – he prides himself on it publicly – for electioneering aggressively for absentee ballots in the projects.  In that election, there were 135 absentee ballots cast in Wards 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 combined.  In Ward 4 there were 295.  Three candidates could be selected by each voter; Raia’s two candidates (he would have been the third) both received exactly 255 absentee votes in the Fourth Ward.  There were 807 ballots cast in the ward, and thus 37% by absentee ballot, not exactly a typical amount.  Raia’s candidates did not win, but they did win by a very wide margin in the Fourth Ward.  (There was an election to fill an unexpired term that also had a Raia-supported candidate, with similar results.)

This sort of behavior – a lot of absentees and a very strong turnout out overall – may not seem typical of the economically deprived.  That’s a sad truth about voting patterns in this country and no less in general in Hudson County.  But therein lies the rub, some claim, accusing the “machine” or developers – or both – of paying off the residents of the projects to vote absentee, and specifically having those voters fill out their ballots in the presence of campaign workers to whom the ballots are handed over for delivery to the board of elections.  The going rate is said to range from $35 to $50, even as high as $100, according to some blogs that are supportive of Zimmer and Lenz.

It is worth noting that Zimmer won her seat on the Council with the backing of Mr. Raia, and 13% of her votes were absentee, and as will be mentioned below, Mike Lenz aided in her campaign.  Campos, who was supported by the “machine,” received 21% of his votes from absentee ballots.  The information I have been able to uncover on this is sketchy, specifically I have been unable to obtain numbers confirmed numbers of absentees cast, let alone by District.  The Hudson County Clerk website only gives the total for absentees, so it is unclear, for example, if Zimmer’s or Campos’s absentees were largely from District 4.  Campos, by the way, grew up in the Hoboken projects, so that he would receive broad support there, and even enthusiasm, is hardly mysterious, and the tally certainly shows a lot of votes from that District.

Michael Lenz’s opponent in this election is Timothy Occhipinti.  Occhipinti, 32, moved to Hoboken in 2007 and wasted no time getting into local politics, running for an at-large seat on the City Council in 2009.  He was not allied with one of the mayoral candidate slates, and did not fare well.  He subsequently endorsed Peter Cammarano and became part of his transition team and an operative for him once elected, or “elected” depending on one’s take.  Of note is that the night before Cammarano was arrested, he stood before the City Council to speak out against the Council’s retaking control of Zoning Board appointments, which subsequently passed 5-4.  Lenz has accused Occhipinti of assembling all of Peter Cammarano’s operatives, and the broader implication is that those operatives – from real estate and the political machine – in fact plucked Occhipinti rather than having been won over by him.  Though Occhipinti denies the accusation, it is in fact demonstrably accurate.

Lenz, 54, has a long and not uncomplicated history in Hoboken politics and government.  He supported David Roberts, serving as campaign manager for his 2001 first term Mayoral run.  Initially, Roberts was supported by a wide range of self-labeled reformers, including many of Zimmer’s current stalwarts.  Roberts’ opponent was the incumbent, Anthony Russo, who was indicted shortly after losing the election.  Against the new Mayor’s wishes, Lenz ran in a special election for the fourth ward council seat, losing to badly to Chris Campos, who was supported by Roberts.  But a year later Roberts appointed Lenz the city’s Chief Financial Officer – and then very quickly fired him.  Lenz claimed he was fired because he wasn’t willing to underfund the budget as directed by the Mayor.  Lenz subsequently won a six-figure wrongful termination settlement.  It is not surprising perhaps that Lenz resurfaced as Zimmer’s campaign manager in her run against Campos.  He is utterly reviled by the “machine” and developers alike, and is something of lightning rod.

Raia was quoted on the PolitickerNJ website, “I’m making a concerted effort to get every resident of the 4th Ward out to vote. If it means we have to pull people out, if they have to vote by mail, if we have to drag them to the polls, whatever. There’s a lot of disgruntled people in Hoboken.”  The article continues, “Raia said of Lenz’s team, ‘They’re in for a war.’ ”  In the same article, Michael Russo is quoted, “Do I think Tim’s going to get a couple hundred absentees? Yeah. Do I think he’s going to get 600? I hope so.”  It will probably take 1000-1200 votes to win the election.

April 26, 2010: Hoboken in The New York Times (And More, of Course)

April 26, 2010

Hoboken in The New York Times
And More (of course)

A week ago tomorrow, Hoboken’s former mayor for a grand total of 31 days, Peter Cammarano -- the poster child of the FBI’s July 23, 2009 (one day after his 32nd birthday) bust of 46 politicians, political operatives, rabbis, and an organ trafficker -- pleaded guilty to accepting illegal campaign contributions in federal in Federal District Court in Newark.  He will be sentenced on on August 3, and is expected to be sent to prison for two years.  He is the sixteenth of those arrested to plead guilty; one (Leona Beldini, Jersey City’s deputy mayor) was tried and convicted; and one was found an apparent suicide a few days after his arrest.  Twenty-eight to go.

But this isn’t really fun stuff.  Here’s a story that did not make The New York Times (at least in its latest developments) that will better fit the bill, and it is in interesting ways wrapped up with our former mayor’s plight. Here goes:

In early 2007 my neighborhood’s lamp posts sprouted some signs reading, “Vote for a New Dawn.  Dawn Zimmer for City Council Ward 4.”  Now, our ward was then represented by one Christopher Campos, elected to fill a vacancy on the council in 2001, and the youngest person to win election to a council seat at age 24.  He was reelected to a full term in 2003.  He subsequently served for a year (2005-2006) as president of the council, winning the distinction of being the youngest person in Hoboken’s history to do that.  However, Ms. Zimmer’s signs appeared a few weeks after Mr. Campos had been pulled over by New York’s Finest on the West Side Highway and charged with DUI.  It even made The New York Times!  (Is there a theme in this newsletter?)

This was embarrassing, especially as Mr. Campos’s full-time gig was as a prosecutor for the neighboring city of West New York, NJ.  A few days later, according to a second Times article, his attorney released a statement that Campos ‘‘realizes this was a lapse in judgment and admits he made a mistake. ... and wants to assure everyone that this will never happen again.’’  The Hudson Reporter offered more details, including a quote from Campos that “I look forward to turning this horrible ordeal into an example for others to learn from.”  OK, remember this part.

Now, it came out very soon that there was an interesting dialog shortly after the arrest between an officer of the New York City Highway Patrol and a sergeant of the Hoboken Police Department.  Some snippets of this made the news in early 2007, but only recently did a complete transcript of the conversation become public.  What is particularly interesting to me is that Mr. Campos evidently identified himself as the President of the Hoboken City Council -- a title he did not hold at the time.  However, much more colorful is the arresting officer’s inquiry as to whether it would be a good idea for Mr. Campos to be held as a “guest of the city” for the evening.  (OK, not as good as Mr. Cammarano’s inspired quip about grinding his opponents into powder.)  It is comforting that the Hoboken sergeant told the highway officer to “do his duty,” though the latter, with some effort did manage to draw out from the Hoboken sergeant that the Hoboken Police were at the time working without a contract.

Zimmer was a political neophyte.  However, Mr. Campos was certainly viewed as an upstanding member of the Hoboken political machine.  Indeed he was considered a rising star -- touted in 2006 on the PolitickerNJ website as a likely candidate for the State Assembly -- alongside another handsome, young, newly elected council member -- Peter Cammarano.  You think you can see where this story is going.  But I’m still going to surprise you.

OK, so Mr. Campos puts his various legal hearings as related to the DUI charges on hold, winning delay after delay.  He was not rehired as prosecutor in West New York, but evidently primarily because he decided not to reapply for the one-year term contract position.  Remember this detail.

Election day comes on May 6, 2007, and Mr. Campos wins a plurality of about 47% of the vote among four candidates, but about 50 votes shy of the outright majority needed to avoid a runoff.  So he is forced into a runoff against Dawn Zimmer, who had won about 38% of the vote.  But note that his total was 746 and hers 609 -- hardly an insurmountable difference with get-out-the-vote efforts.

Campos subsequently ran a lackluster runoff campaign.  His campaign headquarters were in a storefront around the corner from me, off a main street and easy to miss.  (That storefront has otherwise been empty all three and a half years we have lived at our current address -- though curiously, this very morning, as I was walking Argo, there were workers in there.  Hmm!)  It was rare I saw anyone in there, and when I did they didn’t seem to be doing much.  Zimmer’s headquarters, a couple of blocks over on a more heavily-trafficked street (previously occupied by a pediatrician and now by a dentist), seemed much more busy.  Yet Campos had all the key endorsements and a much larger campaign chest.  This was going to be interesting.

Zimmer won the June 12 runoff by six votes, 892 to 886, but then ensued much litigation.  Campos accused the Zimmer campaign of giving out lottery tickets with absentee ballot forms; Zimmer counter-charged that the Campos campaign had obtained a significant number of absentee ballots from people known to be ineligible to vote.  Serious charges -- and evidently some merit to all of them, though nothing clear as to where the blame lay.  The upshot is that a judge brokered an agreement between the two that all suits would be dropped and there would be a do-over election.  Zimmer had to resign her seat (which had been certified shortly after the runoff).  Come November 6, Zimmer won more decisively, 1070 to 956.  This time Campos conceded.

Who ever heard of a do-over election, by the way?  Welcome to Hudson County, New Jersey!

Zimmer’s victory ultimately set her up to run for mayor, narrowly lose to Cammarano (with the help of $25,000 in bribes -- your tax dollars working for you, and I mean YOUR tax dollars presumably in the form of FBI petty cash) in a runoff, become city council president, acting mayor upon Cammarano’s resignation, and then mayor in a special election.  Zimmer’s appointed successor by a close and contested vote of the City Council (until a special election this November) as 4th Ward councilor is Michael Lenz, who is arguably one of the most reviled enemies of the local political machine (which is now out of power).  Keep this in mind.

Mr. Campos and his attorney continued to delay his DUI hearing for some time, but then finally, on October 28, 2008, Campos pleaded guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court to a violation of driving while impaired.  He paid a $300 fine, had his driver’s license suspended for 90 days, and agreed to enter a drinking and driving program.  OK, remember this part, too.

Now, here’s the fun part (finally -- but it’s worth it).  Earlier this month, on April 2nd, Mr. Campos filed suit against the cities of Hoboken and New York, and the above-cited Hoboken and New York police officers.  According to an article in The Jersey Journal, Campos’s attorney, Louis Zayas, “contends that the police officers conspired to embarrass and discredit Campos as an elected official and that there was no probable cause to believe he was intoxicated. Zayas said the arrest, which led to Campos losing his job as a municipal prosecutor and losing his bid for Council reelection, was a deliberate act that was extremely damaging to his political career.”

Clearly it is time for a do-over.

March 4, 2010: The Wheels of Justice

March 4, 2010

The Wheels of Justice

A First Conviction 
The big story is that the first trial stemming from the FBI arrests last July that included Hoboken’s now former mayor, Peter Cammarano, has taken place.  Many of the characters are the same, but our neighbors in Jersey City have stolen the spotlight from Hoboken with this trial, of Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini.

The result?  A verdict on February 11th of guilty on two counts of accepting $20,000 in illegal contributions to the reelection campaign Jersey City’s Mayor, Jerramiah Healy, from Solomon Dwek, who was posing as a real estate developer.  Deputy Mayor Beldini was acquitted on four counts, including extortion.  She is expected to appeal.  Here is more from the Star-Ledger if you’re really curious.

This video must have been particularly interesting to the jury.

I’ll note that there are two men shown in this video (not including Mr. Dwek - we only see his expressive hands) who were mentioned in my earlier writings.  The younger gentleman is Edward Cheatam, who pled guilty to various charges some months ago, while the older is Jack Shaw, who, soon after his arrest took way too many valiums - the coroner hasn’t said whether intentionally or not.

The jury also saw this next video, featuring Mayor Healy (who has not been charged with any crime).  I’ll leave it to you to interpret the scintillating discourse comprising his conversation with Mr. Dwek.  But do keep an eye on the salt or pepper shaker (I think it’s pepper, but this is controversial - it certainly would be to New York’s Mayor Mike Bloomberg.)  You’ll notice that Mayor Healy goes at it with the shaker -quite diligently - for fifteen seconds, takes a taste, and gives it another nine vigorous seconds to get that perfect taste.

I have no idea what Mayor Healy is eating, but I can tell you that I heave a sigh of relief when he takes a sip, demure though it is, from his glass of water.  I assume this all takes place at a fine Jersey City establishment rather than Hoboken’s famed Malibu Diner.  Mr. Cheatam could fill us in.  Mr. Shaw could not, sadly.  (The food looks about the same, but Mayor Healy’s conversation isn’t nearly as colorful as former Mayor Cammarano’s - not a single word about grinding his political opponents into powder, according to the FBI transcript.  We in Hoboken are certain this video will, if you’ll forgive me, leave our Jersey City friends, er, in the dust.)

I nearly forgot to mention that Deputy Mayor Beldini has not always been a politician.  In the 1950s and 1960s she was a noted burlesque performer, and was inducted into the Burlesque Hall of Fame (who knew?) in 1995.  Inducted.  Indicted.  Only one letter difference!  Try on this photo of Ms. Beldini in what I presume were happier days:

SWAT-ed! 
I made mention in my first Hoboken entry (August 20) of the case of the Hoboken SWAT commander, Lt. Angelo Andriani, who was suspended a couple of years back.  The SWAT team (I’ll quote myself here) “paid a visit to New Orleans after the floods, supposedly to lend a hand.  Rather, they seem to have spent a lot of time at a local Hooter’s and there were photos of the chief in which he posed with some of the waitresses, the women taking turns gleefully holding his loaded semiautomatic rifle.  There was also video footage from a party in which he pulled bullets out of the magazine and handed them around to party guests including Mayor Roberts, who must also have been volunteering his help.”  Did I mention that that suspension was with pay? (actually, no) - to the tune of some $11,000 per month?  All this time there has been an internal investigation going on to determine whether Lt. Andriani should be punished and if so how.

This past January 27 it was reported at the NJ.com website that Lt. Andriani had caused something of a ruckus in the Tampa airport nine days earlier.  He reportedly was more than a little peeved that a flight crew was permitted to cut in front of him at the TSA checkpoint.  A Tampa police log evidently states that Andriani proceeded to take photos of the TSA agents and their badges and then waved his own badge and announced that he is a police officer.  (Do you think he mentioned the suspension - with pay?)  It might have been wiser had Lt. Andriani kept a somewhat lower profile, at least as to the badge he waved around.  That, given he had been required to - and evidently did - turn in his badge upon being suspended.  Which implies he was either waving around a counterfeit badge in Tampa or turned in a counterfeit to the Hoboken Police Department upon being suspended.  Either one a no-no!  But at least he doesn’t need to worry about the SWAT team being called out to deal with the situation; that’s been disbanded.  (It’s not clear they were ever called out for anything so grave - or anything for that matter.)

The badge-waving gave Hoboken Mayor Zimmer a suitable opening to turn the suspension with pay into a suspension without pay.  That took effect on February 4, following a legal hearing.

Why has this internal investigation been going on for two years?  Evidently Lt. Andriani is trying to get former Hoboken Mayor David Roberts to give sworn testimony, and Mr. Roberts is being less than enthusiastic about making himself available.  I for one am completely satisfied with that explanation.  [Note: The City officially fired Andriani on May 12 and is seeking restitution of back pay.]