Editors Note: If anyone else wants to submitt a letter to the editor endorsing ANY candidate to this site email me at kurt.gardiner@gmail.com.
A Case For Mayor Zimmer - by Jonathan Metsch
As we prepare to vote for Mayor, it is important to be clear on the differences between the three major candidates.
Mr. Cammarano's oft repeated position is that if every Council member voted for the '09 budget as he did, Hoboken would be OK because the State would not have taken over. Of course he ignores and offers no plan to address Hoboken's $15 million structural deficit, that he is obviously ready to keep buried like Mayor Roberts.
Mr. Cammarano talks about SMART PILOTs but offers no specifics. He objects to the State Fiscal Monitor starting a Property Revaluation, saying this should be left to elected officials (who have not done it in 20 years). He sees the Board of Education as an elected body, not accountable to City Hall.
Mr. Cammarano thinks that the City taking over the hospital was an incredible value to Hoboken but he cannot calculate the City's exposure on the $53 million bond guarantee. Instead he advocates, if necessary, that zoning changes to upgrade the approved use would provide sufficient funds to pay off the bonds in full (while, of course, dramatically changing the character of the neighborhood).
Ms. Mason thinks that she already has the answers to Hoboken's problems through her investigations, OPRA requests, committee meetings and litigation. And she seems to think her solutions can simply be parachuted into City Hall and all will be fixed.
Ms. Mason wills "right-size" not "down-size" all agencies. She will retrain and re-deploy city employees. She will get unions to sacrifice ("give-backs").
Ms. Mason says PILOTs should be used to reshape and rehabilitate underutilized parts of town, then voted for renewal, without changes, of the expired Church Towers PILOT. And before voting for Dawn Zimmer's recent PILOT Transparency resolution, she tried to table it as unnecessary saying a similar State statute already existed (then was corrected by Corporation Counsel). And she celebrated the W Hotel opening which received the most unnecessary PILOT ever where million dollar condo owners pay $4,000 city taxes, and no county or Board of Education taxes.
Ms. Mason says she was against the Robert's plan to take over the hospital but has not mustered the City Council around a plan to get the City off the bond guarantee. While she is for an equitable distribution of taxes she proposes that the REVAL be deferred until 2011 which would not put it in effect until at least 2014.
Ms. Mason said it important to keep City politics out of the Board of Education thus inappropriate to endorse any candidates, but after the election put a gratuitous advertisement in the paper congratulating KIDS FIRST.
Dawn Zimmer thinks we need to reach a consensus on core values for community development and then make sure that the master plan, redevelopment proposals and individual projects address these core values. Dawn will implement a process where together residents (residential and commercial) will discuss, develop and formalize core values for Hoboken.
Here are few of the core values I believe Dawn has in mind. Fiscal responsibility, transparency and accountability. A renewed commitment to open spaces where we can enjoy the outdoors, have fields for our kids, and see the river. Maintaining Hoboken as a small town with unique neighborhoods. The City should not own a hospital; it needs to be re-privatized and merged with a regional center as quickly as possible. The Mayor must work with the Board of Education to develop a three year plan to get Hoboken's schools in the top tier in New Jersey.
Dawn's many substantive accomplishments include: exposed 16 years of fiscal management and that Mayor Roberts 2008 budget was underfunded by over $11 million; sponsored a resolution that requires disclosure of the true costs of PILOT tax abatements granted to developers as compared to regular taxation; rejected a ten year extension of the Church Towers PILOT that continued taxpayer subsidies to people making over $100,000 per year without legally protecting those who really need affordable housing; worked with Jersey City and Hudson County to reopen the stalled process of rerouting Patterson Plank Road; and sponsored resolutions establishing an Open Space Trust Fund, creating Hoboken’s first bike lanes, and enabling Hoboken to obtain a grant funded energy audit,
Electing Mr. Cammarano would be a continuation of the Russo/ Roberts "status quo", "pay-to-play", " friends first" style of government.
Electing Ms. Mason would bring Hoboken a "top-down" elitist style of exclusive leadership based on absolute certainties like "Hoboken must build or die."
Electing Dawn Zimmer as Hoboken's next Mayor would mean "slow government" characterized by financial and tax austerity, inclusiveness and consultation, and a "green" prism for all public policy decisions.
Dawn brings back thoughts of Robert Kennedy who said: "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ◦
