Here is a reader submission from today on Pery Klaussen's latest campaign of misinformation against Dawn Zimmer and her allies.
Editor's Note: While this is the opinion of the reader submission I will note this reminds me of the final straw in my falling out with Hoboken 411 as a credible source of information. I had tried to contact Perry Klaussen (Hoboken 411) a while ago when he falsely claimed Dawn Zimmer called for vigilantism at a community meeting disguised as a reader submission. Since I was at the meeting myself I knew this most certainly was not the case. When I wrote Perry several times to retract that falsehood he never responded back. That is when I knew he was out to attack Dawn Zimmer at all costs, truth be damned.
Here is the intro from Katie_Scarlett:
Kurt,
Just as an FYI, Perry is lying about Cunningham in his "More Fallout From Cammarano Arrest" thread, and he is refusing to allow my Katie Scarlett posts to post (nor is he responding to email).
Maybe you can throw this up on your site?
Thanks!
- Katie Scarlett
Here's what Perry says (in red to represent the bloody distortions that are escalating on that site):
Donors thumb nose at Pay-to-Play ordinance. Among the donors that contributed to the New Frontier PAC were engineering firms CMX Inc. and Remington & Vernick, as well as the law firm Gluck Walrath. All three have received contracts from Hoboken, according to public records. CMX Inc. donated $2,500 and received a $65,185 contract last year to perform environmental engineering at a public works garage the city is interested in selling. That contract was increased to $98,445 in June. The firm donated $2,500 to New Frontier in May, according to campaign finance records.
Remington & Vernick received an engineering contract that could not exceed $50,000 from Hoboken in 2007. The firm donated $4,000 to the New Frontier Committee in February 2008. Gluck Walrath received a $104,606 contract from Hoboken and a $171,187 contract from the Hoboken Municipal (Hospital) Authority. Records show five attorneys from the firm donated $275 each to the New Frontier PAC in February 2007.
OK - stop here. The word Hospital is in parentheses because it was omitted appear in the paper.
Gluck Walrath is Hoboken’s Bond Counsel.
They get paid every time another bond is issued. This would be a good time to point out that although POG and others have been watching Gluck Walrath’s contributions you won’t hear boo about them from Councilman Peter Cunningham.
The Fifth Ward rep is also a sales rep for the arm of BNY/Mellon that brokers Municipal Bond deals. He sells his bank’s services to municipalities and has to play nice with firms like Gluck that handle the bond deals. (Whoops! There goes that pesky “truth telling” again! Some people really hate it when I do that!)
Here is the link to the offending article:
http://hoboken411.com/archives/25488#more-25488
This is what Katie_Scarlett has to say:
I just can't in good conscience let this misrepresentation of how these municipal bond deals work sit out on the internet and potentially ruin Peter's Cunningham's reputation. To start, The Bank of New York either acts as the Trustee to the Bondholders or the Letter of Credit Bank (or both) on most of the bond deals with which they're involved. While Peter is in the sales arm of BNY Mellon, his work is Trustee bank related. To be clear, the Trustee on these deals upholds the Bondholders rights and is brought into the deals long after the deals have been brokered and the terms set (the Underwriter/Borrower & Issuer hammer those details out prior to the Trustee being chosen). The Trustee Bank is chosen after a bidding process, sometimes a bid on the individual deal, sometimes a bid that holds for a period of time or for a series of deals to be issued over time under the same General Indenture. Trustee Banks can and have been fired for nonperformance. I do not personally have knowledge of any instances where that has happened to BNY Mellon.
In addition, Bond Counsel basically nothing to do with choosing the Trustee on the transaction, unless they're complaining that a bank is difficult to work with (but the Issuers know this, as the banks pay out the interest payments and manage the funds, and it becomes apparent quickly who is and who is not a good Bond Trustee).
This means that Peter's clients, Peter being a representative of the Trustee Bank, are actually the *Issuer* of the Bonds. To repeat, Bond Counsel has zip to do with who is appointed Trustee Bank, and the Trustee Bank is brought in at the end of the transaction after a bidding process. The deals are NOT brokered by the Trustee Bank. Trustee Banks are retained based on a bid procedure, and the only real players in the NYC Metro Area are US Bank, Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank & BNY. BNY is the #1 Trustee bank and has a stellar reputation. It is hard to imagine that a council member can sway the City or the Hospital Authority to disregard bids and just take his bank as Trustee bank. Now, if he worked for Bond Counsel, who btw are Bond Counsel to the Issuer (the city in this case) that'd be different entirely. I believe current Bond Counsel should be fired and a RFP should be sent out immediately to find new counsel.
Sincerely,
Katie Scarlett
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