1) Ed Mecka at www.edmecka.com broke this story early as noted by Eric Kurta
"Ed Mecka deserves a good deal of the credit for bringing the missing meter money story to light. Here’s a video he pieced together which shows how the story developed and how Russo and Castellano consequently tried to quash the story (and the council’s effort to bring in a forensic audit team)."
- Erik Kurta
Good recap video from Ed Mecka link is below:
http://edmecka.com/articles/hoboken-city-council-debates-missing-parking-meter-revenue.html
2) Here are some excerpts from previous City Council meetings courtesy of Eric Kurta:
December 19, 2007 City Council Meeting
Councilwoman Terry Labruno: “I actually want an answer - Mr. Corea can you answer that question about the million dollars that was alluded to at the last – at the last council meeting, about a million dollars being missing from meters?”
Parking Utility Director John Corea: “Yes, uh, uh, I believe that was, uh, talking about the parking, uh, the meter collections. We did an internal audit once we heard that and our internal audit has been complete and it shows a difference of thirty-four dollars and sixty-one cents. It is now being audited by an outside firm to be confirmed, uh, but we don’t see a problem as of right now.”
Russo: “And for the record, uh, that was an error in my calculation, so – when I asked the question, it was actually an error in my calculations when I was doing my own due diligence when it came to the budget, uh, so it was just a question and we clarified it…I was wrong.”
.........
Councilman Michael Russo: “Mr. England, I have one, uh, one other revenue source that, uh, has been called into question and - and some of my Council colleagues might know about it, some of them might not. Uh, it looks to, looks to me like there’s a million dollars missing in revenue from our collection in parking meters. This correct?”
Richard England, Business Administrator: “Umm…I don’t know at this point, Councilman.”
Russo: “I think we really need to look into it, uh, I don’t know if it was just not paid to us, I don’t know if it’s actually missing, I don’t know if there was a miscalculation, I have no idea what the circumstances are…”
Council President Theresa Castellano: “Needs to be looked into…”
Russo: “…but it’s my understanding that there, there’s something going on with that revenue stream. If we could get, uh, a look at it and find out so that you can report back to this council.”
England: “Let me check it out and I’ll get back to you as soon as I have an answer.”
..............
January 16, 2008 City Council Meeting
Hoboken Resident Maurice “Mo” Degenarro: “Is there a million dollars missing or isn’t there – was it a mistake – did they find it, or what? On the parking.”
Castellano: “Councilman Russo.”
Russo: “Thank you, Council President. Mo, the - the reason why I thought there was money missing was because I was going on past year’s, uh, anticipated revenues from the Parking Utility from the meters. Uh, it turned out that the meters did not generate as much money as they did in years past, so it was my mistake to think that that money was there when in fact it was not. That was the situation.”
Castellano: “It’s been cleared up.”
3) An older artcile on John Corea on NJ.com's Hoboken Now:
Why was the Hoboken Parking Utility head banned from the NYSE?
http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2008/07/why_was_parking_head_john_core.html
4) A letter to the editor five years ago from Micheal Schaffer (Cammarano's alleged bag man in Diner Gate) supporting John Corea and attacking Tony Soares:
Dear Editor:
Anthony Soares has asked the question in your letter to the editor section last week -"Mr. Schaffer, which side are you on?" The answer is simple...not yours!
I am on the side of the People of Hoboken, the city council majority and Mayor David Roberts. I support reasonable people who want to work together to develop policy for Hoboken's future. Not people who embrace your personal favorite motivation...self-aggrandizement. I do not support individuals or groups of individuals who proclaim themselves reformers while adopting the tactics of the previous dictator they admonished.
I am proud that I served as John Corea's campaign treasurer. I am especially proud of the fact that we did not accept money from the corrupt Janiszewski political machine or its pay-to-play supporters. Unlike you, we did not solicit or accept money from pay-to-play Janiszewski cronies like the operators of Pollock Hospital who left their elderly patients without water to drink or bathe and then filed bankruptcy leaving the people of Hudson County with a multi-million dollar debt.
I strongly supported John Corea's appointment as an employee of the Hoboken Parking Utility just as adamantly as I opposed your forcing the political appointment of your unqualified political cronies to the position of Public Works Director and Chief Financial Officer of Hoboken. One might have had some experience in urban planning but did not know how to manage a workforce or fill a pothole. The other did not have the credentials required to handle the people's finances nor the person skills to communicate with others. What I found wrong with the Roberts administration has been corrected by eliminating your influence. My hope for the future of Hoboken lies within positive change brought about by constructive give and take discussions by reasonable representatives of the people.
I dislike you representing yourself as a reformer. I clearly remember you attacking the Russo administration for overspending, running a closed government and incompetence. Now you claim to have had a meeting of the minds with the Russo faction you so loudly denounced. You're not a reformer, you're an opportunist, but at whose expense.
- Micheal Schaffer
- Sent to me by Tony Soares
My comment: The hypocrisy of the old guard of corruption is again evidenced above by the many blatantly wrong ( in historical hindsight) statements of the skullduggerers, apologists, otherwise "asleep at the wheel" ignoramuses, collaborators, and perpetuators of fiscal malfeasence.
Will the next step from the NJ AG's office stop here or look into how much who knew what and when? Stay tuned! ◦
