Special Hoboken City Council Meeting Wednesday June 29th:
http://www.hobokennj.org/docs/council/agenda11/Special_meeting_June_29_2011_Amended_Budget_Amendments.pdf
Beth Mason called this meeting at the last normally scheduled City Council meeting to finally get their version of the budget before the state as long as the "Old Guard" Majority was still in tact. On page 2 of the budget document in the link above for this special meeting the big change is the surplus up to about $14 million as line of revenue. Apparently all this gas bagging led to nothing since this budget won't get by the state anyway. Once certain union representatives understood the ramifications of the budget gimmickry the soon to be be minority "Council of Know-nothings" were exposed for the political stunt making they are best known for by the forces of good governance. All that vitriol for what? So Beth Mason could run for Mayor in 2013? Narcissism that even trumps that of Scott Delea.
Of course my reading of this could be wrong since I can't tell where the changes are coming from nor do I trust the numerical literacy of the Mason/Russo brain freeze trust on any matters financial. However, according to a source of mine this budget amendment has several major deficiencies in it so it is unlikely to pass State scrutiny anyway. See MSV for the auditor's review of the budget amendments.
Thus this meeting is unnecessary and gives an example of where Beth Mason was thankfully unable to fulfill a campaign promise of zeroing out the surplus and "taking money away from government bureaucrats". What a joke Beth Mason has turned out to be.
Hoboken City Council Meeting Friday July 1st:
Historic Meeting: Jen Giattino is sworn in earlier in the day and Mayor Dawn Zimmer gets back a working Majority.
Agenda: http://www.hobokennj.org/docs/council/agenda11/ccm-07-01-11.pdf
Resolutions: http://www.hobokennj.org/docs/council/respack11/respac-7-1-11.pdf
Overview of Agenda:
Administrative: Selection of Council President, Vice President, Planning Board and Newspapers for Noticing.
Ordinance 2nd Reading: Parking Fees in Municipal Garages.
Selected resolutions of interest:
1600 Park:
12. Resolution awards a contract to (to be selected) for the Construction of 1600 Park Artificial Turf Field for the City in accordance with the specifications in Bid Number 11-14 (submitted by Community Development)
Politrickery and posturing and the rational response by good governance:
- 13.* Resolution to terminate an investigation of the Council due to lack of factual information (sponsored by Councilman Bhalla and Councilman Cunningham). Makes sense.
- 14.* Resolution calling upon Mayor Dawn Zimmer to apologize and reimburse taxpayers for wasting tax dollars on politics (sponsored by Councilwoman Castellano and Councilman Occhipinti). Political puppets posturing.
Selected Ordinances on First Reading:
- Several ordinances on limits of political contributions.
- Corner Cars.
- Moving Municipal Elections to November.
Expect the July 1st meeting to finally be more productive than what has occurred in the last several months.
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