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| Mike Lenz speaking with residents at fundraiser |
While I was watching last night's City Council meeting I had many feelings over the some of the questionable board appointments made last night; questionable that is from this reformer's perspective. My feelings ranged from WTF? disbelief, anger based on the inkling of a back room deal happening, the injustice rewarding bad behavior on the blogosphere by one particular candidate, and regret over poor political judgments by a very qualified candidate for City Council's 4th Ward made by Michael Lenz. I make no bones about the fact that in my humble opinion, a big political mistake was made and that decisions such as these have political consequences. I have let my opinions be known to both Mike Lenz and Tony Soares in emails.
Tony Soares initially offered an interview with the Hoboken Journal but then declined and preferred to defer to the council people who voted for him for the position. He had no problem speaking to Hoboken Patch which I like to refer to as the softer side of political news in town (Tim Caroll being the duly noted exception). I was able to speak to Michael Lenz and get his take on last night's meeting before wielding the more vorpal side of my pen on this blog. I thought it was important to hear him out before writing. We spoke off the record so I will not print any aspect of our conversation here until Mike Lenz has had time to adequately respond on the record if and only if he chooses.
On Hoboken Patch Mayor Zimmer echoed similar sentiments....
"Mayor Dawn Zimmer preferred to appoint former Democratic Committeeman Brian Assadourian to the position. Councilman-at-Large Bhalla nominated Assadourian for the position.
Zimmer said in a phone interview on Thursday morning that she believes people should only serve one board.
"I think it's best to have one person on one board," said Zimmer. "I want to involve the community as much as possible," she added."
My final comment: There is a simple remedy for all of this, Tony Soares could step down from the Zoning Board and alleviate this controversy somewhat. I am not making a demand on this but do ask that it be a consideration.Tony Soares could make valid point you don't step from one position before you get the other. What Tony does at this point is anyone's guess. A fair question to ask reformers is that is there anyone else willing to replace Tony on the zoning board that is up to do the job? Time will tell how this all plays out.
