City Council Terminates City Garage Contract 5-3

Last night the Hoboken City Council in a special meeting called by Mayor Zimmer voted to terminate the City Garage contract in a 5-3 vote that went along the usual lines. Councilmen Lenz, Mello, Bhalla, and Cunningham via phone and Councilwoman Carol Marsh voted yes to turn down the contract. Councilwoman Mason along with Councilmen Russo and Giacchi voted no to keep the agreement. Terry Castellano was not present.

Councilman Dave Mello speaks at special meeting

Beth Mason who showed up late had questioned whether the meeting should have even taken place. The initial vote to move forward with the meeting to closed session was 4-1 with  Cunningham, Russo and Mason not present at the beginning of the meeting. After the vote the City Council went into closed session for 3 hours plus.

The resolution stated that the developer S.G. Hekemian " has engaged in a series of actions, calculated to sabotage the closing of title." No specifics were mentioned probably due to the legal issues regarding what will now be legal action between between the City of Hoboken and the developer S.G. Hekemian. Yet another interesting twist in the Municipal Garage saga.

Tonight, there is a a normally scheduled City Council meeting. Given that last night's meeting took about 4 and 1/2 hours it looks like the special meeting being called was in fact justified after all. While I generally support the Administration the twist and turns on this issue over the last several months leave me with a wait and see attitude to how this all plays out.

Video recap Part 1 of 2 of the public portion of the special meeting:



Video recap Part 2 of 2 of the public portion of the special meeting:



For thorough coverage of the meeting from a real journalist go to Hoboken Patch:

http://hoboken.patch.com/articles/city-council-votes-to-terminate-garage-contract ◦

City Council Terminates City Garage Contract 5-3