Mayor Dawn Zimmer on Elections Today - in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy

Dear Friends ,

Hoboken is emerging from the worst natural disaster in

our history having demonstrated the incredible spirit of

our community.  

Hundreds of people volunteered every day to help their neighbors, literally

saving lives as we struggled together as an extended Hoboken family.  

As I write this, power has been restored in most of the City thanks to the

enormous assistance given to us by President Obama, Governor Christie,

the National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, and most of all by the

dedicated workers of PSE&G who worked 24/7 to get our antiquated and

badly damaged substations running again as quickly as was humanly possible.  

Some of our neighbors still remain without power and we are continuing

to work hard to identify the reasons and resolve the remaining problems.

It is time to start the long and difficult process of rebuilding

our City and in many cases our homes and our businesses.  

Today is Election Day and the election will go on.  It is

important that despite the turmoil in all of our lives, that

you vote if you can.  

FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE

Polling locations can be easily found by texting 877877 with your

address (street address and 07030 zip code) as the message.  A return

text with your polling location will be received in seconds.

In addition to voting for President, Senator and Congressperson, three

questions critical to our local Hoboken community are on the ballot.  

Especially during this difficult time, it is important to the future of our

community that you make sure that your voices are heard on these three

critically important Hoboken ballot questions.  

SCHOOL BOARD

I strongly urge you to support the Kids First School Board team of

Tom Kluepfel, Jeanne Marie Mitchell and Ruth McCallister  

(K - L - M on the ballot).  

Kids First has our schools finally moving in the right direction.  They have

instituted the sound educational and fiscal practices that are necessary

to make our schools better year after year.  

The process will take time but Kids First is definitely moving our schools

in the right direction and we cannot return to the past practices that led

to the problems the Kids First team is working so hard to address.  

ELECTION REFORM

Please vote YES on Hoboken ballot questions 1 & 3, important

election reforms that would consolidate our municipal elections into a

single election on Election Day in November with the candidate getting

the most votes on that day elected to serve without the need for an

additional runoff election.  

This would replace the current system of having a separate local election

in May followed by an additional runoff election if necessary in June, in

addition to the June primary and the November general election

.  

In 2009 we had 5 elections in 8 months.  If these reforms had been

in place we would have had only two, a June primary and a November

general election.  These important reforms would greatly increase voter

participation and save taxpayer money, as much as $125,000 per

unnecessary election that would be eliminated. 

RENT CONTROL

I will be voting NO on Hoboken Ballot question 2 which proposes

amending our Rent Control law to move toward vacancy decontrol.

In my opinion the proposal, which was developed by a landlord advocacy

group, does not include sufficient protections for existing tenants given

the new financial incentives that would be created to encourage vacancies

so that rents could be raised. 

If your commute has been made more difficult, please vote in

the morning if you can.  The process will likely be much quicker and

that would ensure that a difficult commute doesn't cause you to arrive

home too late to cast your ballot.  

I will be emailing more regularly over the next several months

so that I can keep you updated on how our great City is progressing.  

Sandy has set us back a bit, but Hoboken remains a unique and extraordinary

City and our future remains bright.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer

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Mayor Dawn Zimmer on Elections Today - in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy