Tonight in Politrick's: Hoboken Style

Here is the lay of the land with respect to Hoboken politricks for tonight:

Monday June 13th:

Mayor Sacs Maier- Change of Direction at Environmental Services

Mayor Zimmer Announces Interim Environmental Services Director and that effective today, Jennifer Maier will no longer serve as Director of Environmental Services. It isn't easy being Mayor of Hoboken, or any type of manager when it comes to making the decision to part ways. That fact that Jennifer Maier has been replaced was the worst kept secret in Hoboken over the last month. I wish her luck wherever she winds up.

Beth Mason to FBI: F*ck You! I want my political victory!

Beth Mason has called for another meeting on the FBI investigation tonight at City Hall. In a meeting not properly noticed, Beth Mason still wants her pound of flesh from the Zimmer Administration before her and her lame duck and financially inept City Council are out of power. FBI investigation be damned! Zimmer has responded in a letter late last week that said no information will be released while the investigation is ongoing.

Link: http://hoboken.patch.com/articles/mason-calls-meeting-for-briefing-on-fbi-investigation

Jamie Cryan Likely Hoboken Democratic HCDO Chair?

Tonight at Room 84 at 84th and Washington Street, the Hoboken Democrats will have their yearly election. Going in the "Real Democrats" (including some real Republicans) led by Michele Russo have an 38-34 vote lead over the "Honest Democrats" led by Phil Cohen and backed by Dawn Zimmer. Who ever gets their people to show up will get back power of this committee. Across the blogosphere "Da Horsey" over at MSG has the emerging candidate of the HCDO Dems as none other than Jamie Cryan. With a big shot developer friendly relative as an elected official in New Jersey, Jamie would be the figure head for the political movement that wants to sell out Hoboken to NJT for huge development payola. As the old saying goes, follow the money.

For the Real Democrats to win tonight they will have to have their people show up even though they have the edge in voters.

My Comment: Hey Michele (Russo), you better have some of your people check their flight schedules! Make sure they have their passports! Part of winning in life is just showing up.

Link: http://www.hobokenhorse.com/2011/06/jamie-cryan-prepped-by-real-democrats.html

Hey, speaking of Jamie Cryan, enjoy the music.....



Later this week: Some high profile teachers up/not up for tenure and their supporters could cause a ruckus at the BOE Tuesday and the Mason/Russo axis of fiscal malfeasance on Wednesday will commence for another session of budget politrickery at City Hall.

By going down to a zero surplus these demented miscreants of budgetary misdeeds will really screw over cops, fireman and other municipal workers. The upcoming reto-payouts were part of the surplus that Beth Russo gave back and with caps in place the only recourse will be to have layoffs as well as tax increases to the maximum allowable. The problem is that the maximum allowable may not be enough to allow all workers to come back. In essense Beth Mason, Mike Russo and the whole bunch of fiscal misfits have doomed public employees to layoffs.

Mayor Zimmer clearly had the better plan here to maintain the surplus at 5%. It would have given the City the flexibility to bond at reasonable rates as well as cover these retro-pays. The only hope is that the State nixes this BS budget passed by the City Council. ◦

Tonight in Politrick's: Hoboken Style

Mayor Out with Maier: New Interim Director Tom Atkins

In just about any executive branch at any level of government, there are key departures as well as additions during the span of an administration. That was true for George Bush, Obama and right down to the local levels of Hoboken government. The Zimmer Administration by making this announcement is showing that the Mayor is holding directors accountable and making adjustments as she sees fit to do so. This departure was probably the worst kept secret in Hoboken as Beth Russo operatives confirmed to me that Maier was on the out two weeks ago. I waited for the City to confirm it. The reasons for the Mayor and her having this split are not readily known at this time to me but I would like to thank Jennifer Maier for her service to Hoboken in the time she was here. Here is the release on the switch from City Hall....

Mayor Zimmer Announces Interim Environmental Services Director

Effective today, Jennifer Maier will no longer serve as Director of Environmental Services.

Mayor Zimmer has appointed Tom Atkins, who has more than three decades of municipal management experience, to take over day-to-day operations of the department on an interim basis beginning on Tuesday, June 14. He served as Municipal Manager of Scotch Plains from 1980 through 2008 and as Borough Administrator of Metuchen from 1975 to 1980.

A full review of the Department of Environmental Services will be conducted to ensure efficient and cost-effective services are delivered to residents. The City Council will be offered the opportunity to be briefed in closed session on Wednesday regarding this matter. ◦

Mayor Out with Maier: New Interim Director Tom Atkins

Complete Hoboken Primary Results are in for June 7, 2011

These are the results (unofficial) for Hoboken from the June 7th Primary. Keep in mind, in a primary election, the Democratic machine will get out their vote and that is why in a city wide election, the dynamics will be different. Ravi Bhalla was able to win the 6th Ward and Ramos and O'Connor riding on the coat tails of Brian Stack were able to get out their voters. These results include the Republican primaries as well.

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Complete Hoboken Primary Results are in for June 7, 2011

Unofficial Hoboken Democratic Committee Primary Results are in!

For those who have asked or are just curious here are the unofficial Hoboken Democratic Committee Results for the battle between the HCDO and the Democrats for Honest Hoboken held on Tuesday June 7th, 2011. Click to enlarge images for more readability.

Correction: Donna Antonucci is still the winner but not by the announced wide-margin (70-30) as stated earlier on this blog. She beat out Ines Garcia-Keim 68-51 in  votes. There were several very close races decided by few votes.

The Democratic Committee re-organization meeting is this coming Monday night at Room 84.

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Unofficial Hoboken Democratic Committee Primary Results are in!

Update Reader Mail: Beth Mason and Monarch on the Shipyard- Developer Sellout

Update 6/10/2011: The City provided this update on 6/8/2010 on the Monarch Development Project....

An application was submitted by Shipyard Associates to build two 11-story towers on the pier in front of the Hudson Tea Building.

The Zimmer Administration took the following actions in response to the application:

Boswell, the City engineer, carefully reviewed the application and pointed out deficiencies to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Link: http://www.hobokennj.org/docs/mayor/Boswell-Zimmer-Monarch-5-20-11.pdf
Community Development Director provided a review of how the application does not relate in any way to the Master Plan or the Master Plan Reexamination.

Link: http://www.hobokennj.org/docs/mayor/Forbes-DEP-Monarch-5-18-11.pdf

Mayor Zimmer wrote a strongly worded letter to the DEP against the application, highlighting the need to protect our waterfront, the treasure of our City.

Link: http://www.hobokennj.org/docs/mayor/Zimmer-DEP-Monarch-5-20-11.pdf

The DEP responded and noted that the application is incomplete and contains several deficiencies. Click here to view the letter from the DEP.

Link: http://www.hobokennj.org/docs/mayor/DEP-Shipyard-Associates-6-1-11.pdf

Link to City Website article: http://www.hobokennj.org/news/update-on-monarch-at-shipyard/

It would appear that once the Zimmer Administration found out about this project, they acted along the appropriate channels such as the DEP to get their concerns on this application on the table. Not sure what that crazy guy over at Hoboken 411 was ranting about. This is a bad project for Hoboken's Waterfront in its current form; unless you are a developer of course with ties to "Develop or Die" Beth Mason.

Time after time that Krazy Klaussen is proven wrong again and again. What a hater. Good reason to have antipathy toward this project though. I hope the rest of the Hudson Tea crew realize Beth Mason is in bed with Applied. No amount of vote buying in 2013 will even let her win her own ward if the voters in Hudson Tea realize what is really going on here and actually vote and acknowledge  Beth Mason is behind hideous development projects such as this one.

Orginal Post 6/9/2010: Reader Eric sent in this email on Beth Mason and her handling of the "Monarch at Shipyard" project which has some high rises that would make pro-developer and former mayor Dave Roberts jump for joy. Beth Mason, it would seem is in bed with the Barry's. Hardly a startling revelation if you have been following my coverage of the evil witch queen (Mason) on this blog, MSV and Grafix Avenger. Here is his account of the latest in large scale development projects that has some residents ready with salt gas tanks of the bulldozers.

Hi,

As a follower of all of your websites I thought you would find the following interesting.

You might notice on the Hoboken city website today the news regarding the update on “Monarch at Shipyard”.

It is interesting to note that after residents sent inquiries to city hall requesting their help in dealing with this unexpected application for new development in the north east part of town, city hall responded accordingly (specifically the Mayor and her directors). But where do you ask was our Ward 2 representative? Well that is a good question because Beth Mason still has not bothered responding to one person in her ward asking for her help. At first I just thought it was an oversight that she did not respond to my e-mail but then I realized multiple individuals had also e-mailed her with no response.

Now I thought this was a bit strange and of course the speculation/rumor is that she is in bed with the applied companies and Mr. Barry himself and therefore is not going to disrupt that relationship to help people in her ward but even if this proved to be incorrect or false her silence speaks volumes. It is damn shame she was re-elected when she does not do her job and represent her ward and instead focuses her time on city hall e-mails or protesting corner cars. Clearly, the residents at the Hudson Tea Building have heard her loud and clear and we will be getting out the vote in 2013 to make sure we have a mayor who will represent the people of Hoboken properly and that person will not be Ms. Mason.

Another interesting item, when this application to the DEP was brought to the attention of the Hudson Reporter, again no response or comment which is very unlike them. I guess you can say they are not a true independent newspaper (I believe they are still partially owned by Applied companies).

Thank you for your time.

- Eric

My comment: Where were those voters from the Hudson Tea building for Tom Greaney during the last election? He could have used the help.  With 10 more voters from Hudson Tea building he could have made the runoff. ◦

Update Reader Mail: Beth Mason and Monarch on the Shipyard- Developer Sellout

Thank You for Your Support and Happy Birthday to Me!

I don't have the vote totals from my write in campaign but I do know that there were at least 85 write-ins for Freeholder 5th District in the Democratic primary and 18 in the Republican. I'm sure not all all of them are mine, probably most of them based on feedback. Thank you for your vote.

I am awaiting to see if my petitions for Freeholder are accepted but they should be. I was able to muster 139 signatures when 100 were required. Once the petitions are accepted I will make a formal announcement on what I plan to do but for as of now I am heavily leaning towards running a grass roots campaign with the only expectation is that I engage the citizens and raise awareness of the issues as time permits. Most people don't even know what a freeholder does and party bosses want it kept that way. Volunteers will be welcome. Massive amounts of campaign literature will not be not happening. The campaign if it does happen, will be in my voice and in my style. Thanks again to all who signed my petition.

Also: Today is my birthday. I'm getting so old a Facebook friend had to remind me it was my birthday. :) Time for a blogger break. See you tomorrow.

Here is one more getting older joke:

Thank God I am not that "Horsey" blogger over at MSV! If I was him I am so old this is where I could be headed.....

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Thank You for Your Support and Happy Birthday to Me!

Garbage Lies and Smears from Column A HCDO

Here was a smear flyer from the beloved folks over at Column A HCDO line from the June 7th primary. They are such honest nice people they are. Really? Share your thoughts below on this divisive flyer.

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Garbage Lies and Smears from Column A HCDO

June Primary Results in!

The results are in for the June 7th primaries and the takeaway from me besides the results for the Democrats was other than the Hoboken Democratic Committee and Assembly seats in the 33rd District there were really no other races that had any challengers. All charts shown are based on unofficial data from the Hudson County Election website: http://www.hudsoncountyclerk.org/cgi-bin/election.pl

33rd District NJ Assembly: Ravi Bhalla did not get the votes to win and lost by a wide margin but laid the ground work to build a future base. It does not appear that any bullet voting occurred and people who voted for Ramos also voted for Connors. Column A worked its usual electoral magic for the machine Dems. It will take time to build a reform following in Hudson County. That is the main takeaway from this result. Kudos to Ravi Bhalla and his campaign team for giving voters a choice.

Hoboken Democratic Committee: The faction led by Michelle Russo "Real Democrats" held an unofficial lead of 38-34 as of late last night over the "Honest Democrats: led by Phil Cohen. Great news for reform as Ines Garcia-Keim, a die-hard Beth Mason backer was trounced by Donna Antonucci by a whopping margin of 70-30 and she can't be the chair. The side that has their people show up at the re-org meeting on Monday will likely determine who has control of the committee. It's a horse race!

Freeholder 5th District: It looks like my symbolic write-in campaign reached at least a few voters and the write-in tally stands at 85 votes with most districts reporting. Thanks to all that tried to vote for me but couldn't and for those who could. It would appear many poll workers did not know how to instruct people how to correctly vote a write-in candidate. Something to work on for next time for the Board of Elections. I wasn't going to win this round but people should know how to do their jobs.

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June Primary Results in!

How to Vote for a Write-in-Candidate Revised

A few people have reached out asking help to figure out how to write me (Kurt Gardiner) in for Freeholder today.

Here are even more specific instructions that some poll workers either don't know or don't want to share:

• Go to the row for Freeholder and go to the right to select personal choice.
• Down below in the key pad type in my first name KURT.
• Hit the right arrow to create a space. Yes, the right arrow acts as the space bar. Who designed this thing?
• Type in my last name GARDINER.
• Hit the Enter key.
• If you are finished with your other choices then hit the CAST VOTE button.

That is it. Spread the word!

FYI: I received word that a key supporter did successfully deliver my petitions to the County Clerk's office this morning. No last minute Beth Mason mania from this candidate! From 12:30pm to 9:15pm yesterday I was able to gather 139 petitions from Hoboken residents that are registered to vote. If approved after review from the County Clerk's I will be on the ballot as an independent in the November General Election.

Thanks again for all those that helped yesterday with the petition drive. ◦

How to Vote for a Write-in-Candidate Revised

Messag from Peter Cunningham/Jake Stuiver: Vote Row C and GOTV!

Here is an election day reminder from newly re-elected 5th Ward Councilman Peter Cunningham who showed voters that the Hoboken 411 demented diatribe was a fabrication, a myth by winning on the first ballot....

Dear Friends, Family and Neighbors,

The note below is from our friend Jake Stuiver and it sums it up! We need your vote one more time tomorrow. Please take a moment and vote for Hoboken, vote Column C.

I know from past experience in Hoboken, from canvassing this weekend and campaigning this morning, most folks do not vote on Primary Day. We all know there has been a movement under way to take back our local government. It started with Kids First in 2006, council elections 2007, mayoral 2009, democratic committee in 2010 and council again 2011.

There are countless members of our diverse communities to thank for the progress we have made.

Tomorrow will be another milestone for Hoboken and the State of New Jersey. Let's join together again and elect a reformer from Hoboken that is beholden to YOU, and hold local control of the Hoboken
Democratic Committee. Please support Ravi Bhalla for Assembly and Column C - Democrats for Honest Government for Democratic Committee,

AND

write in Kurt Gardiner for Freeholder. Please type in Kurt's name under "special choice" line 6.

- Peter Cunningham

My Comment: If you live in the 5th Ward 1st District please vote for John Carey 11C and Theresa Minutillo 10C. They are in my home district and will represent Hoboken well on the Committee with their vote when the organizational meeting is called. You have my assurances that they will not be voting for the Party Chair supported by the Russo faction on Column A.  Every Vote counts and the polling place for 5-1 is the Brandt School on 9th and Garden.  Also do your best to try and write me in for Freeholder. I have submitted petitions for the November elections an independent but you can still write me in for the primary. ◦

Messag from Peter Cunningham/Jake Stuiver: Vote Row C and GOTV!