GaryG I think there's some confusion about what transparency is. Transparency is that you see the process that occurs so that you can hold people accountable, check what's going on with the schools today, not that you get to have input.

Our nation, state, and city are democratic Republics. Simply speaking we elect people to make certain decisions and replacing a councilperson is one of the decisions we have enshrined in law to be the sole purview of the city council, and mayor in the case of a tie.

Because of this it was important for the council to known and understand Mr.Lenz's ample qualifications not for we the people at home or in the gallery.

As for transparency we had it. We got to see(in person, streamed LIVE online, and later on channel 78) how the council people voted. Agree or disagree with their vote you know how they voted, are free to ask them why, and hold them accountable for their vote. That's what transparency is.

The Russo Clan and Mason's penchant for grandstanding often obfuscates what transparency really is. That's unfortunate because we now have the most transparent council in years, if not decades.

Rudy, that is all very interesting and makes a lot of sense. Which is I think the point, you would never have come here and educated all of us about that unless the question was posed in the first place. This IS healthy discussion and I thank you for the part you just played in it!

I'm all for open debate, but there's a difference between that and dishonest debate. Honest debate starts with actual facts and turn on what they mean.

The facts here are that the City Council had 30 days after November 6 to act, meaning action had to be taken by December 6. Notice that it would be included on last Monday's agenda was apparently not officially given until the friday before, though it seems as if some people may have known before then. The "short list" was widely and correctly reported in the press and the blogs well in advance, so all councilmembers clearly aware of who was being considered by Zimmer's wing of the Council.

As reported here on the day of the meeting, the Mason/Russo faction apparently devised a legal strategy to prevent the vote from going forward. The videotape of the meeting makes it clear that Corporation Counsel and Councilman Giacci were key players in developing that strategy.

Unfortunately for them, Zimmer's side came prepared, having done the requisite legal research to demonstrate that Mason's position had little merit. Both lawyers present agreed that the Mayor should cast her vote, and that if issues remained someone could bring an action and a court could make the final decision. Nobody present raised the notion that the mayor was conflicted and should recuse herself.

Mason and Company so far have not taken that step - perhaps because they do not believe they would prevail, perhaps for other reasons known only to them.

Those are the actual facts. Do they raise questions worthy of discussion? Sure. An argument can certainly be made that it would have been a better process if public notice had been given earlier, and if a formal process had been established to allow interested parties to submit their names for consideration.

It's too bad that instead of having that conversation, we are having silly debates with silly people based on a silly rendition of fictional "facts" that have no relation to reality

"Mr. Lenz having a background in municipal finance is well suited to deal with these challenges so is a natural choice for Mayor Zimmer's council seat."

You know that and I know that. We know that Mike Lenz has a big background in finance because we follow Hoboken politics but not everyone knows that so I guess that's why more transparency would have helped, because for instance the publiccould have seen his resume or heard more about his qualifications too. By contrast tony soares gave a long list of what hes done.

I agree with FAP that the fact that this guy said how he got the position is 'unethical' is going too far. What is the rationale?

I can understand disagreeing with the process and I agree with those below who support healthy discussion on this site and others.

InfotainMe I would agree if the criticism was well thought out and reasoned. These "musing" lack cohesion or scholarship. From the random quote marks, quoting no one but himself, to base hyperbole it feels like a drunken blog post.

Is the Mayor entitled to ONE hire of a personal aid, yes. Did our new Mayor hire someone, yes. Is the salary reasonable, 60K would be reasonable 35K is a steal. Why was this hire so important? Going into City Hall our new Mayor needed someone she knew she could work with from the word go. Mr Bryan has demonstrated himself to be a hard working, smart, even tempered man and he continues to be an asset to our Mayor.

What's different is that Mayor Zimmer, in contrast to years past, hired someone who is working hard at a reasonable salary and didn't use the position to pay off a political debt.

As for the Fourth Ward seat it should be obvious to everyone that fiscal matters will loom largest before our city and the council in the next year. We'll have two budgets in that time and hospital who's finances are disintegrating by the minute. Mr. Lenz having a background in municipal finance is well suited to deal with these challenges so is a natural choice for Mayor Zimmer's council seat.

And I must say the last paragraph is an insult to this site. It makes spurious claims of legality and conflict of interest without a single iota of fact or explanation. It reinforces the worst perceptions of Poli-Sci teachers, laziness and lack of scholarship, and I'm surprised the author would commit such an act.

Our city has serious issues facing it, largely due to past mismanagement, but I'm starting to have hope from the decisions our Council and mayor are making. I doubt we'll see any more tax give-aways like the Mason-Russo sponsored Church Towers fiasco or the Roberts Hospital fiscal iceberg with this Mayor and council.

There are important questions that Hoboken citizens need to discuss but that discussion has to come from fact, research of the issues, and honesty. The above "article" lacks all three and is a detriment to getting that dialogue started.

GeniusJ, the claim that "Zimmer decided that this vote was somehow a tie and gave Lenz a fifth vote" is false. If you attended the meeting or watched on video, you would know that she voted upon the approval of corporation counsel. As would Thurman if he had attended or watched online. Clearly, he didn't.

I don't care if people criticize goings-in in town from an outside perch. The perspective may benefit people who are too close to the action. What I object to is making up facts. This indicates a pre-disposition for or against. And that compromises whatever benefit was supposed to come from being 'an outside observer'.

Who’s Thurman Hart and why does he interfere with Hoboken politics? In my opinion he is a guy who was not smart enough to have studied science and get a decent job; instead he studied political science (i.e. BS and more BS about nothing); what I find laughable is that he cannot even make an argument. If he is a professor I feel sorry for his students. I do want Michael Lenz scrutinizing all the past and present financial shenanigans. I do want Zimmer to veto the ‘not so straight city council people’ (I do have another word for it, but I won’t tell you what it is) when they oppose to the new elected city council members. Why would I want Russo, Castellano, Ghiacci and Mason decide what’s best for the taxpayers? They only did harm in the past and did not care about our complaints regarding the reckless spending. Mason is the leader of this group now. I would like her to get a vote of non-confidence to send her home. Oh, but wait, another year and she’ll be gone (she lost her ward to Zimmer, didn’t she?).

Anyway, professor TH, please go away and stop writing non-sense; making a fool out of yourself won’t get you anywhere. I watched the city council meeting, and I could not believe that Mr. Kleinman (BTW, why isn’t he gone???) told Nino Ghiacci (while they were in a 5 minute recess) that he ‘though hard, for 4 hours, how to stop the city council members from electing Michael Lenz, but he couldn’t come up with anything legal’….yes, Mr. Kleinman, the microphone was still on! Zimmer should have him FIRED for misconduct, neglect, acting recklessly or conflict of interest - pick one and fire the c …! You have him on tape! How dare he act against the people of Hoboken? We elected a new Mayor and that’s the end of your shenanigans!

i certainly agree with infotaineme that there are enough homegrown hacks with their misinformed opinons.

but i also do think its worthwhile to see what nudniks outside are saying because it stirs debate

hart says he knows lenz personally so i would guess they will be having a long time on the phone today.

Im mystefied by the people here who dont want the HR to include unusual opinions on things. this is a website that changes rapidly so if you dont like it, move on to the next item! if this was a column against beth mason or certainly against the russos you would be THRILLED TO DEATH no! hypocacy at its finest. by the way during the election there were numerous reports and opinions here about masons twofacedness and i think this was the first site to point out russos endorsement of her so you have to take the good with the bad.

face it now zimmers in office and columnists are going to have to criticize her if she is not better then the past. you had the chance to vote mason and you lost it.

Hey HR, spare us the 'thoughts' of people who neither bother learning the facts about which they are writing nor live here and have to deal with the consequences.

We have pleny of homegrown hacks and don't need the outside help.

I think it's pretty clear when something is fact or something is opinion. I also enjoy hearing different opinions and debating them. this is the internet, you know. if you go to the bottom of this site you can read the straight news.

With all the apathy in town i want to see more debate, not less. just because zimmer got in doesnt mean we can all go back to sleep now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look, Zimmer isn't a bad apple in my eyes. She's not a politician obviously from the way these past few things are being handled. Give the woman a break though. She's already making a difference by knocking off the nonesense that Roberts and friends used to perpetuate at city hall. We've got taxes to lower and budgets to cut and corruption to end. Thats a tall order. Now, should we watch this administration carefully and hold their feet to the fire if things start to go the wrong way? ABSOLUTELY. I don't want HCDO running Hoboken. They are a bunch of goons w/ self serving interests. And I hope Smarty, Revolt, HR, and other sites will offer up actual news and not opinion so the public is not forced to digest editorials which are obviously biased. Thanks

Who to heck is this Mr. Hart to stick his nose in places where it doesn't belong? What a bunch of BS! There were two lawyers present who both rendered opinions on the situation and unanimously (while begrudgingly in the case of Kleinman) advised Zimmer to cast her vote. In fact, Kleinman was caught on tape talking to Giacchi, giving the impression that he was consulted before the meeting to figure out a way to stop Zimmer from voting.

So unless Mr. Hart has legal evidence to back up his statements, I would suggest that he STFU.

G.Robinstoney, thanks for the comment and reading. Just came upon this late last night and so maybe a couple of typos and heated key pounding. The problem is not so much any administration should be open to criticism, it's just the sheer laziness demonstrated along with the outright distortions. Then again, I stayed up to 2:00 in the morning watching the meeting. Anyone can do so online, so why make reckless and easily disproven claims?

The replacement for Joe Garcia, a salary well previously into six figures is not even a third of that now and exceeded the salary of the current mayor. Personally, I was not critical of Joe Garcia although not clear what value he would bring to Hoboken. But he seemed like a talented sharp guy. Of course with unemployment so high now, there's a line for jobs even with reduced salaries as this one. Fair enough.

There's plenty of issues to have honest differences over and our town has really large problems to face rather than this drummed up fluff.

There's a hospital meeting next Tuesday looming large at HUMC. Maybe some of these statewide "observers" can take on something of real importance in our community. Mile Square View will provide the details of that meeting as soon as possible.

$52 million friends, $52 million.

Wow, a skilled defense, Smarty! I like your site, by the way. Your blog and this one are doing a good job of getting facts out there.

I looked it up and yeah Hart is a poly sci professor at local colleges.

One thing I disagree with you on is this "low paid worker" claptrap. There are still a lot of people who would like a city job with benefits. Hoboken's "reforemrs" have argued about people being appointed to NON paying positions becaue of chumminess, so it shouldnt be a surprise that they could argue this one.

I think the main difference Zimmer & Co are diff fro the past is that they do not intimiate and bully, at elast from what I've seen. Are they still political? Sure.

More hack writing from a statewide hack? Am I impressed by that? Uh sorry no.

There is a public information office and folks doing good work there who are not part of any campaign. And Daniel Bryan a pretty low paid worker holding multiple hats including confidential aide is a problem? Mr. Hart do you know the one person Mr. Bryan is replacing and his salary? It was Joe Garcia who was earning more than the current mayor!!

Okay, one can disagree with the limp argument of Mr. Hart there but the next one really takes the cake. Our good professor concludes with no evidence WHATSOEVER mind you, that it was the Mayor who decided to make the final vote for the councilman appointment? Excuse me?

We have something here called a videotape. Perhaps you might try to actually watch the proceedings and you'll see not one but in fact two legal counsel both arrive at the same opinion on the mayor taking a vote. First, Mr. Buzak is a very senior counsel and offered two valid opinions on the situation. What is yours "professor?" Oh that's right you don't even attempt to make a legal opinion. Your opinion begins with a conclusion that the mayor made the call. How impressive.

Now if you watch the videotape "professor" and yes I use that in quotes as I'm going to guess it came in NJ along with your other expertise, Mr. Kleinman is hardly enthused in his conclusion in support of Mr. Buzak. And if you listen to the video right after the swearing in ceremony, you'll hear him voice that he in fact had looked into the legal issue over hours and it was all he could do.

So Mr. Hart how about you take your fine conclusion and bankroll your supposition in court. I dare you, no I triple dare you. Go to court and tell the judge that Mayor Zimmer made the legal decision to vote on the fourth ward appointment.

This town has a huge problem ahead with the hospital. But the hacks serving this county and state are beyond belief in their incompetence. I didn't even need to edit this to tear into the lameness of this.

Come visit us at Mile Square View. We'll school you there again.

But warning we don't give hacks guests appearances.

the zimmeristas argue that at least things are better then they used to be.

so what? they should be even better then that!!