In Hackensack, a vote for the underdog is a vote for reform

Independent Hackensack City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson is urging the Borg family to offer 20 acres along River Street, including The Record's old headquarters, above, to the developer of a controversial Long-Term Acute Care Hospital proposed for a small parcel on Prospect Avenue or to the city for the site of a community center and public pool.

 

Hackensack residents won't find any news of their city in The Record today, but they'll have a lot of questions for the outgoing mayor and other City Council members after reading a story in the Local section.

The borough of Ridgefield is voting on Tuesday to decide whether officials should spend $550,000 initially toward the construction of a $15 million civic center (L-3).

Hackensack doesn't have anything like a $15 million civic center or even a public pool.

The City Council in "Zisaville" has raised property taxes 65%, but can't afford to pave streets.

And the council, along with City Attorney Joseph C.  Zisa Jr., squandered $6 million in legal fees on all of the civil and criminal cases sparked by his cousin, Ken Zisa, the former state Assemblyman and convicted ex-police chief.

Independent candidate Victor E. Sasson (Line 11) is urging residents to get out and vote for reform. He is considered an underdog.

Five members of the Citizens for Change slate also stand for reform (Lines 1-5).

But Coalition for Open Government candidates can be counted on to perpetuate the Zisa family's politics of greed (Lines 6-10). 

The Hudson Street building with the private law offices of Hackensack City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr. is available for lease, according to a sign in a first-floor window.

One-track mind

Today's Page 1 story on NJ Transit's failure to safeguard hundreds of train cars and engines from Superstorm Sandy was coordinated with WNYC-FM, the National Public Radio station, which aired the first of two parts this morning. 

The station identified Staff Writer Karen Rouse as "a senior reporter at The Bergen Record," and credited her with breaking the story of NJ Transit's expensive screw-up.

There was no mention of how The Record's coverage of mass transit before Sandy hit on Oct. 29, 2012, consisted of sending a reporter to meetings of NJ Transit and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

Nor that the editors never assign Rouse, Road Warrior John Cichowski or any other reporter to ride buses and trains, and report on them from the commuters' point of view. 

Dissing Hackensack

WNYC-FM also aired a story on Tuesday's municipal election in Jersey City, but turned down a request from Sasson for coverage of the crucial Hackensack contest.

Sasson and other City Council hopefuls appeared at forums held in four high-rises and two churches, but the Johnson Public Library refused to hold a candidates' night.

And the Teaneck League of Women Voters, which also covers Hackensack, told Sasson that as an independent candidate, he could not ask the group to moderate a debate.

The polls in Hackensack are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.