CEO at non-profit HUMC is being paid nearly $3M a year

Fort Lee has become known as a destination for affordable Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and other Asian food. Now, The Record's food editor reports, a high-end Korean steak restaurant will open in July on the ground floor of the Hudson Lights development, left, serving a full menu of mystery beef.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even as Hackensack University Medical Center defends its non-profit, tax-exempt status in its cash-strapped host city, CEO Robert C. Garrett is being paid nearly $3 million a year.

And Garrett's salary of $2.72 million was for 2012, according to a 2014 investigation by NJBIZ.com.

See: "Medical Millionaires"

Web site

The Web site of the tax-subsidized hospital lists Garrett, but contains no information on his current compensation.

NJBIZ.com identifies Garrett as head of the "$1.72 billion Hackensack University Health Network."

HUMC and other non-profits are defending a legislative proposal that would have them make "community service contributions" in lieu of property taxes.

The city of Hackensack, where several non-profits shift the property tax burden onto residents, would receive $690,762.50, if the bill becomes law, according to The Record.

HUMC is paying about $4,877,000 a year on its taxable property in the city.

But most of its property is tax-exempt. 

Those buildings would normally yield an additional $10,623,000 a year in taxes, Tax Assessor Art Carlson says.

Hackensack news

The Record's local assignment desk hasn't done any reporting on the compensation of Garrett or anyone else running HUMC nor has it been covering recent Hackensack City Council meetings.

But Staff Writer Todd South, the reporter assigned to Hackensack and Maywood, made sure he got a seat at a court hearing on Thursday involving a marriage license for Richard Salkin, the Hackensack Board of Education lawyer.

Today, South reports Judge Roy F. McGeady, presiding judge for the Municipal Courts, dismissed a harassment complaint by city Registrar Maria Tartaglione as well as a counter complaint by Salkin (L-1).

Mystery meat

The Better Living cover today puts the focus on the mystery meat that will fill the menus of North Jersey restaurants slated to open in the coming months -- "from a funky Mexican joint to a high-end American steakhouse" (BL-1).

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz does her best to promote eight restaurants sight unseen.

Most of them are expected to advertise heavily in The Record.

On Friday, the paper's chief restaurant critic, Elisa Ung, offered a lukewarm, 2-star review of the pricey Ho-Ho-Kus Inn and Tavern, saying the chef's "flavors are all over the map."

The restaurant also lost points for desserts she labeled "heavy," "dry," "bland" or "unremarkable."

Those same words could describe her review.