Zisas attempt a political comeback, upstaging Christie

Former Hackensack Mayor Jack Zisa speaking to an overflow crowd of loyalists on Wednesday night at the inaugural meeting of Team Hackensack, a new "community organization" that will back candidates in school board and municipal elections.

A banner displayed in a room at the Crow's Nest Restaurant &  Pub in Hackensack on Wednesday night, where chicken, pasta, rice and salad were served. The motto -- "One city. One future" -- wasn't explained.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The big political news in Hackensack on Wednesday had nothing to do with Governor Christie's unsurprising decision to end his presidential bid.

Instead, all eyes were on the Zisa family hosting the first meeting of Team Hackensack, a so-called community group that will back candidates in April's non-partisan school board election and next year's council race.

The Zisas ruled Hackensack for more than 30 years, beginning with the election of Frank Zisa as mayor in 1977.

Through the years, their influence was so pervasive, the city soon was cursed with the label of "Zisaville."

Zisa troika

On Wednesday night at the Crow's Nest Restaurant & Pub, supporters were greeted at the door of a meeting room by:

Former four-term Mayor Jack Zisa, former City Attorney Joseph Zisa; and disgraced former Police Chief Ken Zisa, a Democrat who once also served as a state assemblyman.

Ken Zisa, who was suspended without pay in May 2010, still faces an official misconduct charge relating to when he was police chief.

Jack Zisa told the crowd the new group, Team Hackensack, "is going to move the city forward."

No one choked on their food.

Non-partisan?

Hackensack elections are called non-partisan and candidates run under such banners as Citizens for Change, not party labels.

But party politics simmer just below the surface, and the city's Democratic Party machine was always the power behind the Zisa family political dynasty.

In 2011, 45.1% of the 19,123 registered voters were listed as Democrats, 10.4% were Republicans and 44.4% were unaffiliated.

'Real change'

After a slate of mostly Republican reformers was elected to the City Council in May 2013, they moved to eliminate past Zisa family influence by refusing to reappoint Joseph Zisa as city attorney, Richard Salkin as municipal prosecutor and the Scirocco Insurance Group as the city's insurance broker. 

Jack Zisa was a Scirocco insurance agent at the time.

At the July 1, 2013, meeting where 19 changes in municipal government were made, supporters held up signs reading, "Real change begins today!"

In the crowd

Assemblyman Gordon M. Johnson, the Democrat from Englewood, was the most prominent official in the standing-room-only crowd of more than 150 people on Wednesday night at the Crow's Nest.

Also in attendance were former Councilman Jason Some, former City Manager Andrew Rottino and Board of Education member Timothy J. Hoffman.

Fat guy sings

No one is going to read all of The Record's coverage today on Christie's anticlimactic decision to return to his duties as governor of New Jersey (A-1, A-4, A-5, A-6, A-18 and L-1).

On A-6, a full-page text-and-photo graphic labeled "It's Over" makes no mention of Christie's failure to deliver on his 2009 campaign promise to lower local property taxes, among the highest in the nation.

Despite his 2% cap, taxes have continued to rise in Hackensack, and just about every other town in the state. 

State residents are relieved Christie is returning, but also bracing themselves for bitter partisan warfare in Trenton in the nearly two years the GOP bully still has in office.

More than six years after he took over, the state continues to struggle with providing basic services, including expanded mass transit, affordable housing, a fully funded state public workers' pension system and a cleaner environment.

And Christie surely has set a record by executing more than 500 vetoes, cementing his reputation as New Jersey's worst governor ever.

Bimbo, bimba

If Christie is the state's official bimbo, then reality TV "star" Teresa Giudice is the unofficial bimba, closely followed by Columnist Virginia Rohan and Editor Deirdre Sykes.

Sykes made a ridiculous choice in running Rohan's Page 1 column on Giudice signing a new book, especially when a so-called news story on the same event appears on the Local front (L-1).

Today's local-news section continues the embargo on Hackensack news.

A single, nasty lawsuit won't derail reform in Hackensack

Hackensack residents lining up to question city officials during the public-comment portion of Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Tuesday night, more North Jersey Media Group staffers gathered in one place in Hackensack than at any time since 2009, when the Borg family's flagship newspaper abruptly abandoned the city.

Four reporters and a photographer covered the City Council, which met on the third floor of City Hall, several blocks from The Record's old headquarters at 150 River Street.

Bombshells

The day before, acting City Manager Anthony Rottino hit city officials with "a bombshell lawsuit alleging that he was the target of a smear campaign designed to run him out of his $176,000 position," according to The Record's lead Page 1 story today.

Rottino, of Franklin Lakes, actually holds two positions, acting city manager and economic development director.

That "bombshell" is getting blanket coverage in The Record, unlike the "bombshell" decision to pull out of Hackensack, where the Borg family prospered for more than 110 years, about a year after the biggest downsizing in the company's history.

The negative impact on Hackensack's downtown was ignored as the Borgs shifted coverage to big mall retailers, whose advertising revenue keeps the Woodland Park daily afloat.

Reforms advance

Despite major missteps by the Citizens for Change slate that was swept into office in 2013, the Rottino suit is not expected to stop the drive to reform a city that withered and nearly died under decades of rule by the Zisa family.

In fact, as shown by the $94.46 million budget approved on Tuesday night, CFO Jim Mangin has earned praise for cleaning up the financial mess left by the previous administration.

Of course, the four reporters from The Record and Hackensack Chronicle weren't there on Tuesday night to report positive news.

Today's paper leads with the firing of former campaign official Thom Ammirato, a Rottino ally, from his $78,000-a-year position as city spokesman, but says nothing about the new spending plan (A-1).

Staff Writer Hannan Adely also reported the council summoned Rottino to "a hearing about his job" on Thursday morning. 

Word pushers

Columnist Mike Kelly, the burned-out reporter who helped cover the official corruption and insurance fraud trial of former Police Chief Ken Zisa in 2012, smelled blood, prompting him to make a rare trip to the city.

Don't look for any insights. Kelly is probably writing his column today and filling it with the same tired phrases he has used hundreds of times before.

The first paragraph of a second story on A-1 today, under the rare byline of veteran reporter Jean Rimbach, refers incorrectly to Rottino as "Hackensack's city manager."

Legal lesson

Rimbach reports "whistle-blower actions" like the suit filed by Rottino "are tough to win" (A-1).

The complaint claims Rottino opposed raising police salaries more than 2%, tried to protect Ammirato's job and raised questions about the allegedly "widespread use of steroids by members of the Police Department" (A-6).

Rottino also claims city officials violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination by "choosing a white candidate for a municipal judgeship over a qualified black candidate."

Acting City Manager Anthony Rottino didn't attend Tuesday night's City Council meeting. Sitting in was Art Koster, executive assistant to the city manager and city personnel director, left front. CFO Jim Mangin is seated at right. Mayor John Labrosse is seated on the dais flanked on each side by the four other members of the City Council.

'Costly legal disputes'

The Record's lead front-page story on Tuesday reported the Rottino suit and seemed to blame the City Council for failing in its goal of putting an "end to costly legal disputes."

Of course, this is the kind of simplistic nonsense reporters try to peddle all the time.

To put an end to "costly" legal disputes, you'd have to upend the entire system of lawyers charging whatever the traffic will bear, backed up by judges, who were, after all, onetime lawyers who tested the limits on hourly rates.

A lawyer who charges $400 to $500 an hour effectively denies many people access to the courts.

Still, this is a system supported by many, including The Record and Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG's vice president and general counsel, because it limits the ability of employees to file suits over working conditions, age discrimination, severance and other issues.

Second look

On Monday, the lead story in Local on the proposed county budget contained several reporting and editing problems, as listed by a reader of Eye on The Record:

"Today's L-1 article on [Bergen County Executive Kathleen] Donovan and the budget contains very confusing and mistaken information.

In the 2nd paragraph, it states:

The budget "will deliver real relief in the form of a slightly less than zero tax increase."

If the net difference is slightly "less" than zero, it is a tax decrease. It would have to be slightly "more" than zero, for it to be tax increase.

In the 4th paragraph, it states:

"Donovan, a Republican running for a second term, contends that in order to slice $6.8 million from the budget she proposed in March, the freeholders are tapping into funds that can't be replenished next year."

Based on further details in the article, they would not slice [cut] the budget by $6.8 million. They would increase the funding for the proposed budget based on using $6.8 million from motor vehicle fines instead of Donovan's proposed $4.8 million.

In subsequent paragraphs, it states:

"They're raiding all the funds and taking the money out, which is very imprudent because next year, even if you've got the money in, you can't spend it," Donovan said during a Record Talk Radio interview on Friday."

"She said she proposed spending $4.8 million from a fund for motor vehicle fines, about the same amount the county has spent in previous years. But Donovan said the freeholders have called for spending $6.8 million of that revenue, leaving about $450,000 in the fund."

"Donovan said state spending rules require local governments to anticipate receiving no more than they already have in the fund. Even if the fund took in $2 million in fines in 2015, the county would be able to spend only $450,000 of that amount, she said."

"So you've got a built-in, we think, over $3 million deficit on Day One in January 2015. That's totally irresponsible of them to do that, she added."

"The last paragraph is in the wrong order since it makes no sense on how there can be a $3 million deficit based on not being able to spend the freeholder's proposed $6.8 million vs. Donovan's proposed $4.8 million, which is only a net difference of $2 million.  

"It should have followed the first paragraph." 

Eye on The Record will return

 after the Fourth of July

Politics are killing Hackensack, our state and our nation

Anthony Rottino, seated left front, is Hackensack's director of economic development and acting city manager, jobs awarded to him after he helped raise funds for the successful campaign of a reform slate of City Council candidates in last year's non- partisan municipal election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Politics are an obsession at The Record of Woodland Park.

The editors, columnists and reporters seem incapable of discussing any serious issue without applying the filter of politics, as today's lead Page 1 headline on a lawsuit in Hackensack demonstrates.

Does the banner headline even make sense?

"Lawsuit roils Hackensack politics"

The suit, filed by acting City Manager Anthony Rottino of Franklin Lakes, names other city officials, including Mayor John Labrosse and Police Director Michael Mordaga.

Is that "politics"? 

The current members of the City Council are described as "a political coalition" in the first paragraph of the story, which is written by Abbott Koloff and former Hackensack reporter Hannan Adely.

To get the story on Page 1, the reporters also claim Rottino's suit is a sign the City Council has failed to "put an end to costly legal disputes," without explaining all of those suits were filed against the corrupt former police chief, Ken Zisa, whose family ran Hackensack for decades before his allies were thrown out of office last year.

Calls to resign

At council meetings, gadflies and other critics have repeatedly called for Rottino to resign, claiming the Citizens for Change fund-raiser isn't qualified for the city manager's job.

In his suit, filed Monday in Superior Court in Hackensack, Rottino accuses "top officials of violating state law, condoning 'mob-like and thuggish behavior' by the police union and conducting a smear campaign to 'destroy his reputation'" (A-1).

Rottino also claims some city officials are trying to fire him, in part, "because he opposed raising police salaries and sought to protect the job of a public relations consultant who is being paid $78,000 by the city while working two other public jobs, " referring to Thom Ammirato.

Rottino, 48, is being paid $176,000 a year as economic development director and acting city manager.

Staff Writer Jim Norman of The Record, left, covered tonight's Hackensack City Council meeting, along with Marko Georgiev, a staff photographer.

Blood in water

Rottino's lawsuit has North Jersey Media Group smelling blood in the water.

The official didn't attend tonight's council meeting -- the second meeting in a row he missed -- but four NJMG reporters and a photographer did.

Staff Writers Jim Norman, Mike Kelly and Adely of The Record were there, along with Jennifer Vasquez of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle. 

Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who took over the Hackensack beat from Adely, is on vacation.

During the meeting, council members went into executive session, then emerged and voted to fire Ammirato, their former campaign manager, whom they hired last July as city spokesman.

They also voted to adopt a $94.46 million budget.

Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record, left, at the back of the City Council Chambers with attorney Richard E. Salkin, a longtime ally of the discredited Zisa family. Compare Kelly's mantle of gray hair with his shit-eating-grin column photo.

Corrosive politics

Look at how "politics" have killed any progress on climate change, immigration, a higher minimum wage and other issues in Washington.

What we have been seeing on the national and state levels is a sustained effort by a moneyed elite to strip the middle and working classes of all they have gained in recent decades.

Christie lovers

Since Governor Christie took office in 2010, Columnist Charles Stile, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Dobin have time and again written about important state issues in purely political terms.

They have massaged Christie's image as a conservative Republican who works hard at achieving compromise with his Democratic opponents -- carefully editing stories, columns and editorials to omit mention of the GOP bully's many vetoes, such as a Stile column on A-1 today.

Us v. them

They portray controversies, such as the Superstorm Sandy Bill of Rights proposal, strictly in terms of a partisan battle, not even bothering to explain why, as Christie insists, the bill violates the law (A-4).

The millionaires tax also is portrayed as a partisan battle, despite lagging tax revenue, high unemployment and Christie's grab for mass-transit funds to fix roads.

The Record's story quotes Republicans as claiming "increasing taxes would cripple the state's economy," but Staff Writer John Reitmeyer betrays readers by failing to note it is already crippled (A-6).

This is a common practice in electronic and newspaper journalism, going for "sound bites," no matter how ridiculous or nonsensical they are, as long as they stir controversy. 

Fat guy strikes out

In contrast to the editorial idolatry of Christie, today's unflattering front-page photo clearly shows a man of his size shouldn't wear shorts and a T-shirt, and shouldn't show himself to be such a klutz with a baseball bat (A-1).

In Better Living, the owner of The Plum and the Pear, a new restaurant in Wyckoff, justifies charging $31 for several ounces of Copper River sockeye salmon from Alaska by noting it is "usually available five or six weeks a year" (BL-1).

The clueless editors publish the quote, even though fresh wild sockeye salmon from other Alaskan rivers, as well as other states, are just as delicious and will be available until early October.

Read all about wealthy Ridgewood's 'coin collection'

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. Anything the bi-state agency does to encourage commuters to leave their cars in New Jersey and take mass transit to the city should be commended by The Record, not treated as if the paper is uncovering wrongdoing, as today's Page 1 story suggests.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and Staff Writer Chris Harris should apologize for today's Page 1 story on a Ridgewood "coin collector."

Here is why editing matters.

The Record took another story about a municipal employee stealing public funds and decided to make light of it:

Thomas Rica, the village's former public works inspector, pleaded guilty to stealing at least $460,000 "from Ridgewood's coin-collection room" (A-1).

What coin-collection room? Does the village have a coin collection? Why is Rica called a "coin collector" in the first paragraph?

Readers don't learn until the continuation page that the 1.8 million quarters Rica stole came from parking meters (A-6).

The joke is  on readers.

Mass hysteria

I was sorry to see a Page 1 story today reporting the Port Authority may revoke NJ Transit's $1-a-year lease of a North Bergen park-and-ride lot.

The Record's editors are all hot and bothered that NJ Transit was a client of Port Authority Chairman David Samson's private law firm and that he voted to reduce the rent by $906,999 (A-1 and A-6).

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg calls the park-and-ride lot "valuable land," but is there any suggestion that if NJ Transit paid the full rent, the Port Authority would, say, cut tolls on the George Washington Bridge?

And what is the likelihood that NJ Transit might have to raise bus fares, if it has to pay nearly $1 million in rent on the lot every year? 

The Record should see the Port Authority's $1-a-year lease as part of its obligation to promote mass transit in New York and New Jersey.

Jersey Poor

The Garden State is starving for revenue, thanks to Governor Christie's vetoes of a tax surcharge on millionaires and the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks he's given to businesses, which have created few jobs in return.

But the GOP bully won't say what programs will be cut to realize nearly $700 million in savings from the state's $33 billion budget (A-3).

And another front-page story -- on a contagious disease at the state's trout hatchery -- doesn't explain why New Jersey didn't sell fresh fish to restaurants in all the years the trout weren't decimated by disease (A-1). 

Dissing seniors

During last year's Hackensack City Council campaign, residents told candidates that housing for seniors is sorely needed.

Since they took office on July 1, members of the victorious Citizens for Change slate have ignored those seniors, and promoted the development of hundreds of apartments, despite already crowded schools.

At Tuesday night's meeting, the council voted to sell a 4.3-acre municipal parking lot near Foschini Park to "the highest bidder in a public auction" (L-3).

The city's planning consultant says the property can accommodate 240 to 440 units in two buildings.

City Council spokesman is ripping off Hackensack

Another cluster of annoying potholes at Prospect and Euclid avenues in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The most shocking story in The Record today is buried in the Local section, and it took its lead from the Hackensack Scoop blog.

The blog reported that Bergen County pays Hackensack spokesman Thom Ammirato $35,000 a year as a "public participation specialist" -- a potential conflict of interest (L-3).

Ammirato, a former GOP consultant, is paid an outrageous $78,000 a year for his public relations services to Hackensack. 

He holds the same job in North Arlington, where he is paid $21,600 a year.

Ammirato was the campaign manager who guided Citizens for Change to a sweep of the City Council election last May.

His selection as city spokesman raised the same questions of favoritism and cronyism that hounded the Zisa family, which ruled Hackensack for decades. 

Dull and uninteresting -- even on Page 1

A group of clouds -- real and reflected -- almost makes you think The Modern, a 47-story residential tower in Fort Lee, is transparent. The building is the first of two.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

When the editor of a general interest newspaper gets desperate, he runs front-page headlines like the one leading The Record today:

All eyes on N.J.'s online wager

Of course, Governor Christie and state treasury officials are the only ones who care whether this gamble succeeds in boosting tax revenues after making such a mess of state finances (A-1).

And the other eyes on online casino gambling are the bloodshot ones of gambling addicts and assorted perverts.

Toll weary

State lawmakers are so frustrated over Christie packing the Port Authority with his cronies and rubber stamping big toll hikes they continue to blast the agency over the closure of a few toll lanes way back in September (A-1).

The lead paragraph of today's story claims eastbound drivers "were stuck in nightmarish gridlock" at the George Washington Bridge -- when, in fact, only two of three lanes leading from Fort Lee to the upper level toll plaza were closed, and the vast majority of drivers were unaffected.

This is the kind of coverage you get from Editor Marty Gottlieb, who ignores the daily commuting nightmare experienced by all drivers and mass-transit users.

The story identifies the official responsible for closing the lanes as David Wildstein, a former political consultant who got his job at the Port Authority from Christie (A-1 and A-7).

He is also identified as "Christie's No. 2 at the agency," but he isn't quoted and his name appears only one time in the long story.

Reunion in Sin City

On the front of Local today, what are the majority of readers to make of the big splash given to former Beatle Ringo Starr's long-delayed meeting with five Fair Lawn residents in Las Vegas (L-1).

OK. The drummer photographed the fans in 1964 from a passing car. Who the F cares whether they ever met?

Hackensack news?

I didn't see coverage of Monday night's Hackensack City Council meeting or a story about a part-time job going to another insider.

William Russiello has been hired as a "property management inspector" at $15 an hour, according to the Hackensack Scoop blog, which questions why an attorney would take such a "menial" job.

A link to Hackensack Scoop appears on the homepage of Eye on The Record.

Despite the ascendancy of the Citizens for Change slate on July 1, residents are still waiting for the City Council to run Hackensack more efficiently, reduce spending and slow the increase of property taxes. 

Monday's paper

If you think today's front page is dull and uninteresting for local readers, Monday's was equally uninspiring, especially with a Page 1 column from the paper's only female sports reporter, Vagina Monologue Tara Sullivan.

News about seniors was front and center on Monday, but it was another account of a 77-year-old who "falls between the cracks of different government programs" (A-1).

Staff Writer Colleen Diskin specializes in these hard-luck stories, but she apparently doesn't think her seniors beat includes the vast majority of older readers, who are well-off and balancing their active lifestyle with the realities of aging.

Second look

Sunday's Road Warrior column was full of his usual errors, including his claim Pulaski Skyway repairs are being paid for with toll money, when, in fact, the money is part of the funding for the Hudson River rail tunnels Christie cancelled.

A concerned reader also notes Staff Writer John Cichowski never tells readers what they want to know most -- when road and bridge construction projects are scheduled to be completed.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Transportation 'expert' drives tow truck

Christie's 'Jersey Comeback' is really 'Jersey Come'

A "YES WE CAN TAX THE RICH" bumper sticker on a Toyota Prius, photographed on May 13 in Hackensack, the day before a slate of reformers triumphed in the municipal election. The state's financial problems are caused in part by Governor Christie's refusal to impose a tax surcharge on millionaires that could raise as much as $1 billion in new revenue.

You'd think $132 million in desperate "budget cuts and other spending adjustments" to balance Governor Christie's budget plan would be front-page news in The Record.

No. The editors of the Woodland Park daily see their job as promoting his "Jersey Comeback" reelection campaign, so the story is on A-3, the page for routine state news.

Today's piece by Staff Writer John Reitmeyer is filled with politics -- the biggest reader turnoff, by far -- and doesn't even list the $132 million in new budget cuts and "adjustments," whatever those are.

But residents know the cuts likely will be more bad news for them, as Christie's "Jersey Come" administration continues to royally screw the middle and working classes.

One of the many empty storefronts on Main Street in Hackensack.

Hackensack surprise

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, left the River Street newsroom and Hackensack news behind in 2009, when North Jersey Media Group moved to Woodland Park and Rockaway Township.

Despite scores of stories about then-Police Chief Ken Zisa's legal problems, those editors largely ignored city life and the decline of Main Street.

So, the victory of a slate of reformers and defeat of the Zisa political machine in the election last Tuesday took the editors and the rest of the media by surprise.

On Monday, a front-page column by Mike Kelly played catch-up, reporting the reformers parlayed discontent over declining city services into victory at the polls.

If it wasn't for Kelly's outdated column photo, complete with shit-eating grin, the piece was indistinguishable from a news story or analysis.

And it's stale news:

On Feb. 15, the Hackensack Chronicle published a letter from independent City Council hopeful Victor E. Sasson, editor of Eye on The Record:

"I joke I am running for Hackensack City Council to get my street paved.

"But the sad truth is that as property taxes have risen, the quality of life in Hackensack has declined dramatically."

Sasson's platform to improve city services, including street paving, eventually was adopted by the other candidates, including the victorious Citizens for Change.

Burned-out columnist

Kelly is a burned-out word-pusher who thinks of himself as a columnist who parachutes in to provide context for readers.

It's been a little more than a year since he last visited Hackensack, and put in many hours of ass time at Zisa's trial, which ended when the ex-police chief and former state assemblyman was convicted of official misconduct and insurance fraud.

Now, instead of peddling old election news, he should be looking into whether Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Conte erred in allowing Zisa to remain free while he appeals his conviction and 5-year prison sentence.

Blogger, North Jersey Media Group settle lawsuit

Former headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and The Record in Hackensack.

In the face of mounting legal fees, Victor E. Sasson has settled a federal copyright-infringement lawsuit filed against him by North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record and the North Jersey.com Web site.

Sasson signed a confidential settlement agreement on Thursday, and admitted no wrongdoing.

The suit alleged Sasson violated several copyrights when Eye on The Record published NJMG photographs and a news story.

So far, Sasson has paid more than $16,000 in legal fees in connection with the suit.

A federal judge dismissed the NJMG lawsuit without prejudice in January, allowing the publishing company to file it again.

Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG vice president and general counsel, was listed as attorney for the plaintiff. 

Borg also hired an expensive New York law firm, Dunnegan & Scileppi, to handle the suit.

Click on the following links to earlier posts:

Judge dismisses NJMG lawsuit

NJMG harasses 'Eye on The Record'

'Great pride ... in responsible journalism'

Today's paper

The thin Sunday edition features four of The Record's burned-out columnists, and more from pundits who are playing catch-up to the victory of the reformers' slate in the Hackensack municipal election.

The upbeat "Shore's ready to roll" takeout on Page 1 plays into the hands of Chris Christie, who hopes voters forget what a terrible governor he was before Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey last Oct. 29 (A-1).

Hospital profits

The opening of Bergen County's first for-profit hospital in Westwood -- under the Hackensack University Medical Center name -- raises anew questions about HUMC's $130 million in untaxed property in Hackensack, and whether the medical center will give back to the city (A-1).

The best story in the Local news section today is the obituary of Betty Ersalesi, a Rutherford school teacher, whose death appears to be the making of a medical-malpractice suit (L-1).

The worst piece is the Road Warrior column on whether seat belts are "your thing" (L-1).

Self-promoting reporter

On the Business front, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais gives himself a huge pat on the back for 19-plus years of consumer reporting in a paper that long ago sold out to commercial interests (B-1).

Of course, DeMarrais' 1,000 columns virtually ignored the rise of organic and naturally raised food, which aren't listed in his monthly survey of supermarket prices.

And sadly, The Record's business editors still have to rely on a 4-page insert from The Wall Street Journal to make their Sunday section amount to anything (B-3 to B-6).

Kelly sells out again

On the Opinion front, Columnist Mike Kelly continues to fawn over Christie, calling the GOP bully "the political equivalent of the Kardashians" (O-1).

Have you ever read anything so ridiculously hilarious?

Playing catch-up

Brigid Callahan Harrison, a political science professor who writes a Sunday opinion column for The Record, and the newspaper's editors ignored the 3-month campaign of Citizens for Change, which won last week's Hackensack City Council election.

So did Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, who refused to "get involved" in the battle to decide whether reformers or the Zisa family political machine would prevail.

To the great surprise of everyone -- including apathetic voters -- the reformers swept the election for 5 seats on the City Council, unleashing a series of reaction stories and columns.

So, here is Harrison today taking Newark Mayor Cory Booker to task for forgetting his reform roots, and backing establishment candidates in Hackensack and Jersey City, where all of them went down to defeat (O-1).

Apathetic voters didn't derail Hackensack reformers

During Tuesday's election in Hackensack, a poll worker at the Fairmount Elementary School, above, told a woman who supported Victor E. Sasson for City Council to vote instead for the Citizens for Change slate at the top of the ballot. Sasson wrote a letter to the county Board of Elections, complaining about the alleged voter steering.

Voter apathy didn't stop a slate of reformers from sweeping Tuesday's City Council election in Hackensack.

Only 3,513 out of more than 20,000 registered voters cast ballots on Tuesday -- fewer than in both the 2009 and 2005 elections -- a spokeswoman for City Clerk Debra Heck said today.

In the past, low voter turnout doomed candidates who were seeking to oust the Zisa family dynasty, which has held power since the early 1990s.

But on Tuesday, incumbent Councilman John Labrosse led the 5-member Citizens for Change to victory -- denying a bid by 5 Zisa puppets to hold onto power in what is widely mocked as "Zisaville."

Sasson who?

Independent candidate Victor E. Sasson received 344 votes, some of which might have gone to members of the Coalition for Open Government, which he identified as "the Zisa slate."

The Record of Woodland Park denied Sasson a story announcing his candidacy -- unlike its treatment of the two organized slates -- then virtually ignored the campaign.

The victory of the Labrosse slate took the editors by surprise, forcing them to make it front-page news on Wednesday and to follow today with an interpretative story on A-1 and two related stories from Hackensack reporter Hannan Adely and her predecessor, Stephanie Akin.

'Daunting odds'

Today, the first paragraph of the Page 1 story reports the Labrosse team won "against daunting odds." 

But the total voter turnout, number of registered voters and Sasson's own campaign for reform are nowhere to be found.

Still, the story reveals how The Record and other media cover elections -- by comparing campaign donations, and usually giving more space and more favorable coverage to the candidates who amass the most cash.

Then, reporters call all those pundits and experts they have on speed dial, including a political science professor who also writes an opinion column for The Record.

Weinberg steps up

Even Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, belatedly got into the act, praising Citizens for Change on A-8, even though she had refused Sasson's request to make a robocall on behalf the reform candidates in the election.

That opened the way for Newark Mayor Cory Booker to make his own robocall for the Open Government candidates, bowing to their establishment ties and support from Lynne Hurwitz, Hackensack's Democratic Party boss.

Booker's clueless aide is quoted on A-8 today as calling the Hackensack contest "a tough race with good candidates on both sides, but ultimately the mayor supported what he believed to be the strongest overall ticket."

Christie reforms?

Those experts told The Record the Citizens for Change slate benefited from a reform movement sweeping the state, but how do the editors explain a quote from a professor of government at Fairleigh Dickinson University on A-8.

Prof. Peter Wooley alleges, "We are in reform period here in the sense that Chris Christie made real change the centerpiece of his first term as governor."

Of course, Christie loves to tout his "reform agenda," but the vast majority of his policies have hurt the middle and working classes, and catered to the rich.

The Borgs

So, it's no surprise Christie's war on the middle class is labeled "reform" in The Record, which is published by the elite Borg family.

The Borgs shut down the headquarters of The Record in 2009, abandoning Hackensack and dealing another blow to a struggling Main Street.

Their 20 acres along River Street have become an eyesore, and they haven't disclosed plans for the property.