City Council rebukes school official who claimed he cut tax

Hackensack Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker (he's the one with the double chin) hiding from the camera at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Hackensack Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker was being dishonest when he claimed at a public meeting that school officials "cut taxes for the average homeowner by $214," city officials said Tuesday night.

Near the end of a long City Council meeting, Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino said Nunnermacker "had absolutely nothing to do" with potential property tax cuts from a citywide reassessment of home values.

Apropos of nothing, Nunnermacker rose to speak at the May 3 City Council meeting and declared:

"On the superintendent's behalf, we cut taxes for the average homeowner by $214 -- under my presidential leadership." 

(A week later, Nunnermacker announced at a school board meeting that Superintendent Karen Lewis had been suspended with pay for reasons he didn't disclose.) 

Cites revaluation

On Tuesday night, Canestrino, speaking for the mayor and council, said the citywide revaluation is the "sole reason" some homeowners could see a total cut of about $400 in city and school taxes.

School taxes make up 44% of the total property tax bill.

Canestrino noted the reassessment lowered the value of one-third of the homes in the city, one-third stayed the same and one-third went up.

She also noted the school board approved a $4.2 million hike in the tax levy that a tiny minority of registered voters approved in the April 19 election.

The $79 million tax levy supports an overall budget of $104 million, higher than the city's own. The hike in the city tax levy was $2.1 million -- half of the board's increase.

The Record didn't bother covering the issues or the nine candidates in the school board election or report on the budget in any detail.

Councilwoman Deborah Keeling-Geddis, right, again led the city's African-American community in criticizing officials for the embarrassing Lt. James Prise promotion. Councilman David Sims, second from right, left the meeting to take care of a personal matter before Keeling-Geddis read a statement and audience members, including clergy, spoke.

Lt. James Prise

Staff Writer John Seasly of The Record covered Tuesday night's City Council meeting, but his story in the Local section today doesn't report any of Canestrino's comments about Nunnermacker (L-1).

Nor does Seasly report that City Councilwoman Deborah Keeling-Geddis again led members of the city's African-American community in criticizing officials for promoting police Lt. James Prise to captain, only to return him to his original rank when it was learned he failed the oral portion of the state civil service exam.

Prise was the city's first black police lieutenant and was heralded as its first black captain at a March 8 ceremony in City Council Chambers.

City Manager David Troast said Prise's promotion was "provisional" pending the results of the oral exam, but he still thinks he was the right choice to lead the Police Department after the retirement of Police Director Mike Mordaga.

In response to comments from the audience that the City Council should issue a public apology to Prise, Canestrino and Mayor John Labrosse said officials have apologized a number of times, but that The Record hasn't reported any of them.

Censorship

A front-page story today reports that Bergen County had one of the state's 191 "apartheid schools," or "schools where 1 percent or less of the student population was white," according to a 2013 Rutgers University report.

But even though a Record reporter added material to the story from The Associated Press, that district isn't identified (A-1).

"Apartheid schools" certainly would fit the elementary and middle schools in Englewood, where desegregation efforts in the last decade have focused only on Dwight Morrow High School.

Over the years, Dan Sforza and other Record reporters assigned to Englewood have routinely ignored the city's dysfunctional school system.

Then, Sforza spent many years as a local editor who assigned reporters to cover stories in Englewood before he was promoted to managing editor this year.

Staff Writer Mathhew McGrath, who covers the city now, has written about education, but never reported the city's elementary and middle schools have few white students nor has he asked the superintendent what, if anything, he intends to do about that.

Two Hackensack candidates play trick or treat with voters

HALLOWEEN IN HACKENSACK: On Saturday, the traditional celebration of Halloween on Clinton Place was more subdued, with far fewer decorated homes between Prospect and Summit avenues than in the past.

"Rest in pieces" is a humorous play on words. Although fewer homes were decorated on Saturday, there was no shortage of trick-or-treaters on the streets of the city's Fairmount section.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Call them the two Jasons.

Jason S. Nunnermacker and Jason W. Some are two of the four candidates in Tuesday's election for an unexpired term on the Hackensack City Council.

Here is a report on the two Jasons that you didn't see in The Record of Woodland Park.

They resemble each other, and I'm not talking about their double chins.

The real story is that neither has discussed in any meaningful detail the powerful special interests they represent.

Board czar

Nunnermacker, an attorney, is the president of the city's free-spending Board of Education, which this year approved an irresponsible $106.88 million budget -- bigger than the city's own.

In the May 2013 council election, Nunnermacker was one of the hand-picked candidates of the city's bare-knuckle Democratic Party machine, the power behind the Zisa family political dynasty that ruled for decades and brought the city to its knees.

After Nunnermacker and his running mates were defeated in his first bid for the council, he has attended nearly every meeting.

But he and other board members have never spoken about education. 

Instead, he's helped wage a partisan war against the slate of mostly Republican reformers, including Rose Greenman, who resigned, creating the vacancy he is now seeking to fill.

On June 9, school board President Jason S. Nunnermacker, above, along with fellow board members and the board's attorney, photos below, continued to launch more bitter partisan attacks against the City Council. None of the council critics every spoke about education or the city's schools.

School board member Daniel Carola.

School board members Joseph Barreto, left, and Fancis W. Albolino.

The $95,000-a-year school board attorney, Richard Salkin, conferring with Lynne Hurwitz, back to camera, the Demoratic Party power broker in Hackensack. Salkin lost a second city job as municipal prosecutor after council reformers were elected.

Jason W. Some

Some was 25 when he was appointed in April to fill the seat left vacant by Greenman, who resigned and filed a lawsuit, claiming council members discriminated against her.

Some is sales director of the family owned Some's Uniforms on Main Street, but he also is a member of the Main Street Business Alliance, a powerful group of business owners and real estate companies who have lobbied hard for the city's redevelopment.

Some and other members of the alliance who own downtown property are expected to profit directly from redevelopment or see their property values go up from the construction of retail and residential projects downtown.

Some, who is backed by the current council, and Nunnermacker haven't publicly identified their campaign donors.

Other candidates

The other two candidates for council on Tuesday are:

• Richard L. Cerbo, a homeowner whose father won election as mayor in 1981, defeating Frank Zisa.
• Deborah Keeling-Geddis, a teacher's assistant in the city school system and the only African-American in the race, who was endorsed by the city's education union.

Tax equity

Cerbo has attacked the dramatic property tax inequity in Hackensack, and criticized the 25- and 30-year tax abatements the council has promised apartment developers. 

He's said he'd like to see Hackensack University Medical Center, Bergen County, colleges and others who own hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-exempt property give back more to the city.

That would help ease the burden on home and business owners, who now pay a disproportionate share of  property taxes.

Cerbo also feels that 10-year tax abatements would have been sufficient to lure developers to Hackensack --  in what is the city's second apartment-building boom after the one on Prospect Avenue.

He also is disappointed the mayor and council didn't negotiate agreements with developers to give a good percentage of construction and other jobs to Hackensack residents.

Cerbo is the only candidate on Tuesday who represents long-suffering homeowners who see higher tax bills every year, and the only one without an ax to grind.

Today's paper

Nine days after Suzanne Bardzell was murdered in the driveway of her Midland Park home, allegedly by her ex-cop boyfriend, The Record's lazy, incompetent editors finally got off of their asses.

Editor Martin Gottlieb and local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza assigned two reporters to explore on Page 1 today the central question surrounding her death:

Whether local police, courts and other agencies could have done a better job of protecting Bardzell, 48, the single mother of two teenage boys who is being called a victim of domestic violence.

Staff Writers Abbott Koloff and Monsy Alvarado do a masterful job of pussy footing: No criticism is leveled, no blame assigned.

The editorial page likewise is silent on the case.

The story notes Bardzell was fatally stabbed on Oct. 22 "after a tumultuous 17 days that began when the suspect broke into her home" and threatened to kill her with a pair of scissors.

Local news?

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to report on transportation one highway sign at a time (L-1).

Nearly an entire page is devoted to listing the names of all of the local and county candidates in Tuesday's election (L-3).

Saturday's paper

On a front page dominated by baseball, the editors found room for a well-crafted story on the history of Hackenack's Oritani Field Club by Staff Writer Todd South.

The Camden Street landmark closed today after 128 years, to be replaced by as many as 280 apartments opposite a Toyota dealer on River Street.

South did a great job capturing the importance of the club as a place for social gatherings, as well as a showcase for sports and Hollywood celebrities. 

However, some Hackensack readers had hoped he would have done a better job of reporting on the special interests backing Nunnermacker and Some in Tuesday's council election.

On Page 1, editor focuses on bunch of losers like himself

Late Wednesday morning, traffic lights went dark at Main and Anderson streets in Hackensack, as well as at Anderson and River streets, above, and at Cedar Lane and River Road in Teaneck, below.

On Cedar Lane, drivers were forced to turn right onto River Road.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Oh, there was another GOP debate? Yawn.

Like most North Jersey Democrats, who far outnumber Republicans, I feel Governor Christie and the other GOP presidential hopefuls are just a bunch of losers.

Why is Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record devoting so much of the front-page to that sorry lot while neglecting local elections?

And I am sick and tired of the almost daily Page 1 analysis of those other losers, the Mets (A-1).

Lazy lifers

Gottlieb is a former New York Times editor who is completing his third year in the job of running the Woodland Park newsroom.

But he seems unsuited for the nitty gritty of covering local affairs in nearly 80 towns in Bergen and Passaic counties.

He leaves that to three lazy, disinterested lifers, local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, and Sunday Projects Editor Tim Nostrand.

On A-3, a story reports the decision to replace the antiquated midtown Manhattan bus terminal is being driven by politics and a rivalry between New York and New Jersey.

But that has been the case for decades. 

In fact, the original name of the Port Authority didn't include "New Jersey," and state officials complained bitterly in the 1980s that New York was grabbing the lion's share of agency resources.

Hackensack news?

If you wonder why there is so little Hackensack news, take a look at six major stories from Passaic County in today's local-news section, including a long report on the Paterson school board election (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

In Bergen County, the bare-knuckle Democratic Party machine in Hackensack is trying to regain a single seat on the City Council in a special Nov. 3 non-partisan election.

Jason Nunnermacker, president of the city's free-spending Board of Education, is the knucklehead candidate supported by Lynne Hurwitz -- the power broker behind the Zisa family dynasty -- and other Democrats, including Hackensack lawyer Roy Cho.

Cho gained the respect of Democrats in 2014, when he challenged Rep. Scott Garrett, the Wantage conservative who represents a good deal of Bergen County in Congress.

But his endorsement of the pudgy school board president shows just how desperate the Hurwitz-Zisa alliance is to regain the power they lost when Nunnermacker and four other hand-picked candidates were defeated in May 2013.

$22-an-hour aides

In an email to fellow Democrats, Cho claims he's seen Nunnermacker's "commitment to the children of Hackensack while vigilantly ensuring that tax dollars are spent wisely."

Cho apparently is unaware the principal of Hackensack High School is paid more than $172,000 a year, only a few thousand less than Christie, or that lunchroom aides at two elementary school are listed in board documents as getting $22 an hour. 

Nunnermacker has three opponents, including Richard L. Cerbo, the son of a former mayor who doesn't have any axes to grind.

Cerbo's motto is "We can do better."

John Molinelli

The lead story on L-1 today reports critics of Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli say a letter the freeholder chairwoman sent this month to Christie "was instrumental in [the governor's] decision to appoint a new prosecutor."

But a few paragraphs later, the story says Christie decided in January 2013 to replace Molinelli, but that the nomination expired.

Can both of those things be true? 

Wednesday's Local 

Passaic County also dominated the local-news section that was delivered to Bergen readers on Wednesday.

At least Sykes and Sforza were able to find a photo showing the face of William J. Bate, a surrogate judge, for a story on the dedication of Paterson's new courthouse plaza.

The best the lazy editors could do on Tuesday was showing the back of the head of James P. Coleman, onetime pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church in Hackensack, where a street was named in his honor.

Coleman was black and Bate was white. Could that have influenced the choice of photos?

Mixed food messages

A day after the World Health Organization caused a media storm by linking cured meats to colon cancer, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz wrote a long column praising Taylor Ham, a pork-based processed meat that is "cured, smoked and pre-cooked" (Wednesday's BL-2).

Her recipe for N.J. Taylor Ham and Cheese Stuffing includes artery clogging butter, bacon fat and two kinds of full-fat cheeses.

Yuck.

On news we really need, the editors fail us time and again

Hackensack is being rocked again by partisan politics as Democrat Jason Nunnermacker seeks a vacant seat on the City Council in the Nov. 3 special election. Nunnermacker and four other allies of the Zisa family political dynasty ran unsuccessfully for council in 2013, when a reform slate of mostly Republicans swept into office. The Record has largely ignored the partisanship evident at City Council meetings, such as the Sept. 1 meeting shown below.

In a campaign mailing sent to residents last week, Nunnermacker, right, portrays himself as a fiscal conservative, but doesn't mention he is president of the Board of Education, which this year approved a runaway $106.88 million spending plan that exceeds the city's own.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Few readers of The Record outside Hackensack -- and thousands who live there -- know or care that four candidates are running for a vacant City Council seat in a special Nov. 3 election.

The Woodland Park daily has carried two stories about the candidates, but neither account explored the bitter partisan politics that exploded after a reform slate swept into office in 2013.

Nor has The Record examined the candidates' statements at an Oct. 15 debate at Temple Beth El that drew fewer than 20 city residents, whose written questions were subject to censorship by the event moderator.

Hackensack news?

You can search today's Sunday edition in vain for any news about Hackensack, Bergen County's most-populous community, or the county's biggest school district.

One of the candidates is Democrat Jason Nunnermacker, an attorney and an ally of the Zisa family political dynasty who ran unsuccessfully in 2013 with four others.

Nunnermacker is president of the city's free-spending Board of Education, yet he is running for council on a platform that stresses fiscal conservatism.

The Record also hasn't asked Nunnermacker how he can seek a seat on the very council he is suing on behalf of Debra Heck, the former city clerk.

Former City Clerk Debra Heck charges in a 2014 federal lawsuit City Council members illegally retaliated against her and drove her out of her job because of her romantic relationship with a political foe of the administration, Board of Education attorney Richard Salkin, shown at a Sept. 1 meeting.

Apathy galore

One thing Hackensack is famous for is voter apathy, whether it is in the April school board and school budget election or the May council election every four years.

The board's $106.88 million spending plan this year was approved by fewer than 1,000 of the city's 20,000 registered voters.

There is no way to tell how much of the apathy can be traced to the way The Record covers or doesn't cover elections, especially how the editors focus on politics and ignore issues. 

Today's paper

Once you get past the Sunday edition's ho-hum front page, there isn't much to interest local readers (A-1).

Animals lovers will be overjoyed to know there is an annual dogs and cats pre-Halloween fashion show in Manila (A-2), as well as an annual Halloween Dog Parade in Manhattan (A-3).

For more Halloween news, see the Local front on downtown Paterson's Fright Festival (L-1), as opposed to the festival of gun violence in some of Silk City's poorest neighborhoods.

Mike Hyman

A moving local obituary on 6-foot-4 Mike Hyman of Hackensack skirts the issue of why his loved ones and co-workers apparently did or said nothing as his waist ballooned to 53 inches (L-1).

He died of a heart attack "related to his diabetes" at 54, Staff Writer Jay Levin reports.

Business news

On the Business front today, Bree Fowler of The Associated Press argues the only successful car companies are profitable, even though some of the biggest have killed thousands of people with defective products or fouled the environment (B-1).

Fowler doesn't mention that General Motors Co. and the former Chrysler Corp. had to be bailed out by the Obama administration.

In her negative reporting on electric car maker Tesla, she emphasizes the company has never made a profit, but doesn't mention its cars are the world's safest and cleanest.

Nuisance?

Columnist Mike Kelly argues drones "have become like wild geese -- numerous and a nuisance, not to mention a potential danger" (O-1 and O-4).

Of course, you have to wonder why he hasn't written a column about a real nuisance and a huge potential danger -- all of those private business jets and small planes buzzing Hackensack, Teaneck and other towns on the way to and from Teterboro Airport.

Those planes impact the quality of life in North Jersey far more than drones and geese combined.

I guess all readers can hope for is more poop from Kelly.

Food coverage

Better Living continues to cover celebrity chefs like Rachel Ray, TV personalities and cookbooks, while generally ignoring nutrition and a healthy lifestyle (BL-1).

For example, a promotional piece on chicken wings sold by A&S Foods in Wyckoff doesn't say whether they are organic or from birds that were raised without antibiotics (BL-2).

Tabloid news

Murder and mayhem were the order of the day on Saturday's front page.

Weren't the editors wrong to devote 90% or more of the lead A-1 story on Saturday to murder suspect Arthur Lomando's "troubled past," and so little to the victim, Suzanne Bardzell of Midland Park, a teacher and single mother of two?

How many more stories on the front page will falsely claim the seizure of heroin and cocaine will put a "major dent" in the region's street trade, as does Saturday's A-1 story from Paterson?

Governor Christie added to his anti-environment record with a lawsuit to block President Obama's Clean Power Plan (Saturday's A-2).

Saturday's Local section is dominated by sensational Law & Order news generated by the police reporter and staffers assigned to the courts (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Editor, columnists ignore readers' everyday concerns

A new building is going up on Main Street and Gould Avenue in Paterson's South Paterson neighborhood, above and below. Middle Eastern restaurants, bakeries and other food stores draw people to the busy shopping district from North Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and other areas.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A mattress chain's Labor Day ad wrapped around Page 1 of The Record today isn't the only visual that may prompt readers to go back to bed.

Editor Martin Gottlieb fills the front page of the Sunday edition with three boring elements that are far removed from the everyday worries and concerns of readers (A-1).

What would you expect from a onetime editor at The New York Times who lives in Manhattan, and who last worked in Bergen County more than 40 years ago as a cub reporter for the paper he now runs so cluelessly?

We don't care

Readers don't really care about the process of raising a billion dollars for the American Dream mall, but they do cringe as they drive past and wonder why the ugliest exterior in the metropolitan area hasn't been repainted yet (A-1).

And look at all the space wasted again today on the Rutgers football team and coach (A-1).

Finally, yet another Charles Stile column is based on a false premise -- that Governor Christie carved out "his identity as a new breed of Republican ... who valued bipartisan compromise over ideology" (third paragraph on A-1).

Months ago, The Record finally reported the GOP bully was no compromiser; he had executed more than 350 vetoes to get his way since he took office in early 2010.

Local news?

Road Warrior John Cichowski also is wasting readers' time with a story on the end of heavy ticketing of landscape trucks (L-1).

On the Opinion front, readers are puzzled by a Mike Kelly column that revisits and rehashes last year's "locker room hazing sessions" in far-off Sayerville (O-1).

And while many readers struggle with a broken tipping system and wonder why restaurants don't serve more organic food, Sunday Columnist Elisa Ung goes on and on about Montclair restaurants that allowed customers to pay what they wanted during August (BL-1).

All three columns can be summed up in two words -- "boring" and "irrelevant" to life in Bergen and Passaic counties.

Hackensack news

The Hackensack news drought finally ended on Saturday with an L-3 story on four candidates seeking an open City Council seat in a special Nov. 3 election.

The story by Staff Writer Todd South is deeply flawed in not reporting the sharp partisan divide created when a reform council took over in mid-2013.

Since then, Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker, board Attorney Richard Salkin and other Democratic allies of the Zisa family political dynasty have attacked the mostly Republican council at every opportunity.

Nunnermacker, one of the Zisa-backed candidates who lost in 2013, is making a second attempt at winning a seat on the governing body.

The story also failed to report that council candidate Richard L. Cerbo, son of a former mayor, wants Bergen County, Hackensack University Medical Center and Fairleigh Dickinson University to give back to the city in lieu of the property taxes they don't pay.

The impact of those tax-exempt entities on the increasingly higher taxes paid by homeowners, businesses and other property owners is a central concern of Hackensack residents.

But The Record's lazy, incompetent local editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, have completely ignored the issue.

Son of ex-Hackensack Mayor Cerbo is running for council

Richard Cerbo urging the Hackensack City Council on Tuesday night to persuade Bergen County and Hackensack University Medical Center to contribute more to the city in view of their tax-exempt status. Cerbo is seeking a seat on the council in a special Nov. 3 election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Richard Cerbo, son of former Hackensack Mayor Fred Cerbo, says he has filed a nominating petition to run in a special Nov. 3 election for a vacant seat on the City Council.

Fred Cerbo served on the City Council before he was elected Hackensack's mayor in 1981.

The lifelong city resident died in 2012 at the age of 87, according to a North Jersey.com obituary that you can read by clicking on the following link:

'He cared about the town'

'Tax-free buildings'

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Richard Cerbo, 63, noted there are "tax-free buildings everywhere" in Hackensack, including the county jail and courthouse, and the unemployment office.

Those agencies and services -- as well as the non-profit Hackensack University Medical Center -- draw thousands of residents from other towns to the city, Cerbo said.

For that reason, he urged city officials to try and persuade the county and hospital to contribute more to Hackensack.

Special election

The Nov. 3 election will fill a seat left vacant by the resignation of Councilwoman Rose Greenman.

The seat has been filled temporarily since April by an appointee, Jason Some, owner of Some's Uniforms on Main Street.

Greenman was severely criticized by Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker, board Attorney Richard Salkin and other allies of the Zisa family political dynasty that ran Hackensack for decades.

Nunnermacker, an attorney, was one of the Zisa-backed candidates who ran unsuccessfully for council in 2013, losing to a reform slate that included Greenman.

Now, Nunnermacker has declared his candidacy in the Nov. 3 special election to fill her seat.

THE SUITS: Hackensack Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker, right; board members Joseph Barreto and Timothy J. Hoffman, on aisle; and smiling board Attorney Richard Salkin took up positions in the back of City Council Chambers. Only Salkin and Barreto spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Board Attorney Richard Salkin addressing Mayor John Labrosse, City Council members and City Manager David R. Troast, left, on Tuesday night. 

School board

Nunnermacker, two other board members and board Attorney Richard Salkin attended Tuesday night's council meeting after conducting their own meeting.

It's not clear why the school board holds meetings on the same night as the council, unless it is intended to deny most residents a say in how the city's schools are run.

Residents are allowed only 3 minutes to comment, in contrast to the 5 minutes Salkin and others are given at council meetings.

To make matters worse, I cannot recall The Record covering a school board meeting in Hackensack in a year or more.

Board members count on apathy from residents as well as The Record's editors, as they did this year, when fewer than 1,000 of the city's 20,000 registered voters cast ballots and approved a $107 million budget, exceeding the city's own spending plan.

Todd South, the reporter assigned to cover Hackensack, was at Tuesday night's council meeting, but nothing about the meeting appears in the paper today.

Music in park

Hackensack City Manager David R. Troast announced three lunchtime concerts in the new Atlantic Street park on Friday, and Sept. 11 and 18.

Troast said a few downtown restaurants will take lunch orders and deliver them to the new park.

Today's paper

The Hackensack news drought apparently mirrors fear of a severe water shortage in North Jersey, where the primary supplier is asking residents "to voluntarily conserve," according to The Record (L-1).

What little news there is from Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza in today's Local section includes reports on Paterson gangs, sexual assault of a college student and lots of other crime and accident news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

In Bergenfield, Bergen County's first female police chief was sworn in, and will be paid more than Governor Christie (L-1).

Page 1 news?

On the front page today, Editor Martin Gottlieb runs a sensational report on the arrest of Dr. Raja Jagtiani of Dumont.

The doctor was charged with criminal sexual contact and other counts for allegedly touching a patient and three employees inappropriately at his Bergenfield practice, and biting one of them on the cheek (A-1).

Page 1 is dominated by two stories on the pope's downplaying "the sin of abortion," but nowhere in the two long narratives do reporters mention the hard-line views of Republicans seeking their party's presidential nomination, including Christie.

Christie vows to return country to 'despair and status quo'

The long-awaited, long-delayed repaving of Prospect Avenue in Hackensack -- a street lined with high-rises -- has been completed between Essex and Passaic streets, but other crudely patched blocks between Passaic and Ross Avenue weren't touched. Residents who use NJ Transit buses complained that during the work, a police officer stood by and provided little assistance in helping them cross the street and keep away from heavy equipment and other construction hazards.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers of The Record took one look at another front page from journalism hell -- dominated by Governor Christie, Medicare payments to hospitals and baseball -- and dove into the paper, looking for something relevant to their lives.

If you glance at the headlines and text on Page 1, you'll see that Christie spoke to supporters of his presidential bid and promised to "kick 'hope and change' out" in 2016.

"We're going to bring a little Jersey to the White House," said the GOP bully, who is ninth in a Fox News debate field of 10 clowns on Thursday (A-1).

That's great. Christie would replace "hope and change" with "despair and the status quo," and export the hell he's created in New Jersey to the rest of the country.

And Christie's statement that he has used birth control with his wife is at odds with all of the years he has spent screwing the middle class in New Jersey (A-8).

When did he have the time or the energy to have sex with first lady Mary Pat Christie?

Hackensack news

Jason Nunnermacker, a lawyer who is president of the Board of Education, has announced his second bid for a seat on the Hackensack City Council.

Nunnermacker, an ally of the Zisa family political machine that ran the city for decades, headed a slate that lost the 2013 municipal election.

Now, he's filed a nominating petition for the special Nov. 3 council election to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Rose Greenman.

Nunnermacker has appeared at council meetings for the last two years to criticize Greenman, Mayor John Labrosse and other city officials.

But he's never discussed why the school budget has continued to increase to the point where it now exceeds the city budget.

Nor has he addressed allegations that a teacher stole two laptops from a school and a supervisor falsified time cards of a subordinate.

As head of the school board, he also has ignored about $58,000 in overbilling by board attorney Richard Salkin in 2014. 

That's over Salkin's contract limit of $95,000 a year.

The Record's Hackensack reporter, Todd South, also is aware of the theft and time-card allegations, but he hasn't bothered to report them.

Local news?

Editors Deidre Sykes and Dan Sforza managed to keep Law & Order filler news to a minimum in today's Local section.

By they did find room for a photo of an SUV that ran into a utility pole in Englewood (L-3).

However, the caption, based on information supplied by the photographer, tells readers nothing about the possible cause.

And here's breaking news:

"An ambulance was observed leaving the area and heading toward Englewood Hospital and Medical Center."

Racial motive?

A story on opposition to a proposal for 24o apartments in Upper Saddle River doesn't explore whether homeowners are trying to keep out black and Hispanic renters (L-9).

The editors frequently portray seniors as confused residents of nursing homes or so addled they mistake the accelerator for the brake pedal, smashing their cars into other people or storefronts.

But on L-1 today, a photo shows an engaged group of seniors picketing a Wayne zoning board meeting in opposition to a proposed 422-unit Avalon Bay apartment complex.

Cheap wood construction was one of the factors cited in the fast-spreading inferno that destroyed the 308-unit Avalon at Edgewater complex on Jan.21.

Healthy eating?

The headlines on the Better Living front promise "simple" and "healthy" recipes for college students (BL-1).

But the recipe on BL-4 calls for two teaspoons plus three tablespoons of artery clogging butter for a pound of flounder fillets.

And Staff Writer Elyse Torbio and the culinary expert she quotes, Jim Edwards of Chef Central in Paramus, don't bother teaching students one of the most valuable lessons of all:

Avoid meat and poultry with antibiotics, growth hormones and other harmful additives.

Meanwhile, clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson advises readers to hold the mayo in a potato salad, but to make sure they include four slices of fatty bacon (BL-2).