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.

Old news in Hackensack: Taxes are going up

Architectural details on the Salvation Army building on Bergen Street in Hackensack, above and below. The building is across the street from the Bergen County Bar Association.

The Hackensack City Council introduced a 2013 Municipal Budget on Tuesday night that would raise property taxes 3.3% or $118.84 on the average home assessed at $243,020.

Although Staff Writer Hannan Adely sat through the entire meeting, residents won't find a word about the proposed budget in The Record or on North Jersey.com.

A story about the proposed Teaneck Municipal Budget is on the Local front today and on the Web site.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes ignored Hackensack's budget in 2012 and 2011, and residents never saw a story about its introduction or approval in those years.

Labrosse awakens

Councilman John Labrosse, who has been sleep-walking through meetings for four years, apparently nodded off during budget meetings and, on Tuesday night, he was the lone vote against introducing the city's plan.

Labrosse said he still had questions about the budget, but he received a tongue-lashing from Mayor Michael Melfi.

Street repairs?

Teaneck's capital budget includes $1.2 million to resurface roads and repair sidewalks and curbs, The Record reports today.

But Eye on The Record could not find a similar appropriation in Hackensack's Municipal Data Sheet, which was released with the city's proposed spending plan. 

Tax-exempt property

Hackensack lists the "general state of the economy, impact of tax appeals, flat state aid and retirements" as factors impacting the budget.

But the city doesn't acknowledge its long-term problem: 

Hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-exempt buildings at the non-profit Hackensack University Medical Center and at Fairleigh Dickinson University's Hackenack campus.

The Bergen County Courthouse, Administration Building, Jail and other county buildings also are tax-exempt.

Too young to serve?

Today's front-page story on teens who serve on school boards doesn't explain why the food is so bad in high schools, including the one in Hackensack (A-1).

Page A-2 carries two corrections and a clarification today.

More road thrills

Sykes and Dan Sforza, the deputy assignment editor, couldn't find room for a story on Hackensack's budget plan, but ran another Road Warrior column on a non-issue: electronic overhead signs on highways (L-1).

Staff Writer John Cichowski's chief value to the paper is to pad his columns with e-mails from drivers so readers can see their names in print.

Cashing in on disease

The Local front is dominated by the planned June 1 reopening of Pascack Valley Hospital "as the county's first for-profit hospital."

If the highly profitable HUMC can pay taxes in Westwood, why can't it pay something in lieu of taxes in Hackensack, where its tax-exempt status is a burden residents can no longer afford?

The story says "all the furniture and toilets are capable of supporting patients up to 400 pounds," apparently in anticipation of having Sykes and Governor Christie as patients.

From left, Councilman Marlin G. Townes Jr., City Attorney Joseph Zisa and Mayor Michael R. Melfi at Tuesday night's meeting on the third floor of City Hall.

More legal bills

Also at Tuesday night's meeting, Melfi, other council members and City Attorney Joseph Zisa Jr. defended the payment of more than $500,000 in legal bills racked up by two police officers who were acquitted of criminal charges.

Zisa criticized Labrosse for voting to approve the payment, then going to The Record and saying he is having second thoughts.

Sgt. Thomas Aletta and Capt. Danilo Garcia were charged $225 and $390 an hour, respectively, but Zisa has refused to ask a judge to rule on whether the fees are reasonable.

Aletta and Garcia were accused of intervening in a robbery and assault investigation involving two sons of then-Police Chief Ken Zisa's girlfriend.

This appears to be another case of Zisa -- the ex-chief's cousin -- and council members rubber-stamping huge payments to cover legal fees from politically connected lawyers.   

Let's hope voters wake up to this sleight-of-hand, split their votes on May 14 and kick out the clueless Labrosse, the only incumbent seeking a new term.

His own campaign literature is silent on what he has accomplished since 2009.

Unschooled chef

Also in The Record today, The Better Living cover story on aspiring chef Yitzi Taber, 17, shows he has a lot to learn about how even many kosher chickens are raised on harmful animal antibiotics (BL-1).

Does he really want to serve his Garlic Chicken Rollatini to family members without going to the trouble of finding drug-free or organic birds?