Hackensack school board wages bitter war against council

Before Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin conferred with Lynne Hurwitz, back to camera, the grandmother who heads Hackensack's Democratic Party. Hurwitz has been identified in The Record as "the key strategist behind the Zisa family political machine, which ruled the city for three decades until its slate of candidates was defeated last year [2013]."

Jason Nunnermacker, an attorney, was a member of the losing Zisa-backed City Council slate in May 2013. Now, as president of the Board of Education, he appears at nearly every council meeting, along with Salkin and other board members, to berate officials. Salkin was stripped of his second job, municipal prosecutor, after his allies lost the election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After their work session was canceled, four members of the nine-member Board of Education, led by their attorney, went on the attack at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

Board President Jason Nunnermacker, members Francis W. Albolino, Joseph Barreto and Daniel Carola; and school board lawyer Richard Salkin took turns at the lectern.

Another member, Mark Stein, was in the audience. 

What residents who attend the meetings witness is the losing side in the May 2013 municipal election, most, if not all, of whom are Democrats, attacking the winners, most of whom are Republicans.

This is the same type of partisan rancor that has paralyzed Congress.

From all the time school board officials spend at City Council meetings, you'd think their own house is in order, but that is far from the case.

The total 2015-16 school budget topped $107 million, exceeding the city's own budget of under $95 million, and council officials are not sure where all of that money is going.

Board members count on voter apathy to keep them in office and to approve their profligate budgets, as they did this year, when fewer than 1,000 of the city's 20,000 registered voters cast ballots in April's school election.

Legal fees

As a former City Council candidate in 2013, I read a statement on Tuesday night concerning Salkin's 2014 legal fees far exceeding the contracted amount; stolen iPads and Chromebooks, two of which were traced to a teacher's house; and rumors of sexual harassment complaints against a board member and others.

In 2013, as board attorney, Salkin turned down a request from Mayor John Labrosse for payment of $1 million the city was owed for supplying a police officer at Hackensack High School.

In 2014, according to documents, Salkin billed more than $153,000 for legal services, even though his contract limits those payments to $95,000.

This year, he billed the board more than $36,000 in the first three months alone.

Stolen tablets

Of 29 iPads and Chromebooks stolen from Hackensack Pubic Schools from April 1, 2014, to Sept. 30, 2014, only two were recovered.

Those two were traced to a teacher's house, but the teacher was not charged or disciplined.

They were among a larger number of devices, valued at more than $35,000, that went missing, but The Record has chosen not to publish a story reporting the thefts, a councilman said.

Complaints

There also are disturbing rumors of sexual harassment complaints against a board member and school employees, and a rumor that one supervisor has falsified time cards for a secretary who went home early.

Complaints about low-quality food in the high school have fallen on deaf ears, even as many students race out to Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, pizzerias and fast-food restaurants for lunch.

And the board has shown no interest in making schools more efficient and saving money by installing solar panels.

Todd South, the reporter assigned to Hackensack, covered Tuesday night's meeting.

Salkin speaking during the public portion of the meeting. Documents show he billed the school board for more than $153,000 in legal services in 2014 (at $150 an hour), and was paid, even though his contract limits him to $95,000 annually. In the first three months of this year, his billings exceeded $36,000.

Another persistent City Council critic is school board member Daniel Carola, 30, who initially covered his face with papers when I tried to take his picture before he approached the lectern to speak.

Francis W. Albolino, a school board veteran, front; and fellow member Joseph Barreto waiting to speak to the council. Barreto was on the losing Zisa-backed council slate in 2013. Albolino wants the city to give the schools half of the taxes collected on new apartment buildings, claiming hundreds of children will be moving into Hackensack.

Also addressing the council on Tuesday night was Howard Hurwitz, executive director of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority, which operates a wastewater treatment plant. He is the husband of Lynne Hurwitz.

Best-read paper in Hackensack isn't The Record

A full moon rising over Hackensack on Thursday night. The photo was taken from the parking lot of the Devonshire on Overlook Avenue, where the 11 candidates in the May 14 City Council election introduced themselves to building residents and answered questions. Independent Victor E. Sasson, editor of Eye on The Record, was scheduled last, at 9 p.m., and only a handful of people stayed to hear him speak.




Friday's edition of The Record carried an unusually large amount of news from Hackensack, all of it bad.

Today's paper is what residents have come to expect: no Hackensack news.

But residents may be too busy to notice. Two other papers have grabbed their attention:

The Hackensack Citizen, published by the Citizens for Change slate in the May 14 City Council election; and the weekly Hackensack Chronicle, which leads with the April 16 school board election.

Here are stories from The Hackensack Citizen:
 

Belly laughs can be heard all over Hackensack from quotes in the Chronicle.

Francis W. Albolino, an incumbent who was elected to his eighth term on the Board of Education said, "We ... would like to thank the voters for coming out."

Albolino was the highest vote-getter with 1,091 -- this in a city with 20,000 registered voters.

He actually meant to say he thanks the voters for not coming out, ensuring victory for the city's political machine.

Critics of Albolino say he falls asleep at meetings, and note the schools win many sports awards, but no academic ones.

Many Hackensack High School students refuse to eat what passes for lunch, and they vote with their feet by walking to a nearby pizzeria, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks.

Mayor Michael R. Melfi, who is a benefactor of the same political machine propping up Albolino, swore in board members on April 22. 

Wrong-way reporter

In Friday's Road Warrior column, Staff Writer John Cichowski reports the Court Street Bridge in Hackensack was scheduled to open today for the first time since Superstorm Sandy (L-5).

But the bridge has been open to traffic in recent months, only to be closed a few days ago. And Hackensack police said the bridge is not reopening today. 

Cichowski likes to exaggerate to get readers' attention, as in describing the Anderson Street  Bridge, which has no moving parts, as "wheezing."

The Salem Street Bridge -- which is under no weight restrictions -- is "rickety."

Of course, anyone who has seen how slowly the burned-out columnist moves realizes those words fit him perfectly.  

Pasta with raw fish?

Friday's restaurant review pans Union Bar, a freakish Japanese-Italian hybrid that serves sushi and pizza in Cliffside Park (BL-18).

But the critic fails to note this is the former Bushido Bar and Restaurant, which was faulted for using inferior raw fish in a review published in June 2012.

Why did The Record review this place again?

Something is rotten in the city of Hackensack

A recent City Council meeting in Hackensack's City Hall.

Should a city employee function as "Editor" of Hackensack's Community Message Boards, delete information about the Borg family he considers "a personal attack" and not identify himself?

The "Editor" is Albert H. Dib, executive director of  the Upper Main Alliance, a business group that will receive $360,595 in city taxpayer money this year, including his $58,000 salary.

The Main Street group is dominated by real estate interests who pushed for approval of a downtown redevelopment plan by the City Council.

Dib also is said to be Web master of the city of Hackensack's official municipal site, Hackensack.org. 

He is listed on the Community Message Boards, at HackensackNow.org, as:

Editor

• Administrator
• 
• 
• Posts: 2649
• Karma: 16
• [clap] [boo]

The May 14 Hackensack City Council election is one of the most important in Hackensack's history, and recently, a lawn sign supporting the Hackensack Coalition for Open Government -- widely viewed as the "Zisa Slate" -- appeared in front of Dib's home in the Fairmount section.

Victor E. Sasson, an independent candidate for City Council, was able to identify the home as Dib's from the list of registered voters and their addresses.

When Sasson questioned Dib's impartiality on HackensackNow, he replied:

"This is a two-family house. My tenant has a right to display lawn signs as well. I have not made up my mind as to all five candidates yet.

"I have been very careful not to endorse any candidates for office on this site. You don't need to try to do that for me. 

"'Editor' has been my handle on this site for almost 10 years now. I don't plan on changing it for you."

The lawn sign was removed a couple of days ago. 

Lawn signs at Euclid Avenue and Clarendon Place in Hackensack.

Kenneth Martin, a retired detective who heads the Open Government slate, has been charged with removing the signs of a rival slate from in front of Hackensack Market on Passaic Street.

Martin boasts of having been the first school resource officer at Hackensack High School. He's setting quite an example for students.

Martin was undone by a surveillance camera after City Council candidate Leo Battaglia of the Citizens for Change slate filed a complaint with police.

A probable cause hearing for Martin is set for Thursday, according to The Record (Friday's L-10).

The home page of HackensackNow.org.

City employee Dib's role on HackensackNow might be overlooked, if he clearly identified himself and didn't censor and delete remarks posted on the sight by "members," who also don't have to identify themselves.

They use such tags as "JustWatching," "BLeafe" and "averagejoe."

The 537 members -- in a city of 45,000 with 20,000 registered voters -- range from residents proud of Hackensack's history and interested in current events to crackpots and vicious character assassins.

When Sasson started posting Eye on The Record and his campaign announcements on HackensackNow, the "Editor" objected and put them under a new category, "Community Soapbox."

The "Editor" even started a poll among members to see whether he could kick Eye on The Record off the site, but only 6 members expressed any opinion. 

When Sasson defended the blog as trying to tell the story of how the Borg family abandoned Hackensack and stood by as editors drastically reduced news of the city, the "Editor" deleted some of those comments.

Specifically, he deleted how a 2008 downsizing followed by several months Publisher Stephen A. Borg's purchase of a $3.65 million McMansion in Tenafly with a company mortgage.

Dib says he has identified himself on HackensackNow in the past.

But new members remain in the dark about his city salary and his loyalties to the Zisa family and city Democratic Party chairwoman Lynne Hurwitz, who have ruled Hackensack for so many decades. 

Today's paper

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes plays catch up today with an expanded story about Tuesday's school board election in Hackensack (L-1).

The story appears after Eye on The Record wondered why Sykes had published immediate follow-ups on the contests in Englewood and Secaucus, but ignored Hackensack, where machine politics again triumphed over reform candidates.

In Hackensack, incumbent Francis W. Albolino won yet another term, having first joined the Board of Education in 1992. 

Fewer than 1,100 of the 20,000 registered voters went to the polls, so the losing slate -- incumbent Rhonda Williams Bembry, Lawrence Eisen and Judith Carter -- also were victims of voter apathy.

Considering all of the board's failures and the poor reputation of the public schools, Albolino is a persuasive argument for term limits.


Upper Main Alliance

HackensackNow

A City in Motion

More on the sad state of Hackensack's democracy

A badly battered section of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack remained untouched on Tuesday, above, even as at least one crew roams around the city, patching streets, such as Fairmount Avenue, below.

How you can you have democracy in Hackensack when only about 5% of the registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday's school board election, giving yet another victory to machine politics?

How can you have democracy in Hackensack when The Record makes no attempt to identify Lynne Hurwitz, chairwoman of the city's Democratic Party, as the power behind the winning slate, just as she propped up former Assemblyman and Police Chief Ken Zisa for so many years?

That support explains why employees of "Zisaville" felt comfortable driving city owned vehicles to the polls to vote on Tuesday. 

The city has about 20,000 registered voters, but Board of Education incumbent Francis W. Albolino was the highest vote-getter with 1,091.

He has been on the board since 1992.

Other winners

Elected with him were Lara L. Rodriguez and Timothy J. Hoffman, a 2012 graduate of Hackensack High School.

Rodriguez is a former associate director of marketing at Ramapo College, and Hoffman is a naive college student.

A marketing professional is just what the board needs to obscure all of its recent failures and how it is divided by politics.

Even though Hackensack doesn't have the huge expense of busing, the board apparently still cannot afford to serve students decent food or plant vegetable gardens at schools to fight the obesity epidemic.

Opponents meet


Albolino and one of his opponents, zoning board member Lawrence Eisen, chatted amiably on Tuesday in front of a polling place, Fairmount Elementary School, but their styles couldn't be more different.

Albolino wore a dark business suit, giving him the appearance of a slick politician.

Eisen was dressed casually, wore sandals and drove to the school in an old Saab. 

Now, he has a sob story for his supporters about how he was defeated by the city's legion of apathetic voters.

Gottlieb bombs

Readers have the same reaction to today's front page -- filled with coverage of the marathon bombing in Boston -- as they did to A-1 on Tuesday.

After watching hours of blanket coverage on TV, they have had enough, and want to read something else.

Gottlieb sent Mike Kelly's tired ass to Boston, and the columnist unloaded his arsenal of hackneyed words and phrases on readers on A-1 today.

Here's yet another lead paragraph in which Kelly uses "gaze" or "gazing."

In his previous column, he trotted out, "Say hello to ...," the fifth time he has used the same trite phrase since July 2012, according to a Google search.

Staff Writer John Cichowski, another one of The Record's burned-out columnists, has more advice on how to report litterers, but stops short of telling readers they can go to the police with a license-plate number and have a summons issued to the owner of the car (L-1).

City employees get a free ride to the polls

Candidates from opposing slates chatting amiably this afternoon in front of Hackensack's Fairmount Elementary School on Grand Avenue, one of the polling places for today's school-board election. The Ford Crown Victoria parked at the curb carried a license plate with the letters "MG" (Municipal Government), and a man soon left the school, got in and drove away.

At least two Hackensack employees used city owned vehicles to drive to the Fairmount Elementary School to cast their votes in today's school-board election.

The polls opened at 2 p.m. and were to remain open until 9 tonight. 

Six candidates, including two incumbents, were vying for three vacancies on the Board of Education, which has been divided by politics.

Sasson campaign

Victor E. Sasson, an independent City Council candidate in next month's non-partisan election, voted in the school cafeteria, then returned about 15 minutes later with copies of his platform folded inside official applications for mail-in ballots.

Sasson was careful to stay at least 100 feet away from the school entrance, as the law requires, before approaching voters.

Still, a car pulled up and City Clerk Debra Heck got out and handed Sasson a copy of the law on "prohibited actions in polling place on election day."

Heck said she received a report that Sasson had approached voters within 100 feet of the polling place.

Mrs. Heck also was upset that in proposing a residency requirement for city employees, Sasson had mistakenly told voters at a recent forum for council candidates that she was one of the city officials who lived outside Hackensack.

The candidate apologized. 

Dissing Hackensack

The Record's coverage of the contested school-board election in Hackensack was weak, typical of its famously lazy assignment editors, who long ago developed a distaste for covering local contests.

Today's front page again shows that Editor Marty Gottlieb continues to ignore the needs of North Jersey readers.

Christie mismanagement

Why relegate to A-3 the latest version of Governor Christie's irresponsible tax-cut plan?

Three corrections run on A-2 today, including fixes to a misspelled name and an incorrect Page 1 map -- basics that a daily newspaper should be getting right.

Local yokels

In head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' thin Local news section, the only Hackensack news is a follow-up to charges against City Council candidate Kenneth Martin, a retired cop, who is accused of removing his opponents' campaign signs (L-3).