Ex-Hackensack mayor blasts independent candidate

The entrance to the polls at the Fairmount Elementary School on Grand Avenue in Hackensack, where independent City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson voted for himself this morning, below.

"X" marks a vote for Sasson (Line 11), editor of Eye on The Record.

On a beautiful day for voting, independent City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson drove down to his polling place this morning, and was blasted by ex-Mayor Jack Zisa and Open Government candidate Joseph Barreto, one of "the Zisa slate" puppets.

Zisa -- standing on the street corner with Barreto -- was incensed that Sasson's campaign flier urged voters "to end the corrupt rule of the Zisa family."

Zisa saw one of the fliers on Monday night, when Sasson's wife and teenage son distributed them on Poplar Avenue, where the former mayor lives.

Barreto followed Sasson to his car, and criticized him for telling voters the Zisa-backed candidate doesn't send his children to the public schools, calling that an attack on Baretto's religion.

Lara L. Rodriguez, left, who was elected to the Board of Education in April, leaving the voting booth this morning at the Fairmount School. Her candidacy was backed by Hackensack's political machine, which has controlled the city for decades.

 

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg refused to "get involved" in Hackenack's non-partisan municipal election, opening the way for Newark Mayor Cory Booker to make a robo call backing candidates from the Coalition for Open Government, also known as "the Zisa slate."

Open Government candidates also are backed by Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss and the power behind Ken Zisa, the disgraced former state Assemblyman and convicted ex-police chief, and brother of Jack Zisa, who served as mayor for 16 years, until 2005.

Another Democratic party figure, the widow of state Sen. Byron Baer of Englewood, also sent out a letter mounting a scurrilous attack on the Citizens for Change slate of reformers.

The letter from Linda Baer, a former state Administrative Law Judge and Bergen County freeholder, carried a Clinton Street address.

Residents may have wondered why Linda Baer would get involved in a Hackensack election.

It turns out Lara L. Rodriguez, one of the successful machine candidates for Board of Education last month, is Byron Baer's daughter.  

How cozy everyone is in Hackensack.

Dissing Hackensack

The Record hasn't mentioned the election since a front-page story last Thursday.

Today, the Woodland Park daily finally publishes a story about the approval of Hackensack's $91.9 million budget a week ago.

Of course, property taxes are going up, piling on a 65% increase in recent years under the current City Council, which has raped the taxpayer.

The story on L-3 is a reprint from the weekly Hackensack Chronicle, and fails to mention today's crucial election.

The polls are open until 8 p.m. today.

Hackensack voters, throw off your chains.

Multimillionaire banker and developer Fred Daibes has expressed an interest in the 20 acres along River Street in Hackensack owned by the Borg family, publishers of The Record and Herald News, according to rumors circulating today.

Borgs, Daibes et al.

The Record and the Borg family were the subject of Election Day rumors in Hackensack.

Fred Daibes, founder of Mariner's Bank in Edgewater, apparently has expressed an interest in developing 20 acres on River Street, former headquarters of The Record, which moved out in 2009.

That might explain why Daibes -- one of the county's most politically active developers -- came out smelling like a rose in Sunday's Page 1 expose of unsecured Mariner's Bank loans to Democratic Party bigwig Joseph Ferriero and others.

The story was written by Jean Rimbach, whose rare byline exposes her as the least productive member of the newsroom.

Rimbach keeps her job, because of her friendship with head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, a lifer who seems immune to being fired, despite the drastic decline in local news in the past decade.

In Hackensack, a vote for the underdog is a vote for reform

Independent Hackensack City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson is urging the Borg family to offer 20 acres along River Street, including The Record's old headquarters, above, to the developer of a controversial Long-Term Acute Care Hospital proposed for a small parcel on Prospect Avenue or to the city for the site of a community center and public pool.

 

Hackensack residents won't find any news of their city in The Record today, but they'll have a lot of questions for the outgoing mayor and other City Council members after reading a story in the Local section.

The borough of Ridgefield is voting on Tuesday to decide whether officials should spend $550,000 initially toward the construction of a $15 million civic center (L-3).

Hackensack doesn't have anything like a $15 million civic center or even a public pool.

The City Council in "Zisaville" has raised property taxes 65%, but can't afford to pave streets.

And the council, along with City Attorney Joseph C.  Zisa Jr., squandered $6 million in legal fees on all of the civil and criminal cases sparked by his cousin, Ken Zisa, the former state Assemblyman and convicted ex-police chief.

Independent candidate Victor E. Sasson (Line 11) is urging residents to get out and vote for reform. He is considered an underdog.

Five members of the Citizens for Change slate also stand for reform (Lines 1-5).

But Coalition for Open Government candidates can be counted on to perpetuate the Zisa family's politics of greed (Lines 6-10). 

The Hudson Street building with the private law offices of Hackensack City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr. is available for lease, according to a sign in a first-floor window.

One-track mind

Today's Page 1 story on NJ Transit's failure to safeguard hundreds of train cars and engines from Superstorm Sandy was coordinated with WNYC-FM, the National Public Radio station, which aired the first of two parts this morning. 

The station identified Staff Writer Karen Rouse as "a senior reporter at The Bergen Record," and credited her with breaking the story of NJ Transit's expensive screw-up.

There was no mention of how The Record's coverage of mass transit before Sandy hit on Oct. 29, 2012, consisted of sending a reporter to meetings of NJ Transit and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

Nor that the editors never assign Rouse, Road Warrior John Cichowski or any other reporter to ride buses and trains, and report on them from the commuters' point of view. 

Dissing Hackensack

WNYC-FM also aired a story on Tuesday's municipal election in Jersey City, but turned down a request from Sasson for coverage of the crucial Hackensack contest.

Sasson and other City Council hopefuls appeared at forums held in four high-rises and two churches, but the Johnson Public Library refused to hold a candidates' night.

And the Teaneck League of Women Voters, which also covers Hackensack, told Sasson that as an independent candidate, he could not ask the group to moderate a debate.

The polls in Hackensack are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.
 

Road Warrior flip-flops on MVC lines

Memo to the Road Warrior: As a so-called commuting columnist, you should be writing about daily lines at the bus terminal in Manhattan, above, or New York's Penn Station, below, but not so obsessively about lines at Motor Vehicle Commission offices, which drivers have to visit only once every four years, if that.

The afternoon rush for an NJ Transit train.

The morning rush to get into the Lincoln Tunnel.

Editor's note: Road Warrior John Cichowski has probably written more columns about lines at Motor Vehicle Commission offices than on any other topic, but motorists are far less obsessed with them, because they have to visit the MVC only once every four years, if that. Now, a concerned reader points out in his latest e-mail to management that Cichowksi apparently can't remember what he wrote about MVC lines in previous columns.

"The Road Warrior is like the little boy who cried wolf -- in his endless columns about whether there are shorter or longer lines at MVC offices, reporting  that does not appear to reflect any reality. He continues to flip-flop when reporting that lines are shorter, only to follow in subsequent columns that lines are still longer.

"His May 8 column indicated that lines are much, much shorter with waits as short as 15 minutes and that line waits have improved considerably over the PAST YEAR.  Yet, his Jan. 6 column went on and on about MVC lines that continued to be several hours long.

"His May 8 column indicated that MVC offices readily accommodate those with medical conditions so they do not have to wait in line.  Yet, his April 24 column reported and complained that MVC offices do NOT accommodate those with medical conditions.

"Road Warrior continues to foolishly report that those born BEFORE Dec. 1, 1964, are eligible to Skip the Trip to MVC offices for license renewals. As I pointed out concerning his April 24 column that made the same mistake, the MVC Web site clearly indicates that drivers born ON Dec. 1, 1964, or before may be eligible.

"Why does The Record management allow this foolish, flip-flopping and flawed reporting about MVC lines and other issues that only confuses readers?"

For the full text of the e-mail, click on the following link to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Where do I line up?

5 lightweights seek election in Hackensack

This eyesore is among several shuttered storefronts on just 2 blocks of Main Street in Hackensack, on either side of Banta Place. See photos below.

A barber on Banta Place says the street hasn't been paved in 30 years.

Jerome J. Lombardo is chairman of C.J. Lombardo Co., as well as chairman of the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, a public-private partnership set up in 2004 to promote Main Street and attract people to the shopping district. It's also called the Upper Main Alliance, because it doesn't represent all of Main Street.

No one is beating down the door to rent space on Main Street.

Another failed restaurant on Main Street.

When did Phiefer's, one of Hackensack's oldest restaurants, close?

Is it a conflict for Jerome Lombardo to own a lot of real estate on Main Street and head the public-private alliance that is pushing for redevelopment, with the full backing of a City Council that is trying to hold onto power in Tuesday's election?

The once-majestic United Jersey Bank headquarters on Main Street.

Maybe the Upper Main Alliance should have tried animal sacrifices to revive Main Street before this botanica was closed by a fire last week.

The 5 City Council candidates in the so-called Open Government slate are so many puppets whose strings are being pulled by the powerful political forces that have brought Hackensack to its knees.

Voters on Tuesday could elect independent Victor E. Sasson and other reformers who want to revive the city (vote Lines 11, 2, 3, 4 and 5).

Or, apathetic voters might allow the Open Government slate (Lines 6-10) to win and continue to line the pockets of lawyers, developers and other insiders who have thrived under the decades-long rule of the Zisa family.

'Dragon Lady'

Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss, is a protege of longtime party bigwig Joseph Ferriero and the power behind Ken Zisa, the disgraced former state Assemblyman and convicted ex-police chief (see Page 1 of The Record today).

On Saturday, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the widow of a longtime state senator shamed themselves by ignoring Hackensack's corrupt past and endorsing the Open Government slate -- in a display of divisive party politics.
 

Warehouses and other commercial businesses coexist uncomfortably with homes on Hobart Street in Hackensack, above, and near Elizabeth Street, below. With no park in the neighborhood, children use parking lots for recreation on weekends.

 

Candidate Victor E. Sasson is independent and honest, and owes no favors to special interests, unlike members of "the Zisa slate."

Mental lightweights

Let's take a look at the Zisa slate's 5 candidates:

• As a Hackensack police officer, Kenneth Martin couldn't spell "ambulance" and other words when writing reports. His first dumb move as a candidate was to remove opponents' signs in full view of a store surveillance camera.
• Jason Nunnermacker is a well-fed corporate lawyer and school trustee who has never spoken during the campaign about what he has accomplished in more than a year on the Board of Education. 
• Joanne Mania Colon boasts of more than 20 years of service as a volunteer on the city Planning Board, which has allowed the construction of warehouses next to homes, exposing residents to noise and fumes in their own backyards.
• Joseph Barreto is an educator in Manhattan -- not Hackensack -- and doesn't even send his children to the city's public schools.
• Scott Young apparently doesn't have what it takes to become a member of the city's Police Department, and is a volunteer or "special" officer.   

Lies, not reform
 
Campaign material sent out by the Open Government slate has been filled with lies and distortions about reformers on the Citizens for Change team, including Councilman John Labrosse, the only incumbent seeking another term.