Road Warrior peddles more fiction for drivers

An NJ Trantsit local speeding toward Trenton.

Editor's note: Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to spin fictional roadside controversies based on complaining e-mails sent in by his adoring fans, who love to see their names in print. Here is another e-mail from a reader concerned about these flights of fancy.

"What is it and what does it mean?

"Readers regularly ask these questions as the Road Warrior continues to  mistakenly report and grossly exaggerate utter nonsense, as he does in his May 12 column, about inconsequential roadside sights.

"The Road Warrior is unable to fill his column with anything relevant or accurate so he concocts stories with his senseless observations to make it seem like he is doing his job. 

"Road Warrior babbles endlessly about towers and high-rises, which are really only 6 and 8-story low-rise apartments being built next to the Lincoln Tunnel Helix roadway.  

"He never answers drivers' questions if the buildings will obstruct some of their Manhattan views, which they will.

"He exaggerates and falsely reports about drivers taking their lives in their hands when dealing with everyday roadside objects. 

"Road Warrior recommends NJ should buy up land for possible future widening of Route 17 south of the Garden State Plaza mall. 

"He makes his faulty assessment, even though he reports it is against NJ DOT policy to buy land if no project is approved. 

"He previously reported that NJ transportation fund has no money for capital projects."

The full e-mail can be viewed on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior is making it up as he goes along

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. 

Blogger's campaign helped change Hackensack

Limon Fine Food Marketplace on Main Street is a mere shell, symbolizing the failure of the Upper Main Alliance to revive the downtown shopping district in Hackensack. The public-private partnership was formed in 2004, when Jack Zisa was mayor of "Zisaville." Zisa served 16 years as mayor, a powerful argument for term limits.

The alliance does have a shiny pickup truck marked "SUPERVISOR." Of what? Around 2:30 on Monday afternoon, there was little foot traffic on Main Street, and some of the people were homeless or appeared deranged.

This morning, Victor E. Sasson drove over the same roughly patched streets he brought to the attention of voters during a 3-month campaign for City Council in Hackensack.

Sasson used potholes and the city's failure to pave his street since 1979 to dramatize how property taxes continue to rise and city services decline in "Zisaville."

When the campaign ended this week, street paving and most other quality of life issues in Sasson's platform had become part of the promises made to voters by the 10 other candidates in the race.

And city officials appeared to be making some of the changes Sasson sought on behalf of himself and other property tax payers.

Last, not least 

Sasson finished last on Tuesday, with 344 votes, but his consolation prize is the victory of the 5-member Citizens for Change slate, headed by incumbent John Labrosse.

Best of all, the Coalition for Open Government, a quintet of mental lightweights and Zisa allies, was defeated, signaling that decades of corrupt rule in Hackensack will soon end (see Page 1 of The Record today).

Although 344 seems like a small number, those vote could have swung the election to other candidates.
 

John Labrosse, right, speaking to supporters on Tuesday night at the Elks Lodge on Linden Street in Hackensack.

 
LTACH and you

The victory of the Labrosse slate also repudiated the strategy of the Prospect Avenue Coaltion to organize residents around a single issue, and to hell with the rest of Hackensack.

Hundreds of high-rise residents attended forums with the candidates, and grilled them on their positions regarding a 19-story Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH) proposed for a small parcel between Prospect and Summit avenues, near Golf Place. 

The developer is appealing the city zoning board's 5-0 decision to reject the plan, and the coaltion wanted to make sure City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr. and former zoning board attorney Richard Malagiere would continue to fight against LTACH in Superior Court.

Key members of the coalition even urged Prospect Avenue residents to split their vote and elect a City Council with three Zisa allies and two members of Citizens for Change -- in other words, maintain the status quo.

Labrosse and his running mates had said they would cut loose Joe Zisa and Malagiere, as did Sasson.

Such a 3-2 council would be great for the coalition -- because the attorneys would be able to continue fighting LTACH and lining their pockets with legal fees at taxpayers' expense -- but terrible for the rest of the city. 

Inside the voting booth. Victor E. Sasson appeared to be hurt by his ballot position -- last. He was told it is state law to list candidates in one column, in contrast to from left to right as on ballots used in the general election. That law doesn't favor independents.

Taxing officials

Sasson and Citizens for Change didn't coordinate their campaigns, but their positions complemented each other as they made voters aware of a 65% hike in property taxes amid declining services.

Kathy Canestrino, the Labrosse running-mate elected on her second try, hammered away at the $6 million in legal fees the city paid in 3 years, all of it generated by the legal problems of Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, the former state Assemblyman and convicted ex-police chief.

A select group of lawyers got rich suing or defending Zisa, who was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but who remains free pending the appeal of his conviction a year ago for official corruption and insurance fraud.

And Sasson told voters Hackensack is a tax-poor city, deprived of tens of millions of dollars, because of the tax-exempt status of Hackensack University Medical Center, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Bergen County.

Sasson urged HUMC and the others to give back to the city in lieu of property taxes.

Change has started

He didn't have to get elected to see that process begin.

Mike Mordaga took over on Feb. 4 as the city's first civilian police director, and went to work on problems ranging from street crime to moving violations by drivers to all the time his officers spend driving the homeless to the HUMC emergency room.

Mordaga paired county sheriff's officers with city cops in cruisers, and sent them out to stop crime and improve the quality of life by having residents feel safe walking the streets.

He's also asked the county police for assistance.

And Mordaga ordered a crackdown on such moving violations as speeding and blowing through stop signs.

Finally, he asked HUMC to staff a room at the county shelter on South River Street -- where three free meals a day keep the homeless in Hackensack -- to cut down on his officers' trips to the emergency room.

Sasson's lawn signs may come in handy in the next campaign.

Sasson's street will be paved in the fall, the city manager said recently.

And the city no longer sends a noisy truck to collect his garbage and recyclables before 6 a.m., giving his family and neighbors some sorely needed peace and quiet.

Reformers win Hackensack City Council election

Hackensack Councilman Jorge Meneses, left, chatting with Kenneth Martin, right, the Coalition for Open Government's lead candidate, this afternoon in front of the entrance to the polls at Hackensack High School.

 
Citizens for Change, the slate of Hackensack City Council reformers headed by incumbent John Labrosse, won today's non-partisan municipal election.

Official results show residents rejected the dirty campaign of the Hackensack Coalition for Open Government, also known as "the Zisa slate," which was backed and financed in part by Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss.

Councilman John Labrosse, right, speaking to supporters as votes were tallied tonight at the Elks Lodge on Linden Street in Hackensack.

The first 5 columns represent votes for Citizens for Change.

The winners will be sworn in on July 1.

Since he was elected in 2009, Labrosse has been out-voted 4-1 on the council.

Labrosse and the other four members of his slate were the targets of a campaign of lies and distortions mounted by the Zisa family political dynasty, which has ruled Hackensack for decades.

This morning, former Mayor Jack Zisa blasted independent candidate Victor E. Sasson for a campaign flier that urged voters to end the Zisa family's corrupt rule.

Zisa seemed to be saying he was an honest mayor during his 16 years in office, ending in 2005.

But he didn't explain why he stood by and did nothing while his brother Ken, the city's police chief and a state Assemblyman, broke the law.

Jack Zisa is the city's broker for employee health insurance, and his cousin, Joseph C. Zisa Jr., is city attorney.

Sasson, whose name appeared at the bottom of a column of 10 other candidates, finished last with 344 votes, City Clerk Debra Heck said tonight.

Heck released the following vote totals:

Labrosse, 2,008; Kathy Canestrino, 1,908; David Sims, 1,911; Rose Greenman, 1,788; and Leo Battaglia, 1,804.

Kenneth Martin, a former cop who headed the Coalition for Open Government, received 1,651 votes, Heck said.