Reporter again ignores bitter partisan battle for Hackensack

Hackensack Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker ran unsuccessfully for City Council twice with the backing of the Zisa family political dynasty, which controlled the city for decades before reformers were elected in 2013. Now, he attends council meeting regularly to attack Mayor John Labrosse and other officials.

At a council meeting in May, Nunnermacker, in a hoodie, tried to hide from the camera after Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino rebuked him publicly for falsely claiming he and other school board members were responsible for cutting taxes $214 for the average homeowner. A citywide revaluation cut city and school taxes an average of $400 for about one-third of homeowners, she noted.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

John Seasly, The Record's Hackensack reporter, continues to ignore the Zisa family's battle to regain control of the city they ruled for decades.

A slate of Zisa allies -- including school board member Jason Nunnermacker -- was defeated in the 2013 municipal election, but the family continued to control the Board of Education, where Nunnermacker is now president.

And Richard Salkin, the board attorney and a former city attorney, lost his second job as municipal prosecutor after Mayor John Labrosse and other council members took office.

In April, two members of Team Hackensack, backed by former four-term Mayor Jack Zisa and other Zisas, were elected to the Board of Education and the third member of the slate was appointed later to fill a vacancy -- solidifying their control.

Seasly completed ignored the Zisa family's role in the school election, as well as the issues brought up by the other candidates, including three backed by the current council.

He also ignored the proposed $104 million school budget, which accounts for 44% of a homeowner's property tax bill and which exceeded the city's own spending plan.

'A frequent critic'

Today, in a story on the Local front, Seasly identifies Salkin as "a frequent critic of the municipal government," but doesn't mention all of the jobs the attorney held during Zisa administrations or when the council was controlled by the family's allies (L-1).

To further insulate Salkin from charges of partisan politics, the reporter deftly quotes Labrosse, the mayor, as citing "the lawyer's loyalty to the Zisa political family" (L-7).

"It's a political stunt that stinks of the old-style politics that have plagued this town forever," Labrosse says, referring to another lawsuit Salkin filed against him.

That let's the reporter, his assignment editor and Editor Deirdre Sykes off the hook for their slanted reporting and shocking disregard for Hackensack residents and readers.

2017 election

A Zisa-backed Team Hackensack slate is expected to oppose the reelection of Labrosse and other council members in the non-partisan May 2017 election.

Let's see if Seasly manages to ignore that contest as he did the school board election:

Zisa-backed school trustees sworn, 
editors could care less 

With reporters like Seasly telling only half the story in Hackensack, the county seat may once again be cursed as "Zisaville."

Christie-Trump tax deal

Today's paper carries extensive coverage of Governor Christie becoming "a Trump man," as if readers missed the GOP bully's endorsement of the wacko racist presidential candidate in February (A-1, A-3 and A-6).

Still, I can't find a word about a New York Times report that in December 2011, the Christie administration settled a lawsuit seeking payment of $30 million in overdue taxes and interest owed by his friend Trump's Atlantic City casinos.

After six years in court, the state agreed to accept just $5 million, The Times reported on Tuesday.

More turmoil in Hackensack schools: Board member quits

Hackensack Board of Education member Joseph Barreto was seen in the audience at Tuesday night's school board meeting, not on the dais.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Monday morning, Hackensack Schools Superintendent Karen Lewis was suspended after a brief meeting with board officials.

At a board meeting Tuesday night, her assistant, Joseph Cicchelli, was named acting superintendent to loud applause and cheers from an audience packed with teachers. 

Now, board member Joseph Barreto has resigned for "personal reasons," board Attorney Richard Salkin said today.

At the meeting Tuesday night, Salkin announced that Barreto was leaving after serving two years on the 9-member board, and for "you conspiracy theorists" that his departure was unrelated to the brouhaha over Lewis.

Barreto was not on the dais Tuesday night, and did not vote on the Cicchelli appointment.

He arrived at the meeting after a statement from board President Jason Nunnermacker, who said he was prevented by law from discussing the reasons Lewis was suspended. 

Barreto's name and photo no longer appear on the board Web site.

At Tuesday night's meeting, Board of Education attorney Richard Salkin, left; with board members Modesto Romero, center, and Daniel Carola.

Members of the public must sign in ahead of time, if they want to comment at school board meetings.

School election

The changes come only three weeks after the April 19 election of two Team Hackensack board candidates backed by the Zisas, who are trying to make a political comeback in a city they ruled for decades. 

Two incumbents and a former trustee were elected to three-year terms, and a small minority of voters approved a $79 million tax levy to support a total budget of $104 million. 

That tax levy has risen steadily. In the 2014-15 budget, it was $73.3 million. School taxes make up 44% of the total bill in Hackensack.

After missing the Monday morning suspension of the Hackensack schools superintendent, Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record plays catch-up today with a Page 1 photo of Cicchelli at Tuesday night's school board meeting (A-1).

The full story appears on the Local front, where the lead paragraph awkwardly reports the audience was "heavily peopled with district employees [italics added]" (L-1).

Christie absolved

The lead story today reports a federal judge has ordered federal prosecutors to release a list of "unindicted co-conspirators" in the George Washington Bridge scandal, also known as "Bridgegate" (A-1).

But even before the list is made public, The Record apparently has absolved Governor Christie of any role in the conspiracy to close bridge lanes as political retaliation against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee (A-1 and A-6).

The first paragraph says the list "could include members of Governor Christie's inner circle," and later, that it could include "Christie's political allies and top members of his administration, many of whom have since moved on to prominent roles at NJ Transit, the Port Authority, lobbying firms and corporations" (A-6).

Nowhere does The Record say the list could include Christie, who spent more than $10 million in taxpayer funds to defend himself during the investigation.

Rhymes with maniac

One of those references to "inner circle" might include foul-mouthed former Star-Ledger reporter Michael Drewniak, a onetime Christie spokesman who was named "interim chief of staff" at NJ Transit, The Record reported on Tuesday.

Drewniak had no mass-transit experience when he left the Governor's Office in February 2015, and accepted the $147,000-a-year job of "chief of policy and strategic planning" at NJ Transit.

He will perform the new and old duties for the same inflated salary (Tuesday's A-4).

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).

Hackensack is paying new attorney as much as Christie

During a spirited discussion of tax breaks for downtown apartment developers on Monday night, Hackensack Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin was uncharacteristically deferential when he addressed City Council members; City Manager David R. Troast, left front; and Alexander H. Carver III, right front, the new city attorney, a job Salkin once held.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Alexander H. Carver III, who is Hackensack's new city attorney, is being paid a flat rate of $175,000 a year -- or $10,000 more than his salary when he left the Superior Court bench in 2013.

He also is making as much as Governor Christie, who picked the last Hackensack city attorney, Thomas Scrivo, to be his chief counsel in Trenton.

In addition to the maximum of $175,000 a year, Carver and his firm, Harwood Lloyd, will be paid legal fees associated with litigation, according to The Record.

Three-quarters of The Record's story today is filled with Carver's exploits as a Superior Court judge "who pulled no punches," but doesn't mention the city will pay him and his firm at a rate of $150 an hour (L-1).

When Scrivo was city attorney in 2014, Hackensack removed two city managers and a public relations consultant, running up legal bills topping $200,000 in six months.

During the Zisa years, Hackensack routinely paid its city attorney more than $250,000 a year, one official said.

COW

Do you hear mooing?

Most of the discussion and debate on the appointment of Carver, as well as tax abatements for downtown apartment developers, occurred on Monday during the Committee of the Whole meeting, which started at 6:30 p.m.

When City Council members convened for the regular meeting at 8 p.m., they ran through more than two dozen resolutions read off in rapid-fire fashion by the city clerk before they were open to public discussion and then a council vote.

Members of the public, such as City Council candidate Richard Cerbo, were limited to 5 minutes each, but could have spoken longer at the COW session.

City tax breaks

On Monday, the Hackensack City Council approved the introduction of two resolutions designating the redevelopers of 150-170 Main St. and 210 Main St.

Other resolutions were introduced to grant the apartment and retail developers tax abatements of 30 years and 25 years, respectively.

Cerbo, son of a former mayor, addressed the council, saying "10 years [of tax breaks] is plenty."

But Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino said the apartment and retail projects would never get built without the longer abatements, also referred to as payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT).

Canestrino noted the land and buildings at 150-170 Main St. are paying tax revenue of $228,277 a year, compared to the first-year payment of $802,605 after the project is completed.

Meanwhile, the city's annual street festival is set for Saturday from 10 a.m. t0 6 p.m., rain or shine.

Among the entertainment is Village People. 

Today's paper

Nearly six years after he took office, Christie says he is open to raising the gas tax and creating a stable source of funding for the Transportation Trust Fund (A-1).

His refusal to raise the second-lowest gas tax in the nation helped drivers, even though logically they should pay for repairing the roads and bridges they use.

But the GOP dictator moved decidedly against mass-transit users by killing the Hudson River rail tunnels, and stood by when the Port Authority refused to expand bus operations into Manhattan.

He also cut state subsidies to NJ Transit, forcing the agency to raise fares and cut service.

The Record's coverage of mass transit is so sophisticated a reporter today refers to NJ Transit's sleek, electrified light-rail system as "trolleys" (L-3).

And, like Christie, the Woodland Park daily has paid far more attention to drivers and driving, as evidenced by a dozen years of Road Warrior columns largely devoted to no other topics.

Hackensack Costco

The Record today is reporting Costco Wholesale is planning to convert its Hackensack warehouse to "a more specialized business center" after the store closes Oct. 13.

A bigger Costco is scheduled to open in Teterboro on Oct. 14.

In October 2014, the same reporter said the Hackensack Costco would be closing permanently, making the 14.8-acre parcel available for redevelopment.

So much for the reliability of The Record's business reporting.

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).

Zisa nearly broke Hackensack; now, he claims he's broke

Charles "Ken" Zisa was the police chief in Hackensack from 1995 until he was suspended without pay in 2010, pending his trial. He also served as a state assemblyman.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Long-suffering Hackensack residents have little to salvage from the stunning appeals court decision freeing former Police Chief Ken Zisa from house arrest and a pending 5-year prison sentence. 

But the smug look on his face in a photo on The Record's front page today likely will generate more anger and resentment toward a family dynasty that transformed the city into a North Jersey laughing stock called "Zisaville" (A-1).

Isn't it rich?

After Zisa was indicted in 2010, he was suspended without pay, and about two dozen Hackensack police officers sued him and the city, alleging corruption and intimidation (A-6).

"Most of the lawsuits stemmed from a bitterly contentious relationship between Zisa and police officers who accused him of engaging in campaigns of retribution and harassment as paybacks for their refusal to go along with his political demands [as a state assemblyman]," The Record reports.

(Sounds a little like the political retribution Governor Christie visited on the mayor of Fort Lee and other Democrats for not supporting his election to a second term.)

The city resolved the last of the Zisa lawsuits in April 2014, racking up more than $8 million in legal fees.

That doesn't include the cost to the city and insurer of settling the cases. 

Zisa was formally fired after a jury found him guilty in late 2012 of official misconduct and insurance fraud, the convictions that were thrown out on Friday.

Broken city

Also on Friday, defense attorneys got the $50,000 bail released, claiming Zisa hasn't been able to work, and "needed the money to buy food and pay his mortgage and other living expenses" (A-1).

Unmentioned are the high legal fees Zisa faces for his trial, appeal and possible retrial.

But taxpayers also have been stunned by the financial impact of the litigious Zisa years, and now they face the possibility the former police chief will prevail at a retrial, and demand back pay totaling about $1 million.

That's the million-dollar question, not, as Columnist Mike Kelly asks, whether Zisa "deserves to return" as police chief, a position the city abolished (A-1).

Zisa was paid about $193,000 a year as police chief.

Lazy reporting

The burned-out Kelly and his assignment editor are so lazy they didn't bother interviewing any ordinary Hackensack residents about the appeals court unexpectedly throwing out the guilty verdicts.

Instead, Kelly quotes the same Zisa allies and critics he has had on speed dial for years, including Richard Salkin, the Board of Education attorney who is described as a close friend and vocal supporter of Zisa.

Salkin served as city attorney and municipal prosecutor, but lost the latter position in 2013, after voters picked a reform slate for City Council over Zisa family allies.

Since then, Salkin and school board members who ran unsuccessfully for council have appeared at nearly every council meeting with a massive case of sour grapes to criticize the reformers. 

Meanwhile, Salkin hasn't responded to charges that in 2014, he over-billed the school board by about $58,000 for legal services.

Nor does Kelly mention that in his column today (A-1 and A-6).

If Kelly bothered to ask city residents, I'm sure a majority would say Zisa has no legitimate claim on running a Police Department he nearly destroyed.

Court criticism

The Record's Zisa coverage today reports the three-judge appellate panel harshly criticized the conduct of the trial prosecutor, Daniel Kietel, and the trial judge, Joseph S. Conte, who left Superior Court to join a Hackensack law firm, Nowell Amoroso Klein Bierman.

The appeals court said:

"The trial was 'tainted from the outset,'" when the assistant prosecutor improperly said in his opening statement to the jury that "Zisa's family was like royalty who thought they were above the law, but they were not" (A-6).

The appeals court said Zisa "was not on trial for being politically connected and his family was not on trial."

Meanwhile, "the judge did not forcefully tell the jury that the prosecutor's remarks as to those matters were improper, and he did not unequivocally tell them that the improper information must be disregarded," the ruling stated.

See the ruling:

State of New Jersey v. Charles K. Zisa

Zisa at crash

But the appeals court ruling didn't resolve the insurance fraud charge, which could be retried.

That comes down to whether Zisa acted improperly after his girlfriend allegedly was driving while intoxicated when she crashed his SUV into a telephone pole on Feb. 11, 2008.

She called Zisa, who went to the scene, put her into his car and drove her away from the accident.

Conte, the trial judge, "concluded the defendant's actions [Zisa] were unauthorized regardless of whether K.T. [the girlfriend] was intoxicated, because he interfered with the on-scene officers' investigation of the accident," the appeals panel wrote.

"The judge also found that defendant used his position as police chief to enable to remove K.T. from the scene," according to the ruling.

DWI involved?

On an insurance questionnaire, Zisa and his girlfriend said a cat ran in front of the vehicle and she "swerved to the right [and] hit a telephone pole," the appellate judges noted.

They also checked a box "No" to the question, "Was there any evidence of intoxication?"

The insurance company paid the claim, issuing checks totaling $11,391.88, the court said.