3 board seats, $104M budget at stake in April 19 election

Citizens for Better Schools say they will usher in a new era of cooperation between the Hackensack Board of Education and City Council.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

School taxes make up nearly half of the property tax bill in Hackensack, where nine candidates are vying for three seats on the city Board of Education.

Residents also will be able to vote "yes" or "no" on a proposed school budget of more than $104 million.

Polls will be open from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. on April 19.

Three candidates, calling themselves Citizens for Better Schools, believe the current school board has done nothing to improve poor test scores and engage parents in the education of their children.

They are:

• Lawrence E. Eisen, president and a math tutor at Project Literacy, and a 3rd-grade reading mentor at the Nellie K. Parker School in Hackensack. 
• Lancelot Powell, a native of Jamaica and an educator for 23 years, has a son who is a freshman at Hackensack High School.
• Victor E. Sasson, a retired reporter and copy editor at The Record, saw his son graduate from Hackensack High School in June 2015.

Zisas try comeback

Three other candidates are being backed by the Zisa family political dynasty, which ruled Hackensack for decades before a reform City Council slate was elected in May 2013.

The Zisas were so dominant Hackensack became known as "Zisaville," a curse the city still is trying to live down.

Property taxes soared a total of 30% in three years before the recession hit in December 2007.

The Zisa cadidates, calling themselves Team Hackensack, are incumbent Timothy Hoffman, Johanna Calle and Modesto Romero.

Team Hackensack is headquartered at 77 Hudson St., where former City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr. has his law firm. 

Prominent at the kickoff of Team Hackensack in February was the disgraced former police chief, Ken Zisa, who once also served as a state assemblyman.

The year 2013 in photos from "Eye on The Record"

The Great Falls in Paterson is the place to visit after a heavy rainfall.

The Record's old headquarters at 150 River St. in Hackensack remained an eyesore for much of 2013 -- four years after the Borg publishing family abandoned the city. Meanwhile, Staff Writer Kibret Markos covers the Bergen County Courthouse full time, but his smoking breaks outside the main entrance are so frequent little of that coverage actually appears in the paper.

The first luxury apartments built in Hackensack in many years went up between two shopping centers on Hackensack Avenue, near Route 4, as the city pursued a policy of encouraging apartment development and an influx of new residents as a way to revive its downtown.

Tin Alley in  Hackensack, where auto dealers line River Street. The Record on Saturday is stuffed with several sections of car-dealer advertising, which may be one reason the error-prone Road Warrior writes obsessively about driving and hardly anything about the overstretched mass-transit system.

A fence at a railroad station in Pennsylvania prevents pedestrians from crossing the tracks, a safety measure that is scarce at NJ Transit stations.

Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, where the elementary and middle schools remain segregated, a story The Record doesn't touch.

One Friday night in Manhattan, the line to board NJ Transit buses stretched down the escalator to the level below the platforms.

Increasing traffic congestion was a big story in 2013, but one The Record didn't bother covering.

To handle greater demand, NJ Transit used longer trains, but often platforms were too short. Above, the New Brunswick station. Passengers would be told to run forward to exit the train.

Penn Station in Manhattan is owned by Amtrak, which assigns track numbers to NJ Transit trains 10 minutes before departure, setting off a stampede by passengers scrambling for a seat.

A firehouse on Main Street in Hackensack.

Record Publisher Stephen A. Borg's $3.65 million McMansion in Tenafly.

Part of a display in the NJ Transit Waiting Room at Penn Station in Manhattan.

Yours truly ran as an independent candidate for the Hackensack City Council, above and below.

The Record mocked then-Governor Corzine's plan to monetize the New Jersey Turnpike, but saw nothing wrong with charging Bergen County hundreds of thousands of dollars for parking spaces at the old Hackensack headquarters. The Borgs also announced a luxury apartment developer agreed to buy about 20 River Street acres in a flood zone, and would be using gondolas to carry residents to the bus station across the street.

The New World Trade Center is the latest jewel in the Manhattan skyline.

Jerome S. Some, 87, founder and owner of a uniform company in Hackensack, above, was struck and killed by a car after he left his building, below, and started walking across Prospect Avenue to reach Bel Posto Restaurant. 

Governor Christie -- the GOP bully, the Portly Authority and the Elephant Man of national politics, won a second term on Nov. 5 -- in what turned out to be the lowest turnout ever for a gubernatorial election.

The first of two 47-story residential towers was nearing completion in Fort Lee. But The Modern's glass facade reflected sunlight and blinded some drivers heading for the George Washington Bridge.

Recycled copies of The Record are destined to return as toilet paper.

A winter scene on Englewood's East Hill.

Hackensack lame-duckers offer weak congratulations

Hackensack Councilman John P. Labrosse, left, is the only incumbent who will return when the City Council is reorganized on July 1. 

Mayor Michael R. Melfi and two other lame-duck City Council members offered weak congratulations on Tuesday night to the slate of reformers who swept to victory on May 14.

Councilman John P. Labrosse, who led the Citizens for Change team, is the only incumbent returning on July 1.

Quack, quack

Melfi, Councilwoman Karen K. Sasso and Councilman Jorge E. Meneses each spoke briefly to congratulate Labrosse and three other members of his slate, Kathy Canestrino, Rose Greenman and David Sims, who were sitting in the audience.

Melfi, Sasso and Meneses are allies of the Zisa family political machine. They were elected to the council in 2005, and chose not to run this year. 

Deputy Mayor Marlin G. Townes is the fourth incumbent whose days are numbered.

Low turnout

Despite a low voter turnout -- only 3,513 out of more than 20,000 registered voters -- the Labrosse slate defeated a new Zisa team, which was composed of 5 mental lightweights who called themselves the Coalition for Open Government.

One of their vocal supporters was Jack Zisa, who served as mayor from 1989 to 2005.

None of those losers attended Tuesday night's council meeting, which lasted all of 35 minutes.

Final numbers

The final tabulation of votes in the 2013 municipal election, including absentee and provisional ballots, as released by City Clerk Debra Heck:

Labrosse, 2,024; Canestrino, 1,924; Sims, 1,929; Greenman, 1,804; and Leonardo Battaglia, 1,820.

Open Government candidates Kenneth Martin, 1,657; Jason S. Nunnermacker, 1,685; Joanne Mania Colon, 1,666; Joseph A. Barreto, 1,664; and Scott Young, 1,639.

Independent candidate Victor E. Sasson received 344 votes.

Christie's 'Jersey Comeback' is really 'Jersey Come'

A "YES WE CAN TAX THE RICH" bumper sticker on a Toyota Prius, photographed on May 13 in Hackensack, the day before a slate of reformers triumphed in the municipal election. The state's financial problems are caused in part by Governor Christie's refusal to impose a tax surcharge on millionaires that could raise as much as $1 billion in new revenue.

You'd think $132 million in desperate "budget cuts and other spending adjustments" to balance Governor Christie's budget plan would be front-page news in The Record.

No. The editors of the Woodland Park daily see their job as promoting his "Jersey Comeback" reelection campaign, so the story is on A-3, the page for routine state news.

Today's piece by Staff Writer John Reitmeyer is filled with politics -- the biggest reader turnoff, by far -- and doesn't even list the $132 million in new budget cuts and "adjustments," whatever those are.

But residents know the cuts likely will be more bad news for them, as Christie's "Jersey Come" administration continues to royally screw the middle and working classes.

One of the many empty storefronts on Main Street in Hackensack.

Hackensack surprise

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, left the River Street newsroom and Hackensack news behind in 2009, when North Jersey Media Group moved to Woodland Park and Rockaway Township.

Despite scores of stories about then-Police Chief Ken Zisa's legal problems, those editors largely ignored city life and the decline of Main Street.

So, the victory of a slate of reformers and defeat of the Zisa political machine in the election last Tuesday took the editors and the rest of the media by surprise.

On Monday, a front-page column by Mike Kelly played catch-up, reporting the reformers parlayed discontent over declining city services into victory at the polls.

If it wasn't for Kelly's outdated column photo, complete with shit-eating grin, the piece was indistinguishable from a news story or analysis.

And it's stale news:

On Feb. 15, the Hackensack Chronicle published a letter from independent City Council hopeful Victor E. Sasson, editor of Eye on The Record:

"I joke I am running for Hackensack City Council to get my street paved.

"But the sad truth is that as property taxes have risen, the quality of life in Hackensack has declined dramatically."

Sasson's platform to improve city services, including street paving, eventually was adopted by the other candidates, including the victorious Citizens for Change.

Burned-out columnist

Kelly is a burned-out word-pusher who thinks of himself as a columnist who parachutes in to provide context for readers.

It's been a little more than a year since he last visited Hackensack, and put in many hours of ass time at Zisa's trial, which ended when the ex-police chief and former state assemblyman was convicted of official misconduct and insurance fraud.

Now, instead of peddling old election news, he should be looking into whether Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Conte erred in allowing Zisa to remain free while he appeals his conviction and 5-year prison sentence.

Blogger, North Jersey Media Group settle lawsuit

Former headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and The Record in Hackensack.

In the face of mounting legal fees, Victor E. Sasson has settled a federal copyright-infringement lawsuit filed against him by North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record and the North Jersey.com Web site.

Sasson signed a confidential settlement agreement on Thursday, and admitted no wrongdoing.

The suit alleged Sasson violated several copyrights when Eye on The Record published NJMG photographs and a news story.

So far, Sasson has paid more than $16,000 in legal fees in connection with the suit.

A federal judge dismissed the NJMG lawsuit without prejudice in January, allowing the publishing company to file it again.

Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG vice president and general counsel, was listed as attorney for the plaintiff. 

Borg also hired an expensive New York law firm, Dunnegan & Scileppi, to handle the suit.

Click on the following links to earlier posts:

Judge dismisses NJMG lawsuit

NJMG harasses 'Eye on The Record'

'Great pride ... in responsible journalism'

Today's paper

The thin Sunday edition features four of The Record's burned-out columnists, and more from pundits who are playing catch-up to the victory of the reformers' slate in the Hackensack municipal election.

The upbeat "Shore's ready to roll" takeout on Page 1 plays into the hands of Chris Christie, who hopes voters forget what a terrible governor he was before Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey last Oct. 29 (A-1).

Hospital profits

The opening of Bergen County's first for-profit hospital in Westwood -- under the Hackensack University Medical Center name -- raises anew questions about HUMC's $130 million in untaxed property in Hackensack, and whether the medical center will give back to the city (A-1).

The best story in the Local news section today is the obituary of Betty Ersalesi, a Rutherford school teacher, whose death appears to be the making of a medical-malpractice suit (L-1).

The worst piece is the Road Warrior column on whether seat belts are "your thing" (L-1).

Self-promoting reporter

On the Business front, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais gives himself a huge pat on the back for 19-plus years of consumer reporting in a paper that long ago sold out to commercial interests (B-1).

Of course, DeMarrais' 1,000 columns virtually ignored the rise of organic and naturally raised food, which aren't listed in his monthly survey of supermarket prices.

And sadly, The Record's business editors still have to rely on a 4-page insert from The Wall Street Journal to make their Sunday section amount to anything (B-3 to B-6).

Kelly sells out again

On the Opinion front, Columnist Mike Kelly continues to fawn over Christie, calling the GOP bully "the political equivalent of the Kardashians" (O-1).

Have you ever read anything so ridiculously hilarious?

Playing catch-up

Brigid Callahan Harrison, a political science professor who writes a Sunday opinion column for The Record, and the newspaper's editors ignored the 3-month campaign of Citizens for Change, which won last week's Hackensack City Council election.

So did Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, who refused to "get involved" in the battle to decide whether reformers or the Zisa family political machine would prevail.

To the great surprise of everyone -- including apathetic voters -- the reformers swept the election for 5 seats on the City Council, unleashing a series of reaction stories and columns.

So, here is Harrison today taking Newark Mayor Cory Booker to task for forgetting his reform roots, and backing establishment candidates in Hackensack and Jersey City, where all of them went down to defeat (O-1).

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.