When most legislative bodies squabble over chairs, they are usually referring to the chairmanships of prestigious committees, but the latest brouhaha at the City Council refers to the chairs you sit on. The controversy stems from the fact that one particular councilman does not want to sit next to another anymore during meetings. Even though modifying the nine-member council’s seating arrangements ought to be a rather simple procedure, nothing is easy in a contentious council where three of the members routinely oppose the policies of Mayor Anthony Russo and six members support them. Problems arose recently when 5th Ward Councilman Michael Cricco, who sits between Councilman-at-Large Tony Soares and 6th Ward Councilman Dave Roberts, quietly asked Council President Nellie Moyeno to shuffle the seating arrangements before the Feb. 16 meeting. Moyeno assumed that Cricco made the request because he sat sandwiched between Soares and Roberts, two allies who are forced to discuss strategy and pass notes over Cricco during meetings. “Mr. Soares and Mr. Roberts are constantly chit-chatting back and forth and pulling on Mr. Cricco’s ears throughout the meeting, so it’s hard for him to listen,” Moyeno said last week. “It’s very disruptive, so I wanted to make changes in order to run the most professional and business-like meeting possible. This is nothing new. The council chair has always had the ability to make changes in the seating if it is in the best interests of the public.” But when Moyeno asked Soares and 4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos Jr. to swap places, the two councilmen refused, saying that they were comfortable where they were and if there was a problem, it ought to be discussed publicly. After last week’s meeting, Soares said that he thought the whole idea of shuffling the seating arrangements was silly. “They want to play musical chairs at the council now,” he said, adding sarcastically that he thought it might make sense to have Cricco and Ramos change places since Ramos tends to work with Soares and Roberts against the administration, while the other members of the council tend to support it. “The battle lines would be clearly drawn that way,” he said. And Cricco actually said it wasn’t the note-passing and chit-chat that bothered him. He said he wants to change the seating pattern because he does not want to sit next to Soares at all. “I want nothing to do with him,” Cricco said. “This guy spews negativity everywhere. He also makes things up. He is publicly and privately maligning me and I’ve had enough. It’s not the bantering and conversing back and forth. That is a normal part of business at the council and I don’t have a problem with it.” Cricco said the problems were personal. He claimed that an ally of Soares told him that Soares was responsible for an anonymous anti-Cricco letter that appeared in the Hoboken Reporter last year. Cricco also cited a conversation one of his neighbors had with Soares in December, in which Soares “deliberately spread negativity and [bad] things about me that were not true.” Cricco presented an e-mail that Soares subsequently sent him, in which Soares denied he wrote the Reporter letter and apologized for the conversation with Cricco’s neighbor, explaining that his comments had been “a bit over the edge.” Despite Soares’ e-mail, Cricco is adamant that he wants to have as little to do with the councilman as possible. “He changes everything around,” said Cricco. “I’ve asked him to stop e-mailing me. If I stay where I am, what will happen down the road is that he will say that I said something to him that I did not say.” Soares said that he believes Cricco’s request is “childish” and that it stems from the fact that he makes some members of the council uncomfortable because of his ardent opposition to the mayor. He responded to the accusations by vowing to continue to stand up for what he believes in. “I’ll be a thorn in Cricco’s side whether I’m sitting next to him or across town,” he said. “The fact that I am exposing them is really troubling for Russo’s foot soldiers. [Nobody should] think for a minute that the placement of my seat will change my point of view or intimidate me.” Moyeno said that changes will be instituted at the next council meeting, which will take place this Wednesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall. She said that she was concerned that the disagreements among City Council members had gotten to the point where they were impeding the ability of the council to do its work. “I have a three-and-half-year-old granddaughter who comports herself much better than a number of people on the council,” Moyeno said. “You tell her to listen and she does that, and here I am dealing with adults who can’t even do that. And as a result, they are just delaying good government.”
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