Dear Editor: The recent story that appeared in the Hoboken Reporter regarding my Administration’s participation in the New Jersey State Local Cooperative Housing Inspection Program left out some important points. Since being elected mayor, I have tried to implement cost-effective measures to improve services and reduce costs to the taxpayers. Some initiatives that have accomplished this are the public-private partnership with United Water, privatization of certain medical and dental programs with Saint Mary Hospital and the outsourcing of visiting nurses. Twice a year, the City of Hoboken is required to make a decision whether to participate in the New Jersey State Local Cooperative Housing Inspection Program. If we choose to perform the inspections ourselves, we receive between $30,000 and $35,000 annually from the State, while assuming obligations for all of the costs, including salaries and expenses. If the City elects not to participate in the program, State housing inspectors will perform the inspections free of charge to the taxpayers. As we consider this money-saving initiative, politics is getting in the way of good government. Foremost, such a move by my administration would not be political, it would be cost effective for the taxpayers of Hoboken. Our Housing Inspection division has four full time inspectors and one clerical person. The work load for each of our four inspectors averages three apartment inspections a day. This is hardly a full day’s work and certainly not cost effective. Given the fact that Hoboken currently spends approximately $265,000 of taxpayer money to perform housing inspections, it seems that a logical choice would be to let the State of New Jersey do it at no cost to Hoboken and save the taxpayers over a quarter of a million dollars each year. Secondly, I take exception to comments by both Inspectors Joe Grossi and Jude Fitzgibbons, which suggest that we should justify keeping local control because of their practice of granting landlords time extensions to correct violations. Such statements are ludicrous. The interests and safety of our tenants should take precedence over that of landlords who have not corrected violations in a timely manner. While I understand and respect the fact that the City Council voted recently to support continued City funding of the Housing Inspection Division, I believe the City of Hoboken will benefit greatly from utilizing our existing personnel more effectively and taking advantage of a free State program that would provide greater protection for our residents and tax savings for our taxpayers. Apparently, this logic is lost on certain council members who put their own personal interests or political supporters ahead of the taxpayers. Council Member Roberts who owns several apartment buildings that are subject to these inspections, vociferously spoke in favor of the inspectors so-called benefits of “keeping local control.” The last thing we would do is take an action to lay off City employees unnecessarily. We have existing needs in other divisions and the affected employees will have the opportunity to fill these vacancies. In closing, politics or sentiment aside, government must be responsive to the needs of the residents and taxpayers of our community. As Mayor, all of my actions and initiatives continually keep this in mind. Mayor Anthony Russo