In contrast to a City Council meeting three weeks ago that was raucous and confrontational, last week’s meeting was calm and serene as legislators approved the city payroll for the two-week period ending Sept. 27 and the two week period ending Oct. 11 in 6-3 votes.
Aside from a brief back-and-forth between Councilman Dave Roberts and City Attorney Bob Murray during the caucus session that precedes regular council business, there was no discussion of the payroll.
The lack of discussion was noteworthy since the payroll request had been denied for the first time in the city’s history at the preceding meeting, forcing city administrators to put it on the agenda again for the November 1 meeting.
Two weeks earlier, Roberts and his allies on the council had argued that the payroll should not be passed since some city employees had garnered as much as 45 hours a week of overtime. Roberts said that the same employees received overtime week after week and that this represented an abuse.
With two of his staunchest foes, Councilpeople Nellie Moyeno and Stephen Hudock, absent, Roberts was able to capture just enough votes to deny the request.
But things were different Wednesday night. With Moyeno and Hudock back in their seats, Roberts chose not to rehash the arguments over the payroll that everyone in the room had heard frequently by that time. When it came time to vote, Roberts and his allies Councilmen Tony Soares and Ruben Ramos Jr. voted “no.” Councilwoman Roseanne Andreula, who had abstained on the payroll vote two weeks earlier, voted “yes.”
City administrators said that they thought Roberts was just attempting to use the issue to jumpstart his campaign for mayor. The 15-year councilman has said that he is “seriously considering” a bid to take City Hall from Mayor Anthony Russo, who has announced his intentions to seek a third term. The election will be held in May.
“They just sat on their hands all during the meeting and then voted no,” said Business Administrator George Crimmins after the meeting. “I think this is just Dave Roberts desperately looking for an issue [to run on]. All of this overtime has been explained. We are talking about work that was done. Nobody disputes that. Yet they don’t want to pay for it.”
After the meeting Roberts vowed to continue his “review” of the administration’s overtime policies. He said that he was “shocked” to see the administration’s request for overtime jump from almost $31,000 for the Sept. 27 pay period to just over $45,000 for the Oct. 11 pay period. “This is moving in the wrong direction,” the councilman said.
Teen advisory board discussed
While discussion of the payroll was limited, there seemed to be a lot to say about an ordinance Ramos drafted that would create the city’s first youth advisory board for teenagers 13 to 19 years old. The board, which would be comprised of nine teens, would meet with city officials to provide a different perspective on city policies and to learn about the way government works.
“Not everyone is into recreation,” said Ramos. “Some kids like other things. What this does is it gets them involved in city government, using their minds and working with the directors. I think it will help train the future leaders of the city.”
Councilmen Richard Del Boccio and Stephen Hudock, two legislators who often bicker with Ramos and his allies on the council, were quick to signal their support for the measure, although they asked to make minor changes.
Del Boccio did not want to see the youth representatives appointed by a screening committee as Ramos proposed, so the council agreed to appoint six members themselves and to allow the mayor’s office to appoint three.
Hudock said that he thought it made sense for the board to start its work in July rather than September. After Ramos agreed, the measure passed on a first reading, setting the stage for final passage at the next meeting.
“See what the council can do when it works together,” said Councilman Stephen Hudock afterwards.
Crimmins files motion to block projects that won’t have parking
The city’s business administrator, George Crimmins, wields a lot of power in town. He is the principal architect of the city’s $51 million budget, the chief liaison with the city’s police and fire departments, and a principal negotiator with municipal unions during contract time. In addition to his duties as business administrator, he also serves as a volunteer on the city’s nine-member Planning Board.
But all that pales in comparison sometimes to the power one wields as a citizen who understands his rights. This week George Crimmins decided to exercise those rights when he filed a motion with the City Council that could block development of two properties on Hudson Street. The developments, which stand at 79 Hudson and 100 Hudson, caught the business administrators’ eye after the Zoning Board granted them parking variances at an Oct. 17 meeting.
Currently nothing stands at 79 Hudson St. It is a vacant lot that is used as a 75-car parking lot. But developers hope to turn it into a five story office building. In their meeting with the Zoning Board, developers convinced the board that they should not have to provide 99 parking spaces as city regulations would require for an office building of that size.
Developers of 100 Hudson St. also were given a parking variance. They hope to turn their one-story office building into a four-story structure, but like the developers of 79 Hudson, they argued that it would be unfair to ask them to provide the parking that city regulations require. Their request for a variance was also approved.
“Once you factor in the loss of the garage, we are talking about a loss of 191 spaces in the area,” said Crimmins Wednesday. “I am really worried about the parking.”
But one member of the City Council wondered Wednesday night whether there might be more on Crimmins’ mind than just the parking.
“This is Bernie Kenny’s building!” said City Councilman Dave Roberts, referring to the state senator who runs a law practice out of 100 Hudson St. Kenny, a staunch ally of Roberts, has been known to butt heads with Mayor Anthony Russo and his administration in the past.
Although the building is owned by Kenny’s law partner, Barry Sarkisian, and two other men, the point was not lost on Crimmins. After the meeting he vigorously defended his actions. “I was furious when I heard about [the projects],” said the business administrator, who also noted that the Planning Board had okayed the projects without the variances. “I would have appealed no matter who owned the buildings.”
Crimmins told the council Wednesday night that any citizen can appeal directly to the city’s governing body if he or she has concerns about a variance that the Zoning Board has granted, so long as they make the appeal within a set number of days of the Zoning Board decision.
The business administrator is not the first resident to appeal a Zoning Board decision to the council. A group of residents that were opposed to a project on Garden Street that they thought was too large convinced the council to overturn a Zoning Board decision recently.
“That’s where I got the idea,” said Crimmins.
But an attorney for the developers of 79 Hudson St. said that there was “a lively discussion about parking” when the application was considered in front of the Zoning Board.
“In the end the board basically decided that for this type of use, onsite parking was not appropriate,” said Ira Karasick. “I know that parking is a concern in Hoboken, but down there you cannot put parking anywhere except for inside the building. Having cars coming in and out could be a danger down there. The solution is putting some parking over the terminal or some large-scale answer like that.”
“We are talking about 1,000- to 3,000-foot offices, not 15,000-foot offices,” he added. “This is not to minimize the overall issue, but it is just not the right place for it.” –