Dear Editor:
As a Hoboken taxpayer, I was thrilled to see Dave Roberts, even before being sworn in as mayor, questioning expenditures at the board of education. The recent reappointment of Pat Gagliardi as Superintendent came with a $7000 raise. “Can we afford this!” shouted Mayor-elect Roberts. Bravo!
That’s the good news. The bad news is, the day Mr. Roberts was actually sworn in as our new mayor, he started giving the store away, literally.
Three city directors at a cost of approximately $300,000 with salaries and benefits managed the prior administration.
The new administration has already appointed four directors and is proposing at least three more, which could come out to approximately $750,000 with salaries and benefits and the additional staff needed. My question is, how can we possible afford this, Mr. Roberts? Do we really need more directors?
Mr. Roberts won on a platform of being a fiscal conservative and hiring the best qualified people to run our city. It seems Hoboken United’s campaign promises are already history.
Examining the first day of the Roberts’ administration closely, we taxpayers and residents should be very concerned. Putting the financial situation aside for a moment, the new appointments are extremely lacking in area of experience.
The majority of the new city council, elected with or appointed by Mr. Roberts has a combined total experience of less than four years in public office. Three have 0, one has 2 and one has 1.5 years of service. The old expression of “city fathers” was given to the city council because of their age and experience. Should we now refer to this new group as the “city children?”
Taking a closer look at our new directors, the following is already alarming. Our new Business Administrator, Laurie Cotter, is a resident of Jersey City and has no plans to move to Hoboken. At a starting salary of $109,000, she is already $20,000 over the city’s own salary cap. She is the former business administrator for Jersey City. Taking the waterfront out of it, Jersey City is a mess, the schools are under state takeover, taxes have continually risen and all the new waterfront development has tax abatements. Let’s hope Hoboken doesn’t become anything like Jersey City.
Our new Human Services Director is 26 year-old Carmello Garcia and has no city governmental experience what-so-ever, but this is not a problem since he already knows everything. His starting salary is $70,000. Good luck.
Our new Environmental Services Director, Casandra Wilday, also has no city governmental experience. She lists herself as a landscape architect, which is basically a gardener with a degree and license. If she was so successful in her architectural firm, why should she leave it for a $70,000 job cleaning streets and filling potholes? Ms. Wilday is credited with designing Pier A Park; a closer look reveals some serious flaws. There is only one small bathroom, no children’s playground, the fish cleaning station is nowhere near where people fish and the proposed 20,000 square foot restaurant would ruin the park entrance, take what little parking there is on the street and bring more alcohol into another city park.
Financial Supervisor Katia Stack gets this new $70,000 position and lives in Union City, she also has no plans to move to Hoboken. Her husband is the Union City mayor.
The city’s new attorney is 30-year-old Esther Suarez. I would hardly call her a seasoned attorney with just over three years’ experience. Ms. Suarez is never without a law book under her arm, quickly looking up every question that is asked. I have never seen a lawyer openly carry a law book around if they wanted any credibility for their knowledge. This is another $70,000 for an attorney who either has to look up everything or has to call her old law firm for an answer (which happens to be the new city law firm). I can’t wait to see our legal bills.
Another new position, special assistant to the mayor (which is really a secretarial job), costs $70,000.Susan Hetman, the new “assistant” was formerly Senator Kenny’s secretary. Since when do secretaries get $70,000, no matter what you call them? How do all the other secretaries in City Hall feel who are making less than half as much?
Still another new director position being created, but yet to be filled, is Community Development. Do we really need any more development? Another $70,000 down the drain.
Finally, Mayor Roberts is creating a Public Safety Director. This position was eliminated eight years ago because it was a useless job. We have one of the best police chiefs and one of the best fire chiefs in the state. Do we really need an inexperienced supervisor with no statutory authority over our chiefs?
We need our elected representatives to manage our tax dollars effectively. Isn’t that why we elected them? I wish all well in their new positions and remind them we will be watching, because if these are examples of the next four years, God help us all.
A Watchdog