Dear Editor:
I enthusiastically support and will campaign and vote for Dawn Zimmer as the next Mayor of Hoboken.
Dawn will make an excellent Mayor and will energize and expedite the transformation that is needed to get our City back on track. She will restore fiscal responsibility and work to reduce the tax burden on all Hoboken residents.
The long term incumbents in City Hall are responsible for the current fiscal calamity. We need new faces with new ideas that will challenge and change the embedded failed practices that have put Hoboken on the brink of insolvency.
Dawn’s election and leadership will attract other innovators to serve in her administration and to run for Council ward seats in 2011.
Dawn is a great listener, not simply a talker like some current Council members. Well grounded in the crucial policy issues facing Hoboken – redevelopment, the hospital takeover, PILOTs, sound bonding practices – she is comfortable modifying solutions based on evidence-based input from constituents, experts and colleagues.
Dawn is independent and not beholden to any power brokers, political cliques or special interests. Her recent vote against the flawed Church Towers PILOT “extension” when it was clear it would pass demonstrates integrity and character – what we want in a “reformer.”
For the last several months I have asked the question: Is there any Council member with the courage to present a comprehensive fiscal austerity plan that can be implemented immediately, even at the risk of losing in an election?
I am confident that Dawn will present a plan that transitions Hoboken from day-to-day survival to austerity with planned growth. With her consensus building ability and inclusive policy making approach Dawn is the best choice to be our next Mayor.
Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr. P.H.