Dear Editor:
It can be very confusing when two groups in the city share the same words, especially when those words are “quality of life.” One of the two groups in Hoboken that have those same words in their titles is exclusively for city council members. Beth Mason serves on that three-person grouping known as the Quality of Life Sub Committee of the City Council. The other similarly named entity is a nonprofit group of unpaid citizen volunteers who work to protect the environment and ease daily living in this densely populated city. Councilwoman Beth Mason does not “sit on the Board of Directors of the Quality of Life Coalition” as erroneously stated in a letter to the editor in the March 22 issue of The Reporter. No politicians serve on that board. In fact, any board member who runs for office or actively supports a candidate during an election campaign takes a leave of absence from the board. If they become part of any new administration or take a position in city government afterward, they do not return to the board of the Coalition. These have been the rules since the inception of the Coalition ten years ago.
This distancing of the Coalition from the partisan workings of the city is one of the reasons the Coalition has been able to sponsor, alone or with other Hoboken non-profit, non-partisan groups, several successful non partisan forums featuring the people running for city office. The Coalition is doing candidates’ forums again this year prior to the May 12 election. On April 14 the 14 people running for the three council-at-large seats will be questioned. On Tuesday, April 28 the six candidates for mayor will be heard. Both events will be held in the Our Lady of Grace school auditorium on Willow Avenue at 5th Street from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. both evenings. All are welcome and are encouraged to attend.
The Quality of Life Coalition is joined this year in presenting these forums by People for Open Government, another non partisan group that succeeded in getting several anti pay-to¬-play laws
on the books, along with the Parish of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph.
Helen Manogue
Coordinator
Hoboken Quality of Life Coalition, Inc.