At Wednesday’s Hoboken City Council meeting, Councilwoman LaBruno questioned why the city hadn’t picked a chief of police yet. The police chief’s exam concluded in December, and the final three candidates – Acting Chief Robert Lisa, Captain Anthony Falco, and Captain Edelmiro Garcia – were interviewed months ago, but the city has yet to explain the delay.
City Attorney Steven Kleinman said at the meeting that state fiscal monitor Judy Tripodi’s former boss, Susan Jacobucci, the director of the state’s Division of Local Government services, might intervene in the decision making process, although to what extent Kleinman couldn’t say. Jacobucci was on vacation and not available for comment at the end of last week.
Some council members were concerned that Tripodi, under terms of her mandate as fiscal monitor, was trying to exert her authority over the city and make the appointment.
“She told me she has no interest in having that authority,” Kleinman said at the meeting, a view to which Tripodi concurred in an interview.
But Mayor David Roberts, who would ordinarily make the appointment, told Kleinman to prepare to enter a motion in court challenging the state if they exercise authority over the appointment.
Roberts said he supports Falco, who scored the highest on the test. Actually, current Acting Chief Lisa outscored Falco on the exam – but tenure is factored into the final score for the state-administered test, and Falco has been there longer.
Roberts also sent a letter to the state from six councilpersons endorsing Falco. According to sources, council people Beth Mason, Dawn Zimmer, and Peter Cunningham did not support the letter.
The choice will be an important one, because the last chief retired on the heels of an embarrassing Hoboken SWAT Team scandal.