Dear Mayor Cammarano:
When I was approached by the Chair of your Transition Team, Mike Novak, to join your Transition Team, I was honored to be asked. As you know, while I did not support you in your candidacy for Mayor, I thought your extending an opportunity to me to contribute to the success of your administration spoke well of you and your willingness to work with others to come together as “one Hoboken”. Like many others, I had great hopes for you to help us heal and move forward after a closely contested run-off election, in which Dawn Zimmer received more machine votes, but which was decided days after Election Day, when the absentee votes were finally tallied, giving you the majority of the total votes cast.
Since that day, I have been an active and enthusiastic volunteer on the Cammarano Transition Team, attending three Transition Team meetings, and interviewing, along with three other members of the Transition Team, Steven Kleinman, the current Corporation Counsel, as part of the Liabilities Committee’s work. Indeed, I prepared for you and the Transition Team a detailed memorandum of our interview with the Corporation Counsel to assist with your administration’s transition to a new Corporation Counsel.
Today, I received a notice from the Chair of the Cammarano Transition Team that the Transition Team’s next meeting will take place on July 30, 2009, at City Hall at 6:30 p.m. This notice suggests that the Cammarano Transition Team will be continuing and that it is “business as usual” for your administration. However, having read the Criminal Complaint unsealed yesterday by the United States Attorney’s Office, I believe it is not possible for you to serve as an effective leader of our city.
Accordingly, I am submitting my resignation to the Cammarano Transition Team, effective immediately.
Phil Cohen
cc: Mike Novak, Chair, Cammarano Transition Team
Eduardo Gonzalez, Chair Liabilities Committee Cammarano Transition Team
(Editor’s note: Both Novak and Gonzalez resigned from the Cammarano transition team since this letter was drafted.)