Local developers URSA were recently outed as contributors to two Washington, D.C.-based Political Action Committees (PAC) that sent out flyers attacking now-Mayor Dawn Zimmer in the spring mayoral elections.
According to newspaper reports, IRS records show that Michael Sciarra, principal of URSA development group, gave $49,976 on May 1 to the “Citizens for the Future” PAC. And through URSA, Sciarra and his partner Mark Settembre gave $25,000 to the “Building America Committee” PAC on May 27.
Using direct mail and television commercials, both PACs called out Zimmer for raising taxes among other things.
Now Zimmer is wondering whether URSA violated Hoboken pay-to-play regulations that limit how much a contractor with the city can donate to a candidate for office. Those who donate a certain amount are not supposed to get city contracts in the near future.
The question is, does donating to a PAC instead allow them to get around those laws?
“There may be pay-to-play issues,” Zimmer said, adding that the city’s Law Department will review the matter.
Hoboken’s pay-to-play reform was passed in 2007, with the help of People for Open Government (POG). Last week, Hoboken POG President Eric Kurta said he doesn’t see a violation in this case, although he’d rather that people who want to get a message out to the public use their name as opposed to creating a PAC to serve as a front. Kurta said the ordinance doesn’t forbid developers from speaking on issues without pushing for a candidate.
In this case, the PAC ads slighted one candidate, but never asked the public to vote for any one candidate.
“There’s no mention of an election whatsoever,” Kurta said of the ads.
Sciarra responded last week by saying, “We have worked in the community for over 25 years and truly love Hoboken. We believe that economic development that provides affordable housing, green space, parks, recreation, retail as well housing is crucial to the future of all urban areas especially Hoboken and will continue to support that vision both on a state and local level.”
He maintained that nothing illegal occurred in funding the issue-oriented messages, as he called them.
URSA,20who regularly partners with Tarragon, owns 10 acres of land along Hoboken’s western edge. The city appointed Tarragon/URSA as the developers for the site several years ago, but local community activists filed a lawsuit and a court demanded the city reconsider its actions. Now the city will have to re-appoint URSA/Tarragon to redevelop their own land or create a plan and bid for a new developer.
Zimmer said she is also concerned that the city’s planning firm responsible for designs of the western edge redevelopment zone may have been working closely with URSA and ignoring public input for the site. She plans to ask the city planning firm to reconsider public comments already collected and represent the plan for the western edge to the public.
Zimmer said she will also ask a local redevelopment specialist to do a public presentation on the redevelopment process to give residents a better understanding of it. – TJC