Dear Editor:
Recently the Hoboken City Council took a much needed and overdue step in passing by a 6-3 vote a resolution authorizing an investigative audit on the city of Hoboken’s books. Sponsored by Peter Cunningham and Carol Marsh and supported by Ravi Bhalla, Dave Mello and Mayoral candidates Dawn Zimmer and Beth Mason we hopefully can resolve the question over whether or not corruption has existed in City Hall.
After taking over Hoboken’s finances Judy Tripodi began a 3 month forensic audit. Of course, this being Hoboken it took the auditors nearly a full year. They found 44 major violations. Our books were so messed up that they couldn’t tell if anyone was stealing taxpayer funds or not. After several Council sessions, resolutions were passed straightening out our accounting procedures. Yet for some unexplained reason Judy and the previous City Council were unwilling to take the next step- the investigative audit.
Until this is done we will never know the truth that we deserve. What were Judy and the dissenting Council members afraid of? To paraphrase Richard Nixon “the citizens of Hoboken need to know if our City employees are crooks”. If anyone did steal taxpayer funds should they be allowed to keep them with no penalty? No one knows if anything happened but the taxpayers of Hoboken deserve an answer. I urge Judy Tripodi to authorize this much needed step.
Scott Siegel