As new developments sprang from Hoboken’s vacant lots throughout the 1990s, the Zoning Board of Adjustments played more and more of a pivotal role in the city’s future. The board can allow developers to stray from the zoning codes that regulate all development in town.
When a reform majority took control of the City Council this summer, their first order of business was to take back the power from the mayor to appoint the members of the Zoning Board, and give it to the council. They decided nine minds were better than one.
The Zoning Board meets once or twice a month and consists of nine unpaid voting members and two alternates.
“It was a public meeting that should have been advertised.” – Michael Kates
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Since Mayor Dawn Zimmer and her administration have publicly said they would open up the process of appointing and hiring people, they have been receiving large numbers of applicants.
But, there was one problem: a recent meeting for the people who applied was not advertised properly.
Sunshine on a cloudy day
The council’s Zoning and Planning Subcommittee had held a “meet and greet” on Thursday, Dec. 10 for those applying to join the board.
However, that subcommittee meeting, according to Councilwoman Beth Mason, violated the Open Public Meetings Act.
Mason raised the issue before the city clerk even called roll at the council meeting Wednesday night. She said the subcommittee meeting violated a state “Sunshine Law” that requires public notice for any meeting in which a majority of the council deliberates on city business.
New city attorney Michael Kates agreed with Mason.
“It was a public meeting that should have been advertised,” said Kates, who actually had attended the subcommittee meeting.
Violations are “curable,” said Kates, or can be fixed after the fact by reconvening in a public meeting and retracing the actions of the meeting in question.
The subcommittee meeting was called by Zoning and Planning Subcommittee Chairwoman Carol Marsh, who said in an interview last week that seven or eight of the nine council members attended the meeting and that it was intended to be a “social” event.
In the future, she said, the city will provide adequate notice for any meeting such as that one.
Since no official action was taken at the subcommittee meeting, Kates said the only necessary cure was to continue with the proceedings by allowing applicants to speak before the council in public session and conduct a public vote on the seats.
“We have struggled with trying to make this process transparent and open to the public,” Council President Peter Cunningham said, defending the council. He also said he was disappointed that Mason claimed the meeting violated the law but didn’t notify any of her colleagues beforehand.
Mason said she could not attend the event, which put her at a disadvantage during the appointment proceedings. She said it also was unfair to applicants who could not make the subcommittee meeting.
Even with the violation, some local residents applauded the council for their attempts at creating an open process.
30 applications
The council received over 30 applications for the two open regular seats that had been occupied by Jose Ponjoan and James Perry. A vacant alternate seat belonged to Michael Novak. Novak applied to keep his seat, while Ponjoan and Perry did not.
After hearing the qualifications of some of the applicants, the council voted to appoint James Aibel, a mergers attorney, and Nancy Pincus, an architectural designer, to the two regular seats.
Aibel had occupied an alternate seat on the board already. He had been appointed to that seat by the council in October when alternate Tony Soares was made a full voting member.
Since Aibel was vacating the alternate position, the council needed to appoint members to both of the alternate seats. The council appointed Phil Cohen and Mike Evers. Cohen is a litigation attorney, and Evers is a fund-raising consultant for charities.
Mason commented at the meeting that there might be too many lawyers on the board.
To the hospital board
The council unanimously appointed Toni Tomarazzo, an attorney with UBS and a local budget hawk, to an open seat on the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority (HMHA), the board that governs the operations of financially-troubled Hoboken University Medical Center.
The council tabled another appointment to that board and will vote on it at a special meeting called for Wednesday, Dec. 30.
Tomarazzo is well regarded as a relentless, yet personable task master with attention to detail. As soon as the final vote was cast to appoint her, she rose from her seat and headed out the door to attend a hospital board meeting across town that was already underway.
The hospital is in dire financial straits and Tomarazzo said she hopes she can help the board.
For an update on the hospital, check the “briefs” inside.
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.