HOBOKEN — Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer said in a press conference Wednesday that the state is withholding an audit of the operations of the Hoboken Police Department.
She likened the delay to a Holocaust survivors waiting for a boat and being told, “Not yet.”
“Manana,” she said her husband’s Jewish relatives were told on the coast of Spain. “They found out ‘manana‘ meant, ‘not yet,’ not, ‘tomorrow.’ ”
“Not yet is just not acceptable,” Zimmer said. She is the first Jewish mayor of Hoboken.
Although Zimmer would not admit it, many believe she is asking for the release because the information could be helpful in city contract negotiations with police.
She was given “a variety of reasons” for the delay by Division of Local Government Services (DLGS) Director Susan Jacobucci, but was also told when a draft was given to her in August that there were only “cosmetic changes” that needed to be made to the document.
“Five months to edit is long enough,” Zimmer said.
City Attorney Michael Kates said the city cannot take legal action to force a release of the audit because it is the state’s “work product.”
Zimmer said state-appointed Fiscal Monitor Judy Tripodi, who is handling negotiations for the city, has seen the draft version of the audit, although Zimmer said Tripodi can not share the draft with any other members of her staff.
Zimmer also said that Tripodi is supporting her call for the state to release the document.
A source in City Hall contradicted the new mayor, and said every time Zimmer calls the state to ask for the document to be released, Tripodi calls to tell them to not release it.
Tripodi was not in City Hall today and not available for comment.
A DLGS spokesperson was not immediately available to respond to Zimmer’s claim. – TJC
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