Has Hoboken Mayor Zimmer changed her mind about leaking information through unofficial sources?

HOBOKEN – The short answer is no.
It was only a month ago that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer saw a bit of controversy after passing a new policy in City Hall saying that employees could not speak to the media without first getting approval from city Business Administrator Arch Liston. She even said that employees violating the policy could be subject to discliplinary action including termination.
Some people said they found the policy hypocritical because Zimmer had touted transparency and openness in government when she ran for office. City Hall said they didn’t want incorrect information being leaked to the media.
At the time, Zimmer said her new policy wasn’t hypocritical, because private businesses have policies about speaking to the press.
However, last week, Zimmer seemed eager to get her hands on some information that was leaked through non-official means from a different government entity, and not authorized to be given out.
Recent tapes of Councilman Michael Russo speaking to an FBI informant were leaked from a confidential source to the authors of the new book “The Jersey Sting,” who spoke about their book at a diner in Hoboken two weeks ago. At that event, Zimmer, whose ally Greg Lincoln is facing Russo in an election next month, asked the authors more than once if they could make the tapes available.
The authors did not. However, they eventually released the tapes onto a newspaper website this past week. Within two days, Zimmer had the city pay $943 to transcribe them and put them on the city website.
When asked last week if her opinion has changed about the value of leaking information to the press, given the tapes’ release and impact, she said in an e-mail: “I have no idea how the reporters received the tapes, and do not think it is appropriate for me to comment on this issue.”
If the tapes were not confidential, the city could have filed a FOIA request and received the tapes, instead of asking the authors to release them. The authors of the book indicated to Zimmer at the event two weeks ago that it might be difficult to get the tapes.
When The Reporter followed up via e-mail indicating this to Zimmer, asking again if her opinion had changed, she did not issue a response by press time.
For more on the leaked tapes, pick up a copy of Hoboken Reporter this weekend.