Rather than get stuck with a hospital the city of Hoboken can’t afford, members of the City Council agreed to a deal for parking that will last into the next century. In fact, hospital parking spaces may be available long after the hospital has been converted to luxury housing units and automotive transport has ceased to exist.
In a city where people live and breathe politics 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it is perfectly understandable that the City Council would meet on a Sunday to deal with what has become a crisis situation, and that underlying it all, the threat of lost municipal jobs would become the chief bargaining chip. Mayor Dawn Zimmer encouraged workers to urge the members of the council minority to give her the sixth vote she needed to make the parking deal happen.
Behind the scenes, some minority council members met with buyers of the hospital seeking promises that they were unable to get the Zimmer administration to make, even though in the end, the promises are based on the good faith of intermediaries, and not legally binding.
The deal for the hospital hinged on a 99-year lease agreement that gave hospital employees a deep discount unavailable to other workers in the city. Without this deal, prospective hospital owners HUMC Holdco would not go through with the sale. Therefore, the hospital would close, and the city would have to cut costs through layoffs to cover the $52 million guarantee the council made during the administration of Mayor Dave Roberts.
Apparently 4th Ward Councilman Tim Occhipinti was ready to give Zimmer the vote she needed even before other members of the minority struck their deal with the new owners.
The sale means the future of the Hoboken hospital will be off the backs of taxpayers – except for the fact that the next step will likely be a tax abatement for the new, privately-owned hospital, and yet one more political battle the Zimmer administration will have to wage.
Is Healy’s grass cooked?
If poll numbers are borne out by votes on Nov. 8, then Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy won’t likely see his candidates for at-large council races reelected.
Although Ray Velazquez and Kalimah Ahmad are incumbent council members, both were appointed to fill vacated seats, and have relatively low name recognition, putting them at a disadvantage in an election that also features school board member Sue Mack and Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson, who are well-known and seem to be leading the pack. The other candidates, in a poll done for a non-aligned group, seem to be far behind these four.
Healy’s two candidates seem to be hampered by the fact that the Hudson County Democratic Organization appears to be giving them only lukewarm support and almost no money.
Two surveys done by a New York-based firm, one in April after the school board elections and another after Labor Day, show that Healy has rebounded a bit, which might help his candidates in this election. In April, Healy had a favorable rating below 50 percent and negative rating at about 30 percent. His positive numbers improved to 54 percent in September, and a drop in negative numbers to 27 percent.
Councilman Steve Fulop, Healy’s chief adversary, maintained his poll numbers as 43 favorable and 18 unfavorable – the same numbers he had after his followers won the school board election and after his takeover of the Jersey City Democratic Organization in June.
As one political observer pointed out, these numbers give Healy hope that – after Fulop received a year of very glowing press – Fulop has not yet managed to improve his position.
This same observer said Healy has to convince state Sen. and North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco that Healy is not a dead horse in the 2013 mayoral election. Sacco’s appearance at Fulop’s recent fundraiser shows that Sacco is hedging his bets.
Beckelman calls for court challenge of legislative map
Daniel Beckelman, who is running as a Republican for state Assembly in the 31st District, has called for the state Republican Party, municipal officials, and public interest group leaders to challenge in court the adopted legislative map before the 2013 elections, when the full legislature runs again. Beckelman believes the map is too partisan, breaks up communities of interest, and actually hurts the chances of getting more minority legislators elected.
“Most experts believe that the map makes it extremely challenging for the Republican Party to gain an outright majority of seats, which makes little sense when Republicans often get more cumulative votes statewide than Democrats, including in 2009,” he said. “This map took the old one and mangled it more. It did not take into serious consideration the cumulative statewide vote, communities of interest, increasing minority representation or equalizing population. This map is a blatant attempt to preserve the status quo and try to ‘punish’ certain legislators who showed independence from their party. This is not the process worthy of the nation’s second wealthiest and third oldest state. While I understand the reluctance to challenge the map while the 2011 races were in motion, we now have two years to create a better map.”
Butchko heads gambling advocacy group
Jack Butchko of Bayonne, a political consultant, has been named president and spokesperson for New Jersey Wins, You Win, a statewide political action committee pushing for passage of Public Question No. 1, favoring legalized sports betting in the Garden State.