Dear Editor:
And still the battle rages. Beth Mason and her Merry Band of Mischief Makers threw sand in the transmission of the HUMC to its Bayonne suitor. Just as the new owners were implementing their employer ID number, new employees were taking their positions and those who chose not to stay were about to work their last day, the Mason group shot down the heretofore peaceful transition. Mason, who spent big bucks and many woman hours suing the HUMC for financial disclosure, decided to make a stand against unloading the hospital from its city guaranteed $52 million bond. Why?
Parking spaces in the city garages. She was joined in this opposition by the usual suspects: Theresa Castellano, who is rumored to have been on the City Council when that first baseball game was played in Hoboken; by Michael Russo, self-appointed defender (I was on the waiting list for an apartment just like everyone else, even if it was for only a week) of the very vote rich Church Towers (which, incidentally provides parking spaces for their low-rent apartments); and Tim (I will be an independent voice on the council) Occhipinti, who really seems to be a wholly owned subsidiary of PMC (the Permanent Mason Campaign).
On the federal level we have the Republicans blocking every piece of legislation that Obama proposes, including legislation that they once supported under a Republican president, and we now have that dog in the manger at the local level. Irony of ironies, the Masonites are playing the Republican role. To them, it isn’t what is right, it’s who is right.
There may have been a legitimate argument over the price on those parking spaces, but it was a little late in coming. Moreover, it was the nurses’ union who pushed hard for low parking fees, and nurses are hardly overpaid. So the Fearsome Foursome appeared willing to alienate these voters (which is something they seem not ever to do with the police and fire unions). Or were they? Maybe it was all a charade. In the end, the Masonites claimed to have secured a commitment from the new owners to keep the hospital open at least seven years, and to include women’s specialties and sports medicine programs, all of which were part of the original plan of the new owners.
So what’s a little inconvenience to the thousand or so hospital employees, the new hires, those leaving, the transitioning to a new medical plan, the administrators scrambling to pay the bills to stay afloat?
Indeed, what is this inconvenience compared to political careers? Especially when some of those political careers belong to people who aren’t worried about the next paycheck.
R.Y. Bice