Dear Editor:
At the last City Council meeting, I cast the sole vote against a line-item transfer for $2 million in expenditures. When I was reelected in May, the residents of the 2nd Ward sent Mayor Zimmer a very clear message: Stop having a good time with taxpayers’ money.
The mayor and her allies on the City Council will be quick to point out that the $2 million was transferred from other departments that didn’t spend it. Rather than use this money to provide tax relief they used it to reward political allies. This entire situation just goes to show that if you leave money in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats they will find ways to spend it. Inevitably, Mayor Zimmer and her City Council allies will try to justify breaking their promise to “cut taxes 25 percent in their first year in office.” At each opportunity to return your money and cut taxes they instead spent it.
One expenditure was an $11,000 raise for the mayor’s Chief-of -Staff. Over the last year and a half the mayor has almost doubled his salary. In addition, at the taxpayers’ expense he attends classes at Rutgers University and conferences in Atlantic City.
Another expenditure was $700,000 for special legal counsel. One of the law firms being compensated with that money is Okin, Hollander, and DeLuca. A partner at this firm is a major Republican campaign contributor who has donated thousands of dollars to Governor Christie and other Republicans throughout the state. Mayor Zimmer has endorsed Governor Christie. Earlier this week, Zimmer appeared with Christie just hours before he left for Iowa to stump for Mitt Romney and attack President Obama.
The position of Hoboken’s Public Safety Director was created by former Mayor Cammarano. He appointed one of his unsuccessful City Council running mates for a salary of $27,000. Taxpayers paid to conduct Hoboken’s Public Safety Audit, which stated that the position should be eliminated. Instead, Mayor Zimmer ignored it filling the position and increasing the salary to $110,000 per year. That is a 400 percent increase.
There was also a $12,000 salary increase for the Business Administrator’s Office. When I raised these and other concerns, the Business Administrator, Arch Liston, personally attacked me and defended this wasteful spending. All while he makes $150,000 a year while simultaneously collecting a public pension. These types of expenditures have caused property taxes to soar and NJ’s debt to balloon to $38 billion.
The Mayor and her allies will claim I am an obstructionist, but the only thing I’m obstructing is their efforts to have a good time with your money. They are the ones obstructing real tax relief.
Beth Mason
2nd Ward Councilwoman