JERSEY CITY — After nearly a year of fighting for his life, Jersey City Freeholder Eliu Rivera returned to the Hudson County Freeholder Board in high fashion, named as chairman at the Thursday, Jan. 4 reorganization meeting.
“Doctors thought I was a goner at least three times, and they still can’t explain how my lungs began to function again,” he said, calling it a miracle.
Rivera, who served as vice chairman in 2011, spoke from the chairman’s seat after fellow freeholders unanimously voted for him to serve as chairman for 2012, completing what would have otherwise been a routine rotation – in which the vice chairman one year becomes chairman the next.
Hoboken Freeholder Anthony Romano was named vice chairman for 2012, and West New York Freeholder Jose Munoz, pro temp. Jersey City Freeholder Jeff Dublin was named the county’s representative to the New Jersey League of Municipalities, where he will also serve as first vice president for the upcoming year.