HOBOKEN — Hoboken City Council members Theresa Castellano, Michael Russo, Tim Occhipinti and Beth Mason sent out a press release on Thursday saying they would not attend the emergency City Council meeting scheduled for the evening of Thursday, April 25.
The meeting was meant to appropriate funds to give retroactive pension pay to 14 firefighters who said they were owed the back pay.
According to the release, “The Council members are concerned that the meeting prevents public inclusion” by not being scheduled for a regular meeting date. The four also said that the meeting is an attempt to conceal what they say are financial problems caused by the Zimmer Administration.
The four are frequent critics of Zimmer, who is running for re-election in November. The council presesntly has four members allied with Zimmer as well.
The release alleged that, “Zimmer is asking the City Council to approve $700,000 in retroactive pay for 14 fire fighters. At the last City Council meeting the mayor asked the council to approve $1.5 million in appropriations, but after being questioned by the Council, it turned out that only $700,000 was needed.”
The members said that firefighters deserve fair compensation, but that the matter should be voted on at a regular meeting.
Vision for Hoboken, a slate comprised of Assemblyman Ruben Ramos Jr. for Mayor, Eduardo Gonzalez, Laura Miani and Joe Mindak for City Council at Large, issued a joint statement on Wednesday about the decision to bond for the money.
Their statement said, “This pension expense was imminently foreseeable and an emergency bond should not be necessary to pay for it. The Vision for Hoboken slate believes it’s time to stop misrepresenting the City’s finances to score cheap political points, and start doing what’s right for families in Hoboken.”
For responses and followups to this story, see this weekend’s newspaper.