A lawsuit filed against Mayor Dawn Zimmer, the city of Hoboken, the Hoboken Housing Authority (HHA) and others by terminated HHA Executive Director Carmelo Garcia – who is an assemblyman and is running for 6th Ward council against the mayor’s candidate – may be modified to include new complaints against the mayor’s husband.
Recently, during the course of hearing the wrongful termination suit filed by Garcia in October 2014, emails have surfaced among Mayor Zimmer’s husband Stan Grossbard, who holds no official position with the city, and three commissioners on the nine-member volunteer HHA Board of Commissioners. In those emails, Grossbard gives suggestions about how the HHA should deal with a number of issues, including, ultimately, terminating Garcia’s contract with the agency.
Garcia filed this suit over a year ago, claiming he had been wrongfully terminated and that the mayor was undertaking a campaign of getting rid of her enemies in official positions in Hoboken.
But the HHA board gave several reasons for terminating Garcia as the head of the agency, which oversees thousands of units of federally funded apartments for the poor in the city. Local housing authorities are ultimately overseen by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development, but run by volunteer boards of commissioners and paid executive directors.
Garcia, a longtime politician in Hoboken, was frequently at odds with Zimmer’s allies, who saw him as a representative of old-time politics. Garcia’s supporters saw him as their voice at the HHA.
The only way we will get an appropriate procurement policy is if the board impose is at it is legally permitted to do if it terminates Carmelo’s contract.” – Stan Grossbard
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Garcia’s suit claimed Zimmer and her allies orchestrated Garcia’s firing because he refused to appoint politically-connected professionals at the Housing Authority.
According to Garcia’s complaint, Zimmer and her co-defendants “form an association… for the common and continue purpose of consolidating Mayor Zimmer’s political power.”
Stuiver routinely sought advice from mayor’s husband
After several witnesses testified in court, emails have surfaced – and were provided to the Hudson Reporter newspapers Tuesday – apparently showing that then-HHA Chairman Jake Stuiver had routinely consulted Grossbard on issues concerning the HHA and in particular, Garcia’s firing.
These emails suggest that Grossbard may have provided a model resolution to Stuiver that terminated Garcia’s contract with the HHA.
Grossbard, Stuiver, Zimmer, and others were asked to comment on these emails on Wednesday, but had not responded by press time.
Current HHA Chairwoman Dana Wefer, a candidate in the 4th Ward, Zimmer ally managing the campaign of a candidate against Garcia for council this November, and who replaced Stuiver as chair of the HHA, said the emails were from a time before she became chair. She was not named in the emails viewed by The Reporter.
“I can tell you that I never spoke with Stan or anyone else in writing the resolutions I did,” she said. “Garcia was fired way after Stan’s emails with Jake and the board composition changed dramatically in the intervening period. Regardless of whatever conversations Jake and Stan had, Garcia wasn’t terminated under Jake. He was fired a year later.”
Wefer said she pushed for Garcia’s firing based on things she uncovered as the chair of the HHA board.
“Neither Stan nor Jake had any involvement with that,” she said.
The emails show that as early as Oct. 10, 2012, Jake Stuiver, then-chairman of the HHA board, who has since moved out of the state, was asking Grossbard for advice.
While chairman of the HHA, Stuiver apparently continued to seek Grossbard’s advice on HHA on a variety of issues from water main breaks to special meeting notices.
But the emails suggest that he often asked for guidance in dealing with the more serious issues as well, such as legal and contract issues. He sometimes asked Grossbard to give him pointers on what he should focus on at the HHA and asked his opinions on statements he might issue.
On Jan. 3, 2013, Stuiver continued to seek advice from Grossbard about some statements he was going to issue to Garcia.
“I like this. Think it hits the right tone,” Grossbard wrote back, recommending changes. Grossbard also advised Stuiver against making public statements.
Seeking to replace the HHA attorney
Stuiver on Jan. 14, 2013, emailed Grossbard, as well as HHA members Lincoln (who has since moved out of state) and David Mello (a councilman) in regard to a meeting to appoint a general counsel. They were attempting to replace HHA Attorney Charles Daglian, who was seen as too close to Garcia.
“Any luck getting a hold of Carmelo’s consigliere?” Grossbard asked.
Mello was seeking contact information, and Stuiver complained that they had difficulty reaching Daglian.
“I’m not sure I feel comfortable trying to make a decision on a lawyer without having read all the appropriate documentation,” Stuiver wrote, saying he didn’t have time before the HHA meeting. “I don’t care as much about what the other side will say. But I will not support a process that takes shortcuts or lacks due diligence that is needed to make an informed decision.”
Grossbard advised Stuiver, “[I] do not agree that we need to worry about how we justify things procedurally when the true points are substantive not procedural.”
Daglian, when contacted for this story, said he cannot comment on the dispute, partly because he serves as municipal judge, and some of these issues are being contested in Garcia’s lawsuit against the city.
On Feb. 24, Grossbard contacted Stuiver in regards to a story that appeared in the Hudson Reporter about the HHA taking a long time to install power generators in the HHA. Grossbard went on to predict that the installation of the generators, if it actually occurred, would be a fiasco, and suggested that Garcia must have something to hide in regard to the generators.
Grossbard recommends firing Garcia
Grossbard said that the HHA only has three choices in how it is going to run things going forward, and the clear choice was to terminate Garcia’s contract.
In the power struggle with Garcia, the HHA was at that time waiting on a decision from HUD about who had the authority to approve contracts and appointments. HHA members had pointed out potential problems with Garcia’s awarding of contracts, problems that were ultimately cited when his contract was terminated.
On Feb. 26, Grossbard wrote: “HUD is indeed almost certain to say that the contract as written clearly delegates appointment authority because it indeed does.”
Thus, Grossbard said, the HHA has only three choices in getting around Garcia’s authority. One: accept that Garcia has the appointing authority until the expiration of the contract and accept the existing procurement procedures with only those cosmetic changes Garcia might permit. Two: negotiate a new procurement policy with Garcia using board’s right to terminate the contract without cause as leverage to get Garcia to cooperate. Three: vote to terminate Garcia’s contract and give the 120 day notice, then proceed to adopt a new procurement process acceptable to the board. He said the third was the most attractive.
“Unless and until you move to terminate, Carmelo has all the leverage and he will never believe you actually are willing to terminate unless and until you actually do it,” Grossbard said. “In the end, you will have lost valuable time, enduring tons of public abuse and will wind up having to choose between one and three anyway in an environment in which doing the right thing will have become much, much harder and perhaps even rendered impossible.”
Grossbard appeared to suggest that the board should make it look like they wanted to rehire Garcia, just under a new contract, saying, ”If you want to avoid the perception that Carmelo is being fired, make it clear that the board intends to offer him a new contract.”
Grossbard added, “By giving him first bite at the apple and then ultimately hiring someone qualified on the terms he refused, you demonstrate clearly you have acted fairly and in the best interests of the HHA.”
In a Feb. 26 email, Stuiver wrote to Grossbard, Mello, and Lincoln, “I’m with you on all this reasoning and would like to push option three as soon as possible.”
On March 11, Grossbard sent a recommended resolution to Stuiver, Lincoln, and Mello that terminated Carmelo’s contract as executive director of the HHA.
Garcia’s contract was terminated Aug. 4, 2014, after Zimmer’s allies obtained more seats on the board in January 2014.
In January 2013, eight months before he filed his lawsuit, Garcia reportedly invited Grossbard to lunch along with former State Sen. Bernard Kenny. During the meeting, Garcia asked Grossbard for advice on how to stop the housing board, controlled by the mayor’s allies, from opposing his decisions. What Grossbard didn’t know was that Garcia also taped the conversation.
The tape came to light after it was cited in a July 18 deposition of Zimmer in an unrelated discrimination lawsuit being filed against the city by a former Hoboken public safety director. Both Garcia and the former public safety director were using the same attorney, Louis Zayas.
As rumors of the tape’s transcript began circulating in the ensuing weeks, and questions arose over its purpose and contents, the hostility between Garcia and the Zimmer administration became more apparent.
Although the secret taping appeared to be an effort to bolster the Garcia’s lawsuit filed that summer, nothing in the tapes appeared to reveal lawbreaking.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.