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City Hall meeting gets heated

Salary increases and rent control amendments result in disagreements

On Wednesday, January 22 at 7:00 p.m., a meeting was held at the Hoboken City Hall.
The council came together to vote on resolutions and ordinances concerning settlement authority and budget distribution.
The mayor’s attorneys, Melissa and Joe, represented on Mayor Zimmer’s behalf seeing that she could not attend due to current investigations.
Although the councilmen seemed quite at peace and in harmony towards the beginning of the session, conflicts did arise once discussing the increase in salaries for the current directors of Hoboken and the proposed adjustments in rent control.
The ordinance concerning director salary proposed an increase so that directors can earn anywhere from $125,000 per year to $137,000. Many councilmen did not agree with this proposed increase and felt that it was not necessary.
Zimmer’s attorneys tried to explain that directors’ salaries have not increased in a while and that the ordinance is simply proposing a range; the mayor will decide which director will be earning what. Directors don’t get paid over time nor do they achieve longevity, therefore they deserve an increase in their salaries.
Councilman Occhipinti argued that directors know when they take their jobs that they are working for the public sector, not the private sector, and therefore they will be paid accordingly. There is no reason to increase their salaries. Councilman Russo felt that by increasing the range of the salary for our current directors, while hard-working employees may earn what they deserve, directors who only work under one department will also enjoy an increase in salary, which he feels is not necessary.
Councilwoman Mason added to that statement and explained how she cannot vote for this ordinance. Citizens of Hoboken cannot afford to pay for this increase. They are still recovering from Sandy and need their money.
In response to this questioning, there were some supporters of the ordinance as well. Councilman Bala expressed that we must trust our mayor and believe that she will assign salaries to each director as he or she deserves.
He also pointed out that directors can be subject to salary decrease. Councilman Cunningham said that he agrees with the ordinance but advises the council to be “cautious with our budgets”.
He explained that the city of Hoboken needs to attract good directors and be competitive with its salaries. The salary range being proposed is in the vicinity of what is present at the market and therefore he does not find the increase alarming.
Mason responded explaining that there is no data showing that the current salaries of directors are not competitive.
Councilwoman Castellano added that although we call this “a range” we all “know where it’s going to go.” Salaries will reach $137,000 eventually. Russo furthered that statement explaining that the salary increase is more than 2% unlike what Zimmer’s attorneys were explaining.
At the end of the discussion, the council voted, and many yays and nays roamed around the table before the next topic was discussed.
The next issue debated was the ordinance to amend “rent control.” Councilwoman Giattino explained the issue that many condominium owners who rent out their apartments are assigned an extremely low base rent and therefore have to pay mortgages out of pocket after rent is received.
She explained that this ordinance will allow the market rent for these condos to become the new base rent which will help alleviate the hardships of some of these condo owners.
Councilman Russo argued that he understands the issue, but there’s no reason to rush this through and make constant adjustments. Instead, he proposed that the council look at this matter in its entirety including the renting of one-family homes.
He felt that the council making these changes year after year is what gets people angry and lands them lawsuits. However, Castellano pointed out that the rent committee is okay with the new proposal and therefore, there should be no major problem in passing the ordinance.
Councilman Mello felt that this constant “tweaking” is needed in the council and states that he “is in support of this measure.”
Between such discussions and voting, there were occasional speeches prepared by Hoboken citizens which were filled with anger and resentment towards the mayor and her supporters at the council.
Councilmen were encouraged to read the book “Politics for Dummies” and were questioned on the issue of the Vision 2020 plan, under the Hoboken Housing Authority.
Overall, some discussions became very heated, and many times, the public cheered or grunted at the speakers. Press came to take note of what was happening at this very significant town hall meeting.
Decisions were voted for that could affect the City of Hoboken’s budgets and its residents’ housing costs. These relevant issues drew a lot of interest from the public.
Although many first-time observers of such meetings found the discussions fiery and therefore entertaining, others explained that it’s just another town hall meeting at the city of Hoboken.

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