More on the Police Department

Some more on the Police Table of Organization.

In NYC, there is one supervisor for every 5 patrolmen, compared to 1 for every 2 in Hoboken.

After the 2005 vote discussed last week on this site, Cammarano also supported some other actions which reshaped the police department, which includes decreasing police officers from 127 to 120, but increasing the number of supervisors.

Here are some of the ordinances:

• Sponsored 2 ordinances (DR-201, DR-230) that increased police supervisors by 4, and created 3 new spots.
• Supported (DR-248) creating an additional 4 police supervisors.
• Supported (DR-248) REDUCING Police Officers on the street from 127 to 120.
• Did not support (DR-368) eliminating the chief positions which would have saved the city over $500,000/year.

Cammarano’s actions have helped take officers off the street and increase costs for our the city.

RealCammarano Promo – The Debate

Machine Politician

Peter Cammarano has repeatedly asserted his “independence” in the Hoboken mayoral race. He has called Dawn Zimmer  the machine politician in the race. At the recent Hudson Reporter moderated debate, he criticized “Zimmer’s team for allegedly being part of a county political machine.”

Why is this important? Outside politicians frequently wield disproportionate pressure in Hoboken. The machines push a lot of development in Hobokenout of proportion with Hoboken’s six story architecture and roads.  For instance the recent action on a NorthWest redevelopment area (north of 14th street). The council voted to move forward with looking  at this area as a redevelopment zone in March. A vote Mr. Cammarano supported. The proposed development includes planned 40-80 story buildings. The developer, the Rockefeller Group, is so confident that they applied for state funds to clean up the site before the council vote.  Union County political bosses are linked to the large developments, anticipated to block the Palisades, on the Western Edge.  They are supporting Peter Cammarano.

So why are Mr. Cammarano’svotes aligned with machine politics and supported by machine politicians?  Because Mr. Cammarano is part of the machine.

Peter started with the political machine. He works for the politically-connected firm of Genova, Burns and Vernoia as an associate attorney. There his political career has been guided by partner Angelo Genova. From here he was directed into Hoboken politics. According to the politicker website ”the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) put him on the ticket as part of [David] Roberts’s 2005 re-election campaign.”

Since then Mr. Cammarano has continued associations with political machines. During this Mayoral campaign he has had at least two fundraisers hosted by Newark establishment politicians. The fundraisers serve to funnel machine money to Mr. Cammarano. Various political interests are helping Mr. Cammarano in other ways too.  This weekend saw two citywide mailers from the ‘Building America Commitee’ smearing his opponent. The cost for the citywide mailing roughly ten thousand dollars.

So Peter’s claims to ‘independence’ are a little less than honest.

Police Table of Organization

I was attending a city council in April and the acting Police Chief got up to give a report to the council and public on the police department. He was pleased to report that the weather was getting warmer and residents should expect to see cops back outside walking around.

I couldn’t help but laugh. In the 10 years I’ve lived here, it’s extremely rare I see police anywhere but occassionally driving by in their cars. What I heard from the police chief is if it’s too cold, the officers won’t even bother walking around. I got a hat and gloves and walk around when it’s cold, why can’t they?

We need MORE police on the street and way less police indoors. Our police department is way too top heavy.

In 2005, Mr. Cammarano sponsored and helped pass an ordinance that changed the Police Department’s Table of Organization to add more personnel. On the surface, that sounds outstanding, but the details are what’s extremely disappointing. Ordinance DR-201 did the following:

• Added a new position (above Captain, but below Chief) called Inspector that would employ 3 people. This position would receive 14% higher base pay than the position of Captain.
• Increased the amount of Captains from 8 to 10
• Increased the amount of Sergeants from 25 to 29
• Keep police officers unchanged

 Mr. Cammarano helped create more high paying police positions without addresses the city’s need for more police officers. Did you know our former police chief was making more money a year than the commissioner of the New York City Police Department?

The Table of Organization was established as follow:

Rank/Position – Number

Chief – 1
Inspector- 3
Captain- 10
Lieutenant - 17
Sergeant - 29
Police Officer - 127
Administrative Secretary - 1

So we have 60 supervisors for 127 police officers. WOW. That’s incredibly inefficient use of tax dollars. Let’s increase public safety by adding more officers and less supervisors.

Development: Western Edge – Community Pool (2007/07/18)

This next video clip is Mr. Cammarano at his scariest. I attended this council meeting and was sickened to hear Mr. Cammarano accuse critics of massive redevelopment project to be against children.

On July 18, 2007, the Hoboken City Council was considering an ordinance to approve a redevelopment zone on the western edge (between 9th and 14th Street; Monroe & Madison) of town. A redevelopment zone would give the city the ability to put together a redevelopment plan. A pro-developer plan for the area had previously been approved on behalf of large real estate developer URSA/Tarragaon, but was thrown out by a court for being approved illegal. This new process was an attempt to reinstate that plan.

 

Mr. Cammarano did vote yes for the redevelopment zone. A planner hired by the city put together a redevelopment plan and released it in August 2008. The plan ignored all public feedback and calls for 12, 14 and 16 story buildings on the western edge of town. Those buildings would contain 98% residential and over 1000 condos. The plan discusses giving us a long promised pool, but that would be the only community benefit for such a massive project. Unfortunately, the way the plan is written, it doesn’t guarantee the pool will actually be built. Mr. Cammarano supported the introduction of this plan earlier this year and didn’t express any desire to fix the flawed plan. Mr. Cammarano may say he believes in smart, pro-Hoboken, development, but his actions on the city council don’t match that rhetoric.

Open Space Trust Fund

He was for it, before he was against it, before he was for it?

Hoboken has a severe shortage of Open Space. We’re a small city (1.4 sq mile) with very little active (baseball, soccer fields) and passive (parks) space available for our residents. One of the big arguments towards adding more open space has been the cost associated with purchasing the land.

In 2007, the city council approved a resolution to allow voters to decide in the November 2007 election if they thought Hoboken should create an Open Space Trust Fund. The Open Space Trust Fund was to create a new tax of $.02 per $100 of total of total municipal equalized real property valuation and used exclusively for:

• Acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes
• Development of lands acquired for recreation and conservation purposes
• Payment of debt service on indebtedness issued or incurred by the City of Hoboken for any of the purposes set forth above.”

There was some controversy when the referendum was voted on at a city council meeting on August 20, 2007. Some council members wanted the fund to have the ability to pay for “maintenance of lands for recreation and conservation purposes,” in addition to the acquistion of new land. If maintenance was included as an acceptable way of using the funds, the city would been able to spend the money collected to fund annually operating costs in the budget, opposed to just exclusively on acquisiton and development of new park land. The Roberts’ administration has used these budget tricks in the past, for example by selling city assets to plug budget holes and changing the parking authority from an independent agency to part of city government so it’s multimillion dollar profits could help fund budget holes rather than improve city parking.

Mr. Cammarano voted against placing the referendum on the ballot with (resolution 07-1007) or  without (resolution 7-1006) the maintenance  allowance on August 20, 2007.

In the video below, Mr. Cammarano visited Cablevision and discussed the Open Space Trust Fund. What’s most absurd about Mr. Cammarano on this issue is his opinion that open space throughout the city only benefit residents that live in the same ward as those open space. Do only people in the Second Ward use Sinatra Park? How about Pier A Park on the waterfront? Is that only used by and for First Ward residents? If Mr. Cammarano had gotten his way, the city would have been able to use revenue from the Open Space Trust Fund to fund budget holes and continue the practice of overspending, rather than truely build a fund to buy new land for open space.

Luckily for the residents of Hoboken, the resolution that didn’t include maintenance was passed by the city council and in November, 63% voted yes for the Open Space Trust Fund.

With the budget mess we’re in and the lack of fields and parks for our children, we need more Open Space than ever. We’re running out of land we can use and Mr. Cammarano’s behavior makes it clear he’s not interested in non-pro-developer ways to get more open space.

Election Law

Mr. Cammarano likes talking about his education and his expertise as an election lawyer, but this post from Hoboken411 from noted community activist “estevens” paints a scary picture of Mr. Cammarano’s “expertise” and disregard for the law.

estevens – May 21st 2009 – 17:09:39 |    
An experienced attorney, eh? The Genova, Burns & Vernoia website lists Peter J. Cammarano, III, as an Associate in the firm’s Newark, New Jersey office, who practices Labor & Employment Law, and Election Law. Just how good is he at this election law business?

In 2007, Cammarano created a Continuing Political Committee – Hoboken Democrats for Hudson County (HDHC) – which served largely to pass $28K through to candidates Russo, Campos, Giacchi, and Tremitiedi. Cammarano was listed as chairperson for HDHC in ELEC filings.

In the ELEC Compliance Manual for Candidates, it is stated quite clearly that “A candidate cannot, during the existence of his/her candidate committee or joint candidates committee, or while that candidate is holding office, establish, authorize the establishment of, maintain, or participate directly or indirectly in the management or control of any political committee or continuing political committee.” This is with the basics on page 5, not hidden in fine print on page 83.

On page ONE of the same document, under ELEC’s definition of candidate, it is stated that “If elected to office, the officeholder remains a candidate throughout the period of time the office is held.”

In the Compliance Manual for CPCs, page 28 states again -in bold print – “No candidate can establish, authorize the establishment of, maintain or participate directly or indirectly in the management or control of any CPC.”

On page 4 of the committee’s D-4 filing with ELEC – the Registration Statement and Designation of Organizational Depository – question #10 asks “Has any New Jersey candidate (other than a federal candidate) established, authorized the establishment of, maintained or participated directly or indirectly in the management or control of this continuing political committee, or will any New Jersey candidate do so in the future?” The answer “No” is checked off.

On page 5 of the D-4, Cammarano signs his name under the statement “I certify that the statements on this document are true and correct. I further certify that no candidate has established, authorized the establishment of, maintained or participated directly or indirectly in the management or control of the continuing political committee, and no candidate shall be permitted to do so during the existence of the continuing political committee. I am aware that if any of the statements are willfully false, I am subject to punishment.

http://www.divshare.com/download/7450517-d31

I grind on. From the Jersey Journal, 2/29/2008: Hoboken Democrats for Hudson County was a continuing political committee (CPC) formed last April 18 in alliance with Brian Stack’s Democrats for Hudson County. Cammarano served as the chair of the CPC while in office as councilman-at-large.

That violates state election law, the head of ELEC said. “An elected official cannot in any way be involved in a CPC, let alone chair it,” said ELEC Executive Director Fred Herrmann.

Now, these may sound like trifling details to you and you are unlikely to lose sleep over this. The fact remains that Cammarano is an ELECTION lawyer whose firm sends him around the state to advise political committees on these sorts of matters. If an amateur like me can understand this, surely an “experienced lawyer” should be able to. Or did he understand and simply choose not to comply?

Welcome to the RealCammarano.com

Hoboken Voters on June 9th have an extremely important decision to make on who will lead this city for the next 4 years. Hoboken is a city in need of change. City spending and taxes are too high, the infrastructure is overwhelmed and even though we’re in a recession, developers are circling the city eager to develop the remaining undeveloped/industrial lots around town.

I voted for David Roberts and his team (which included Mr. Cammarano) in 2005. I wasn’t politically active, I didn’t really pay attention to stuff that happened around town and I didn’t think our town was necessarily headed in the wrong direction. Heck, I liked the new development popping up around town.

After watching the city the last few years, attending numerous council meetings and watching them on tv, reading the Hoboken Reporter, NJ.com and Hoboken411, I’ve realized it’s time for our city to head in a new direction.

I’ve had the opportunity to watch Peter Cammarano and Dawn Zimmer at work, before both candidates started running to be Mayor. You might not be able to tell much of a difference on what each candidate is promising to provide Hoboken, but the differences based on their voting records and past behavior is enormous.

I’ve created this blog to expose the Real Peter Cammarano.