“With regard to the Pay-to-Play resolution I co-sponsored I'd like to state the following: I am very pleased that Hoboken POG took the time and effort to once again update our pay-toplay ordinance. In fact it was quite necessary.
Hoboken411.com
We now have stricter regulations for dealing with developers. The need for this was clearly demonstrated in the last election when one of the candidates met with a developer prior to casting his vote in favor of the developer’s height variance and then received a $1,000 campaign contribution from that developer and his partner. We now have a pay-to-play compliance officer who will make sure ELEC reports are filed with the City of Hoboken on time. During the last race we saw a candidate file ELEC reports from his 2001 campaign over 8 years late. The people of Hoboken will now have a watchdog to ensure this doesn’t happen again. As for the ordinance co-sponsored by Councilman Bhalla and Councilman Cunningham I’d like to state the following: First and foremost provisions were added to this resolution with the intent to target me specifically because I supported Councilman Tim Occhipinti in the Special Election for 4th Ward City Council. In fact the sponsors of the ordinance admitted this themselves in this week’s Hoboken Reporter. Crafting legislation to target individuals that you disagree with is disturbing and dangerous. I am glad to have supported Tim in his race because he is a bright new leader who is committed to moving our city forward. His opponent, Michael Lenz, stated on the record numerous times that City Council members are not elected to cut taxes. Also, Mr. Lenz was a dual public job holder who opted out of the medical benefits plan offered by his fulltime employer so he could pocket a $4,500 bonus and then bill our city over $23,000 for medical benefits from his part time City Council position. His philosophy and actions didn’t just increase taxes for the people of the 4th Ward, they increased taxes for my constituents in the 2nd Ward and all the people of Hoboken. I stand by my decision to have contributed the maximum amount of money against him that is legally permissible and I would gladly do it again. Sadly this ordinance is just one of the many actions some of the members of this council and their allies have taken to try and personally attack me. I guess when depicting Tim Occhipinti and me as Nazis didn’t get the job done this was the next plan of attack. It is also extremely hypocritical since members of this City Council did the same exact thing during their past campaigns. I am being targeted for giving $13,000 to Tim’s campaign when Mayor Zimmer contributed over $130,000 of her own money to Council members Marsh, Bhalla, and Mello during their Council-at-Large campaigns. That was not illegal and was the Mayor’s prerogative to do so with her own money, but it underscores the hypocrisy of this ordinance.
Hoboken411.com
In 2001 Councilwoman Marsh ran for City Council on Dave Roberts’ Mayoral ticket and she received $39,100 in personal contributions from members of her ticket and $114,817 from PACs and Candidate Committees. In 2007 Councilwoman Marsh had her campaign for State Assembly largely financed by the Hudson County Democratic Organization which contributed $160,334 to her campaign and also received another $8,534 in contributions from other candidate committees. Some of the most noteworthy contributors were former State Senator Wayne Bryant, former Guttenberg Mayor David Delle Donna, and former Councilman and North Hudson Sewerage Authority Commissioner Michael Schaffer all of whom went on to be convicted by Federal Prosecutors of corruption. Afterwards while she served as Vice Chairwoman of the HCDO former Governor Corzine contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to the organization. Not once did Councilwoman Marsh ever raise any concerns about this because it was advantageous to her and her political allies. This so called “anti wheeling” legislation also only limits campaign contributions from political action committees (PACs) located outside of Hoboken, but does not limit campaign contributions from candidate committees located outside of Hoboken. In the past Mayor Zimmer’s campaign has taken money from candidate committees located in Jersey City, including a Mayoral campaign committee that was later revealed to have received thousands of dollars from the same government informant that Peter Cammarano’s campaign did. However, nothing in this “anti wheeling” ordinance prevents this from happening again because there are no restrictions on candidate committees. Unfortunately this ordinance is only being put forth because the Mayor and the members of this City Council who support her disagree with my decision not to support Michael Lenz’s campaign. When crafting legislation there must be a higher standard than “how can I hurt people I disagree with today?” Have you no shame and are there no depths you will not sink to in order to stifle the voices of those who disagree with you governmentally?”