Candidate for top Hackensack job refuses use of city car

One of the Hackensack City Council's most persistent critics is Daniel Carola, a member of the Board of Education, above. Some might think Carola is just trying to deflect attention from the sad state of the city's public schools, including the food service in the roach-infested Hackensack High School cafeteria. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

David R. Troast, top candidate for Hackensack city manager, says he lives in Hawthorne, and would be commuting in his own car. 

In a brief conversation during a lull in Tuesday night's tumultuous City Council meeting, Troast told Eye on The Record he has already "refused" use of a city owned car, breaking with an age-old practice that inflames property tax payers.

Mayor John Labrosse and City Council members deferred action on a resolution to appoint Troast after what The Record today called "intense resident criticism of their presumptive pick for new city manager" (L-1).

The story, written by Todd South, identifies some of the critics by name, but doesn't report they are allied with local Democratic Chairwoman Lynne Hurwitz and the Zisa family's politics of greed, which dominated the city for decades. 

Troast is a planner

According to his LinkedIn page, Troast is a redevelopment planner who was township manager in Sparta (Sussex County) until a year ago, and before that headed the rural township's Department of Community Development and Services.

Since 1989, he has owned David R. Troast LLC, which "specializes in professional planning services for municipalities and private clients in northern New Jersey."

His redevelopment background would seem to be a good fit in Hackensack, which has launched an ambitious plan to make over its downtown.

The Record and North Jersey Media Group abandoned the city in 2009, knocking Main Street down but not out.

Back to school

Four of Troast's most vociferous critics come from Hackensack's Board of Education, which spends more to educate a student than does the highly regarded village of Ridgewood, according to state education officials.

Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin was fired from a second job as municipal prosecutor after the winning City Council slate took their seats in July 2013.

Two other critics, Jason Nunnermacker and Joseph Barreto, are Board of Education members who were on the losing slate, which was backed by Hurwitz and the Zisa-allied City Council members who didn't run in May 2013.

Another critic, Daniel Carola, also is a member of the Board of Education. 

Carola, who harangues the council at nearly every meeting, appears to be reading from prepared remarks.

His attacks on the mayor and other council members serve to deflect attention from the sad state of the city's crowded public schools.

The City Council and acting city manager listening to a critic of David R. Troast, whose hiring as city manager was deferred on Tuesday night.

Newsroom idiocy

A front-page story today asks how a man who "seemed to have everything" -- including a good job, backyard pool in a wealthy community and "even Giants season tickets" -- could kill his mother (A-1).

What idiocy.

This is the same kind of clueless media speculation that occurred after Robin Williams' suicide on Aug. 11, with editors and reporters ignoring how depression and other demons could drive someone to suicide or murder.

The lead byline on the story about suspect Nicholas Piotti of tony Ho-Ho-Kus belongs to Christopher Maag, who was assigned to cover Hackensack for a few months before taking over the transportation beat.

Maag and other reporters covering the story of a son allegedly killing his mother should just assume the suspect is "crazy" -- as is any killer -- and go from there.

In fact, Piotti is being held in a "psychiatric hospital," according to the story.

Are the editors suggesting that the Giants miserable season last year had anything to do with the slaying?

Read More

Politics are killing Hackensack, our state and our nation

Anthony Rottino, seated left front, is Hackensack's director of economic development and acting city manager, jobs awarded to him after he helped raise funds for the successful campaign of a reform slate of City Council candidates in last year's non- partisan municipal election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Politics are an obsession at The Record of Woodland Park.

The editors, columnists and reporters seem incapable of discussing any serious issue without applying the filter of politics, as today's lead Page 1 headline on a lawsuit in Hackensack demonstrates.

Does the banner headline even make sense?

"Lawsuit roils Hackensack politics"

The suit, filed by acting City Manager Anthony Rottino of Franklin Lakes, names other city officials, including Mayor John Labrosse and Police Director Michael Mordaga.

Is that "politics"? 

The current members of the City Council are described as "a political coalition" in the first paragraph of the story, which is written by Abbott Koloff and former Hackensack reporter Hannan Adely.

To get the story on Page 1, the reporters also claim Rottino's suit is a sign the City Council has failed to "put an end to costly legal disputes," without explaining all of those suits were filed against the corrupt former police chief, Ken Zisa, whose family ran Hackensack for decades before his allies were thrown out of office last year.

Calls to resign

At council meetings, gadflies and other critics have repeatedly called for Rottino to resign, claiming the Citizens for Change fund-raiser isn't qualified for the city manager's job.

In his suit, filed Monday in Superior Court in Hackensack, Rottino accuses "top officials of violating state law, condoning 'mob-like and thuggish behavior' by the police union and conducting a smear campaign to 'destroy his reputation'" (A-1).

Rottino also claims some city officials are trying to fire him, in part, "because he opposed raising police salaries and sought to protect the job of a public relations consultant who is being paid $78,000 by the city while working two other public jobs, " referring to Thom Ammirato.

Rottino, 48, is being paid $176,000 a year as economic development director and acting city manager.

Staff Writer Jim Norman of The Record, left, covered tonight's Hackensack City Council meeting, along with Marko Georgiev, a staff photographer.

Blood in water

Rottino's lawsuit has North Jersey Media Group smelling blood in the water.

The official didn't attend tonight's council meeting -- the second meeting in a row he missed -- but four NJMG reporters and a photographer did.

Staff Writers Jim Norman, Mike Kelly and Adely of The Record were there, along with Jennifer Vasquez of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle. 

Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who took over the Hackensack beat from Adely, is on vacation.

During the meeting, council members went into executive session, then emerged and voted to fire Ammirato, their former campaign manager, whom they hired last July as city spokesman.

They also voted to adopt a $94.46 million budget.

Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record, left, at the back of the City Council Chambers with attorney Richard E. Salkin, a longtime ally of the discredited Zisa family. Compare Kelly's mantle of gray hair with his shit-eating-grin column photo.

Corrosive politics

Look at how "politics" have killed any progress on climate change, immigration, a higher minimum wage and other issues in Washington.

What we have been seeing on the national and state levels is a sustained effort by a moneyed elite to strip the middle and working classes of all they have gained in recent decades.

Christie lovers

Since Governor Christie took office in 2010, Columnist Charles Stile, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Dobin have time and again written about important state issues in purely political terms.

They have massaged Christie's image as a conservative Republican who works hard at achieving compromise with his Democratic opponents -- carefully editing stories, columns and editorials to omit mention of the GOP bully's many vetoes, such as a Stile column on A-1 today.

Us v. them

They portray controversies, such as the Superstorm Sandy Bill of Rights proposal, strictly in terms of a partisan battle, not even bothering to explain why, as Christie insists, the bill violates the law (A-4).

The millionaires tax also is portrayed as a partisan battle, despite lagging tax revenue, high unemployment and Christie's grab for mass-transit funds to fix roads.

The Record's story quotes Republicans as claiming "increasing taxes would cripple the state's economy," but Staff Writer John Reitmeyer betrays readers by failing to note it is already crippled (A-6).

This is a common practice in electronic and newspaper journalism, going for "sound bites," no matter how ridiculous or nonsensical they are, as long as they stir controversy. 

Fat guy strikes out

In contrast to the editorial idolatry of Christie, today's unflattering front-page photo clearly shows a man of his size shouldn't wear shorts and a T-shirt, and shouldn't show himself to be such a klutz with a baseball bat (A-1).

In Better Living, the owner of The Plum and the Pear, a new restaurant in Wyckoff, justifies charging $31 for several ounces of Copper River sockeye salmon from Alaska by noting it is "usually available five or six weeks a year" (BL-1).

The clueless editors publish the quote, even though fresh wild sockeye salmon from other Alaskan rivers, as well as other states, are just as delicious and will be available until early October.

Read More

Borgs prepare to screw Hackensack again

This is what The Record's former headquarters at 150 River St. in Hackensack looked like for much of the time after North Jersey Media Group and its flagship paper abandoned the city in 2009.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In 2008 -- several months after securing a $3.65 million mortgage for a Tenafly McMansion from North Jersey Media Group -- Publisher Stephen A. Borg put into motion the biggest downsizing in the history of his flagship daily paper, The Record of Hackensack.

In 2009, Borg ordered the remaining employees to leave 150 River St. in Hackensack for a non-descript office building next to Route 80 in Woodland Park, completing a pullout from the city where The Record and the powerful Borg family had prospered for more than 110 years.

Screw Main Street

The impact on Hackensack's Main Street and nearby restaurants was incalculable, but pulling out more than 1,000 employees made the business district look even more forlorn.

Now, according to a Page 1 story in today's edition, NJMG is seeking to reduce the tax bill on its 19.7-acre property along River Street in Hackensack, land now valued at $23.44 million, according to the state Division of Taxation.

This despite the hundreds of thousands of dollars in income NJMG is receiving from Bergen County to provide parking spaces lost to construction near the Bergen County Courthouse.

And the tax appeal doesn't acknowledge the interest in the land expressed by luxury apartment developers, who aren't bothered by the notion of building in a notorious flood zone along the Hackensack River.

Zisa family legacy

Today's story reports NJMG's tax appeal is among a backlog of hundreds of similar cases that could cost Hackensack as much as $30 million -- thanks to sloppy record keeping and the previous administration's failure to pay successful applicants (A-1 and A-6).

Some property tax bills haven't been settled since 2006, said Deputy Mayor Katherine Canestrino (A-6).

After a reform City Council slate was sworn in last July 1, The Record has published attacks from losers in the 2013 election, including Jason Nunnermacker, a member of the city's dysfunctional Board of Education (A-1).

Does the Woodland Park daily do that in any other community?

Missing information

Today's story by Staff Writer Christopher Maag notes Hackensack's tax rate of $3.217 per $100 in assessed value is "among the highest in Bergen County" despite a pronounced drop in city property values after the 2008 economic slump.

But Maag ignores a major reason for the city's high tax rate -- hundreds of millions of dollars in tax exempt property owned by Hackensack University Medical Center, Bergen County and Fairleigh Dickinson University.

It's also an issue Mayor John Labrosse and the four other members of the City Council haven't addressed.

The city hasn't asked those tax-exempt entities to give back in the form of new police cars, street paving and payment for other items the cash-strapped city can't afford.

For example, Fairleigh students could tutor city schoolchildren or set up after-school programs. And the Bergen Academies' culinary program could help improve the mediocre food service in the schools.

More errors

Maag's story contains at least two errors, making readers wonder whether there are other inaccuracies or distortions in the account.

The reporter says "none of the five former City Council members returned calls seeking comment," but Labrosse, the current mayor, served on the prior council.

Maag also refers to attorney Richard Salkin, a former double dipper under the previous council, backed by the Zisa family, as "Rick Salkin."

Of course, "Rick" could by a typo for "dick" or "prick." 

Not much to read

Hackensack's tax-appeal woes are the only thing worth reading about on Page 1 today, but don't miss the photo on A-6 of Governors Christie and Cuomo kissing each other on the cheek, and the delighted reaction of New Jersey's first lady.

Were the governors of New York and New Jersey congratulating themselves on screwing commuters by rubber stamping exorbitant toll increases on Port Authority crossings -- money that helped pay for the new World Trade Center and 9/11 musuem?

Or was Cuomo planting the kiss of death on a potential presidential rival?

The 9/11 museum is the kind of boondoggle that gives the Port Authority the  much-deserved name of Port Atrocity.

Day of infamy

Today's Mike Kelly column on the museum dedication is a real disappointment as the burned-out reporter merely mimics comments by President Obama and others on the small items that survived the destruction of the Twin Towers.

A-6 also shows "the iconic photograph" Record Photographer Thomas E. Franklin made at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001.

That only serves to remind readers how then-Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale made the boneheaded decision to put Franklin's photo on a back page, killing any chances of a Pulitzer Prize for the talented staffer.

Tweets scoop paper

A third story on A-1 today notes a Twitter account has been exposing rail and bus service problems since NJ Transit's Super Bowl meltdown in February.

But the paper's lazy local editors have been ignoring those same service problems for many years, waiting for angry commuters to send in letters to the editor before reacting. 

On the Local front today, a story on the resignation of Englewood Schools Superintendent Donald Carlisle doesn't mention whether he helped ease segregation in the city's middle and elementary schools in return for his outrageous $212,000 salary (L-1).

The local assignment editors needed many Law & Order stories to fill today's section, including the huge element on the front about the funeral of a murder victim.

Read More

In Hackensack, a onetime loyalist turns vicious

Hackensack police officers, who are working without a contract, packed the back rows of Monday night's City Council work session. Christopher Maag, front, introduced himself to audience members as The Record's new Hackensack reporter, replacing Hannan Adely. Behind Maag is Steven V. Gelber, who writes the Hackensack Scoop.com blog.

Editor's note: This post has been updated and expanded.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Steven V. Gelber worked tirelessly for the Citizens for Change slate in last May's Hackensack municipal election, and was most visible after the polls closed, quickly counting the votes that confirmed the reformers' victory.

But in recent months, Gelber has turned against members of the new City Council, accusing them of the same kind of cronyism and abuse of power that marked three decades of rule by the Zisa family and their defeated council allies.

At Monday night's council work session, Gelber, who writes the Hackensack Scoop.com blog, spoke passionately against making acting City Manager Anthony Rottino permanent.

Rottino was a key member of the Citizens for Change campaign, providing advice and introductions to donors.

No experience?

But Gelber said Rottino had no municipal-management experience and even listed several monetary "judgments" against the official, who also is the city's economic development director with a total salary of $176,000 plus benefits.

The controversy is played out today on The Record's Local front, where Staff Writer Christopher Maag reports a majority of council members are engaged in "a power struggle" with the mayor and deputy mayor "for control of city government."

Maag incorrectly calls Citizens for Change the "Team for Change."

Three against two

Maag says three council members -- Leo Battiglia, David Sims and Rose Greenman -- may try to vote at tonight's public meeting to make Rottino permanent, against the wishes of Mayor John Labrosse and Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino.

Labrosse and Canestrino recently stopped using Thom Ammirato, their former campaign manager and now the city's chief spokesman, to write their press releases, but Ammirato held on to his full $78,000 salary.

Labrosse said when Ammirato was given a one-year city contract, he didn't tell the mayor he had a full-time job with Bergen County and other side jobs providing public relations to Republican officials, as revealed in Gelber's blog.

Gelber faulted the City Council for not launching a statewide or nationwide search for a city manager.

He ended his comments by telling council members, "Get rid of your cronies!"

On Monday night, the City Council heard a presentation on a proposed Atlantic Street Park downtown, near the city's Cultural Arts Center and a 222-unit apartment building, both still under construction.

Park-grant deadline

Maag's story today didn't mention the Atlantic Street Park, a proposal that is almost as controversial as Hackensack's next city manager.

The park, with a performance space, would cost $585,000 and the city would get a $268,000 county grant, but only if it is built by October.

Officials of the Upper Main Alliance, a public-private partnership pushing the redevelopment of Main Street, spoke in favor of the park.

But during the public-comment period, residents questioned the need to build the park.

One women said the money would be better spent on a community center and municipal pool. One man said the city should fix potholes instead.

Far from shocking

Is there anything else worth reading in the Woodland Park daily?

Page 1 carries the second part of Staff Writer Jean Rimbach's densely written opus on the state Board of Public Utilities.

Rimbach fulminates about "a revolving door that often takes government officials into employment in the industries they helped regulate" (A-1).

Is that so shocking?

In skimming the text on the continuation page (A-6), I couldn't find any discussion of whether this impropriety affected the setting of electric and gas rates or anything else affecting consumers.

In fact, the real failure of the BPU is in not levying huge fines on Public Service Electric & Gas Co. and other monopolies for the slow repair response to Irene, Sandy and other big storms.

Ignoring real failure

Leave it to transportation reporter Karen Rouse to write a story about NJ Transit employees who used agency vehicles for personal reasons (A-1).

She continues to ignore another issue that affects thousands of commuters every workday: 

The inability of the state agency to provide enough seats on buses and trains into the city.

Another GOP buffoon

On A-3, Staff Writer Patricia Alex reports former Republican Gov. Thomas H. Kean will replace Condoleeza Rice as the commencement speaker at Rutgers University.

There is nothing in the story about whether Kean will finally fess up to hiding huge deficits from James Florio, his Democratic successor, who was forced to raise taxes, leading to his defeat when he ran for a second term. 

Doughnut hole

A second story on the Local front speaks volumes about the high cost of home rule and Bergen County's nearly 70 police chiefs (L-1).

Frank Papapietro, New Milford's police chief and go-to guy for doughnuts, is slated to be paid more than $300,000 this year, including nearly $110,000 in one-time payouts for vacation and accumulated sick days.

The Record has never examined why Governor Christie placed a ceiling on the salaries of school superintendents, but did nothing to control the exorbitant pay and benefits of police chiefs.

Read More

Silk City's black mayor exposes editors' bias

Today's edition of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle lists seven "dilapidated streets" that will be paved soon, but Prospect Avenue, above, and Euclid Avenue, between Prospect and Summit avenues, aren't among them.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record has had a lot to say about Paterson Mayor Jeffery Jones in news stories and editorials, such as the February report that he will return $17,300 he received for unused vacation days in 2011 and 2012.

But I can't recall the Woodland Park daily every reporting Jones' views on the "causes of inner-city poverty," as the mayor stated in a letter to conservative Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a potential GOP presidential nominee (L-1).

"Come to Paterson, Congressman Ryan, and I will take you around the streets of one of the poorest cities in New Jersey, and you can meet the families of people who work two and sometimes three jobs to put food on the table and clothes on their children," Jones wrote in his Tuesday letter.

Editors' blind eyes

But there is more in the letter the editors and reporters at The Record seem reluctant to touch, while focusing relentlessly on crime, fires, drug dealing and problems at City Hall:

"Impoverished neighborhoods are not the result of lazy black men, " Jones wrote, "but rather the result of 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow Laws, housing policies and redlining which resulted in the confinement of whole races of people in substandard areas with substandard educational and employment opportunities."

The letter could just as well be addressed to Governor Christie, who has cut the state budget on the backs on the middle and working classes in New Jersey.

Christie also cut state aid to Paterson, Newark and other poor cities, forcing  layoffs of police officers and aggravating crime.

Worst slumlords?

You've read story after story about fires in Paterson's ramshackle multiple dwellings, but where are the reports identifying the city's most notorious slumlords?

Has the paper ever done any serious reporting on redlining by banks in Paterson, Passaic city or North Jersey's wealthy suburbs?

To deliver The Record and Herald News, I imagine North Jersey Media Group exploits some of those people who have to work two or three low-wage jobs to make ends meet.

If Ryan accepts Jones' invitation to come to Paterson, we can only hope The Record's clueless publisher and editors accompany him.

Hey, Editor Marty Gottlieb, you're not in Paris anymore.

More Christie B.S.

Today's paper gives another platform to loud-mouth Christie, the GOP bully whose inner circle carried out political retribution against Democrats who didn't support his reelection last year (A-1 and A-8).

At a town hall meeting in Flemington on Thursday, in answer to a man in the audience, Christie refused to say whether then-Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly broke the law when she and his Port Authority cronies orchestrated George Washington Bridge lane closures last September, causing four days of gridlock in Fort Lee (A-1).

This is news?

The Page 1 story on Bergen County having the highest average property tax bills in the state tells residents nothing they don't already know (A-1).

Shouldn't the paper remind readers that Christie promised to lower property taxes in his 2009 campaign, not praise him for slowing increases?

Hackensack news

Hackensack officials deserve credit for capping unused sick-day payouts at $15,000 on retirement (L-3), but don't residents deserve an explanation for why the city can't afford to repair pockmarked Prospect Avenue, one of the city's premier streets.

Staff Writer Hannan Adely covers City Council meetings, and I'd like to see more stories reporting the fiscal mismanagement of prior administrations allied with the now-deposed Zisa family.

At Tuesday night's meeting, a sweetheart deal the prior City Council made with a towing business was discussed, and Mayor John Labrosse told a resident evictions proceedings are under way.  

A story on the retirement of Teaneck Police Chief Robert Wilson doesn't say how much he is paid (L-2).

Is he one of the chiefs who is making more than Christie's $175,000 a year?

Stars in her eyes

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung swoons over the lobster-and-fried-egg sandwich ($14) at Cravings Tapas Bistro in Ridgewood, but says the seafood in the $19 paella "was served a little stiff" (BL-14)

Does she mean overcooked or rigor mortis?

A pitcher of sangria was $26? Ouch.

Anyway, who wants to line up and wait for a table, even with a reservation?

Read More

Should Hackensack official return $93,000 to city?

Rush-hour traffic on the upper deck of the George Washington Bridge this morning. The Record continues to report on unannounced "temporary lane closures" in September that affected drivers entering tollbooths from Fort Lee (A-1), but its transportation reporters ignore the daily nightmare of commuting by car or overburdened mass transit.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I'm sure I'm not the only Hackensack resident who hadn't heard of Agatha Toomey until last week, when the director of the city's Human Services Department made headlines for denying benefits to a formerly homeless man who was awarded $850 he found on the street.

On Wednesday, Record Staff Writer Hannan Adely reported Toomey is being paid $133,000 a year and has use of a city car  -- the kind of largesse residents have come to associate with Zisa family rule.

In a front-page story today, Adely reports Toomey received "a windfall of $93,000 in a payout for unused benefit time" in February 2011.

And, Adely reports, convicted former Police Chief Ken Zisa, who also served in the state Assembly, received a similar payout of $94,513 "just days before his arrest on fraud charges."

City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said he didn't know why Zisa's name was on the list of employees who retired or were about to retire.

And Mayor John Labrosse claims Zisa's name was not on the list of retirees he was given (A-6). At the time, Labrosse was a member of a City Council dominated by Zisa allies, who were thrown out of office on July 1.

There has been no explanation for why Toomey makes so much money or why she still drives a city car weeks after officials pledged to review such use.

Should she return the $93,000? That question hasn't been addressed by city officials.

More sloppy work

As if The Record hasn't repeatedly smeared Richard Shoop's name, an A-6 caption on Tuesday "misidentified" his mother, Barbara, according to one of the two corrections on A-2 today.

Shoop is the troubled 20-year-old Teaneck pizzeria employee who went to the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus on Nov. 4 to commit suicide, firing random shots into the ceiling before killing himself in the basement.

Three columns by burned-out Staff Writer Mike Kelly associated Shoop with mass murderers. 

Furious back pedaling

What are readers to make of an editorial urging an end to all  "the talk" about the 2016 presidential election and whether Governor Christie will be the Republican nominee (A-20)?

It's Editor Marty Gottlieb and his gang of political columnists and reporters who have been feeding that media frenzy for more than a year.

Sensational stories

Also on A-1 today, Debra J. Feldman, 48, a Hackensack woman who disappeared in 2009, may have been the victim of a serial killer, the FBI said.

This sensational story is one of the many Law & Order stories in the paper today, especially in Local, which still had to use three filler photos of minor fires to fill its pages (L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Gee-whiz. A truck caught fire in Secaucus, and a car caught fire in Fair Lawn. And in other fire news, a short-circuit "destroyed" the facade of a Ridgewood building.

You can always count on Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza to be first with such major breaking news.

Pedal error?

More troubling is The Record's inability to report whether the driver of a car that hit a Trader Joe's employee in Westwood was elderly and mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal, a common problem for older drivers (L-1).

The story says the driver was "a woman who appeared to be elderly," and describes her Toyota Camry, one of the most recognizable cars on the road, as "a beige-colored sedan." 

Second look

The Road Warrior column on Monday was filled with errors, according to the concerned reader who maintains the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

All of the Motor Vehicle Commission issues Staff Writer John Cichowski mishandles "are clearly explained on various MVC website links or can be correctly answered by calling MVC customer service."

Cichowski also reported incorrectly the initial "inspection" of a new car is good for 5 years in New Jersey when no such inspection is required.

See the full e-mail to management and the editors:

Road Warrior skips correct MVC answers

Read More