Over the past years and a half, as a member of the Hoboken City Council, many have asked why I’ve made over 125 requests for municipal records under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act. My answer is simple, as a member of the City Council I believe that it is my sworn duty to those I represent to ensure that their government is acting in a manner which is most beneficial to them. Hoboken’s history of pay-to-play politics must be relegated to the past. By instilling competitive bidding processes for those doing business with the city, by having some degree of campaign finance reform, by setting up mechanisms to ensure transparency of our municipalities standard operating procedures we can do better, and we can do more for those our government is meant to serve.

The only way our government can be made to act in a more equitable and efficient fashion is for someone to consistently monitor how business in our municipality is being conducted. I have personally taken on that role of unofficial public watch dog. With each additional document brought to light, we as a city are one step closer the having the type of government we can truly be proud of. We need to be able to trust our local government in order for it to properly serve its purpose and that is why I have dedicated countless hours and resources to reviewing our public documents with a fine tooth comb. I will find malfeasance, I will find waste, and I will find a way to make the government of Hoboken work best us all.

Over the past few years Hoboken has experienced unprecedented growth. Those who like me have spent decades in Hoboken firmly believed that an additional property tax base from those moving in, along with the parallel business tax base would have a positive impact on our city’s long term financial picture. It stands to reason that our budget would grow as we would have to expand our essential services, but the fact that we have gone from a budget surplus to an $11.7 million shortfall in a few short years is astonishing. Not only have these additional income streams been mismanaged as to negate the promised benefit, but we have been forced to sell off our local assets such as the municipal parking garage just to survive.

Increasing taxes will only cause seniors on fixed incomes to leave their lifelong homes and hard working families who more recently invested in our city’s promise to fight to avoid foreclosure.

Hoboken is a city filled with some of the best and brightest our nation has to offer. As a business management consultant I can honestly say that we have the capacity to turn this city around and come to realize the benefit we believed to be forthcoming. We need to utilize the reservoir of intellectual capacity in our city to study each contract, each business arrangement, and each service strategy and see where we can trim our expenditures and protect the property owners of our beloved city.

Every resident of Hoboken understands the critical issues affecting our families and our quality of life, the difficulty is in finding workable solutions.

On a far too regular basis, residents of the city have to deal with flood waters in the streets and for some in their homes. Hundreds of Hoboken residents have been affected by property loss and soaring insurance rates as a result.

Every summer Hoboken’s families are filled with a desire to get outside and enjoy their cherished weekends. Only to experience the same difficulty and frustration affecting city dwellers across the region, a lack of open spaces for recreation.

Business owners and residents alike express annoyance with traffic congestion and the arduousness of getting around town. With the recent elimination of medical transportation services, this especially affects our senior population.

There are in fact answers to these and other difficulties which inhibit our ability to fully appreciate what living in Hoboken has to offer. We can create incentives so long outdated industrial lots can be converted to open space that will serve to reduce flood water runoff and make room for playgrounds and ball fields. We can make public transportation a more viable option to relieve the congestion on our streets and make finding a parking space for shopping on Washington Street a reasonable goal.

We need a government of private citizens who endure these travails on a daily basis and can appreciate their priority level. Having lived in Hoboken for twenty-five years I understand our nagging plight and will continue to do whatever is in my power to make sure that our hard earned tax dollars are expended in a way that truly allows us to remember on a daily basis why we chose to live here.