Eldridge Hawkins

Mayor Eldridge Hawkins: Politicker file photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - Orange Mayor Eldridge Hawkins today said he has no intention of backing down from his promise to deliver televised meetings to the people of his city, despite a majority on the city council refusing to participate in live televised meetings.

"They paralyzed the progress of the city, and left the meeting with no quorum last night," said Hawkins, who took office in July to succeed Mims Hackett, who was busted by the FBI last year and convicted of public corruption.

"First, I need no special authority from the council to record the meetings," said Hawkins. "It’s a public right to record those meetings. But second, though I needed no extra authority, I intentionally sought out the council president."

MINNEAPOLIS - It was a case of lights, camera, no-show last night at the City of Orange Council meeting.

Upset that Mayor Eldridge Hawkins wants to tape meetings without their approval, four council people refused to attend the regularly scheduled Tuesday night meeting.

"As the mayor, he has to come through the council," said veteran Councilwoman Tency Eason, one of the governing body boycotters, along with Council President Lisa Perkins, Councilman Rayfield Morton and Councilman Elroy Corbitt.

"Enough is enough," said Eason, who lost to Hawkins in Orange’s mayoral election in May.

"He got a letter from the council president telling them to cease and desist," Eason said of Hawkins. "We apologize but we can’t allow the mayor to just go off and tape a council meeting without our approval."

Citing the statute of limitations, U.S. District Judge William J. Martini today moved to dismiss a complaint filed by Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., against the West Orange Police Department and the Township of West Orange.

"The Court finds that the applicable one- and two-year statutes of limitation indeed do bar plaintiff’s federal claims since they arise from Defendants’ conduct in mid-2004 while plaintiff waited until late 2007 to file this complaint," Martini wrote in his decision.

Hawkins, who was elected mayor of Orange on May 13, is on a leave of absence from his job as a patrolman with the West Orange Police Department.

The suit he filed against the West Orange Police Department and the township asserted that West Orange gave hiring and salary preferences to other officers based on their Irish heritage.

ORANGE - Battling criticism, Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., today backed down from receiving a $25,000 mayor’s salary on top of his existing salary as fire director, according to spokeswoman Linda Cofer Hawkins.

That thins Hawkins’s public salary to $79,700 for his jobs as fire director ($76,000) and emergency management coordinator ($3,700).

In a statement, the newly sworn-in mayor acknowledged the negative response caused by his initial designs on a $104,700 annual salary.

 Superior Court Judge Donald Goldman today dismissed a challenge by Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr.: Politicker photoNorth Ward Councilwoman Tency Eason, who had tried to declare void results of the June 9th Orange Democratic County Committee election in Orange. 

Eason lost the election to then Mayor-elect Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., by a vote of 15 to 14.

In a statement, Mayor Hawkins said he would continue to serve as chair of the county committee as a consequence of Goldman’s decision.

"I am pleased that the court has reaffirmed my election as Orange Democratic Chairman," said the mayor. "Now that the leadership question has been clarified, I invite Ms. Eason to work alongside me and other active Orange Democrats to elect Barack Obama as our next President."

Judge Michelle Hollar-Gregory swears in Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, left, as Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) looks on. 

ORANGE - The son of a former beauty queen and crusading Civil Rights attorney, Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., took the oath of office today as Mayor of the City of Orange in a well-attended and star-studded ceremony in the Middle School auditorium.

"On Day One of our new administration, I don’t say to you, 'Just watch what I can do in City Hall,'" the new mayor challenged the crowd. "Instead, I say, 'Get involved in every way that you can.' Together we will create new ways for you to participate in the building of a better and more prosperous Orange.

"And I say, 'Come with me to City Hall, and together, we’re going to turn our city around!' The future is now!"

Elected two months ago to replace the now convicted Mayor Mims Hackett, Hawkins literally walked up a red carpet rolled out onto the concrete in front of the school, and faced a sea of Orange residents and luminaries that included singing star Dionne Warwick.

Hawkins Chief of Staff Tai Cooper confers with Codey Chief A.J. Sabath 

ORANGE - In a packed auditorium at the Middle School this afternoon, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) saluted the newly sworn-in Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., and said he couldn’t go wrong with Tahirah "Tai" Cooper as his chief-of-staff.

Formerly Lautenberg’s Cooper senior project specialist out of the senator’s Newark office, Cooper is now officially with the Hawkins administration as the new mayor takes charge of Orange today.

One of the stars on stage paying tribute to the 29-year old Hawkins, Lautenberg sat in between Gov. Jon Corzine and Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex). In the audience were Newark Mayor Cory Booker and East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser.

Mayor-elect Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., tonight defeated CouncilwomanEldridge Hawkins, Jr. Tency Eason for Democratic Party  chair of Orange.

Hawkins won 15 to Eason's 14 votes to succeed former Mayor Mims Hackett, who served as chairman in addition to his duties as mayor. Hackett relinquished his mayor's seat last month after pleading guilty to attempted extortion.

Eason, who unsuccessfully opposed Hawkins in the mayor's contest last month, said she means to challenge the outcome of tonight's chairman's race.

ORANGE - The City Council last night voted 5-2 to retain Council President Lisa Perkins as the city’s acting mayor.

Councilmen Ed Marable, Jr. and Hassan Abdul-Rasheed voted to replace Perkins with Mayor-elect Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., due to her close relations with former Mayor Mims Hackett, who left office on the day he pleaded guilty to attempted extortion.

ORANGE - City Council allies of Mayor-Elect Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., intend to try to vote him into office as acting mayor at a special meeting tonight, a month prior to his swearing-in ceremony.