Michael Russo

HOBOKEN - Councilwoman Beth Mason tabled her proposed salary Assemblyman/Councilman Ruben Ramos: Politicker file photoand benefits ordinances at tonight’s council meeting, a move that likely did nothing to diminish the prolonged stare-down from now until next year’s mayoral election between Mason and her opponents.

Broken into two reform pieces, the freshman councilwoman’s proposed ordinances would scrap benefits and limit to $1 the council salaries of council people who hold more than one public job.

She sent them to committee tonight, but not before rousing her opposition.

Mason’s antagonists see the prospective mayoral candidate’s measures (backed up by Councilman Peter Cunningham) as an attempt to bait At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano and humiliate Assemblyman/At-Large Councilman Ruben Ramos, the governing body’s lone dual elected office holder.

Cammarano was out of town. Ramos fought back.

Hoboken Councilman Michael Russo: Politicker file photoHOBOKEN - Councilman Michael Russo won’t vote for Councilwoman Beth Mason’s salary ordinance at the Hoboken Council meeting tonight unless Mason amends the ordinance.

Patterned on Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop’s reform initiative, Mason’s ordinance would restrict to $1 the salary of any councilperson who already draws a public salary.

"I would vote for it if it only pertained to restricting elected officials from receiving two or more salaries, absolutely," said Russo. "But I would never say a person who’s a janitor or policeman shouldn’t receive an additional salary as a councilperson.

"Let’s take a janitor," Russo said. "Maybe he makes $25,000. You think I’m going to restrict him from making another $25,000 as a councilman? No, I’m sorry, I couldn’t do that."

HOBOKEN - Councilwoman Beth Mason will introduce an ordinance on2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason: Politicker file photo Wednesday night that would limit public salaries of city council representatives who already hold public jobs to $1 apiece.

The Mason ordinance would also prevent council members from receiving healthcare benefits.

A Hoboken elected official who receives health benefits from employment outside the city would be given financial compensation in lieu of the city’s health benefits to a maximum of $2,500 per year, according to a release issued by Mason.

At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano: Politicker photo 

HOBOKEN - Even members of his inner circle swear that they don’t yet know whether Mayor Dave Roberts plans to run for a third term in 2009.

Whatever his intentions, other Hoboken diehards are surfacing. No one’s announced yet, but fierce political battles now will undoubtedly have political consequences next year in this city stung by the embarrassment of a state takeover of its finances.

There are all of the usual speculations surrounding possible candidates. A sighting of former Councilwoman Carol Marsh at a municipal meeting provokes the conclusion in come corners that she’s definitely running. A recent inundation of photos of Mayor Roberts on the Hoboken website prompts someone else to opine that Roberts is running - bet on it.

Businessman and neighborhood kid made good Frank "Pupie" Raia?

Of course, he’s running, say Hoboken insiders. He always runs, and no doubt he will perpetuate his longstanding animus this year with Councilman Michael Russo, who clubbed him last year in their 3rd ward showdown.

Hoboken Councilwoman Beth Mason: Politicker photo 

HOBOKEN - Taking a nod from Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop, freshman Hoboken Councilwoman Beth Mason intends to introduce an amendment that would ban city elected officials from receiving more than one public salary or pension.

"I am sure that Councilman Fulop recognizes, as do I, how difficult it is to create a more responsive and responsible government when the primary interest of many elected officials lies in perpetuating a cumbersome, costly bureaucracy that rewards the few, at the expense of the many," Mason said.

Elected last year to fill a vacant seat in the city’s second ward, Mason - like Fulop in Jersey City - is a likely 2009 mayoral candidate.

Seema Singh under ethics investigation, Corzine wants explanation for hold up of Rabner nomination, North Caldwell council candidate threatens to set fire to dentist’s car, Sharpe James retires from Essex County College post, testimony from Healy’s trial, Michael Russo returns to New Jersey.

Was it a slap or a tap? 

Did Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny hit a Hoboken official in the face yesterday, or was he just being playful?
 
City Councilman Michael Russo says that it was a slap, and that it hurt.  But unless veteran firefighter Tom Molta speaks up, the world may never know.

Russo claims he was having a casual, non-political conversation with Molta when the 60-year-old Kenny came running up to them, thinking they were talking politics.

From an old-timer in a coffee shop on Washington Avenue to campaign workers on street corners to retired council people, Hoboken voters in the hours leading up to the polls closing Tuesday complained about spending. The most common man-in-the-street gripe was that the municipal budget has ballooned in the new millennium from $50 million to $74 million.

Voters are worried that developers are ram-rodding luxury residential housing projects without giving anything back to the community. People want more parks for their children, and fewer massive, high-rise development projects. They want the council to fully implement the master plan.

Hoboken Councilman Michael Russo was re-elected
Councilman Michael Russo appeared in his campaign headquarters on Adams Street, striding across the expansive room with outstretched hand. At a nearby table, his uncle proudly wore a yellow shirt featuring the first game of baseball played in Hoboken, which someone told him he should go home and change because the campaign workers of Russo’s rival, Frank "Pupie" Raia, were wearing yellow shirts all over the Third Ward.

When voters go to the polls on Tuesday, May 8, they will select representatives for six Hoboken City Council seats.

The terms in Hoboken are four years apiece.

All wards are contested. Two seats are open. Four council incumbents are supporting one another for re-election. Twelve challengers are also running. Although they’ve formed a political action committee, the incumbents insist it’s a "loose" alliance at best.