Mayor Zimmer who, with promises of reform, has waved the banner of openness and integrity, has used every technique and opacity of secrecy in the book to hide the facts concerning the choice of the owners of the Bayonne University Medical Center as the only possible candidates as purchasers of HUMC.

When she became involved in the Hoboken Hospital Authority she did nothing to pull the raps of the organization which was established to outwit the legal requirements of a public body to make operations open to the public. She continues this code of secrecy to this day.

As the city of Hoboken works out a bankruptcy agreement for Hoboken University Medical Center so that they may sell it to a private company called HUMC Holdco, Mayor Dawn Zimmer's detractors have said that other bidders have given proposals to buy the hospital, and that perhaps they should have been considered.

Yesterday, Mayor Dawn Zimmer released a response, saying that two of the proposals - from Jersey City Medical Center, and from a company called P3 - were not as good as the current bid from HUMC Holdco, for a variety of reasons.

Those proposals are posted on the city website.

When contacted by the Reporter, Jersey City Medical Center declined to comment. But P3 offered a comment late on Thursday afternoon.

They said that the proposal that Zimmer posted was outdated, and that unlike Holdco, they would run the facility as a nonprofit and keep it for health care "in perpetuity." Holdco has given a guarantee for seven years.

For some officials in Bayonne, the recent announcement by the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority Chairwoman Toni Tomarazzo that a private entity affiliated with Bayonne Medical Center is the final bidder in the process to purchase Hoboken University Medical Center is a bit of déjà vu.

“To tell you, I was a little alarmed when I heard it,” said former Councilman Gary La Pelusa, who was instrumental in providing city funds to help in the rescue of Bayonne Medical Center three years ago.

The Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority, according to a member of the BMC transition team, entered into a non-binding agreement with HUMC Holdco LLC, one of the principal owners of BMC, late last week, beginning the process that could result in the purchase of the ailing Hoboken hospital, making it into a for-profit hospital modeled after BMC.

All of the past year’s political battles were on display again at a marathon City Council meeting Wednesday night. Among the biggest issues was a plan to demote 12 police officers – a number that was reduced to nine by the end of the week.

The council is often split 5-4 on controversial votes right now, with the majority voting against the policies of Mayor Dawn Zimmer.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Councilman Michael Russo, a sometime Zimmer critic, sported his yellow “Stop the Zimmer Police Layoffs” t-shirt. Demotions for 12 top officers in the Hoboken Police Department were scheduled to take effect the next day, and Zimmer confirmed her administration would carry out the demotion plan by issuing a press release around 10 p.m. while the meeting was in progress. (On Thursday evening, the mayor announced that another retirement had taken place, which limited the demotions to nine officers.)

In this political season, politicians are earning the contempt of citizen/voters, since they say only what they think constituents want to hear. For example, when I first met former Mayor Peter Cammarano, I suggested that repeated under-budgeting for employee health costs was responsible for Hoboken’s financial issues. His response: He wanted to end those benefits for the Mayor and the Council. He thought that idea would have made him seem unselfish (he was running for council at the time). Well, I know a phony when I meet one, and his remark showed only that he was not to be believed or trusted. Recently, as he was led off to the pen, his attorney announced that he had been abused as a child. As if that gave him license. As our current mayor wrote in a letter The Reporter published on Oct. 10, “the perversion of our government by unscrupulous developers and politicians did not start or end with Peter Cammarano.”

Another phony is 4th Ward councilman Michael Lenz. I first met this career politician in 2001, when he was managing Dave Roberts’ first mayoral campaign. At the time, Roberts’ predecessor was on his way to the slammer. At the campaign’s kickoff, I gave Lenz copies of Common Cause NJ’s draft ordinances to ban “pay-to-play” municipal contracts, suggesting that they serve as the basis of a squeaky-clean campaign. Lenz thanked me, but nothing happened after Roberts won, except that Lenz got a job at City Hall. When a public-spirited citizens’ group got an ordinance banning pay-to-play contracts adopted by referendum, Lenz did nothing to help the effort, but stood aside while suing the city for firing him.

The bitter fight over Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s plan to lay off 18 police officers may have come to an end.

Mayor Zimmer, Police Chief Anthony Falco, and Executive Director of the Hoboken Housing Authority Carmelo Garcia announced on Friday morning that the city – through a combination of the Housing Authority hiring five officers and a police reduction of force through retirements of some other officers – will be able to avoid the layoffs of all 18 officers.

The Housing Authority (HHA) agreed this week to hire five officers to work an overnight shift at the HHA buildings. Combined with the retirements of five other officers and commitments from some others to retire, the layoffs will be avoided and still save, in the long term, at least $2.5 million from the budget.

Former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, 33, was a rising star in the Democratic Party 14 months ago – but thanks to an FBI corruption sting last July, “He has been absolutely unemployed … [he’s] lost his marriage and been separated from his child,” said defense attorney Joseph Hayden on Thursday.

Hayden and Cammarano appeared in U.S. District Court in Newark to find out the ex-mayor’s sentence, four months after Cammarano pleaded guilty to accepting $25,000 in illegal campaign contributions from an FBI informant who posed as a real estate developer.

The former owners of what was once Hoboken's only car towing company were sentenced to probation last week for tax evasion, and one of them apparently tried to point a finger at the wife of former Mayor Anthony Russo. In February of 1999, FBI agents and officials from the Internal Revenue Service raided Hoboken Auto Body, the Jackson Street company that had the exclusive rights to tow improperly parked cars in the city.

What the investigators found was tax fraud. The principals of Hoboken Auto Body have admitted to maintaining a "double set of books," one set revealing the cash profits and the other not showing them.

According to federal sentencing guidelines, company owner Theresa Pino would have spent more than a year in prison. But because she cooperated with investigators, U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano only sentenced her to two years of probation on Tuesday.

And apparently, her cooperation helped bring down former Mayor Anthony Russo - who is now serving jail time - and attempted to implicate his wife, who is not.

A report from the city's auditors charges that the city's Finance Department miscalculated how much in emergency appropriations would be needed to run the city.

The city's finance director, who was fired by the city three weeks ago, defended himself by saying he was being on the safe side in making sure the city had enough money to pay its bills.

The report was officially filed with the city on June 2 but is dated April 23, 2003.

Last month, the city cited the report as a rationale to fire the city's acting Chief Financial Officer, Michael Lenz, who was also said to be supporting candidates who opposed the mayor's candidates in the May 13 City Council election.

A report from the city's auditors charges that the city's Finance Department miscalculated how much in emergency appropriations would be needed to run the city.

The city's finance director, who was fired by the city three weeks ago, defended himself by saying he was being on the safe side in making sure the city had enough money to pay its bills.

The report was officially filed with the city on June 2 but is dated April 23, 2003.

Last month, the city cited the report as a rationale to fire the city's acting Chief Financial Officer, Michael Lenz, who was also said to be supporting candidates who opposed the mayor's candidates in the May 13 City Council election.