Thank You Everyone! I won!

Thank you everyone for voting for me.  I won 68 to 45. 

I look forward to the reorg meeting and learning how I can contribute. 

Thank you again.
Donna

Vote for me on June 7th for Dem Committee to Protect Your from Wheeling.

Vote for me on June 7th to prevent campaign contribution wheeling, temper special interest group control and to bring honest government to Hoboken.  Even if you are not in Distsrict 2 of Ward 2, go vote column C - Ravi Bhalla for Assembly and the Democrat for Honest Government candidate.

I am running under Democrats for Honest Government, with Ravi Bhalla in Column C. Our voting place is the Elks Club. Polls open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. 
 

My biggest concern is voter apathy. Please take the 5 minutes it takes to go to the polls and vote? Please do not let corruption win by a mere lack of effort on the part of reform. This means more to your property tax bill than you may realize. 

Last year only 18 people voted in this District. I beg you not to let them win just because reform doesn't show up.

Click to Enlarge

 ______________________________

My name is Donna Antonucci. Many of you know me as a Steering Committee member of Hoboken Revolt, your neighbor or local Hoboken advocate.

I am running in the primary election on Tuesday, June 7, 2011, and am asking my neighbors to come out and vote to show your support for the efforts of the Democrats for Honest Government to bring transparency and accountability to local politics.

What does a party committee person do? Each year, the local Democratic party elects representatives from each district of every ward (72 in all), and help get information on upcoming elections to members of the community.

Honest Government is beginning to take hold in Hoboken but the battle is far from over. It's fragile and without your continued participation, Hoboken can easily slip backwards. Historically, the Hoboken Democratic Party has been used to "wheel" funds to candidates running for Mayor. When former Mayors Russo and Roberts were controlling the Democratic Committee, hundreds of thousands of dollars flowed through the Committee into their election coffers, Reformers who have been elected to the Hoboken Democratic Committee have passed by-laws which have fundamentally changed the way the Hoboken Democratic Party does business.

What is wheeling? There are campaign finance laws that limit how much an individual can contribute to a candidate. There are also pay to play laws that prevent any individual from contributing to a candidate and then doing business with the city after that candidate is elected. Wheeling is when an individual gives money to an entity like the Democratic Committee and then the organization gives it to a specific candidate.

Wheeling is a way of circumventing campaign finance law and allows special interest groups to funnel large sums of money to candidates from whom they expect preferential treatment.

The by-law changes made under Ravi Bhalla's direction (he was Chair and led the campaign to win the majority of  the Committee) of the Hoboken Democratic Committee shut down the use of the Committee as a vehicle for wheeling funds. Those by-laws, passed two years ago, reflect hard fought gains by reformers, but those gains can be reversed. Without committed participation of reform-minded individuals, the by-law changes that prevent wheeling can be swiftly reversed and outside money can quickly be funneled to candidates that will do the bidding of a  small, connected, special interest group and not the overall well being of Hoboken.

I have been a concerned and a very active citizen for 3 years now, committed to preserving what makes Hoboken special and am insistent on honest government.

I worked tirelessly to understand how corruption occurs in Hoboken by requesting many documents through the Open Public Records Act, at my own expense. I have analyzed those documents and published my findings to bring detailed understanding of how Hoboken was being exploited by a small, politically connected group with respect to various PILOT agreements and city contracts.

As your Democratic Committeewoman, I will work to protect you from the kind of corruption that can occur if reform loses control of the Democratic Committee.

I need your support on June 7th to continue the fight for Honest Government.

I am running under Democrats for Honest Government, with Ravi Bhalla in Column C. Our voting place is the Elks Club. Polls open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Thanks for your support.

Donna Antonucci

donnaantonucci@gmail.com

www.donnaforhoboken.com

Letter from Mayor Zimmer Endorsing me for Dem Committee

$9,585,000 of the $14.7MM Tax Surplus Used to Reduce Taxes in 2011

Nick's presentation on FY 2011 -  Here is the link to Nick's presentation on from the March 2nd Council meeting.   http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/13053527 .  He gives a nice executive summary and walks you through the numbers.     Go to minute 19 to hear Nick's executive summary of the operating and extraordinary expenses that this $101MM budget, $54MM tax levee budget does.   Below is the presentation itself so you can see it clearly. 

It's 10% below the 2010 Fiscal Year Budget. The 2010 FY budget did NOT budget for over $5MM in tax appeals which comes out of the tax levee ie it's an adjustment to the operating budget - you can't bond for tax appeals. This means the reduction in taxes over FY2010 is actually more than 10% because tax appeals were paid in FY 2010 but not projected in that budget that is used for comparison to this 2011 calendar budget.

Of the $14.7MM left after the above mandatory deductions, $9,585,000 is used to offset items that we would have had to been raise through the tax levee - Unavoidable extraordinary expenses.  See page 6 of Nick Trasente's executive summary presentation attached here.  

The presentation is also under the Finance and Government section of www.hobokennj.org site. 

Opponents to reform are going around saying the Admin is hoarding the $25MM surplus.  They are trying to take advantage of the complexity of public finance and hope that you won't look at the detail.

Pay close to pages 5+ that goes over the surplus:  $25MM - MANDATORY deductions like giving tax back to veterans to get to $14.7MM usable.  Of the $14.7MM usable $9,585,000 was used for extraordinary expenses that would have otherwise come from the tax levee.  So, $9,585,000 of the $14.7MM surplus was used to give back to tax payers.

The difference will be used as savings for unexpected expenses and to improve our bond rating.  All of the work on the waterfront, 3 remaining pumps, termites will have to be bonded for.  Improving our bond rating will reduce our interest rate on that money.  It's like having a down payment on a mortgage.  If you have a down payment, you will pay far less on interest and surcharges than if you have no equity.

Here are the big infrastructure items.  All but the Outdoor space is IMO, unavoidable.  We have collected monies in an open space fund that cannot be used for anything else:

• $20MM - Waterfront repairs
• 3 remaining pumps to end flooding around town - $14MM a piece ($42MM total)
• Termites at City Hall - Estimate underway
• City Streets not covered by the County (Hudson, 14th and some others are county roads.  The county paid for them.  Mason tried to take credit for them after they were done.  Unbelievable)
• The Police headquarters and one of the Fire Houses are in really bad shape.  
• Outdoor space - money has been collected in a special fund over the last 4 years that cannot be used for anything else but park space - the market is down.  It would be prudent to buy the land now when real estate and financing is cheap.

Here is Nick's executive summary presentation.

CY 2011 Budget Presentation Nick Trasente

HPD - Absenteeism and Accrued Vacation 2007, 2008, 2009

HPD Absenteeism 07 08 09

HPD Accrued Vaca 07 08 09

Susan Jacobucci was Let Go...She is No Longer the Director of Local Govt. Services...Read it Here

Read from the bottom. See Susan Jacobucci's "out of office" email. She is no longer the Director of Local Government Services.

From Jacobucci, Susan
to Donna Antonucci
date Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 10:22 AM
subject Out of Office AutoReply: Hoboken's union Contracts
mailed-by dca.state.nj.us

hide details 10:22 AM (14 minutes ago)


My service with State government has ended. If you want to reach me personnaly, please call the Director's Office 609-292-6613.

If this email requires the attention of the Division, please send it to DLGS@dca.state.nj.us


Donna Antonucci
to sjacobucci@dca.state.nj.us
bcc Dawn Zimmer ,
Peter Cunningham
date Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 10:22 AM
subject Hoboken's union Contracts
mailed-by gmail.com

hide details 10:22 AM (5 minutes ago)

Director Jacobucci,

You may have heard by now that the Hoboken City Council voted down the two Police memorandum's of understanding based on the police contracts that Judy Tripodi negotiated and passed the budget. I believe this is the right decision if for no other reason because the Assembly is about to pass its versions of the 4 Christie bills on pension and benefit reform that would require the unions to contribute at least 1.5% of their salaries to healthcare contributions. Contributions to healthcare premiums was not included in the contracts that Judy Tripodi negotiated. By passing the contracts one week before the Assembly is set to pass this reform, Hoboken to have to wait until the contracts expire again to take advantage of these reforms. Since the bills passed the Senate 36:0, I heard the Assembly version may go for more than 1.5%.

The question that I have been trying to reach you about is, what is next?

Tripodi:

Does Judy Tripodi leave now that we have a budget and have our books in order? You know how I feel. She put the books in order, kicked out crooks, took away cell phones from non-employees, got rid of provisionals, allowed people to attrite, put budget line items where they belong, kicked non employees off of our healthcare plan, got Chief Lisa to take a needed pay cut. Giving her credit for all of that she has stopped in her tracks from making the more difficult decisions - layoffs, furloughs, HR performance management systems that would make it easier to jettison an employee who is sitting on the payroll like a paperweight. She did the low hanging fruit but not the tough part. How fast can we get her out of there? What is the process? Are you considering it?

The union contracts:

The Council put the kibash on 12% raises. How long does it take to get an arbitrator? How long is the queue for review once we have agreed on an arbitrator? Do you really see Christie allowing Hoboken to give out raises to a city that is under his direct control? How would that look for him? How do we get 0% raises, salary cuts for the supervisory levels to bring their salaries back in line with the region (NY, CT, PA + the nation)?

How can Hoboken get meaningful contributions to healthcare? You and I both know that 1.5% was just a minimum. When Christie crafted those bills he thought that was the most he could get. Since they passed the Senate 36:0, do you think the Assembly versions will go for more? That's rumored that that is what they are doing and why they delayed it from the last week in Feb. I personally believe that the contributions to healthcare needs to be a 0% of the premium so that public workers care about where healthcare costs are going. You can striate it by income. That is, those that make more than $100K pay x%, those between, let's say $40K and $99,999 pay y% and those under $40K pay something less. Public employees have to have skin in the game.

How do we end terminal pay? You know that terminal pay started back in the early 70's when NYC and Hoboken for that matter almost went bankrupt. Cities had no money to offer employees and they kicked the can down the road and we are now dealing with the monster they created. How do we get rid of it? (not take away those who have accrued terminal pay under previous contracts, just preclude any employees CURRENT or new hires from accruing more?

How do we limit or get rid of vacation time accrual?

How does Hoboken limit sick time (we have unlimited sick time if you recall) with a use it or lose it policy?

How do we get this done in this environment in the construct of today's Civil Service rules and Collective bargaining? How do we get it done?

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you. If it's too controversial to put in writing, please call me.


--
Donna Antonucci

Police Uniform and Supervisors Current Contracts Here.

To understand some of the references made in the Memorandums of Understanding for tonight's Council meeting, here are the current two contracts.  Each had to be split in two parts because of size.

PBA Contract Par 1 of 2
PBA Contract Part 2 of 2


http://www.scribd.com/full/28526199?access_key=key-13zsa7pitwtojlot40n7 Superviors's contract 1 of 2

http://www.scribd.com/full/28526189?access_key=key-lh5vbogdpws0voqihzm Supervisor's contract part 2 of 2