In repeat of 2017 election, the Zisa family is trying to return to power in Hackensack

CAMPAIGNING THROUGH THE MAIL: Candidates in the non-partisan municipal election on May 11 are appealing to voters through the mail, above, and on social media.

Taxes, redevelopment 

debated by 15 candidates   

as campaign turns nasty

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- It's deja vu all over again in the non-partisan City Council election on May 11.

Just as in the May 2017 election, Mayor John Labrosse is leading one of three slates of 5 candidates, and the infamous Zisa family is backing one of the other slates in yet another bid to return to power.

Historically, the May municipal election has been greeted with a collective yawn from Hackensack's largely lazy, stupid and apathetic registered voters.

Same goes for the April election to choose members of the Board of Education, but that election has been moved to November, meaning voters will no longer be able to say "yes" or "no" on the school budget. 

And some of the candidates in the May 11 election  have themselves failed to vote in council elections, according to a NorthJersey.com reporter, Terence T. McDonald.

I'm voting for no tax hike

As a homeowner in Hackensack since 2007, I'm voting for the slate headed by Mayor Labrosse, who pledged to hold the line on raising municipal taxes for 5 years.

We're now in the third year of that pledge, and the city isn't raising the municipal portion of the property tax bill despite the fiscal strain of the Covid-19 pandemic, Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino said.

And in the last few years, an extensive program of repaving local streets -- including Prospect Avenue and my block, which hadn't been touched in nearly 3 decades -- addressed a major quality of life issue. 

A third major accomplishment is the nearly completed conversion of Main Street to two-way traffic, as it was in the city's heyday, when Hackensack was a shopping and entertainment mecca.

That involved the replacement of 2,450 feet of water main, as well as lead service lines carrying water to homes and businesses, by SUEZ, the water company, which had hoped to complete the work by mid-February, not Christmas 2020, as I wrote originally.

The work is now complete, but not all of the repaved and restriped streets were open to traffic yet.

Main campaign issues

The campaign is being conducted largely through fliers sent to voters' homes and on social media.

Property taxes, redevelopment and affordable housing are among the major issues, and the campaign has turned nasty.

Canestrino said Hackensack already has 500 affordable housing units, and will provide 60 more in a building that will go up on a city owned parking lot near headquarters of the Fire Department on State Street.

The building will have about 200 market-rate units in addition to the 60 apartments for people with low to moderate incomes.

The city also has reached a settlement with the non-profit Fair Share Housing Center that will see the addition of hundreds of new affordable housing units.

Developers in a 108-acre zone will be required to set aside 10% of residential units as affordable housing.

More tax revenue

Meanwhile, developers of more than a dozen new apartment projects under construction in and near downtown will be paying more in taxes annually than the properties yielded before they changed hands, Canestrino said.

The projects are being built under New Jersey's tax-abatement program, providing payments in lieu of taxes, also known as PILOTs, in communities like Hackensack that are most in need of rehabilitation.

Tax abatements are necessary, city officials say, because Hackensack "does not have a track record of successful significant residential developments in the downtown or riverfront corridor."

"Hackensack will gain $10 million in new annual tax revenue" once the development plan is complete, the Labrosse Team said.

In a campaign flier, Mayor Labrosse labeled as "a Big Lie" his opponents' claim that "developers will pay no taxes for 30 years." 

As an example, 150 Main St., a 14-story apartment building that anchors downtown redevelopment, will be paying $844,847 in annual tax revenue, compared to $237,499 before.

Other examples appear in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Candidates' voting records

"Eleven of the 15 council hopefuls have not voted in at least one city election in the last three cycles [2017, 2013 and 2009], and four of them, have missed two of the last three rounds of municipal balloting,"  according to voting records reviewed by North Jersey.com and The Record.

"[Deputy Mayor] David Sims declined to say why candidates on his ticket did not vote and called NorthJersey.com's inquiry 'offensive and ridiculous.'"

"'Not a single resident with whom we have spoken has asked us about our voting histories,'" Sims wrote in an email cited by the reporter.

UNMASKING THE ZISAS: The slate headed by Mayor John Labrosse sent out this flier reminding residents what Hackensack was like when the Zisas and their allies were in power. Former Mayor Jack Zisa, left, and his brother, disgraced former Police Chief Ken Zisa, are shown.

Three slates

In the May 11 municipal election, Mayor Labrosse is leading three other City Council incumbents and a newcomer as he seeks a third 4-year term.

Sims, the deputy mayor who was dumped from the Labrosse team for violating the Covid-19 lockdown at City Hall on Dec. 22, 2020, formed a second slate and  enlisted the support of the Zisa family.

The family's allies are running with him or serving as his spokesman.

Sims brought his married daughter, who had tested positive for Covid-19, into City Hall, and they interacted with a city employee, who was sent home to quarantine for 14 days.

Sims has served on the City Council since 2013, when he, Labrosse and three others won election on a reform platform after decades of rule by the Zisa family or its allies.

A third slate of candidates is led by Leila T. Amirhamzeh, development director of New Jersey Citizen Action and a former member of the Hackensack Board of Education.

Welcome to 'Zisaville'

The Zisa family's decades-long grip on Hackensack turned the city into a laughing stock called "Zisaville."

Jack Zisa, the former 4-term mayor (1989-2005), tried to return to power in the 2017 City Council election by backing a 5-member slate, just as he is doing now.

In 2010, more than a decade after he stepped down as mayor, Jack Zisa acquired a Main Street building in a sweetheart deal that generated nearly $400,000 in leasing fees annually from the Bergen County Special Services School District.

In a campaign flier, Mayor Labrosse says "there are millions of reasons why the Zisa family wants to control Hackensack again."

Labrosse says:

• Ex-Police Chief Ken Zisa is suing taxpayers for $30 million, and hopes to be appointed public safety director.
• Jack Zisa made a fortune selling insurance contracts "when the Zisa machine ran the city."
• "When they were thrown out in 2013, Main Street was a ghost town and the city was wracked with scandals and corruption."

The Zisa family

Jack Zisa's father, the late Frank Zisa, served 16 years on the City Council and as mayor for one term (1977-81); his brother, Ken, the disgraced former police chief, also was elected to the state Assembly; and another brother, Frank Jr., was deputy police chief under Ken.

Their cousin, Joseph C. Zisa Jr., was the city attorney for many years, and didn't see any conflict in approving the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to lawyers who represented police officers and others who sued Ken Zisa in his public roles.

Allies of the Zisa family also controlled the city's Board of Education for many years, when school budgets ballooned.

Today, school taxes represent more than 45% of the property tax bill paid by every home and commercial building owner in Hackensack.

(By the way, Hackensack residents must pay their second-quarter taxes by Monday, May 10, the day before the election.)

MASKED CANDIDATES: In campaign material sent to homes, members of the slate led by Deputy Mayor David Sims are shown wearing masks, a bit odd considering Sims was censured for violating the Covid-19 lockdown at City Hall when he brought his grown daughter, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, into the building and interacted with a city employee. 

VOTING BY MAIL-IN BALLOT: "For Hackensack's Future," the slate of candidates led by former Board of Education member Leila T. Amirhamzeh, is in Column 1 on the May 11 ballot, left; Deputy Mayor David Sims and "The Coalition for Clean Government" is in Column 2, center; and "Labrosse Team '21" is in Column 3.

'Labrosse Team '21'

Mayor John Labrosse and his running mates -- who call themselves Labrosse Team '21 on Facebook -- are campaigning under a banner of "lower taxes and honest government."

• Labrosse, who has served as mayor since 2013, takes credit for being "the driving force leading the city forward to its current renaissance."
• Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino "is directly responsible for nearly $1 billion in new real estate development coming to Hackensack, creating millions of dollars in new tax revenue."
• Councilman Leo Battaglia, a native of Ecuador,  founded the Hackensack Junior Soccer Program; helped oversee expansion of the M&M Recreation Center and Johnson Park Sports Dome projects; and worked to repave many local streets.
• Newcomer Gerard Carroll, who replaces Deputy Mayor David Sims, is a retired educator who has been "deeply involved in local sports programs and community organizations ... and the NAACP."
• Councilwoman Stephanie Von Rudenborg, who has a law degree and master's in special education, is a mother of 3 children in city schools and has overseen the Community Garden; improvements at Foschini and Staib parks; and other  projects.

On Labrosse's ticket, the mayor and Canestrino voted in the last three city elections, according to The Record, but incumbents Stephanie Von Rudenborg and Leo Battaglia missed one each, and newcomer Gerard Carroll didn't vote in 2009 or in 2013.

'Coalition for Clean Government'

Deputy Mayor David Sims, who has the backing of the Zisa family in their bid to regain control of the City Council, is calling his slate "The Coalition for Clean Government."

The slate's campaign material says, "It's time to clean up Hackensack City Hall." They are:  

• Sims, a member of the City Council since 2013, has served as liaison to the Recreation Board, Sanitation Department and Department of Public Works. He founded the Hackensack Junior Basketball League.
• Modesto Romero is "a local business owner" and ally of the Zisa family who has served on the city's Board of Education.
• Frederic C. Miller, who with his wife Diana recently became a Hackensack homeowner, is employed by the Ford Motor Co.
• Venus Nelson, a lifelong city resident, is chairwoman of the city's Rent Stabilization Board and a member of Mount Olive Baptist Church.
•  Carlos I. Merino, a long-time resident of Hackensack, is a former member of the news media who "worked to defend individuals and companies from computer hackers and breaches of electronic security."

In campaign fliers, an embittered Sims launches several personal and professional attacks on Mayor Labrosse.

As head of a slate challenging the incumbents, Sims portrays himself as "clean," but what about the years he served besides Labrosse? 

Wasn't he and the rest of the council "clean" then, too, or or was he the only "clean" one?

The Record says Sims' slate has the worst track record on voting, with Modesto Romero and Fred Miller missing one of the last three city races, and Carlos Merino and Venus Nelson missing two each.

MORE ZISA INFLUENCE: Campaign material sent to homes by For Hackensack's Future, headed by Leila T. Amirhamzeh, who was elected to the city Board of Education in 2017 with the support of the Zisa family's Team Hackensack. Caseen Gaines, another candidate on the slate, was campaign manager for Hackensack United for Progress, "a group with ties to the Zisa family," The Record reported in February.

'For Hackensack's Future'

Leila T. Amirhamzeh, a former member of the city's Board of Education (2017-20), is leading the third slate in the May 11 election under the banner of "For Hackensack's Future."  

On the slate's Facebook page, Amirhamzeh says:

"Downtown redevelopment should benefit the entire city. The Labrosse Team and Deputy Mayor Sims are proud of their record of rubber-stamping tax giveaways to developers -- while ... rents keep going up.

"Just like all of us, developers should pay their fair share -- and make meaningful contributions to our community. We all deserve to get our money's worth, so Hackensack can be the vibrant city it has the potential to be."

Other member of her slate are: 

• Clarence "Randy" Glover, chairman and executive director of Tri-Arc Community Development Corp., which sponsors food pantries in Hackensack, Englewood and Teaneck, and is a member of the NAACP.
• Andee Post, a Realtor, has been active in the Parents Teachers Association and Girl Scouts, and is a member of the Hackensack Chamber of Commerce.
• Caseen Gaines, a teacher and theater director at Hackensack High School, is co-founder of the Hackensack Theater Company.
• Mary Lopez, a former stage and television actress, has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 17 years, and is co-ower of a skin-care company. 

As for their voting record, Amirhamzeh missed the 2009 and 2013 city elections, Glover didn't vote in 2013; Post and Gaines voted in all three of the past municipal elections; and Lopez, who moved to Hackensack in 2018, didn't vote in any, according to The Record.

If you don't vote by mail -- the most convenient way to exercise your right -- polls will be open on May 11 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.