If you're feeling angry, apathetic or lazy as Election Day approaches, just vote by mail

Donald J. Trump has claimed to be a self-made billionaire, but that's total fiction, according to a New York Times investigation, and cartoonist Joe Heller of the Green Bay Press Gazette in Wisconsin illustrates the fraud. 

IN HACKENSACK, YOU CAN REJECT

 $165M SCHOOL PLAN FROM HOME

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- If you are one of the Democrats angered by the bitter partisan battle that ended with Brett Kavanaugh getting a lifetime seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, the solution is as close as your mailbox.

All you have to do to vote on Nov. 6 -- in a bid to move Congress to the left -- is apply for a mail-in ballot, fill it out in the comfort of your home and send it in.

The Bergen County clerk sent out forms to register to vote, as well as applications for a mail-in ballot, so you no longer have an excuse to remain on the sidelines, as millions of apathetic or lazy Democrats did in the 2016 presidential election.

If Democrats take control of Congress, there is a real possibility we could see the impeachments of both President Trump and Associate Justice Kavanaugh in 2019.

With a mail-in ballot, you can really procrastinate: 

"Mail-in ballots that bear a postmark date of November 6, 2018, which are received by the County Board of Elections by 8:00 p.m. on November 8, 2018, shall be considered timely submitted," according to an insert in my mail-in ballot.

By the way, you'll need two stamps to mail back the ballot, but you also can hand carry it to the Bergen County Administration Building in Hackensack. 

$165M referendum

Meanwhile, Hackensack's notoriously apathetic residents also can use a mail-in ballot to reject a Board of Education referendum to spend a total of $165.1 million on a new junior high school and existing schools.

If approved, local property taxes surely will go up; about 45% of your taxes already go to support the schools.

School board President Lara L. Rodriguez has mentioned Jan. 22, 2019, as a possible date for Hackensack residents to vote on the proposal -- clearly a strategy to use winter weather keep the vote down.

Well, don't let the school board get away with it: Vote against the plan by mail-in ballot.

Read: Enrollment hike of 120 students

 doesn't justify $165M plan

Ballot deadlines

The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot by mail is "not less than 7 days prior to an election."

In person, you can apply "up to 3 p.m. on the day before the election."

The voter-registration deadline is 21 days before the Nov. 6 election; this year that's Oct. 16.

And if you received a mail-in ballot in the 2016 presidential election, county election officials were obligated to send you a mail-in ballot for the 2018 General Election on Nov. 6.

And you'll get a mail-in ballot for all future elections, unless your notify the officials in writing you do not want to receive them.

The mail-in ballot, instructions and inserts for the mid-term elections for Congress -- less than a month away -- are in three languages, English, Spanish and Korean. Plus, the Nov. 6 ballot has statewide and Hackensack public questions.

Democrats must vote a straight party line, if they hope to gain control of Congress.

If approved, the first public question would authorize the state to issue $500 million in bonds to provide grants to schools, school districts and county colleges for technical education, school security and water infrastructure improvements. The second public question would set up a Municipal Open Space, Recreation and Historic Preservation Trust Fund in Hackensack.

Enrollment hike of 120 students in 4 years doesn't justify building a $97M junior high

The offices of the Hackensack Board of Education and superintendent of schools at 191 Second St.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- When you take a closer look at the proposed $165.1 million building and renovation plan for Hackensack schools, the numbers just don't add up.

A projected enrollment increase and schools that are as much as a century old are the two main reasons cited by school officials to justify the proposal, which will have a tremendous impact on already high property taxes.

Even more troubling is the possibility of holding the referendum on Jan. 22, 2019, when winter weather could discourage many already lazy, apathetic residents from voting to approve or reject the plan.

Past elections

April school board elections usually draw only several hundred people to vote on candidates, and to say "yes" or "no" on the school budget, which accounts for 45% of every home and business owners' property tax bill.

In the April 2017 election, only 3% or 642 of the 21,397 registered voters in Hackensack cast ballots for candidates, and only 341 residents OK'd the $81.2 million tax levy to support a $109 million budget.

This past April 17, when 3 candidates backed by the mayor and City Council ran, turnout was higher -- 1,629 voters cast ballots.

Only 1,142 voted "yes" or "no" on the tax levy, approving the use of $82.8 million in property taxes to support the schools' $117.1 million budget.

Imagine how few would battle January weather to get to the polls and vote in a $165.1 million referendum.

Tax impact

"The tax impact would be decided before the possible January referendum," NorthJersey.com reported on June 30, quoting school board President Lara L. Rodriguez.

Rodriguez also told a reporter that if the referendum passes, it could take up to 8 months for the district to begin the renovations and break ground on the new school and a parking garage, and "we could have the schools open" by September 2021.

Enrollment hike

School officials project they will have to serve 120 more students in 2021-22 than now.

They cite a projected enrollment of 5,834 students in 2021-22, compared to 5,714 in 2017-18.

No mention was made of the 249 students Maywood sends to Hackensack High School, and a possible end to that relationship.

Century old schools

There's no question Hackensack's schools are old and badly in need of renovations and upgrades.

But why did the Board of Education allow them to get that way while raising the school budget every year in the last 10 years -- to where the money spent on schools is now more than the city's own budget?

$165.1M proposal

A new junior high school, with grades 7, 8 and 9, would be built next to the high school at a cost of $97.7 million.

That includes a parking garage for 200 cars to built next to the new school, replacing a high school  parking lot.

Alterations to existing schools would cost about $16.5 million; renovations would cost $17.5 million; upgrades to heating, ventilation and air conditioning would add another $33.4 million -- for a total of $165.1 million.

The Record is clueless on Zisa family's bid to seize power once again in Hackensack

At the Costco Wholesale Business Center in Hackensack this morning, an employee was stocking the walk-in freezer with whole lambs from Australia for Easter, above and below. The lambs, which are halal and weigh 40 pounds and up, cost $3.39 a pound.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With less than a month to go before the municipal election in Hackensack, the powerful Zisas have successfully deflected attention away from their bid to send City Council reformers packing.

The Record's Local section today reports two slates of challengers are questioning the timing of a city newsletter sent to voters "just before the start of a 90-day ban on such mailings" (1L).

Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon lists members of the two slates.

But he doesn't report former Mayor Jack Zisa, former Police Chief Ken Zisa and many Zisa supporters attended the kickoff of the Hackensack United for Progress campaign on March 2.

Team Hackensack

More than a year ago, Jack Zisa served pasta and rallied supporters behind Team Hackensack, which he and others described as a new "community organization" that would back candidates in municipal and school board elections.

Ken Zisa and cousin Joseph Zisa, a former city attorney, greeted an overflow crowd of loyalists at the Crow's Nest Restaurant & Pub.

The Zisas didn't waste any time, and successfully placed their slate of three candidates on the Board of Education in the April 2016 election (two were elected and the third was appointed to a sudden, unexplained vacancy).

Although two other slates challenged Team Hackensack, The Record's reporter at the time, John Seasly, didn't write a single word about the Zisas' attempted comeback, the campaign, the issues, runaway spending or the proposed $79 million tax levy, which was approved by only 795 voters.

There are about 20,000 registered voters in Hackensack.

Former four-term Hackensack Mayor Jack Zisa at the inaugural meeting of Team Hackensack in March 2016 at the Crow's Nest Restaurant & Pub.

Former state Assemblyman and Police Chief Ken Zisa and former City Attorney Joe Zisa, back to camera, at the March 2 kickoff of Hackensack United for Progress, which is challenging Team Labrosse on May 9.

Seat of power

The Zisas, who dominated Hackensack for decades, are launching their council campaign from the Board of Education, where they retained power after Mayor John Labrosse led a team of reformers to victory in the May 2013 City Council election.

School board Vice President Lara L. Rodriguez and Middle School aide Rommy Buttafuoco are two members of the council slate, and their campaign manager is Caseen Gaines, a high school teacher.

School board Attorney Richard Salkin, a longtime Zisa ally, has defended Gaines, who was accused of distributing campaign material during school hours.

Frank Zisa served as mayor from 1977 to 1981, and his son Jack was mayor from 1989 to 2005.

Ken Zisa was chief of police from 1995 to 2010. He also served in the state Assembly.

The non-partisan City Council election is set for May 9.

Today's paper

Today's Page 1 column in The Record on cleaning homes of leavened products is a Passover staple that has even Jewish readers screaming, Enough already (1L). 

Editor Rick Green continues to reside in La La Land when he devotes most of Page 1 to the New York Yankees as the nation heads for disaster under President Trump.

Mind on vacation

Under Gannett Co. ownership, readers are being charged more for home delivery of the print edition, and getting less.

Now, when you stop delivery for a vacation, the only option is to donate the papers you missed.

The Record no longer delivers those papers, in what was called a Vacation Pack, a man in customer service in South Carolina told me last week.

So, last Friday, I missed another really big error by Road Warrior John Cichowski, whose mind has been on vacation for more than a decade.

In the print edition, he began a column on two pedestrian deaths in North Bergen this way:

"This week's scary headlines warned of more Libyan terror and another North Korea rocket launch...."

Of course, he meant to write "Syrian terror," as in the corrected version of his column online the same day.

But even if he got it right the first time, why is the moron invoking chemical attacks on Syrian civilians to get readers interested in pedestrian deaths in New Jersey?

Are those Syrian kids' lives worth so little they have become fodder for a burnt-out newspaper reporter?

Instead of employing endless hype and exaggeration, Cichowski should challenge the weakness of laws that allow drivers who kill pedestrians to literally get away with murder.

In The Record, the Trump of eye doctors; Hackensack school plan soars to $109M

These photos of a buff Barack Obama and an out-of-shape -- dare I say fat -- President Trump have appeared on Twitter and elsewhere as the debate over the GOP's proposed American Health Care Act intensifies.

Obama's health care law was called the Affordable Care Act, but the GOP plan doesn't appear to be promising affordable health insurance to the vast majority of Americans.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In her opening statement, a federal prosecutor told a Florida jury that defendant Salomon Melgen "lied to Medicare for money."

Melgen -- a prominent eye doctor tied to the alleged corruption of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. -- is on trial on charges he stole millions of dollars from Medicare between 2008 and 2013.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Bell said Melgen lied about his patient's diagnoses, the tests he ran and their prognoses to enrich himself to the tune of $72,000 per patient annually, according to a story in The Record today (3A).

Referring to Melgen, Bell used the word "lied" or a variation about two dozen times, The Associated Press reported, reminding many Record readers of President Trump's 2016 campaign and his first months in office.

Shocking news

Meanwhile, NorthJersey.com is reporting the Hackensack Board of Education has proposed a $109 million sending plan for the 2017-18 school year -- about $5 million more than last year.

"The district's spending plan is up about 7.5 percent," Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon reported. "The budget is supported by an $81.2 million [tax] levy, which is up about $2 million, or 2.5 percent, from last year."

"The budget was approved without comment during a special meeting Tuesday night," Torrejon wrote on Wednesday, but he didn't mention voters will get their chance to says "yes" or "no" to the tax levy at the April 25 school election.

More than 44% of each Hackensack resident's property taxes go to support the schools, and this would be the second significant increase in the school budget in the last two years.

Nor did the reporter mention board Vice President Lara Rodriguez is a candidate for City Council on a slate backed by former four-term mayor Jack Zisa and former Police Chief and state Assemblyman Ken Zisa.

The municipal election will be held on May 9, and if the Zisa-backed Rodriguez slate wins, taxpayers might be seeing the same kind of hikes in municipal taxes instead of the tax cuts delivered by the current City Council.

See: Hackensack United for Zisa on Facebook

Jack and Ken Zisa kick off their campaign to defeat Hackensack Council reformers

Former Hackensack Police Chief and state Assemblyman Ken Zisa and former City Attorney Joseph Zisa, back to camera, greeted supporters on Thursday night at a campaign kickoff for a slate of candidates who will challenge City Council incumbents in the May election. Ken Zisa handed out bottles of water.

Former four-term Hackensack Mayor Jack Zisa, standing at right rear, also worked the room at Mount Olive Baptist Church. The heavyset man in the foreground is Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker, a Zisa ally who was defeated in the bitter 2013 council election.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Zisa Puppet Company is hoping for a comeback.

On Tuesday night, the family political machine that dominated Hackensack for decades introduced their slate of City Council candidates in the non-partisan May election.

Some would call them puppets, but no strings were visible as the head of the slate, school board Vice President Lara Rodriguez, walked onto the stage at Mount Olive Baptist Church to address supporters.

Another member of the slate, Rommy Buttafuocco, was identified in a campaign brochure as a 16-year employee of the Board of Education, which Zisa allies controlled even after their council candidates were defeated in 2013.

Hackensack taxpayers should be concerned about the candidacy of Rodriguez and Buttafuocco, because the school board budget soared over $100 million in the past two years, surpassing the city's own budget.

More than 44% of each resident's property taxes go to support the schools.

In last April's school election, the Zisas backed three candidates under the "Team Hackensack" banner, and all three were either elected or appointed to the board.

The Record of Woodland Park didn't cover the election -- which included six opposing candidates -- or report that the family that stuck Hackensack with the moniker "Zisaville" were attempting a political comeback.

Now, the Zisas' five council candidates are running under a different banner, "Hackensack United for Progress."

In addition to Rodriguez and Buttafuocco, candidates are businessman Jason Some, former cop Michael Williams and former legislative aide Carlos Merino.

See The Zisas and the Borgs, a post I wrote in 2010, based on recollections of a self-described Hackenack old timer.

Lynne Hurwitz, a Zisa ally who heads the city's Democratic Party machine, also was at the kickoff.

Board of Education Attorney and Zisa ally Richard Salkin lost a second job as municipal prosecutor after the City Council headed by Mayor John P. Labrosse took office in 2013.

Lara Rodriguez, the head of the ticket, addressing supporters.

Today's Record

Today's front page is dominated by the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the Russia probe, suggesting that lying is a way of life in the Trump administration (1A).

The court of public opinion convicted Governor Christie in the Bridgegate scandal, and as a result, his White House dream fizzled and he was denied a top position by President Trump. 

But it doesn't look like he will ever face a judge or jury for inspiring the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge that caused five mornings of gridlock in September 2013 (1A).

Meanwhile, a federal judge denied motions by lawyers for two of his former aides, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, who were convicted in the political conspiracy, and they will be sentenced on March 15 (4A).

Jersey foods

The Garden State has a well-earned reputation for great beefsteak tomatoes, blueberries, corn and other produce, as well as incredible seafood -- from lobsters to clams to monkfish.

But they're not good enough for Food Editor Esther Davidowitz, who would rather promote unhealthy Taylor ham, fries, hot dogs and mystery ground beef as the state's "iconic foods" (1BL, 10BL and 11BL).

Davidowitz and food writer Sophia F. Gottfried continue to scramble in an effort to distract readers from Gannett's decision to end the weekly restaurant review in November.