Bounced from Hackensack slate, official accepts backing of discredited Zisa family

WHAT IS HE HIDING? In this April 2018 photo taken at a Hackensack City Council meeting, then Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker, in a black hoodie, hides from a cellphone camera. Now, Nunnermacker is serving as spokesman for Deputy Mayor David Sims, who was dropped from Mayor John Labrosse's slate in the upcoming council election.

 Deputy Mayor David Sims

heads own ticket on May 11

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Deputy Mayor David Sims is a walking contradiction.

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

But after he was dumped from Mayor John Labrosse's council slate for violating the Covid-19 lockdown at City Hall, Sims has enlisted Zisa allies to run with him and serve as his spokesman in the May 11 council election.

And they've chosen to call themselves the "Coalition for Clean Government."

So, here's the contradiction: 

Is Sims saying that since 2013, he's been part of a governing council that wasn't "clean"?

A third slate

A third slate of candidates in the non-partisan May 11 election is led by Leila Amirhamzeh, development director of New Jersey Citizen Action and a former member of the Hackensack Board of Education.

Sims "is turning to the Zisa political dynasty for financial and political backing," Jason DeAlessi, a spokesman for the Amirhamzeh slate, told NorthJersey.com.

"The people of Hackensack are tired of the same political fights of the past and deserve better," DeAlessi said.

MAIL-IN VOTING: We've already received our 4 mail-in ballots for the non-partisan Hackensack City Council election on May 11, as well as campaign material from the Labrosse Team.

MAYOR AND COUNCIL: From left, Councilwoman Stephanie Von Rudenborg, Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino, Mayor John Labrosse (seated), Deputy Mayor David Sims and Councilman Leonardo Battaglia (2017 photo from City of Hackensack).

Sims' spokesman

In a March 19 story in the Hackensack Chronicle, NorthJersey.com quoted Jason Nunnermacker as a spokesman for Sims.

Nunnermacker, a lawyer who is a key ally of the Zisa family, served as Board of Education president and ran unsuccessfully for the City Council.

Nunnermacker noted Sims' past electoral successes, saying they were the result of "his devotion to our community," according to NorthJersey.com.

'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.

His father, the late Frank Zisa, served 16 years on the City Council and as mayor for one term (1977-81); his brother, Ken Zisa, was the city's police chief for many years and served in the state Assembly (1994-2002); another brother, Frank Zisa Jr., served as deputy police chief; and a cousin, Joseph C. Zisa Jr., was the city attorney for many years.

When the Zisas ruled Hackensack, greed, nepotism and partisan politics were king, as I reported in 2017.

READ: When the Zisas ruled Hackensack...

READ: The Record was clueless 

on Zisas' bid to regain control of city

Lillian J. Holmes, 81, of Hackensack lived a full life before a hit-run driver killed her

The funeral for Lilian J. Holmes will be held on Monday at the G. Thomas Gentile Funeral Home on Union Street in Hackensack.  (This image was provided by the funeral home). 

Victim was crossing street;

damaged BMW X-5 SUV

fled scene on Polifly Road

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Lillian J. Holmes was known affectionately by her family as Polly.

She was the first of seven children born to Junior and Juanita Walker in Osierfield, Ga., and in 1944, the family moved to Westchester County, N.Y.

After graduating from Yonkers High School, she began working at a hardware store there as a customer service representative. 

Lillian Walker married her high school sweetheart, Quentin "Butch" Hicks, and they had two daughters, Ruth and Lillian.

Years later, she met Zabdail Holmes. They eventually married (in 1982), and moved to Hackensack. 

She lived on Beech Street at the time of her death.

Love of bowling

The couple shared their love of bowling together in leagues, and Lillian served on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey State Bowling Association from 2010 to her death on March 4.

Holmes, 81, was crossing a darkened Polifly Road, between Sutton and Marvin avenues, when she was struck by a late model black 2013 or 2014 BMW X-5 SUV. 

The driver fled and remains at lodge, but a second driver whose vehicle also hit Holmes stayed on the scene, police said.

There are no painted crosswalks or traffic lights on or near those blocks of Polifly Road.

Holmes was going to the CVS Pharmacy on Polifly Road to pick up a prescription, family members told NorthJersey.com.

Family tributes

"She could turn a bad event into something good because of her smile," family members said in an obituary published by the G. Thomas Gentile Funeral Home, where her funeral will begin on Monday.

"She enjoyed life and always brought a smile to those around her. She also loved going out to eat with friends and family.

"She had an uncanny ability to find happiness wherever she went because of her loving and pleasant personality.

"Our beloved sister, mother, aunt, godmother and friend may have had her life taken, but this is heaven's gain.

"Her laughter, loving heart and joyful spirit have left a beacon of light for all who knew her."

'Didn't deserve to die'

"She didn't deserve to die like this," a niece said on social media after investigators posted an image of a black BMW X-5 like the one that hit and killed Holmes.

"My heart is aching for the family," Ginger Thompson commented on Facebook. "It was very scary to see the aftermath of the accident."

A black BMW X-5 SUV like the one that killed Lillian J. Holmes, 81, on March 4, 2021, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. Investigators are looking for a 2013 or 2014 model with damage to the left (driver's) side and front of the vehicle.

Editors of Consumer Reports can't shake addiction to gasoline cars, SUVs, pickups

KILLER CARS: Once again, the editors of Consumer Reports' widely anticipated Auto Issue seem to be ignoring climate change and the deadly impact of tailpipe emissions.

 

Only 3 environmentally friendly

cars make annual Top 10 list

 

Editor's note: I've revised and corrected the lead paragraph to indicate that the first gas-electric hybrid car sold in the United States, a Honda, arrived in 1999, and that Toyota introduced the Prius hybrid in 2000.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- More than 20 years after the first gas-electric hybrid car arrived from Japan, Consumer Reports is introducing readers to "our Green Choice designation."

In her column on Page 8 of the annual Auto Issue, a smiling Marta L. Tellado, CR's president and CEO, tells readers about "our Green Choice designations" -- dubbed "clean-air cars" -- denoted by a green leaf in the ratings pages.

"We will now incorporate data to identify how vehicles stack up when it comes to the amount of greenhouse gas and other pollutants they emit," which damage our health and the environment.

Leafing through the issue, all of the vehicles marked with that green leaf are either gas-electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius or fully electric, like the Tesla Model 3.

But only two hybrids, both from Toyota, and that lone Tesla Model 3 are among CR's Top 10 in the April 2021 Auto Issue.

The 2018 Auto Issue from Consumer Reports was the first to include an all-electric vehicle, even though a 2010 MIT study concluded 58,000 Americans die prematurely every year from tailpipe emissions.

And Tesla's Model 3 was the only fully electric vehicle on the 2020 Top 10 list.

Addicted to gasoline

Every single vehicle in the Top 10 should be either a gas-electric hybrid or electric, which have the least impact on our health and our climate.

Yet, for some unfathomable reason, the editors of Consumer Reports continue to recommend cars with gasoline engines, and large gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups, when there is a wide range of hybrids and electric cars available.

The magazine boasts the staff of its Auto Test Center "anonymously buy the vehicles, just like a consumer would, and we never base our ratings on models borrowed from the manufacturer."

Nor does Consumer Reports accept any advertising, so an auto issue that goes completely green won't affect the bottom line at the nonprofit Consumers Union, publisher of CR.

Caving in to Big Auto

Still, the magazine's auto testers cave in to automakers who have been slow to introduce hybrid and electric cars and trucks.

For example, the 2021 Toyota Sienna Minivan is being sold in the United States only as a gas-electric hybrid, and a gas-electric version of the 2021 Ford F-150 pickup -- the best-selling U.S. vehicle -- gets raves in an online CR report, but neither is on the Auto Issue's Top 10 list.  

The cover of the April Auto Issue shows three vehicles, including the new and unproven electric Rivian RIT pickup truck, and the fully electric Ford Mustang Mach-E, an SUV, the first Mustang with 4 doors.

The third vehicle is the Toyota RAV4 Prime, a plug-in hybrid.

But the RAV4 hybrid doesn't make the Top 10 list, either.

'She didn't deserve to die like this,' niece says of woman, 81, killed by BMW SUV

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and Hackensack police are searching for the driver of a 2013 or 2014 black BMW X5 SUV with tinted windows similar to this stock image. The driver is believed to have been involved in the hit-and-run death of an 81-year-old woman on Polifly Road last Thursday around 7 p.m. 

Driver fled scene, leaving parts 

of damaged vehicle behind

By VICTOR E. SASSON 

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- "The victim was my aunt," a woman said on Instagram in reaction to investigators who posted a photo of the type of SUV that killed an 81-year-old woman crossing Polifly Road last week.

"She didn't deserve to die like this," said the woman, who uses the Instagram handle of @lovaofmnms.

Four days after the hit-and-run death on a darkened 4-lane road that leads to the entrance of Route 80, investigators still haven't released the identity of the victim.

Seeking that information today, I called Maureen Parenta, a spokeswoman for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, and Capt. Nicole Foley of the Hackensack Police Department, but neither returned my calls.

READ: Penalties for killing a pedestrian

 don't act as a deterrent

READ: Family members remember

 Lillian J. Holmes

Where did accident happen?

An initial online news report said the woman was killed crossing "Polifly Road near Standish Avenue when a dark SUV with tinted windows struck her and kept going shortly after 7 p.m." last Thursday.

A news release the following day from the Prosecutor's Office said the pedestrian was struck "on Polifly Road, between Sutton and Marvin avenues," a block or so from Standish.

There are no painted crosswalks or traffic signals on those three blocks of Polifly Road.

A second vehicle struck the woman, but that driver remained on the scene, investigators said.

It was not known if the woman had patronized the CVS on the block between Sutton and Marvin or was walking to an apartment building across the street.

When I visited the scene on Sunday night around the same time of the hit-run death, the 4-lane street was dark, illuminated by street lamps, but a city official later complained a fourth street lamp was dark.

'My heart is aching'

A woman who lives near the accident scene and read a news account commented on Hackensack Daily Voice's Facebook page:

"My heart is aching for the family," Ginger Thomson said. "I pray it is not someone I know."

"It was very scary to see the aftermath of the accident," she said. "I live just a few feet from the accident and was able to see the [victim's] body from my window very clearly in the street."