Hoboken Reporter, October 27, 2004

Dear Editor:

In Hoboken, if you want to do business with the City, you must pay-to-play. It is not optional. It is mandatory. Since coming to office in July 2001, Mayor Roberts has amassed more than $1 million in campaign contributions. He has proved himself a prolific political fundraiser by soliciting big contributions from those doing business with the City.

NW Financial, Scarinci & Hollenbeck, Ernst & Young, Sarkisian Florio & Kenny, Schoor DePalma, Allied Risk and Birdsall Engineering are among the firms that contribute regularly to the Mayor's election campaigns, sometimes writing checks for as much as $5,000 or $10,000. For these businesses that have donated so generously, their investment has paid off big time. Some have been rewarded with enormous contracts during the past four years.

Thus far in this current fiscal year, the City has doled out a $300,000 contract to Sarkisian Florio & Kenny, a $355,000 contract to Scarinci & Hollenbeck, and a total of $321,000 in contracts to Ernst & Young. The list of those benefiting with fat City contracts matches the list of top-ranked contributors.

Developers seeking to build in Hoboken must contribute generously if they want their projects to see the light of day. They also have proved to be eager participants in this process of paying to play, contributing more than $189,000 to the Mayor's campaign coffers. As the city negotiated with Applied Companies over the development of Block B at the south waterfront, elected officials accepted generous campaign contributions from David and Michael Barry, the principals of this firm. Subsequently, the City Council increased the building heights permitted at Block B from 12 stories to 27. Other developers, including Stevens Institute, whose money poured into the Mayor's campaign coffers, have had multi-million dollar projects pending before the Planning and Zoning Boards. Rare is the project that does not get approvals, even those requesting scores of variances.

Directors working for the City of Hoboken have become advocates for developers and other firms that contribute. Hoboken' Corporation Counsel comes from the politically connected law firm of Scarinci & Hollenbeck. Barry Sarkisian who does much of the City's legal work is law-partners with State Senator Bernard Kenny. This incestuous relationship between business and politics has created a political system that serves their needs, not those of our community.

The practice of pay-to-play has a corrupting influence on our local government. It has resulted in municipal policies that are driven by special interests. Through pay-to-play, elected officials are able to amass enormous amounts of cash which helps them to remain entrenched in their position of power. As a result, the citizens of Hoboken have become disenfranchised, and our democratic form of government is at risk.

On November 2 you have an extraordinary opportunity to help ban this practice of pay-to-play. People for Open Government has succeeded in placing on the ballot an ordinance, drafted by Common Cause of NJ, entitled "Public Contracting Reform." If you, the voters of Hoboken, choose to adopt this ordinance by voting "yes", the way politics is conducted in this town will be forever changed.

Ron Hine
Hoboken