Council Responds To Police Audit

City Council members asked for Mayor Dawn Zimmer's reaction to the state's police audit during Wednesday night's council meeting.

The state audit which was completed by a former police chief from Maplewood, stated that the Hoboken force could be cut by roughly a third. The report also questioned whether Hoboken needs a public safety director, suggested that some police work should be handled by clerical workers instead of uniformed officers, recommended that the city consider requiring officers to work a 40-hour week instead of the current 35-hour week, and questioned the amount of time off for vacation, holidays, sick and other leave granted to police officers.

All the council members were forced to respond to the audit when Richard Pasquarelli, on behalf of tax reform coalition Hoboken Revolt, demanded a reaction from each and every council person. 

"Right now!" Pasquarelli yelled into the microphone. "Do any of you want to answer me directly?" 

These are the answers from the different council members. (Councilmen Michael Lenz and Peter Cunningham were absent, because they both had to attend funerals)

First Ward Councilwoman Theresa Castellano: Castellano said she heard that the Police Department has some issues with the audit, but said she needed to look deeper into the reactions from Director of Public Safety Angel Alicea and Police Chief Anthony Falco.

"We haven't heard from the administration either," she said. 

Second Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason: Mason said she's disappointed in the audit. "It's a one-trick pony kind of audit," she said. 

Third Ward Councilman Michael Russo: Russo, too, said he'd like to see a reaction from Zimmer. 

"Hey upstairs! We're down here," Russo said. "Listen to us a little bit and move forward." 

Russo said he had only first seen "an official copy" of the audit about 10 minutes before the meeting (All members of the council received a copy of the audit in their e-mail on Feb. 22) and still had to read it more carefully. 

Councilwoman-at-Large Carol Marsh: "I'm very reluctant to speak on personnel issues," March said. She mentioned that the council should listen to "the people from within," since the audit was conducted by somebody out of town. 

Councilman-at-Large David Mello: "I was troubled but not surprised," said Mello. 

Mello still praised the report, and the research that went into it. He had  not seen any reports based on the same kind of data, he said. 

Councilman-at-Large Ravinder Bhalla: The police audit was written by a neutral third party, Bhalla said, and the recommendations are very important. The recommendations, Bhalla said, were  a "meaningful step." 

When other council members said they needed a reaction from the mayor, Bhalla defended her. "The mayor has spoken loud and clear," Bhalla said, referring to a general statement Zimmer released, which stated that she would work together with the Hoboken police department. 

Sixth Ward Councilman Nino Giacchi: "Some of (the recommendations) I can't jump into whole heartedly," Giacchi said, especially the amount of patrol officers. "I do think that this is a blue print."