Mayor Urges Council To Pass Parking Agreement; Warns for Possible Lay Offs

Mayor Dawn Zimmer is urging the city council to approve a lease agreement on the midtown garage, which will soon be used by the buyer of the Hoboken University Medical Center. Zimmer has called for a Saturday morning meeting.

On Wednesday, during its regularly scheduled meeting the city council is being asked to approve the refinancing of the bond on the garage. The bond will have to be changed from non-taxable, to taxable, because the garage will be for private use after the sale of HUMC goes through.

If both these initiatives fail, Zimmer wrote in a memo to the council, municipal layoffs across the board will be immiment.

According to that same letter, Corporation Counsel Mark Tabakin sent the new lease agreement to Holdco, but the city had not heard back yet. Holdco has to approve the agreement, before it can go into effect.

The bond refinancing—which will save the city $50,000, according to a memo Zimmer sent to the council—needs six votes to go through. If it isn't approved, Council President Ravi Bhalla said, there will be significant costs to the Internal Revenue Service, that have been approximated around $1 million for which the city will be responsible.

If both the agreement and the re-financing aren't passed, Zimmer warned the council that lay offs will be imminent, and a ten percent cost in city personnel is expected.   

Zimmer has called for a special council meeting on Saturday morning 10 a.m., asking the city council to approve an ordinance that will authorize a leasing agreement on the midtown garage, that is attached to the hospital. The hospital and Holdco will be using the midtown garage for its employees.

Part of the parking agreement, said Councilman Michael Russo, is a 99-year term of the lease. He said he would approve the agreement only if a condition is added that for those 99 years, the hospital must remain an acute care facility.

In a follow up phone interview on Friday evening, Zimmer said that the agreement includes that the hospital's employees will be using Garages B and D. If the re-financing of the bond doesn't pass, which the mayor said she's expecting, there will be limited use in the midtown garage.

Russo said he didn't believe a ten percent cut across the board, around $10 million, would be necessary. Zimmer in the memo wrote that she would have to start "implementing lay offs immediately," if both the parking agreement and the bond ordinance fail.

The council will vote on the refinancing of the bond on the garage on Wednesday night, during its regularly scheduled meeting.

The city council plans to go out to bond for $19 million, said Councilman Peter Cunningham in September. Cunningham then also explained that the bond will not cost the city any more money, because the city already bonded for the money more than five years ago.