Zimmer Encourages State To Release Final Police Audit

By publicly announcing that the city of Hoboken needs the information that is in the state's audit of the city's police department, Mayor Dawn Zimmer says she hopes she can prod the state to finish the report soon. Only after the state finalizes the report—it's currently still in draft form—can the mayor share it with members of her administration as well as with the public, she said. 

Zimmer said State Director Susan Jacobucci had promised her that the report would be finalized on Jan. 18. But that date has come and gone. 

"We need the information that's in this audit," Zimmer said. The mayor added that she hoped her "public call" would speed up the process of releasing the information.

Zimmer also said that when she entered office as acting mayor in July 2009, she was told that only some "cosmetic changes" had to be made to the draft of the audit.

"Five months to do an edit is long enough," she said. 

There will also be an audit of Hoboken's fire department, said Zimmer. On Saturday during a special budget workshop in City Hall, State Fiscal Monitor Judy Tripodi echoed that idea, the mayor said. 

The fire department's audit—which still needs to happen, as opposed to the police audit, which has already been done—may be completed by an outside organization, something the administration is currently looking into, Zimmer said. 

At the moment though, the mayor's main priority is getting the information from the police audit to the rest of her administration as well as to the people of Hoboken.

"Enough time has passed," Zimmer said. "It's time to release it."