Hoboken to declare bankruptcy?

The welfare of the city of Hoboken is in the hands of the the sale of the Hoboken University Medical Center, said Mayor Dawn Zimmer at a press conference on Friday.

Without it, taxpayers would have to pay a $63 million bond in 60 days, said Zimmer, and that’s something the city just can’t afford. “We are on the cusp of a financial disaster,” she said. “I may have to declare bankruptcy for the city of Hoboken.” And, she added, she is worried about what that will do to the city’s credit rating.

If the sale doesn’t close, the mayor said there would also be huge layoffs of city workers and a substantial tax increase. “We only have a $100 million budget, so we are going to have to find a way to find $63 million,” she said.

Zimmer said that minority Council Members Beth Mason, Theresa Castellano, Michael Russo, and Tim Occhipinti blocked the deal with the private company HUMC Holdco with their vote and stopped the closing on the expected date, Wednesday, Oct. 26.

The deal fell through this week, but now Zimmer has said she is hopeful that she, with the help of the community, will be able to convince the Council minority to change their vote. “We are trying to help them to understand the true impact of their decision,” said Zimmer. “It is very important that we have a huge turnout on Sunday,” said Zimmer. All concerned parties are invited to attend, she said, and if it goes as she hopes, she said the city might finally be able to close on the deal next Tuesday.

At the conference, Zimmer said she met with hospital employees to explain the situation and that she had plans to also speak to city employees, including police and firefighters, about what is at stake. “This hospital is an economic engine for this community,” said Hoboken Municipal Housing Authority Chairwoman Toni Tomarazzo.

The mayor also said Council Member Mason has plans to start a petition to stop the parking agreement all together. “We need to educate our community and have them fully understand that if you are signing onto that petition, then you are signing onto closing our hospital, you are signing onto taking away 1,200 jobs from the city of Hoboken, you are signing on for the city of Hoboken to have to pay $63 million in the next 60 days,” said Zimmer.

In a brief telephone interview, Mason said she is not standing in the way of the sale of the hospital. But several members of the hospital community said Mason and her three fellow Council members are launching a political attack. “The hospital has become a pawn in a political game and four Council members are holding parking hostage, which could lead to the imminent closure of this hospital, the loss of all our jobs, and the end of access to care in Hoboken,” said Dr. Jonathan Metsch, who was appointed by the mayor to serve as commissioner on the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority.

Metsch is also the former president of Jersey City Medical Center and said that he’s never seen anything like this before. “There is no hospital deal that’s ever done – building a new hospital, renovating a hospital, adding another building to a hospital – where parking is not a component,” said Metsch. “There are industry ratios on parking to patients to staff, and you got to have them or you can’t run a hospital.”

Executive Director of the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority George Crimmins said it should be made clear that it was not HUMC Holdco that requested the parking but the hospital workers’ union. The authority’s financial committee chairman, Steven Rofsky, explained. “The union wanted and won a concession on the parking,” he said. “It is not the buyer that is getting a subsidy. It is the employees who are getting the subsidy.”

Hospital employees said they want to see a resolution soon. “Our livelihood, the livelihood of this community, this city is hanging in the balance on four votes,” said Patti Stacer, a registered nurse. “I think it’s personal. I think that they did it for political gain…. They really don’t understand the effect it will have on us as a total community.” She said the four Council members should visit the hospital and see how many people are going to be hurt if the hospital closes. “They need to take a walk through this building and look me in the face and tell me why they can’t vote ‘yes,’ and then I can tell my kids why I can’t do for them because I don’t have a job,” said Stacer.

Flora Canete, a nurse manager at the hospital, said everyone on the staff has sacrificed. She mentioned a 10 percent pay cut they all took two years ago in an effort to help out the hospital financially. “We’ve been through a lot,” she said.

One employee who’s worked at the hospital for more than three decades, Dorothy DeMauro, the director of volunteer services, said the issue shouldn’t be personal. “The awning outside does not say ‘Zimmer University Medical Center,’” she said. “It says ‘Hoboken University Medical Center.’ It’s Hoboken that we’re concerned about.”

Council Member Russo said that’s all he’s concerned about too. “I need to make sure I am looking out for the long term, as well as the short term,” he said, adding that he just doesn’t agree with the parking agreement, especially since it would be for 99 years. Russo said he is concerned that in that time, a developer could obtain ownership of the hospital building as well as the spaces. However, Metsch said it is 400 parking transponders, or the right to lease the spaces, that is at stake. HUMC Holdco would not own the parking at the Midtown Garage.

Whatever happens in the meantime, said Russo, the sale of the hospital has been approved and so has the parking agreement, which, he said, is supposed to go into effect in 20 days. “The mayor is scaring people,” said Russo. “She just didn’t get the time frame that she was concerned about.”

Council Members Castellano and Occhipinti could not be reached before press time.