Politics & Government

To Meet or Not To Meet, That Is The Question

City Council met for a special meeting on Monday night.

Imagine a room of high schoolers who have to show up for detention at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. That is pretty much what the atmosphere was like in City Hall on Monday night.

The council members were there for a . At exactly 7:30 p.m., Mason walked into the building and went into the clerk's office to pick up her mail.

"Beth!" yelled Councilman David Mello from the hallway. "Beth! It's 7:30! Chop, chop." Mason—wearing headphones—didn't respond and walked into the council chambers.

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Also present on Monday night were Councilmembers Carol Marsh, Nino Giacchi, Theresa Castellano and Tim Occhipinti; Business Administrator Arch Liston and Corporation Counsel Mark Tabakin as well as City Clerk Jimmy Farina.

Nobody looked happy. (Again, think detention at 9 a.m. on a Saturday)

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Councilmembers Ravi Bhalla and Peter Cunningham attended the Democratic Party instead and weren't there. Councilman Michael Russo was absent too.

A little after 7:30 p.m. Mason opened the meeting, only to enter into closed session right away. Mason likely spent the closed session part asking for the from two of the mayor's staffers as well as more details about an in City Hall.

The council president has been told she can't have the emails, and corporation counsel and the mayor have said that no information will be released. In a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon, Mason accused the administration of politicizing the investigation.

The FBI is conducting an investigation into a breach of electronic communication in City Hall and have made multiple visits to Hoboken over the last month.

Mason said she wants to know "as much as anybody else knows. And I don't want to find out through the media." She said she thinks some people in City Hall know more than the Council does.

"Nobody should have more information than anyone else," Mason said.

Tabakin has said in previous meetings that releasing emails or other information to Mason, may interfere with the FBI's investigation.

Mason, though, said that's not true. "I spoke to the investigators," she said. Mason would not divulge any details about that conversation. She said she got the number of the FBI agents from somebody in City Hall. She would not say who gave it to her.

After about 20 minutes of closed session, the doors swang open and Mello, followed closely by Marsh, stormed out of the room. Basically running out of the building, the two said they no longer felt the need to be there.

In an e-mail later that night, Mello said that not all of the five members of the council who wanted the meeting were present and he did not think it necessary to stay in the chambers.

"Since only four of those five confirming members bothered to show up for the meeting," Mello wrote, "I made the decision to leave the meeting, as I never felt the meeting was warranted."

Mason said she was disappointed that Marsh and Mello left and ended the confidentiality of the meeting. Mason called their exit "hypocritical."

At that point the meeting turned into a non-meeting (since there was no quorum anymore) and the closed session ended. 

Mason was unable to have a motion to close the meeting—no quorum, means no voting—but the echo of Tabakin's angry "good night everyone," as he rushed through the doors, was official enough of an ending.


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