By MAX PIZARRO
PoliticsNJ.com

Hoboken Mayor David

The vacuum at the top of the city is complicated by the impending retirement of District State Sen. Bernard Kenny, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, who has been a long-time ally and go-to guy for Roberts.

Feeling the pressure from gadfly citizens who say the city has not completed important projects, a City Council presenting itself as equally outraged is pinning the blame on the mayor, who in turn is kicking himself for making the announcement last year that he wouldn’t be pursuing re-election.

With Roberts all but out of the game, the players holding elected office are delighted to exploit irksome examples of what they say is mayoral foot-dragging, such as phone boxes in town without phones installed in them (and whether public phones are even needed at this point) - and more glaring troubles, according to Ward Four Councilman Christopher Campos, such as the failure of the mayor to pressure New Jersey Transit to commit $20 million to a water pumping project.

His opponents want to know why he is spending big money to restore an old clock tower when the city is beset with flooding. The mayor’s office explains that a state grant designated for historic preservation can’t be diverted from the clock tower to pay for pump stations, but the explanation doesn’t seem to carry in the waning days of a roiling campaign.

Campos denies the Council is simply bum-rushing a lame duck for political advantage.

“This is not a matter of taking cheap shots at the mayor,� said Campos. “This is a question of projects being delayed, forgotten or not pursued.�

The part-time Council sets the course for the city, then Roberts’ job is to make it happen, Campos insists.

The larger political scenery has also changed behind Roberts.

Campos says the mayor approached Assemblyman Brian Stack, who is running to succeed Kenny, about being included on Stack’s Legislative ticket. When that fell through and Stack announced he had picked At-Large Hoboken Councilman Ruben Ramos to run for Assembly, Roberts’ feelings were hurt. He subsequently asked his old foe on the Council, whom he defeated for mayor in 2005, Carol Marsh, to oppose Ramos in the young councilman’s bid for Assembly. That move energized the Council to completely distance themselves from Roberts.

Roberts isn’t the only man called mayor in Hoboken who’s taking a beating in this election. It’s a lower-key thrashing, definitely, but it’s out there.

Roberts’ predecessor and nemesis, Mayor Anthony Russo, who was convicted of extortion and bribery and banished from City Hall in disgrace in 2003, has a son and a cousin on the Council. In their campaign against Councilman Michael Russo in Ward Three and Councilwoman Theresa Castellano in Ward One, challengers Frank Raia and Ron Rosenberg claim the elected officials’ ties to the deposed mayor represent a threat to the residents.

“A federal judge has ordered disgraced ex-mayor Anthony Russo to repay $350,000 in bribe money that he stole from Hoboken taxpayers,� says Rosenberg’s ad in the local paper. “But the City Council must take action to collect the money. Ron Rosenberg will take that action. His opponent, Theresa Castellano -- Russo’s cousin -- won’t.�

At a mixer for Kenny in downtown Hoboken Thursday night, Rosenberg explained.

“Theresa Castellano either knew she was casting that vote or she didn’t,� said Rosenberg. “Whether it was a case of her deliberately covering for her cousin or she doesn’t know what she was voting on, I leave you to draw your own conclusions. The fact is, she’s been there a while. She ought to know better.�

Another race is defined in similar terms, with both candidates taking shots at the mayor.

“The city didn’t enact the Master Plan, and we need more parking,� said Ward Two contestant Richard Tremitiedi, a former Hoboken fire chief. “We need more action. We need vision with the proper action.�

His opponent agrees.

“The mayor never put the zoning in place,� said neighborhood activist and former Planning Board member Beth Mason.

Then their critiques diverge. Tremitiedi is careful to give the Council a “C� for their performance, but he’s also been endorsed by the Council candidates, and so laughs off their mayor-bashing as natural to the growing process.

Mason worries about the Russo factor.

“My opponent (Tremitiedi) is on a slate with Michael Russo,� Mason said. “They (the Council incumbents and Tremitiedi) claim to be independent. But the fact is, I’m totally independent. I’m totally focused on my ward. Now that it’s an election year, the Council is concerned. I believe if we didn’t have elections we wouldn’t get anything done around here.�

The younger Russo’s allies say he’s not the old man and should be judged separately. They say the overlord of everyone until recently when he announced his retirement, Bernie Kenny came from a household in which his father was corrupt. They acknowledge that Kenny with his public service has cleared the family name.

If Mason, Rosenberg and Raia and anyone else in the race want to hammer the Russo name, the Council responds by hitting Roberts.

On Thursday morning, At-Large Councilmen Ruben Ramos and Peter Cammarano – who are not themselves up for re-election to the Council this year but who are supporting their incumbent colleagues - clamored over the gravel-strewn ground in front of Sybil’s Cave on Frank Sinatra Avenue. It was a site they say the mayor long ago promised to mitigate and turn into a public park.

“Isn’t this wonderful?� Cammarano said, gesturing to a can and some other garbage strewn by the rock face. “It’s a microcosm for this administration’s efforts.�

Like Campos, Cammarano said the mayor drew the line in the sand with the showdown between Marsh and Ramos, giving the Council a prime time opportunity to go public with Roberts’ lackadaisical approach to his job.

“He said ‘You’re with Ruben or you’re with Marsh,’� the councilman said. “Ruben is my friend. I support him without reservation.�

Ramos, who came up in local politics with Roberts, likewise didn’t hold back.

“Everyone knew Bernard Kenny was going to retire,� said Ramos, in response to a question about whether Stack had been too aggressive in pushing out the older man. “Stack was someone going into the future that I wanted to work with.�

After Stack asked Ramos about running for the Assembly, Ramos went to the mayor. He told the mayor he was running for Assembly and the Council was supporting him.

Roberts told him, “‘Then I’m going to oppose all of you,’� Ramos recalled.

So as a group they broke from him.

“We’re the ones out there who have been explaining to the public why stuff like this isn’t getting done,� Cammarano said.

They’re tired of covering for him, they say.

“Enough already,� said Ramos.

Roberts was not at his office Thursday. He didn’t return a request for a phone call. His office issued a statement in response to the Council.

“The allegations made by my opponents are baseless and politically motivated,� the mayor said in the statement. “The creation and preservation of open space has been a top priority of my administration. I have development underway of 15 new acres of open space and parks in the city. Additionally, we have proposed four additional acres in the Southwest Redevelopment Plan, which I will urge the Council to finally approve.�

When he helped kayo the elder Russo, former fireman Roberts was a hero, but even his friends acknowledge since then it’s been tough for him as he’s faced the younger men coming up from below. Now with Kenny gone and Stack and the younger Russo on the horizon, it could get tougher.