Mims Hackett

Updated: A sentencing hearing for former Assemblyman/Orange Mayor Mims Hackett will be postponed until October 21, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.  U.S. District Court Judge Jose Linares made the scheduling change.  Hackett was expected to be sentenced tomorrow.

Originally scheduled for Monday, Sept. 15, the sentencing of former Orange Mayor Mims Hackett has been re-scheduled for Oct. 1, according to Michael Drewniak, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

One of 11 public officials netted last year in a statewide federal corruption probe, Hackett in May pleaded guilty in federal court to attempted extortion.

Hackett also served as assemblyman in the 27th District, a post he resigned after his arrest last fall.

Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan: Politicker file photo 

State Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Cryan today said it would be in the best interest of the party for embattled Bergen County Democratic Organization Chairman Joseph Ferriero to consider resignation.

"Clearly the Bergen County Democratic Organization needs a change at the top for permanent leadership to move forward," said Cryan.

From the governor down, there’s mostly been a delayed hammer drop on Ferriero, with the official public comment that Assemblyman Mims Hackett (D-Orange) and Assemblyman Alfred Steele (D-Paterson) - arrested last year on corruption charges - were elected officials, not party masterminds.

Mayor Eldridge Hawkins: Politicker file photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - Orange Mayor Eldridge Hawkins today said he has no intention of backing down from his promise to deliver televised meetings to the people of his city, despite a majority on the city council refusing to participate in live televised meetings.

"They paralyzed the progress of the city, and left the meeting with no quorum last night," said Hawkins, who took office in July to succeed Mims Hackett, who was busted by the FBI last year and convicted of public corruption.

"First, I need no special authority from the council to record the meetings," said Hawkins. "It’s a public right to record those meetings. But second, though I needed no extra authority, I intentionally sought out the council president."

Eldridge Hawkins Jr., the newly-elected 28-year-old Mayor of Orange who succeeded Mims Hackett, took just fifteen days to essentially give himself a $79,700 pay raise.  Hawkins, on leave from his job as a West Orange police officer, will now make $104,700.  Hawkins has named himself to serve as Orange’s Fire Director (which pays $76,000) and will make $3,700 more as the Emergency Management Coordinator.

Judge Michelle Hollar-Gregory swears in Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, left, as Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) looks on. 

ORANGE - The son of a former beauty queen and crusading Civil Rights attorney, Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., took the oath of office today as Mayor of the City of Orange in a well-attended and star-studded ceremony in the Middle School auditorium.

"On Day One of our new administration, I don’t say to you, 'Just watch what I can do in City Hall,'" the new mayor challenged the crowd. "Instead, I say, 'Get involved in every way that you can.' Together we will create new ways for you to participate in the building of a better and more prosperous Orange.

"And I say, 'Come with me to City Hall, and together, we’re going to turn our city around!' The future is now!"

Elected two months ago to replace the now convicted Mayor Mims Hackett, Hawkins literally walked up a red carpet rolled out onto the concrete in front of the school, and faced a sea of Orange residents and luminaries that included singing star Dionne Warwick.

ORANGE - The City Council last night voted 5-2 to retain Council President Lisa Perkins as the city’s acting mayor.

Councilmen Ed Marable, Jr. and Hassan Abdul-Rasheed voted to replace Perkins with Mayor-elect Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., due to her close relations with former Mayor Mims Hackett, who left office on the day he pleaded guilty to attempted extortion.

Orange Mayor-elect Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., issued a statement in Mayor-elect Eldridge Hawkins, Jr.response to former Mayor Mims Hackett's pleas of guilty to a charge each in federal and state court.

"It is a sad day for Orange and my prayers go out to Former Mayor Hackett's  family," said Hawkins. "I am confident that on July 1st, Orange will get the fresh start the voters asked for when they elected me as mayor. It is time for us to look to the future for positive change as we usher Orange to its great potential."

A West Orange police officer, Hawkins defeated Councilman Donald Page and four others in May 13 elections.

U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, right, and FBI Director Weysan Dun last year in Trenton on the day Mims Hackett was arrested.

NEWARK - The steps of City Hall.

That was the image U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie used to tell the bad ending story of former Assemblyman and Orange Mayor Mims Hackett, who twice pleaded guilty today: once in federal court to one count of attempted extortion, and once in state Superior Court to a charge of official misconduct.

Flanked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office by state Attorney General Anne Milgram and state FBI Director Weysan Dun, Christie made special mention of the fact that it was outside City Hall that Hackett took the bribe which started his fall.

"This is a public servant who decided that $5,000 was a good down payment for him to sell his office," said Christie.

The defiant U.S. Attorney recalled critics who questioned his office’s motives when Hackett and ten other elected officials first appeared in court last year to answer to federal corruption charges.

Following Mims Hackett's plea of guilty to attempted extortion,Acting Mayor Lisa Perkins Council President Lisa Perkins took the reins of government in Orange today, and is now serving as the city's acting mayor.

Orange has a code provision in the event of the mayor's illness, which gives the business administrator authority to take over in the chief elected official's absence.

But in this case, state law regarding succession trumps Orange's code and grants authority to the council president to step in for a mayor who has pleaded guilty to a corruption charge.

Councilman Edward Marable, Jr. today said he would consider challenging Perkins's right to serve as mayor.