Castellano-Clearasil at the City Council

"It's been cleared up!" said  City Council President Terry Castellano in 2007.

That million dollars in missing quarters her cousin Mike Russo found one week cleared up the next faster than a teenager's zits hosed with Clearisil.

SPLASH!

"It's been cleared up!" 

Thanks to Da Horsey for posting Eric Kurta's  4 year-old video classic of (then-Parking Director) John Corea. the soon-to-be-sentenced-for stealing $1.1 million dollars in quarters-from- Hoboken parking meters.  It is must-see viewing for our F.B.I. friends who've probably never seen a missing million dollars cleared up into $34.61 overnight- with a dab, dab, dab of Castellano- Clearasil. All gone!

No fuss, no mess.

GA was struck by how courteous Russo was to Corea, compared to the acidic nastiness, the open disrespect he displays for current (non-criminal) Parking Director Ian Saacs.  Same for Castellano.

I guess they're nicer to guys who let them "subsidize things" out of the City's coffers.   

WAAAAAAH... BOO-HOO... Ian won't let us wet our beaks!  

No, he won't.  

Sacs and the rest of the Zimmer administration frown on such behavior.

What is really interesting to GA about this was how Castellano publicly 'clears up' the million-dollar theft with that old Castellano-Clearisil.

Interesting because in spite of her obnoxious incivility toward selected members of the public, administration officials and City Council peers, it seemed to me that she'd kept herself off the F.B.I.'s radar. As in from involvement in 4th Ward VBM shenanigans or the email theft from administration officials.   But watch the video and see what YOU think about her quick dismissal of 4 million plus missing quarters.   Kinda.... miraculous. 

Well, it is Christmas, and Hanukkah; the season of miracles: the birth of Jesus, a drop of oil lasting 8 nights, a missing million dollars all "cleared up"....

One wonders about a subtext to NJ Attorney General Paula Dow's  public statements about throwing the book at Corea at his February sentencing.

Sure, it's a message. To all the folks who DID 'something',  to all the folks who KNOW something.  And those waiting for the Feds to DO something.  A lawyer friend suggested potential defendants had better  tell their counsel EVERYTHING they have done, and try to deal while they can.

Knowing about a crime and not reporting it makes you part of the criminal conspiracy.

It's been cleared up.

Here's a transcription of the 3 exchanges on Kurta's video.

December 6th 2007



Russo: Mr. Englund, I have one other one other revenue source that uh, that has been called into question some colleagues might know about it some might not... it looks, it looks to me like there's a million dollars missing in revenue from our collection in parking meters? Is this correct? I think, think we really need to look into it. I don't know if it was not paid to us, I don't know if it's actually missing, I don't know if there was a miscalculation, I have no idea what the circumstances are.

Castellano: It needs to be looked into.

Russo: But it's my understanding that there's, there's something going on with that revenue stream if we can get a, a look and we can find out so we can report back to Council. I appreciate it.

December 19, 2007



LaBruno: I actually wanted an answer, Mr. Correa can you answer that question about the million dollars that was alluded to at the last Council meeting, about a million dollars being missing from meters

Correa: Yes uh, uh I believe that was uh, talk about parking, uh the meter collections?We did an internal audit once we heard that and our internal audit has been complete and it shows a difference of $34.61. It is now being audited by an outside firm to be confirmed, but we don't see a problem as of right now.

Russo: And for the record, ah, that was an error in my calculations, so when I asked the question it was actually an error in my calculations when I was doing my own due diligence when it came to the budget so, uh, it was just a question and we clarified it.

Correa: Thank you very much.

January 16, 2008



Mo DeGennaro: I's like to ask you a question about the statement you made, Mr. Russo about the million dollars. Is there a million dollars missing or is it there was a mistake, did they find it or WHAT on the parking...

Castellano: Mr. Russo?

Russo:  Thank you Council President. Mo, the REASON why I thought money was missing was because I was going on past year's uh anticipated revenues from the Parking Utility from the meters. Uh, it turned out that the meters did not generate as much money as they did in years past, so it was MY mistake to think that money was THERE when in fact it was not. That was, that was the situation.

Castellano: It's been cleared up.

DeGennaro: Because that was some statement to make! I think it's made everybody...

Russo: Well it wasn't it wasn't a statement, Mo. It was a question to Mr. Englund during our budget process to clarify if I was right or wrong. AND I came back and said I was wrong.

Castellano: It's been, it's been cleared up.

DeGennaro: I just wanted to make sure...

Castellano: It's been cleared up.


Thank G-d THAT'S been cleared up... good job, Terry!


Comments

  1. UTF was awarded the contract to collect meter quarters in November 2005. That previous August, deposits to the HPU totalled $123,493. By August of 2007, the month's deposits had dropped to $15,975.

    Wow, no?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Double wow. That's about an 85% drop.

    I'm sure there's a rational explanation... some kind of planetary alignment of, um... planets... somewhere.

    ReplyDelete

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