Earwitness News: the Carmelo mediations


In case you folks forgot, the Hoboken Mayor, her spouse, and 3 current or former Hoboken Housing Authority officials are defending former Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia's  'Ethnic Cleansing III'*.  
* GA believes Garcia's "ethnic cleansing" lawsuit, filed on or about August 15, 2003, is on it's 3rd iteration ("Ethnic Cleansing III"- see bottom of page)
Aside from October's media splash of leaked Grossbard emails two weeks before the November 3rd municipal election (in which Carmelo Garcia ran for the 6th Ward Council seat) no one's heard a peep about Garcia's lawsuit.  Is it still going on?

YES, it is.

Hoboken taxpayers have spent $150,000 defending non-green people 

Which leads GA to today's Earwitness News!   

Folks, GA's Q-Tipster delivered an earful, which makes this an  extra waxy Earwitness report.    Hold onto your lobes...
Mediation between Carmelo and the HHA, Stan G. and the City was held last July [2015]. Carmelo started off asking for $700,000 from everyone. No more discussion after that. Mediation was terminated.  
The 2nd mediation was a couple of weeks ago in February or March.  Carmelo started the discussion by asking for $2.4 million. $1.2 million from the city and $1.2 million from the HHA.  That ended it.  I hear Carmelo was upset when he heard mediation was terminated. I think he expected to walk away with a big bundle of money. 
Carmelo's damages theory is that he had a right to be Executive Director for the rest of his life. He is claiming millions in damages because he lost his job before the end of his 5 year contract. He is also wants to add more racketeering charges and expand the complaint. 
Wow! 

According to GA's Earwitness Q-Tipster, in 8 months Carmelo's asking price went from $700K to $2.4 MILLION?

Let's see, somewhere in between July and March, Garcia got those discovery emails...

Taxpayers have already shelled out $150,000 to defend the City.

Now (according to GA's Earwitness)  Hoboken politician Carmelo Garcia wants to add $1.2 million dollars to the Hoboken taxpayer's tab!

Thank you Mayor Zimmer for fighting to protect the taxpayer from Carmelo Garcia's $1.2 MILLION payday!

Yes, this IS a 2017 campaign issue.



Comments

  1. How does he get to millions in damages? If I remember right he made about $160,000 at the HHA and I read somewhere that he got his Newark gig immediately when his severance ran out paying around $120,000. That's a difference of $3,333 per month.

    I doubt he was out of a job for more than a couple of months (if that) and he had only 8 months or so left on his contract after his 4 month severance.

    If he was out of work for two months that would be about $26,000 in lost wages for the 2 months plus the $3333/month difference for the last 6 months of the contract for an additional $20,000 making a total of $46,000 (pretax).

    These numbers are approximate but you get the idea. It seems to me that in the unlikely event he can convince a jury he was wrongfully terminated like he claims his out of pocket damages would probably be less than $50,000 - maybe a lot less since if he got the Newark job right away and was never out of work the number goes down below $20,000.

    All those legal fees for a case with no damages even if he wins. I wonder if Garcia's lawyer has broken it to him that Garcia will get almost nothing even if he wins. All the loot will go to his lawyer who probably told him to ask for $millions just so he could keep running up the bill.

    I'll bet Garcia could have put some real coin in his pocket just for nuisance since the city's and HHA's fees are so high - maybe even a couple hundred grand since that would have been cheaper for the defendants than litigating this nonsense.

    Instead he'll wind up with nothing but a rich lawyer even if he wins. What a sucker!











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    1. Can Carmelo be hit for frivolous litigation like Lane Bajardi and Kim Cardinal and have his salary garnished? I think Hoboken taxpayers would appreciate having their money reimbursed.

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  2. Omg you've got to be kidding!!! Garcia got fired from the hha for CAUSE. ED Garcia awarded MILLIONS in no bid contracts, he gave no bid contracts to hha vendors who in turn gave campaign $$. I hope Campos throws him under the bus!

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    1. I thought they just terminated because his contract could be terminated at any time with proper notice for no reason what so ever. If that is the case, his arguments suck because he was completely replaceable at any time.

      They really need to countersue this tool for the legal bills.

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  3. it's about time this guy grows up and accepts the fact that he has to earn a living like everyone else instead of trying (for years) to rely on legal damages for income. the handouts are over, mr. carmelo. and the taxpayers of hoboken wouldn't mind getting their pound of flesh in payback for the frivolous lawsuits.

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  4. Anon @8:07, I have always thought that was the crux of the matter.

    They don't want to grow up. Capitalism is scary. Supply and demand are scary. There are recessions, down-sizing, outsourcing, mergers and acquisitions, skill-sets become obsolete.

    Who wouldn't want to live outside of all that, in a little Hoboken Shangri La where market forces don't matter, jobs are created for no reason and handed out for no more qualification than that "you're one of us." Raises come regularly, because "it's that kind of a job." And of course, you'll need housing that is outside of market forces too. Done! It doesn't matter what the economy as a whole is doing. The economy doesn't matter.

    They want to live in a perpetual childhood in utter security, safe from the big bad world. They want to bequeath that to their children. They see what the "yuppies" go through when the economy turns down. They want no part of it.

    They created a world that capitalism can't touch and protect it like a religion. After 2008/9, who can blame them. But the rest of us have to pay for it, in addition to having to soldier on through 2008/9 without any such shelter.

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