Deep Uvula Unplugged


GA's got a 'Deep Throat' of sorts- a reader who gets a lot of information from I-don't-know-who-or-where but his/her info always pans out, so I view this source as credible.  Problem is, he/she likes to tell me stuff on condition that I don't blog it verbatim.  Well today he/she broke with tradition and said I could post the actual email.

Why?

Because my 'Deep Throat'- whom I'll call 'Deep Uvula' (DU) is deeply disturbed by the events surrounding the arrest of Transportation and Parking Director Ian Sacs.

In particular with his physical assault.  DU is certain  the constant barrage of disrespect coming in the remarks and behavior from City Council majority members at public meetings, their constant effort to belittle and humiliate the Director actively encourage insubordination, encourage behavior to undermine his authority;  so how could one not expect consequences to someday take a violent turn?

GA agrees completely.

The constant public baiting of Director Sacs, subsequent insubordination (as in the abandonment of the bus at an intersection), the determination to embarrass and weaken the Mayor, are the context within which the physical assault of a Municipal Department Director would result in his arrest.

Anywhere else a Director who returned an abandoned municipal vehicle left running to a safe location and then was attacked by its driver would never have been paraded out of City Hall in handcuffs.  Never.

But this is Hoboken.

So here is what Deep Uvula wrote me today:
From reliable sources. Remember that prior to Ian, the Parking Utility/Parking administration was headed by John Correa and MA $5 a Tow Russo. The easy quarters, kickbacks, cash generated by the parking meters/towing in town was a steady source of low hanging fruit for the grafting Russos.
So after the missing 4 tons of quarters scandal (Mikey head of the Finance Comm. tries his hardest to cover it up) Ian arrives on the scene.
The Russos instantly feared/hated/loathed this educated pup who showed them up royally - increased collections/re routed buses, got rid of all the kickbacks and "tip" money that got special favors done. They tried to embarrass him at meetings, got their reports on his management from their City Hall "insiders" - long term employees, the types that the Russos like. So they see that their grip that they had on the easy money was getting away from them.
The decision was made that Ian had to go.
Something had to happen that would make it impossible for the Mayor to keep him on the payroll. Not sure how or if the incident with the bus panned out exactly as intended, but it was not really an accident. Employees were encouraged to spy on Ian and report back any "dirt", they were encouraged to disrespect him, give him a hard time, and goad him. Bait him, like Russo/Castellano and Mason did every council meeting.
They thought that they had him with the trip to Vancouver and if they could force him to pay for the trip that he would just leave. That did not work, so.......... the lowest levels were encouraged to cause enough friction to create chaos in the department and hope that Ian would crack - or a situation would arise that would put Ian in a compromising situation - it is not clear that there was an actual plan to leave the bus where he would find it, but it did happen against the backdrop of what I just outlined.
Funny how the right cop was there to catch it all and then to overcharge Ian. The charges are bogus and  there is no way in hell that any sane prosecutor would proceed with them. In fact, if this were any where else, the cop would get busted internally for making a bad arrest. 
No one wants to leak the name of the arresting officer, which is weird.
It is clearer that the Russos created the cauldron of hate and venom in which the events of yesterday occurred. I understand that the Russos, with Al Arezzo gone, are getting very nervous that long term institutional changes are occurring and new people coming to City Hall, like the zoning officer, who they don't control and who don't play games and they need to make every effort to stop any further progress so that if they buy another election in May, they can rearrange the players.
I hear that they have in mind to create the old Parking Utility and have it go to one of their henchmen to run. Talk about putting foxes in charge of the hen house.
Bottom line - even if not successful completely, there is the intent to send the message that if you want to raise your hand and participate in Hoboken gov/ politics, you:
1) First have to ask permission of the "right " people; and
2) agree to play by "their" rules;
and
3) If you ignore 1 and 2, then you will suffer the consequences.

For the record, the more folks I talk to and the more information that becomes available, GA is less inclined to believe it was a set-up. 

I don't think it was a set-up.  But as DU describes, the atmosphere was created for a perfect storm.  For those rooting for one.

And guess what: now nobody's talking about Russo Sr.'s free health insurance or how this 100K 'oversight' happened in plain view.

Comments

  1. This theory is plausible. But let's continue with our discussion of Russo and Occhipinti and their respective seats on council sub-committees:

    Russo claims he had no knowledge of his father bilking our system for over ten years and he did not keep current with his condo fees before pulling up stakes and yet he serves as chair of the finance sub-committee.

    Occhipinti, who flouted our local ordinace and ignored court orders to appear, serves as chair of the zoning and planning sub-committee.

    If these incompetencies were revealed in a private sector job, their employer would have every right to kick their asses to the curb. We as their employer should do the same come May 10th.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Any update on this? Ian still has a job. Was the driver canned?

    ReplyDelete

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