Chum in the Water

Perhaps the most-commented blog post (313 and counting)  since the glory days of Hoboken41l is Scott Siegel's  "Director of the Year-Ian Sacs"  on Patch.

Patch reader  Eric put succinctly:

What's happened on that thread illustrates what Al Sullivan  called the "ongoing guerrilla warfare between Zimmer supporters" (Reform) and the  "anti-Zimmer bloc" (the Dark Side).

With the hospital battle lost, the Dark Side's back to whacking Sacs with a malice reserved for serial killers and terrorists.   

(left panel) authored by Jack the Ripper, September 1888 (right panel) authored by Hoboken411, November 2011

What about the guy provokes this kind of loathing?

GA informant, Deep Uvula answered it last March:

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.

From my post, Why They Hate Ian: 

Ian has come in, raised revenue to where it SHOULD  have been, eliminated the graft and grabbing and taken away a prized bennie of working for City Hall. Of course they hate him.

So it follows that any online discussion praising Sacs would draw feeders from the Dark Side.  The participation of the Director himself  is chum in the water.

Once the Dark Side starts feeding, the cavalry rides in to whack them, and BOOM!  There goes the conversation.  Director Sacs checked out 5 days ago.

Who could blame him?

GA's surprised he hung in for so long.  And after some particularly vicious attacks-  none nastier than those of the mean-spirited she-devil 'curiousgal'. 

Curiously,  'curiousgal' repeatedly mentions the FOX news 'parking sucks in Hoboken' report- even linking to the FOX site.   Being a former cable news producer herself with numerous media contacts, 'curiousgal' is a likely candidate for having shopped the story to FOX in the first place; pimping it on Patch smacks of an admission.  To me.

The 'expose' was thoroughly discredited by the discovery that the reporter, Joel Waldman, lived in Hoboken, owns property here and never disclosed it.  Nor did FOX reveal that Beth Mason, interviewed for the piece, was a heavy FOX ad buyer.

Were the folks who spoke to Waldman and defended Hoboken's parking rules and enforcement FOX ad buyers?

No.  Maybe that's why their interviews ended up on the cutting room floor.  Perhaps 'curiousgal' can find out for us.

When a public official's outreach to the public is so thoroughly disrespected and savaged by political operatives, it tells you all you need to know about what his failure means to them.

Which is one reason why I suspect Sacs won't go away.