Al's Reign of Terror

GA just had a stunning chat with a source.  The subject was Al Arezzo and the revelation that the City's Construction Fee collections have doubled since his 2011 firing.

First, my source was incredulous at my surprise.

Didn't everyone know what was going on at City Hall? 

Well, yeah... but who knew that much of the Construction Office revenue- nearly 50%, was vanishing into thin air. 

No shock to my source. Here's what he/she said:

The Building Department records are chaotic.  Buildings with extensive work or large scale projects have no permits or approvals or plans on file, while simple projects have fines, paperwork, notices of violations.   You can see some large or complicated projects were approved in a day while some simple projects took over 6 months.  I have been approached by people all over town who have been financially devastated by him.  People all over town are afraid of him.  No one could ever afford the wrath of Al Arezzo. He reigned terror over Hoboken.  And without rhyme or reason.

Here's another (alleged) scam.  His (alleged) longtime gal pal was a broker in town, and if you had commercial space in town and had any work done to it, you would  have to use his gal pal as a listing broker.  And she did absolutely NOTHING, not a thing. But you'd have to pay her anyway. So you'd probably end up paying another broker to find a tenant.

And don't think (redacted) didn't get a piece of it. He had his snout in the till and so did the(redacted).  The money never made it to the Finance department, it got divvied up first.  That's why (redacted) said that City Hall was run like an organized crime ring.

Wow.  Those redacteds.

Big projects without paperwork, permits, approvals, plans.  Small jobs with C of Os withheld for months and heaps of violations.

GA knows of one.

A neighbor couldn't move into her renovated home for a YEAR because Arezzo withheld  her C of O. She saw endless inspections citing violations which she'd correct, yet the next inspector would ask her to change it again, all with no documentation.  Nothing ever on paper... and fixing the 'violations' still did not get her C of O.  Finally, a chance meeting with  Mayor Roberts  at City Hall; he intervened on her behalf and she got her C of O that afternoon.

Happy ending?  Well, she did  live at a friend's place for a year, and poured a fortune into fixing arbitrary 'violation's.  GA can tell you  she was traumatized by it.  By him.

And another person stepped forward to share an experience with Al.  From a reader, this strange little anecdote:

My last visit from Al, he signed off on my basement. I asked him for a certificate and he said if he gives me a certificate then I surely will have my property value reassessed and my taxes will double. At that time, I didn't know much of Hoboken politics, and I had friends who knew Al from shooting pool and drinking at 4Ls, so I thought he was doing me a solid and I certainly didn't want my property taxes to double.

What do you make of that? 

No C of O for one person (a 'solid'), no C of O for another (a living Hell).

Arbitrary, cruel and...  Arezzo.

His name should become a part of our lexicon: to Arezzo someone would be to arbitrarily decide their fate, the outcome determined by one's friendship or 'generosity.'

And in case you didn't know, Arezzo is suing Hoboken for his JOB back.

And we taxpayers are funding the fight to make sure he doesn't get it.