Mason Wins Court Battle, Hides Result from THE PEOPLE

"Waaaaaah!  Boo-hoo! Why can't I buy the election?"

 
Beth Mason is busy these days- defending a whopping $7,000+  'in-kind'  contribution to Move Forward's BoE campaign; when busted for breaking Hoboken's Pay-to-Play ordinance she cried to the press that the campaign finance limit is "legislating a political vendetta."

And who knows more about vendettas than Beth Mason?

Actually,  it's about a law to protect our elections from being bought by RICH people (like Mason) and their PACs ("Friends of Beth Mason").

Certainly those in the game of infusing cash 'in-kind' revenue streams into political campaigns (like Mason) for street workers, votes, midnight flyers, Nazi videos and trucks to play them on... certainly these big-money donors won't like legislation that stops them from determining election outcomes. Yeah, boo hoo.

Teeny weenie violin

So, instead of OBEYING THE LAW Mason weeps a disingenuous refrain of fighting for "Hoboken residents" rather than herself.  Here's what she bawled to Patch:

"... I will fight for the rights of Hoboken residents to support whomever they choose."

Yawn. Mason IS a Hoboken resident, and she CAN support whomever she chooses- $500 worth of support.  To Move Forward.  That's 5 hours of Nazi-Truck time.  As for the latest, Patch is reporting that hubby Ricky Mason (Treasurer of Friends of Beth Mason?) and Move Forward's Treasurer, Frank Raia, have been notified that the excess contribution must be returned within 30 days.  Well, she's not just bawling, she's bragging:

"I fought City Hall all the way to Supreme Court when they tried to make it very difficult for Hoboken residents to obtain public information and participate in public meetings."

Yes, indeed.  But what did she have to show us for her fight?  Not much.  Take a look back.

From May 6, 2005:

A review of Hudson County municipal cell phone records by The Jersey Journal found that Hoboken taxpayers have shelled out at least $230,000 in cell phone bills over the past three years.  By way of comparison, Union City - which has a slightly larger population and more city employees - spent just $5,000 during the same period.

As a result of that expose, Beth Mason OPRAed the City's cell phone bills for the 2005-2006 fiscal year.  She was reportedly unsatisfied with the response:

The city supplied bills a month later, but with information blacked out. Mason was allowed to see the monthly cost for each phone, but not the name of the person using the phone, the phone's number, or any information about the individual calls. In addition, the city failed to explain the redactions. 

Mason wanted to know WHO had been given cell phones, and the City would only release the expenses.  So what did she do? .  In 2005 she filed a law suit against the city, to get those NAMES.   This was the same year the BoE had paid for 157 cell phone accounts.  (Those flew under the radar.)

So what happened to Mason's 2005 lawsuit?

She won.  It was settled in August, 2008:

As part of the settlement, Hoboken will give Mason a list of names of all the municipal workers, including police and fire fighters, who have cell phones and the monthly bills they have incurred. Mason will also be given a record of all calls made on each phone for the period between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005.

"This is about city employees having cell phones with public money," said Mason. "It's critically important to know how much they're using and why they're using them."

As part of the settlement, the city must also pay Mason $10,000 in legal fees.
Mason said she is concerned about city employees using the cell phones for personal use and racking up long-distance and roaming charges.

Isn't that interesting? Back then, the Mason brand was advocating for good government and transparency- she even had a web site from 2006 - 2008, wethepeoplereports.com an open government forum for City and School Board business, videotapes, etc.  So in August 2008, Mason got what she wanted- a list of the people whose cell phones were being paid for by Hoboken taxpayers.  

Then what?  What did she do with those names?   

She ran for Mayor.

On a 'unity ticket', targeting the 'Old Hoboken' constituency, quietly romancing the Russos for the Church Towers vote.

So Mason held onto her hard-fought list of City cell phone account holders- municipal workers in the police and fire departments.
Why didn't she release those names?   Did Mason use the list as leverage on a 'trade' with the Russos?  Russo boasted on the FBI surveillance tape how Mason had let him pick her ticket in exchange for his support.  
 
Mason cost the City significant legal fees on top of a $10,000 award of taxpayer money, purportedly to find out WHO was spending taxpayer money on cell phones.... good work.  But...why did she withhold this information from The People?

So Mason can flail about NOW, complain about laws protecting our elections from being bought.  And when she reminds us of old court battles for transparency, ask: WHY didn't you release the names?

THE PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW.