Earwitness News: "It's been cleared up"

Well, the issue of a City Councilperson's residency came up again at the Council meeting last night; of course the gentleman was alluding to the 6th Ward's Jen Giattino, whose family has temporarily vacated their flood-damaged residence for renovations.  

Just a Dark Side reminder; the Giattino family owns the home, pays taxes, etc. and if construction continues on schedule, they will be back home for Christmas.

In the meantime, another City Councilperson's domicile was just put on the market, as has been reported on MSV.  GA doesn't expect any residency issues to arise, unless the Councilperson moves out of his Ward.

You know who I'm talking about, right?  Tim Occhipinti, 4th ward Councilman.

GA's got an Earwitness update on the status of the Occhipinti domicile.

To recap, here's what GA wrote on October 7, 2013:

In 2012,  Occhipinti bought a $285K condo with his then-girlfriend.  According to sources, she had paid the lion's share of the down-payment for the 1-bedroom because Tim had little savings.  On or about September 1, 2013 she moved out.  Due to her savings tied up in the condo, she was forced out of Hoboken to live in a cheaper city.   Sources say Tim had agreed to procure a mortgage in order to refinance and buy out her share of the property .  But within days of her leaving, (her personal belongings and valuables were still in the apartment), Ms. Palasciano moved in and Tim quit his job at Alliance Bernstein.  Without his job and without savings, Tim cannot qualify for a mortgage, thus he is unable to buy out the co-owner's share of the condo.

Sources say as a result of quitting his job, the co-owner of the condo was driven to hire an attorney to enforce the sale of their apartment.  GA agrees the sale of the condo is the only option for the jobless dunce.  Sources say this is headed to court unless he does the honorable thing.  Until then, Tim is a 'squatter' in co-owned property which he cannot buy because he quit his job...  

Earwitnesses report that the condo co-ownership has been "all cleared up".

According to Earwitnesses, Tim bought out the co-owner, and the property is now 100% owned by Timmy.

Earwitnesses tell GA that Timmy was represented by Jersey City lawyer Anthony Poulin, who is also the Treasurer of his 2015 municipal campaign.   Interestingly, Poulin was being paid a salary out of Tim's campaign funds; it seems this practice may have ended on or about the time GA wrote Occhi-Shady ELEC in April 2013.

Occhipinti 2015 Municipal Campaign ELEC-- 2012 July Quarterly report

As for the current status of Timmy's 2015 campaign coffers, his 2013 October Quarterly ELEC filing shows he's spent his way down to the bottom of his warchest.

Occhipinti 2015 Municipal campaign- 2013 October Quarterly report

Well!  According to these numbers, Timmy's 2015 campaign's got a balance of $633.47.

Anyway, the interesting detail of this Earwitness update is that legal wranglings to reach a settlement appear to have concluded on November 4, 2013- the eve of our mayoral election.

Earwitnesses say on November 4, 2013, Tim furnished a check for an amount satisfactory and equitable for the (former) co-owner.  A whopper of a check- risky for him, because the sale amount is unknown, and he's stuck with all of the fees: brokers, closing...

In fact, it is such a risky strategy for Tim, GA wonders if it wasn't a bit 'rushed'.  Pure speculation, but GA wonders if he made haste to settle because he believed that he would be declared mayor-elect the next day and wanted a 'clean slate'?  Who knows?

In any case, Tim's got to sell his place.  And he will.  But where will he live?  His enemies on the Dark Side are watching.

For now, the condo ownership question has been "cleared up", a phrase which brings back memories of this January 18, 2008 City Council exchange:

Mo DeGennaro: I's like to ask you a question about the statement you made, Mr. Russo about the million dollars. Is there a million dollars missing or is it there was a mistake, did they find it or WHAT on the parking...

Castellano: Mr. Russo?

Russo:  Thank you Council President. Mo, the REASON why I thought money was missing was because I was going on past year's uh anticipated revenues from the Parking Utility from the meters. Uh, it turned out that the meters did not generate as much money as they did in years past, so it was MY mistake to think that money was THERE when in fact it was not. That was, that was the situation.

Castellano: It's been cleared up.

DeGennaro: Because that was some statement to make! I think it's made everybody...

Russo: Well it wasn't it wasn't a statement, Mo. It was a question to Mr. Englund during our budget process to clarify if I was right or wrong. AND I came back and said I was wrong.

Castellano: It's been, it's been cleared up.

DeGennaro: I just wanted to make sure...

Castellano: It's been cleared up.