Recent phone polls reported on MSV suggest that Beth Mason is testing her viability for another City Council run.
Is anybody surprised?
The operatives who've brought Mason from presumptive-mayor to unelectable (while lining their pockets with her loot), seem determined to scam her once more... with cooked polling. Indications are that Mason does not wish to run again. That all may change once well-cooked data 'proves' she can beat Tiffanie Fisher.
But 2011 is not 2015.
If Mason's abysmal City Council record were not enough, thousands of email documents provided by SLAPP Plaintiffs Lane Bajardi and Kim Cardinal in their disgraced litigation, raise serious questions about her competence to govern. One is Mason's outsourcing of critical decision-making to her political operatives.
At 5:04 PM on Wednesday September 21, 2011, SLAPP Plaintiff Kim "not an operative" Cardinal writes to an email to Councilwoman Beth Mason, "Your hospital vote tonight."
Beth Mason relies on operatives to guide her on decisions which impact the entire city and the lives of its residents; her operatives are not deciding what is in the best interest of the city, but what is in the best interest for Beth Mason. And the operatives always guide her to do what will hurt Zimmer, not for the public good.
At 8:42 PM on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 Mason political operative James Barracato emails Sara Stojkovic to "Buy the Star Ledger... Dawn is going down the tubes with the hospital sale."
Ricky Mason's behind-the-scene role in his wife's effort to sink the sale of the HUMC, a public asset, has never been fully explored.
Emails show political operatives asking for input from Ricky Mason as his wife publicly opposed the HUMC sale, others show him on group emails regarding his wife's alleged "Council Minority Agreement" with the buyer, Holdco.
If anyone recalls, Beth Mason's jihad to kill the sale of Hoboken's only hospital came to an end on the night of Sunday, October 30, 2011. That night was a special meeting, which drew standing room only crowds of residents, to vote for (or against) the sale of the hospital to it's only viable bidder, HoldCo. It was literally, do-or-die.
In a stunning and comical moment, Councilwoman Mason read a document which she had distributed to the crowd. The document was called, "City Council Minority reaches Agreement with Buyer to Save Hoboken Hospital."
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| Mason reading her "...agreement with Buyer to Save Hoboken hospital"- check out Russo's reaction |
Mason's hand-out:
GA's then-legal department, Not-Stempler, had this to say about the Mason "Agreement with the Buyer":
It is horn book law that a municipality can only act in accordance with the powers conferred upon it by statute. As a Faulkner Act municipality, the enabling statute does not create within Hoboken a separately recognized “Council minority” and there is no precedent that would confer upon the council minority (emphasis on minority) to bind the City in any event; especially in light of the fact that the functions related to the sale of the hospital have been properly delegated to the municipal hospital authority created for that purpose. It also does not appear that the Council minority had municipal legal representation during the course of its “negotiations”. Only duly retained council, paid for by the City, can assist and advise government officials in the discharge or exercise of their duties. Perhaps if the Council minority had the assistance of effective counsel, then the letter may have contained different terms.It goes without further comment that there is no authority for the council minority members to act in any official capacity as representatives of the City to designate a board member of the buyer.
Likewise, emails exchanged before and after the October 30 special meeting show the Managing Director of an investment bank is flummoxed by the Mason "Agreement." Not Ricky Mason, who calls his wife's bizarre agreement "innovative."
These telling communications only scratch the surface of the very strange conduct of Councilwoman Beth Mason on the sale of our public assset, the HUMC.
This promises to be a very interesting 2nd Ward race.
You didn't have to be a hotshot bankruptcy partner at Wachtel to know that that the council minority hadn't "negotiated" an inovative deal showering benefit upon the City. They folded like a cheap suit and devised an almost comical charade to try to create an alternative story line that pretty much the entire city saw for the joke that it was.
ReplyDeleteYet here was Ricky Mason, in a private e-mail seemingly actually believing the moronic cover story was true.
It's hard to reconcile the brilliant Wachtel lawyer with the moron who wrote that e-mail. .
Don't know who is worse Ricky Mason who rumors say was working to destory the hospital sale in NJ or this Kim person who is a real loon.
DeleteShe's talking about God trying to get Mason to destroy the hospital and the city's finances?
In 2007, you could reasonably argue against putting the city of Hoboken on the hook for $52 million but in 2011, the deal was to get Hoboken "OFF" that hook and let the Hospital prosper as it has under new ownership.
KImbo is obviously inverting reality to satiate her hate. From the jerk who wrote, "Let Zimmer go down with the hospital."
What a lousy bitch.
When the shit hit the fan and it was dripping all over Mason's face and she need a cover story to try to clean up the mess.
DeleteMy two cents.There was no separate side deal ever made made as everyone clearly understood that Mason had no authority to do squat it was just a public retains stunt to try to save face. Everything she said she got was already agreed to previously with the real negotiating team.
Everyone knew before the meeting that her extra vote Occhipinti was going to flip and vote to approve.
Mason has had so much smoke blown up her ass by the people she kept around her she had no clue she was drowning in a cesspool she paid to dig.
Mr Epstein, if you are out there I applaud your email because of the important points that were addressed to a person who clearly is talking out of her butt.
ReplyDeleteAnd I strongly condemn the way Mr Mason insulted you to Stojokovic in the email directed to just her. (odd....)
D'ont you mean Mr. Sara?
DeleteI want to know who gave James Barracato those "60,000" emails between Zimmer/HMHA and the hospital buyer HoldCo DURING the hospital sale. Was Ricky involved? Sara Stojkovic was the one who knew about the Barracato meeting with Ray Smith at the Malibu. So many questions to ask Beth Mason about when she runs for re-election. I think the City should investigate this breach of security during the sale of a public asset. The public has a right to know. People first!
ReplyDeleteOkay, so the hospital was saved. However it is not accessible to the majority of the residents. They are in network with only a few select insurance. They do not participate with the majority of commercial insurance companies that residents. The out of network cost is extremely high and just not economically feasible for most. Which is why a lot of residents can't benefit from it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe but Hoboken taxpayers are not on the hook if something goes wrong
DeleteA hospital emergency room within walking distance is a godsend. Most insurance companies reimburse emergency room care- I've taken my kid a couple of times over the years. It is surprising any mother of a small child wouldn't fight to keep the hospital open.
DeleteMost patients utilizing HUMC are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and BCBS. When I was on the hospital authority, admissions with commercial insurance usually comprised about 6% of all admissions, and that was BEFORE the new owners went out of network. All insurers are considered in network for emergency admissions. Not accessible to the majority of residents? Hardly.
DeleteI went to the ER with my crappy Emblem Health insurance when I fell and gashed my head...$50 copay only.
DeleteThank god, they charged 10K, yes 10K for a cat scan that was "required before discharge" because I had a head injury.
The ER provided emergency care for my kid then transported her by ambulance to St. Barnabas burn center in Livingston.
DeleteThank God we have a hospital in Hoboken.
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ReplyDeleteWOW, Love the emails. Why in the hell did they willingly turn these over?
ReplyDeleteIf Mason decides to run I think we can expect to see her get crushed by these emails at least once a day
The only reason they are in network with BCBS is because that's what the city employees have, so that was negotiated. Still, don't they have some of the highest rates in the country? What other health systems were looked into before deciding on this one?
ReplyDeleteMason writes "my team and I with other Council-people... negotiated through the night last night directly with the buyer..."
ReplyDeleteWho the hell is Mason's "team?" James Barracato? Is that how he got 60,000 of the mayor's emails with Holdco during the hospital sale? What qualifies Beth Mason's unidentified "team" to negotiate on behalf of the city? Was Ricky Mason on the "team?" Mason needs to answer these questions. The 2nd Ward needs to know.
Remember that Mason was not alone in trying to kill Saint Ann's Hospital, Russo, Castellano and Occhipinti were all in on the hit.
ReplyDeleteAnd they all voted NO to a COST-FREE garage bond refinance required when the city went from public to private ownership.
DeleteThe Mason, Russo, Castellano, Timmy NO vote cost the city $4.5 million of taxpayer money. Maybe Horse has the clip of that debate. What a disgrace.
And they all voted NO to a COST-FREE garage bond refinance required when the hospital went from public to private ownership.
DeleteThe Mason Russo Castellano Timmy NO vote cost the city $4.5 million. What a disgrace.
HUMC was the former St. Mary's.
DeleteI hear there are a number of explicit ELEC violations in the emails from the SLAPP suit. It will make a nice October surprise for Beth. Like the ones she pulled on Greany, Glatt and Cammarano.
ReplyDeleteKim Cardinal "We both believe in the power of prayer."
ReplyDelete???
To do what, destroy and bankrupt your enemies? Does the god you believe in believe in those prayers? Some god.
Is there anything so uniquely and disturbingly american as the ability to convince ourselves that god shares our narcissism, greed and lust for vengeance?
Those emails just prove how stupid she is. Everything Beth did during that hospital sale could have blown up the sale and cost the city tens of millions of dollars. How does she not see that?
ReplyDeleteCheck out the first lines in her email. She thinks she can "save" everything
Deletehttp://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/basics/symptoms/con-20025568
Had the garage sale deal collapsed due to the actions of Mason, Russo and Castellano, the city would have been bankrupted as the bond would need to have been paid off almost immediately.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad anon at 11:13 yesterday mentioned the garage re-fi costing us 4.5 million while the evil, sick and twisted council minority dithered away, plotting and scheming to make the current administration look bad.
At council meetings, when she showed up, Mason would go on ad-nauseum about small expenditures while she pissed away 4.5 million of our money. For the over-compensated Richard G. Mason, that's a rounding error in his checkbook. For the rest of us who watch our budgets, we'd like to see Mason and her cohorts kicked to the curb for this abdication of their fiduciary responsibilities.
I hope these facts and the stories behind them - and all the damaging emails - come out during this election cycle to finally uproot these toxic people.
I meant the hospital sale deal.
DeleteI don't know one person, aside from Kim and Hoboken Reporter editors, who believed anything about this "council minority" action. Everyone knew it was complete BS from the start, and still do. A consultant-created a non issue.
ReplyDeleteAside from Holdco, what other health systems were considered? What other choices were there? Why just this one? Did the city look into any other options with other healthcare systems? Why was this one considered the choice?
ReplyDeleteYou should try google when you are trying to find info on things that happened in 2011. Give it a shot. Tons of info out there
Deletehey anon@1:21, go easy on anon@1:09, he's just doing his job. hopefully trolls have summer hours and he'll be gone by 2:00 pm to beat the rush to the shore.
DeleteFrom memory (but it's been posted here) Toni Tomarrazo sent out 198 RFP's, got 8 proposals, only 3 were viable and Holdco was the only one that could purchase the hospital outright--fully financed. But you probably knew that, troll.
DeleteEvery single health care institution was considered who submitted answers in the RFP.
DeleteIn the end there were actually no other choices as vendors like P3 could not show the financing although repeatedly invited to do so.
P3 became the phony lie pushed by Beth Mason and the Old Guard council as viable: Terry Castellano, Mike Russo and Timmy Occhipinti.
They also got Hoboken411 working with them behind the scenes trying to undermine the process which Lane was thrilled to do and aid Beth Mason's sabotage.
HoldCo was the hightest and only real bid. Happy now?
Selling the hospital had to happen in order for the City to not default on 50 million in bonds, which would have come due a few short weeks after that October special meeting. In a time when hospitals were closing left and right with no hope of assistance from the State, Mason, Russo, Castellano & Occhipinti led us to the brink of disaster.
DeleteThat albatross is finally off our necks, no thanks to those assholes. The night of the meeting, Mason felt the need for a police escort into city hall, not the first time she received special treatment from public servants. One uptown Hudson Street neighbor, a lawyer no less, was heard to shout at Mason as she passed: "You bitch; you bitch, you goddamn fucking bitch!"
And Mason hasn't gone up in anyone's esteem since.