 |  | |
 |
|  |
 |  | |
| | |
|
| |
| | |
|
|
|
Posted by Pepe Bonmot
on April 03, 2002 at 06:30:55:
Cutting remarks Peter Weiss Tom DeGise is scheduled to announce his candidacy for Hudson County executive today on the steps of the Brennan Courthouse - steps that may be figuratively running with the blood of his supporters. Late yesterday, termination notices were prepared for several top-ranking appointed county officials, several sources confirmed. How many of the notices were actually delivered yesterday couldn't immediately be determined. At least one director, getting word of it, reportedly left work before the notice could find its way to his office. Also uncertain is which, if any, of those targets can appeal to the county Board of Freeholders, most of whose members would likely reverse the administration on this issue. Those targeted included Human Resources Director Mariano Vega, who is also a Jersey City councilman, and who recently decided to support DeGise in the Democratic primary against interim County Executive Bernard Hartnett Jr. Central Services Director Arnold Bettinger, a former Jersey City councilman and former Hudson County freeholder, was another targeted. There was no response from Hartnett's office yesterday to a request for comment. The location for DeGise's announcement is an obvious swipe at Hartnett, who announced his candidacy on the same steps last week. It is intended to contrast their respective strengths. DeGise will be surrounded many of the top Democrats in the county. He is being supported by Rep. Robert Menendez, D-Union City, the county Democratic chairman, and every mayor in the county except Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham. Menendez said he will discuss the terminations today. At Hartnett's announcement last week, Cunningham was the only mayor present, and there were few other elected officials. Even some of the members of the City Council of Jersey City who were at the Hartnett announcement have since switched sides. The most recent of them are Ward A Councilman Peter Brennan, who is expected to seek a seat on the Hudson County Board of Freeholders as DeGise's running mate, and Ward E Councilman Junior Maldonado. That gives the DeGise slate, if not him personally, the support of seven of the nine Jersey City council members, including three of the five who won on Cunningham's slate in last year's runoff. (Those three joined the Cunningham slate after the first round of balloting last May. Cunningham defeated DeGise in the June runoff, but four of DeGise's original council running mates were elected.) Brennan, one of the DeGise council candidates last year, will run now against Freeholder William O'Dea in the Second District. Former Jersey City Councilwoman Melissa Holloway is expected to be DeGise's running mate against Freeholder William Braker in the Third District. Holloway is Cunningham's cousin. O'Dea and Braker are the only two of the nine incumbent freeholders who plan to run with Hartnett. DeGise's nine running mates for freeholder include seven incumbents. If the termination of high-ranking county staffers aligned with DeGise goes through, it will ratchet up a fight which increasingly shows signs of being one of the nastiest even in Hudson County's benighted history. There's no question that most of those targeted got their jobs as political rewards, but that won't alter the fact that their terminations will be blatant political reprisals. Even if sympathy is tempered by credos of "live-by-the sword, die-by-the-sword" and "what-have-you-done-for-me lately" (some of those slated for termination campaigned for Cunningham last year), it will surely keep the county administration off any moral high ground it thought to occupy. 04/03/02 |
