In a letter to the editor, Hoboken resident Joseph Palombini explains why he feels that anyone who supported the January 25th school referendum isn’t worthy of your vote.
Dear Editor:
My father passed away in April after a long battle with cancer and I think about him all the time. Despite my profound sadness, I find comfort in the many lessons he taught me.
He always told me to stand up for myself because I shouldn’t expect someone else will on my behalf. I reflect on that little nugget as I look at the Hoboken political landscape.
I wrote most of the below text following January’s special election. When I’m annoyed, and addressed to no one in particular, I write. I end up filing these open letters deep in my personal folder never intending to revisit the words.
“We (the people) won by a 2:1 margin, let’s move on.” I only dug the body of my unsent open letter when I saw a remarkable, in the sense that it’s so unremarkable, attack ad on the Kids First slate by Leaders That Listen.
I fully declare, I don’t know all the issues at play or all the nuances between Kids First and Leaders That Listen. But I have a good sense of right and wrong.
To the voters of Hoboken, I share my very simple viewpoint – anyone affiliated with the backing of January’s special election, from the incumbent board of education members that the proposed high school plan, as well as any city council member, including our mayor, who endorsed it, is unworthy of your vote.
Why is that?
I cannot get past the contempt shown to the citizens of Hoboken when members of our elected bodies – the Hoboken BOE, our city council – and our mayor pursued or endorsed such a brazen path to intentionally bypass voters to achieve their goals.
The Hoboken elected elites felt that their extravagant vanity project wasn’t worth the time, energy, or adequate presentation to the people on last November’s campaign trail.
Instead a strategy of “let’s try to sneak it through while no one is paying attention” is pursued. Rightfully, we responded in masses. How can anyone affiliated with that debacle (Alex De La Torre) have the gall to run for re-election, let alone win?
How can anyone running on the same slate as De La Torre (Leslie Norwood, Antonio Grana), which in my view is tantamount to endorsing these subversive actions, earn your vote? For me, they cannot. It’s that simple.
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It’s my favorite quote. We all witness the corruption that runs deep in Hoboken.
Political favors and conflicts of interest are widespread, starting with our mayor and an unabashedly partisan city council proudly boasting a voting record that would make our federally elected officials blush.
We’ve replaced old school monetary corruption, with the soft corruption associated with power hungry bodies operating with the moral authority of broad mandates, despite garnering fractional support, as in the case of our mayor earning 33 percent of votes in 2017 and running unopposed in 2021.
Why am I to blame? Well, I’ve never stood up over my 10 years as a resident. After a decade of getting more and more annoyed at the state of our town I’m finally willing to say something aloud. With my name attached.
Enough is enough of this brand of partisan, dirty, garbage politics.
Why are we to blame? Because we, the citizens of Hoboken, don’t challenge this unacceptable status quo. We don’t remove these officials from office when we have the opportunity.
We don’t force change on elected bodies who end up serving themselves and act as if they are above reproach. Importantly in this instance, we vote for candidates who are unable to stand on their own merits and resort to sleazy personal attacks.
This is what unqualified candidates do. When unable to run on your record, turn a real and serious situation (how to serve the educational needs of all of the children in Hoboken) into a culture war issue against your opponents.
As much as I despise his antics, Donald Trump has ZERO to do with the Hoboken Board of Education. Trying to force linkage to him and the boogeymen of the far right to Hoboken city politics is laughable and insulting to you the voter.
Anyone needing to stoop to that level has invalidated themselves and is unworthy of your vote.
Again, a very simple premise. De La Torre is a Hoboken BOE incumbent. Over the past year, he has demonstrated that he is disconnected to the wishes of Hoboken residents.
Anyone affiliated with him, the other members of the Leaders That Listen slate (Norwood and Grana), must hold the same bogus views and endorse underhanded means to achieve their objectives. None of these candidates deserve your vote.
As we did in January, let November 8th serve as another wakeup call to all of our elected officials: you work for us, the citizens of Hoboken.
If you seek to profiteer – economically, socially, politically – we will remove you at the ballot box at first opportunity. There is power in our numbers while you are but a few.
Joseph Palombini
Hoboken Resident
True.
I think the author puts into words what we are all feeling. Endless corruption, attack ads every election, it’s like a small political clique has seized our town and no one can dare challenge them or they will be ripped apart with insane accusations. We need regular people in office not the politically connected
What corruption, specifically? Be specific, provide factual details on what you mean.
Well said, Mr. Palombini. I will be voting Kids First on November 8th and encourage all Hoboken voters to do the same. It’s time for a change.
Respectfully sir, you are not well-informed on either slate of candidates. If you compare the qualifications of the two slates, Kids First is left in the dust. You can bring your grievances into the voting booth, or vote for the most qualified slate of candidates.
Antonio Grana:
“This is our daughter’s 7th year in the public district schools, and it gets better every year. During this time, I have been engaged in multiple district, school, and parent activities focusing on strengthening both the experience of children and parents. I have served as PTO Vice President of both Connors Elementary School and The Hoboken Middle School.”
LESLIE NORWOOD:
“I have volunteered with organizations including the Hoboken Public Education Foundation as a Board Member (2017-2022), Hoboken Community Center Food Pantry, Cub Scout Den Leader, Brandt PTO, Brandt Parent Consortium for Pre-K, Hoboken Special Needs Parent Advisory Group, and as class parent.”
ALEX DE LA TORRE:
The experience I gained over the last four years serving on the Hoboken Board of Education has been invaluable. I serve on the Finance, Governance and Facilities committees – giving me an intimate view into the overall operations of the board. I was also part of the negotiations team that passed the last teacher’s union contract.
These three know they are running for government office right and not the Hoboken PTO. So far their only real foray into BoE activates was rabid support for the Bond, which failed 2-1, so what do any of their social club activities really mean? The whole point is that their idiocy regarding the referendum, especially as insiders disqualifies them due to horribly poor judgement, and ya know Alex actually being complicit.
All LTL and their spoiled lulu lemon moms do are attack, stalk and troll anyone who won’t give them their new sports high school
Remember what happened to Veruca Salt?
Has incumbent De la Torre ever apologized to the public for his complicity in hiding the the $300mm construction bill and forcing the failed January referendum ?
Have any of the LTL ticket apologized for the abhorrent political mailer that was sent out endorsing them ?
Great letter, sir!
Please vote for Kid’s First and not only expose the corruption with the Bhalla team and the completely disastrous referendum, but also Ravi’s racist flier trick in 2017.
Read: https://newjerseyglobe.com/local/more-than-three-years-later-racist-flyers-in-edison-hoboken-remain-cold-cases/