Dear Editor:

One of the most important tasks facing our next Mayor will be handling the upcoming negotiations with our six public employee unions. Eighty percent of our operating budget is personnel costs, so these negotiations literally hold the key to our fiscal future. Meaningful tax reduction cannot be achieved unless and until personnel costs are brought under control.

My opponent, Peter Cammarano, has repeatedly asserted that because a portion of his law practice deals with labor law, he can better represent the interests of our citizens in those negotiations. I strongly disagree.

Mr. Cammarano has actively sought and obtained endorsements from various labor unions, including several of the very public employee unions with whom the next Mayor will be negotiating. In addition, he has gotten endorsements and received contributions from out of town construction related unions, who have a significant interest in the large-scale development of our town. In March alone the construction unions contributed over $10,000 to his campaign.

The significant support he has received from public employees unions in particular make his claim that he will strike the toughest bargain possible on behalf of the City ring hollow. After all, these are experienced players who act in their own best interest and they have clearly concluded they can get a better deal from Mr. Cammarano than they can from me.

In recent mayoral debates, Mr. Cammarano gave us some additional insight into what would constitute “tough negotiating” in a Cammarano administration. He criticized our fiscal monitor’s decision to start the clock on potential layoffs as a bargaining tool as the negotiations began. Apparently, Mr. Cammarano believes that “tough negotiating” involves surrendering leverage before the talks even begin, and relying instead exclusively on his powers of persuasion.

In contrast, I have neither sought nor received either endorsements or campaign funds from public employee unions (or unions with an interest in overdeveloping our City), because I believe that doing so would create the appearance, if not the reality of a serious conflict of interest. I proposed cutting City Council salaries and introducing premium co-pays because I believe that our leaders must make sacrifices first if we are going to ask for sacrifices from our public employees. And I believe that Ms. Tripodi was absolutely correct – you always enter negotiations at full strength and maximize your leverage wherever possible.

I will always ensure that our public safety and other City needs are fully met, but they must be met at a cost consistent with best practices and fair benchmarking. There are many ways to achieve savings, including premium co-pays, benefit adjustments, wage freezes and furloughs. I will work with union leaders in devising the best ways to achieve the savings we need. But if elected, I will never lose sight of whose interests I have been hired exclusively to represent – the interests of all of the people of Hoboken.

Dawn Zimmer
4th Ward Councilwoman and Mayoral Candidate