A recently filed lawsuit claims Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer threatened to fire the director of the local housing authority unless he hired politically connected contractors, according to The Newark Star-Ledger.
The lawsuit was filed last week in Superior Court in Jersey City, N.J., days after Zimmer publicly accused Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) administration of pressuring her to fast-track a development project by threatening to withhold Hurricane Sandy relief aid. Zimmer’s lawyer told the Star-Ledger that the lawsuit’s claims are baseless, and he suggested that they were retaliation orchestrated by Christie’s allies.
In the lawsuit, Hoboken Housing Authority Executive Director Carmelo Garcia, who is also now a Democratic state assemblyman, alleges that Zimmer pressured him to give contracts to her political allies, according to the Star-Ledger. When he pushed back, the suit claims, Zimmer and her husband, Stanley Grossbard, “began to subject Director Garcia to an unlawful pattern of harassment, threats, intimidation and extortion.”
The lawsuit was filed by attorney Louis Zayas, the same attorney who recently raised questions about Zimmer’s claims about keeping a diary. Zayas has also represented Hoboken’s former public safety director in a wrongful termination suit.
The lawsuit was first reported by NJTV, which also obtained a recording of a January 2013 lunch meeting between Garcia and Grossbard. In a statement to the Star-Ledger, Zimmer’s lawyer, Gerald Krovatin, wondered about the timing of the release of the recording.
“There was a suggestion in the NJTV report that Mr. Garcia may have released the secret tape at this time as part of an effort by him and Sen. Brian Stack, a strong supporter of Governor Christie, to retaliate against Mayor Zimmer for coming forward,” Krovatin said. “If that is true, this is a particularly disturbing development in this case and it should be investigated by the appropriate authorities.”
