WHY DONNA BOCCHINO IS THE WRONG CHOICE FOR NORTH ARLINGTON’S FUTURE!
Freshman council member engineers 19% pay raise; and then a raise for her father as North Arlington becomes a “patronage mill” for the politically entitled!
There is a dark side to local politics; especially in North Arlington when the GOP machine can run candidates so unqualified for public office it destroys two-party government and the dialogue needed retain a local democracy.
In the case of Donna Bocchino she is probably the least qualified and competent candidate for public office in decades!
A state patronage employee whose employment was secured by her father, who also happens to be the campaign chairman and her mother treasurer, has been praised time and time again as the Republican Party’s chief fundraiser or “sausage maker” of sorts in their obsession of trying to retain their current, 7-0 majority on the Mayor and Council.
Their efforts are now extended to the North Arlington Board of Education where the Republicans are running two more “political misfits” with one the son of the most inept mayor in a generation!
A political embarrassment who was tossed from office in one of the biggest landslides in North Arlington history!
For the candidacies are not about education or even children, but political retribution and the final takeover of everything governmental by Mayor Dan Pronti and his puppets for office.
But let’s stay focused on Donna Bocchino for now.
Government and politics is all about patronage and insider access for the Bocchino’s.
Her father, a retired patronage employee of the BCUA and former Republican leader has made securing jobs for himself and his family kind of a “cottage industry” for four decades!
He secured a position for himself, his brother, his daughter and now another job for himself with this new part-time job that was created specifically for him and no one else.
Then he selects his daughter for the Republican ticket in 2019 and again in 2020 so that she can secure not only a 23% raise for himself; but a 19% raise for her too!
Her resume is embarrassingly thin, with no real public service to the community – only the fact she is Bocchino’s daughter and that’s her prerequisite for public office!
Like her father, she is now a political “double-dipper,” not one political job but two!
But the most disturbing part of her dubious tenure on the Mayor and Council is that she is a 100% political puppet of Dan Pronti, which is the only reason why she was selected and why Pronti doesn’t have one vote, but two thanks to Bocchino’s abdication of any governmental independence at a time local Republicans are “urbanizing” North Arlington into an extension of Hudson County!
Hundreds of new apartments are online for Ridge Road (with hundreds more after November 3rd), causing a virtual parking lot while increasing height restrictions from three to six stories, an obvious forerunner to low income housing not in the Meadowlands or Porete Avenue as endorsed by Donald Trump, but right in the center of North Arlington!
October marks the second anniversary of the passing of former Mayor Joe Bianchi.
A life-long public servant and business owner who understood the whole significance of keeping North Arlington small, safe and suburban!
That the reason why North Arlington is a desirable community is because of this commitment to our values, especially in lieu of COVID-19 where buyers do not want the urbanization of Donna Bocchino, they reject this “tale of two cities” as project proposals are sprouting all over the community and Bocchino has tragically become nothing a “yes” vote for out of town developers who seek a blank check from our local officials like Pronti and specifically Bocchino!
Ask Bocchino why she supports this proliferation of apartment dwellings that will increase school taxes as well as municipal taxes because the stress on local services will be too great, too costly, while decimating the small town character that has maintained as sustained property values here in North Arlington!
Bocchino is so out of touch, so delusional in her approach to public service she is willing to borrow and indebt North Arlington at record levels that has the community staring down the barrel of a $3,900,000 revenue shortfall created by her votes and actions as an elected official!
And if this isn’t bad enough; what about her indifference to COVID-19 by refusing to wear a mask in public as displayed time and time again?
Not wearing a mask and “cheer leading” with other Republicans failing to practice “social distancing” and celebrating raises for the entire Mayor and Council as well as raises for dozens of other patronage supporters including a $43,000 pay hike for one employee who doubles as a GOP official?
Her campaign headquarters is a potential “super spreader” as caught on video with about 75 people not practicing social distancing indoors and no one wearing a mask!
Yeah, Donna is good at one thing: securing jobs and raises for herself, her father and other patronage employees on the North Arlington public payroll!
And one asks why all this development on Ridge Road?
Why does she appear in these ridiculous videos posing as some “objective observer” when in fact every individual in the video is either an elected Republican official or GOP contributor and supporter?
And why won’t she debate?
If life-long Democrats John Yampaglia and Tommy Bradley are so terrible, why not debate then Donna?
She is petrified by such a scenario because she would be exposed for the political fraud that she is!
She refused to debate last year because her knowledge of local government borders on the laughable, having not accomplished anything but a pay raise compliments of North Arlington homeowners!
And just what is the future of Ridge Road should she be reelected?
What about the Italian Villa or Boston Market, both rumored to be next for six-story structures attracting a more “revolving door” tenant that does nothing to control taxes and spending, but rather increases the day to day operation of North Arlington?
How will one get to Holy Cross Cemetery for a burial?
Why doesn’t Bocchino address the number of projects she will support?
Five more, ten more, how much is enough North Arlington?
And with her supporters calling for “skyscrapers” on North Arlington, she seems fine with these initiatives since she is unable or not allowed to even comment on the issues North Arlington really wants to talk about!
Yes, the Bocchino candidacy is disturbing and a real threat to our small, safe and suburban atmosphere.
The only reason why she’s a candidate is because her father Jimmy is incapable of being elected to anything after two failed attempts for public office.
She is there because he can’t get elected dog catcher and he knows it!
But look at these videos (click here) of Pronti praising Jimmy for his only true function: raising money for local Republicans!
Look at the ELEC reports of local Republicans as they raise thousands of dollars from borough officials, lawyers, contractors, builders, auditors and engineers all embedded in the bowls of local government.
It is a “pay for play” cesspool.
North Arlington is not Hudson County, but Bergen County.
But you have Hudson County style politicians turning North Arlington into something it is not and something no one really supports and as long as Donna Bocchino has a vote, she will be told what to do by Pronti or her father and that’s just the truth!
There are some three weeks before this election and only about 16% of people have voted.
There is an opportunity to reject the politics of Bocchino, the political pay raises and business as usual government that will ultimately cost you higher taxes when the surplus is finally depleted.
But they need to eliminate any political opposition.
They want no one watching what’s really happening during this pandemic.
Were you ever asked your opinion on this proliferation of apartments?
Did you have a say about outrageous pay raises or the millions in new spending?
Donna Bocchino and her father need to be rejected and replaced if you care about our future.
On November 3rd, fire Donna Bocchino!
She’s unqualified to serve.
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