IN THE musical "1776," John Adams laments the
failure of the Continental Congress to declare independency. He asks,
"Good God, what in hell are they waiting for?" Adams' Colonial
Philadelphia, Pa., had nothing on Hackensack,
N.J.
On Wednesday, Police Chief Ken Zisa was found guilty of official
misconduct and insurance fraud. He faces 23 years in prison. On Friday, he was
still the police chief. Incredible.
Many elected officials — at least the ones talking — are
comfortable waiting for a judge to make a decision about removing Zisa, who
currently is suspended without pay. City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono even said,
"Why are people continuing to create turmoil?"
Maybe because the police chief is a felon. That would be
my guess.
There may be complicated bureaucratic procedures
preventing Zisa's immediate removal. I don't know what they are. But there is
nothing complicated about city officials having the backbone to publicly state
Ken Zisa, a convicted felon, should immediately be removed as Hackensack's
police chief.
Let's face it: Zisa should have resigned Wednesday if he
had any respect for the officers he once commanded. He should have resigned
Wednesday if he had respect for the people of Hackensack.
I have seen many a municipality step feet first into a
pile of muck over a questionable hiring or firing. But there is little danger
in terminating a felon as the police chief. Do Zisa allies expect the chief to
remain suspended without pay during a planned appeal? At what point does the
law apply to Ken Zisa? At what point do all the people who live and work in Hackensack
matter to the people elected to govern it?
Given the number of Bergen County
officials — particularly Democrats — who have found themselves on the wrong
side of the law in recent years, it is incomprehensible that public officials
don't realize that the longer they wait to react to acts of corruption, the
more they tarnish themselves by association. As fiefdoms go, Hackensack
was pretty sweet. As cities go, it's in need of strong, fresh leadership.
There's a plan rolling around to revitalize the city's
downtown. There is much good that could happen in the core of Hackensack.
It has rail connections and a bus terminal, a rarity in Bergen County.
It has good access to major roads. It is the county seat. And it is home to the
massive, vibrant Hackensack University Medical Center. It is waiting for its
proverbial close-up.
That's the good part. The bad part is the city's
political reputation. And that is not being improved by the inability of every
city official to publicly proclaim Zisa should go. Every public official in Bergen County
should have issued a statement Wednesday calling for Zisa's immediate removal.
There should be no place for felons in Bergen County, aside from the county
jail.
Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, D-Englewood,
got it right when he told The Record: "You havea person who has been
convicted of a crime. You have to respond to that in an immediate, decisive
way."
I don't buy the argument Zisa cannot be removed
immediately. But even if that is the case, there is no impediment blocking this
statement — "Zisa must go" — from being made by every member of the
City Council, by the mayor and by all state representatives from Bergen County.
Every day that passes without that statement being made
is damaging not just to Hackensack, but to the integrity of public service in North
Jersey. Bergen County Republicans should be having a field day. Maybe
county Republicans are too busy fighting themselves to take notice, but I'm
not. And I doubt I am alone. People will remember, when officials want to tout
their personal integrity and their commitment to better government come
Election Day, whether those same officials stood silent after the Hackensack
police chief was convicted.
Zisa has every right to loyal friends. He has every right
to appeal a jury's verdict. He has no right to continue being a police chief in
Hackensack.
Yet too many public officials remain silent. It would drive John Adams mad.
"Good God, what in hell are they waiting for?"
Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The
Record. Contact him at doblin@northjersey.com. Follow AlfredPDoblin on Twitter.