Kearny Mayor Carol Jean Doyle has a new position to add to her resume and it is one that wasn’t clear would happen as recently as a day ago.
Doyle was unanimously appointed Clerk to the Hudson County Board of Commissioners at the board’s annual reorganization meeting this evening. Only Commissioner Robert Baselice, of North Bergen, who was part of the Kearny parking study last year, abstained from voting because of a conflict of interest.
All other commissioners, including Albert Cifelli, of West Hudson, voted in favor of Doyle.
The position, itself, has traditionally gone to the Kearny Mayor or that person’s designee.
Doyle replaces George Zapata, who was temporarily made clerk after Mayor Alberto G. Santos resigned as clerk and mayor, to become a Superior Court judge in June.
Zapata is also a First Ward Councilman in Kearny, whose votes over the last few months have mostly been contrary to anything Doyle supported.
When the vote was taken, several present at the meeting in Jersey City told The Observer Zapata, along with former interim Mayor Peter P. Santana and former Councilwoman Susan McCurrie, who were both at the meeting and perhaps expecting Zapata to get a new contract beyond his interim term from the summer, stood up and walked out with the former clerk.
In walking out, we’re told Zapata did not leave the paperwork necessary for the rest of reorganization meeting — and that the new clerk needed.
One of Doyle’s new deputy clerks possessed the needed paperwork Zapata reportedly took with him as he tersely departed.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, a place where he has served on and off since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on Facebook Live, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to West Hudson to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.