NJ Transit board meets on King holiday, but ducks controversial vote

In a surprise move, NJ Transit's board of directors removed a controversial real-estate purchase on the Hoboken waterfront from its Monday meeting agenda.

But board members still faced criticism from Hoboken's mayor and about 100 residents for holding a board meeting on Martin Luther King's birthday, a state holiday in New Jersey. This year marks 50 years since the civil right's leader's assassination.

Mayor Ravinder Bhalla called it "a slap in the face" to King's legacy to have scheduled the board meeting on the holiday to push it through.

"That's not a call to service," he said. "That's a disgrace."

NJ Transit's board was originally scheduled to meet last Wednesday, but the meeting was postponed to Friday, and again to Monday.

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The item in dispute was NJ Transit's proposed purchase of the Union Dry Dock in Hoboken, which it then planned to lease to New York Waterway as a maintenance base for its cross-Hudson ferries.

The City of Hoboken had wanted to purchase the property to fill a gap in its waterfront greenway. Bhalla testified before state lawmakers in Trenton last week to urge them to put the brakes on the purchase of the three-acre site.

"This was a real-estate transaction that was trying to be rushed through in the dying days of an outgoing administration," Bhalla said.

Monday was the last day of the administration of Gov. Chris Christie. Gov.-elect Phil Murphy will be sworn in on Tuesday. Murphy has called NJ Transit a "national disgrace" and has asked for the resignation of a number of senior officials at the agency.

It's not clear that a sufficient number of board members were willing to vote for the purchase. Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, expressed concern that the item could be revived later.

"It is a win for now but we have to make sure it does not come back on the agenda," he said.