Sacco’s Oct. 28 exit date means North Bergen voters won’t get a say on his seat until May 2027

JERSEY INTEL EXCLUSIVE

North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco says he will resign effective Oct. 28 after 35 years as mayor, citing health. Under New Jersey’s Municipal Vacancy Law, that date falls 6 days before the Nov. 3 general election, too late to put his seat on the ballot. The four remaining commissioners will fill it by appointment, and voters next get a say on May 11, 2027. His camp says the commissioners back his son, Lincoln School Principal Nick Sacco Jr., for the seat.

NORTH BERGEN — Mayor Nicholas Sacco, who has run North Bergen since 1991, announced Thursday night that he is retiring from elected office. He made the announcement at his annual Mayor’s Ball fundraiser, according to a statement released by his camp.

The statement says Sacco will file a letter of resignation with the township clerk in the coming days, effective Oct. 28, 2026. He endorsed Commissioner Hugo Cabrera to succeed him. According to the statement, Cabrera, whose parents immigrated from Colombia, would be North Bergen’s first Hispanic mayor. The statement also says Cabrera and the other commissioners back Nick Sacco Jr., the mayor’s son and principal of Lincoln School, to be appointed to his father’s seat on the Board of Commissioners.

Sacco, 79, was re-elected in 2023. He cited “recent health challenges” and said, “When we overwhelmingly won re-election in 2023 I fully intended on completing this term in office.”

Why Oct. 28 matters

North Bergen uses the Walsh Act commission form of government. Voters elect five commissioners, and under N.J.S.A. 40:72-10 the commissioners “choose one of their number” to preside, and that person is “designated ‘mayor.'” Voters do not elect the mayor directly.

When a commissioner resigns, New Jersey’s Municipal Vacancy Law, N.J.S.A. 40A:16, takes over. A 1982 Hudson County ruling, Highton v. Musto, held that this law applies to Walsh Act towns such as Union City. A written resignation filed with the municipal clerk creates the vacancy (40A:16-3(f)).

For towns that hold regular municipal elections, like North Bergen, N.J.S.A. 40A:16-4 sets two paths:

• If the vacancy occurs after Sept. 1 of the last year of the term, the governing body “may” fill it by appointment for the rest of the term.
• Otherwise, the seat goes to “the next general or regular municipal election, whichever occurs first, to be held not less than 60 days after the occurrence of the vacancy.” The governing body may make a temporary appointment until then.

Sacco and his four running mates were elected on May 9, 2023, according to the township. The next regular municipal election is May 11, 2027. Oct. 28 falls 6 days before the Nov. 3, 2026 general election, well short of the 60-day minimum. Under either path, the seat stays off the ballot until May 11, 2027, and an appointee holds it until then. Had the seat opened before Sept. 1, the second path would have sent it to the Nov. 3 ballot.

The timing was predicted. On May 4, the New Jersey Globe reported that Sacco was weighing an early exit and wrote: “What Sacco will likely seek to avoid is a special November 2026 election for a commissioner seat. That means he would not leave his seat until at least September, when a replacement could be appointed without the encumbrance of voter involvement.” At the time, Sacco’s spokesman said the mayor had “not yet reached a decision.”

Who decides, and how fast

• Who votes: the four remaining commissioners, Cabrera, Allen Pascual, Claudia Rodriguez and Anthony Vainieri. An appointment takes “a majority vote of the remaining members” (40A:16-7), so 3 of the 4.
• Deadline: North Bergen’s elections are nonpartisan. When the departing member wasn’t elected as a party nominee, the governing body “may, within 30 days of the occurrence of the vacancy, appoint a successor … without regard to party” (40A:16-12). Thirty days from Oct. 28 is Nov. 27.
• If they miss it: the seat “shall remain vacant” until a successor is elected (40A:16-13).
• Mayor: according to the statement, the commissioners will name Cabrera mayor and reassign departments at the same public meeting. No date has been announced.

The appointee wouldn’t just fill out a term. If he runs in May, he would do so as a sitting commissioner. In Highton v. Musto, a different vacancy case, the court noted that a temporary appointee who runs “would obviously have an edge in the election as a sitting commissioner.” The Globe’s May report also described another option Sacco was weighing: step down as mayor, keep his commissioner seat, and have Sacco Jr. run for an open seat in 2027. The plan announced Thursday puts Sacco Jr. on the board first.

The school-district question

Both men backed to take over Sacco’s posts work for the North Bergen school district:

• Cabrera is the Board of Education’s board secretary. He is listed as “Board Secretary” in the district’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the year ended June 30, 2025, filed with the state Department of Education. He has been a township commissioner since 1999 and holds both posts now.
• Sacco Jr. is principal of Lincoln School, a K-6 school, according to the school’s website.
• Sacco Sr. also held a school-district job while serving as mayor and state senator. He retired from the district in 2017, NJ.com reported.

North Bergen’s school board is elected, not appointed by the township. Its nine members are elected, plus one representative from Guttenberg, according to the same state financial report. Jersey Intel did not find a state law that bars a school-district employee from serving as a township commissioner.

The state’s Local Government Ethics Law does set limits. N.J.S.A. 40A:9-22.5(d) bars a local official from acting “in any matter where he, a member of his immediate family … has a direct or indirect financial or personal involvement that might reasonably be expected to impair his objectivity or independence of judgment.” Subsection (e) covers outside employment that “might reasonably be expected to prejudice his independence of judgment.”

That leaves questions the announcement didn’t answer. Will Sacco Jr. keep his principal’s job if he’s appointed? Will he and Cabrera recuse themselves from township votes that touch the school district?

Sacco’s record

Sacco was first elected commissioner in 1985 and became mayor in 1991. He represented the 32nd District in the state Senate from 1994 until January 2024, holding the Senate seat and the mayor’s office at the same time. In 2022 he announced he would not seek re-election after redistricting put North Bergen in the same district as Union City Mayor and Sen. Brian P. Stack.

North Bergen’s Department of Public Works was the subject of a state corruption investigation during Sacco’s tenure. The Attorney General’s office secured convictions of four DPW supervisors. Superintendent James Wiley pleaded guilty in 2012 and admitted he had public works employees assigned to political campaign work while on duty or on township-paid overtime. Supervisors Troy Bunero and Francis Longo were convicted at trial in 2015 and sentenced to five years each. Deputy Director Timothy Grossi was sentenced in 2017 for having on-duty workers run political errands.

In Thursday’s statement, his camp credited him with expanding the police department, building three overpasses over Tonnelle Avenue, renovating the main public library, opening new parks, and launching the NB CARES disaster-help program. The statement also notes that the Nicholas J. Sacco Junior High School was named for him in 2025.

Township Administrator Janet Castro said in the statement that Sacco “will go down in history as one of the most significant and influential elected officials to ever serve in local office in New Jersey.”

Have documents about the North Bergen appointment or the township’s dealings with the school district? Send Jersey Intel a tip or email jerseyintel@gmail.com.