Hackensack Councilman Leo Battaglia said he will resign from the council Friday night after controversy stemming from alleged racist comments he directed toward a Black high school soccer coach.
Battaglia denies any wrongdoing in the incident, which occurred during a Sept. 16 soccer game with Hackensack High School soccer coach Shaun Holder. Battaglia, who is in his third term on Hackensack’s council, said he will step down amid calls for his resignation.
State Sen. Gordon Johnson (D-Englewood) said Battaglia’s comments toward Holder demonstrated a “failure of leadership” and called for his immediate resignation Friday afternoon. Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse said Battaglia should not run for reelection and said the councilman would not be welcome on the mayor’s ticket in next year’s election.
In a statement, Battaglia said Labrosse “folded” under the pressure of the “African American community and political opponents” when they mayor said Battaglia shouldn’t run for reelection. Battaglia said he visited the homes of Labrosse and Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino to share his story with two eyewitnesses, but refuse to support him because of political pressure.
“As a result, I feel I have no choice but to step down from my position as councilman, with the effective date to be determined later,” Battaglia said in a release.
Pressure for Battaglia’s ouster grew Friday when Johnson called for his resignation.
“As the first Black State Senator from Bergen County, I am both deeply disturbed and outraged by the reported racist comments of Councilman Leo Battaglia,” Johnson said in the release. “His statement is not only offensive but perpetuates the harmful and outdated stereotypes that have no place in our communities, in public office or in modern society.”
Labrosse said in a release Friday that Battaglia refused to apologize to Holder for the remarks, despite demands from city officials for an apology.
“This is the first instance that we are aware of where he has been accused of making any racially insensitive statements, and he has been facing challenges in his personal life that we feel may have contributed to this situation,” Labrosse said in the release. “But it’s clear to us that he made a mistake and needs to take accountability, and that now we should come together as one city and try to put this incident behind us.”
Battaglia isn’t the only councilman to be dropped from the mayor’s ticket in the past month.
Labrosse also dropped first-term councilman Gerald Carroll from the ticket in September. Carroll told the Bergen Record that Labrosse dropped him because he planned to speak out against Battaglia’s comments. Carroll told the Record he felt obligated to address the issue as the only Black member of the council and was dropped from the ticket when the mayor found out.
“It needed to be addressed. But they beat me to the punch by throwing me off the ticket,” Carroll told the Bergen Record. “I was totally shocked.”
Labrosse told the Bergen Record that Carroll planned to call the council racist, and so felt compelled to drop him.
“I took that to heart. I’m still hurting from it. So, yeah, you got bushwhacked, and so did we,” the mayor told the Bergen Record. “I’m the leader of the Labrosse team. It’s my name up there and you’re about to call me a racist, so I did what I thought was necessary to move forward.”