HOBOKEN — On Friday, Feb. 23 Mayor Ravi Bhalla released his contract with an out-of-town law firm with whom he has taken a part-time “of counsel” job, in which he will mentor young attorneys.
This comes after the City Council majority on Wednesday asked him various questions about whether the job will take away from his full-time duties as mayor.
A week ago Friday, the law firm of Lavery, Selvaggi, Abromitis & Cohen, P.C. announced that Bhalla had joined their Morristown-based firm in an “of counsel” role. Council members were concerned, noting that on Nov. 3, a week before he won the mayoralty, Bhalla said in an interview with hmag that he’d “be working full-time for the people of Hoboken, severing my employment with [his previous] law firm.”
In Hoboken, the office of mayor is considered full-time job and comes with a $116,000 salary. (Mayors in several smaller Hudson County towns do the job part-time and earn less than $40,000.)
Bhalla responded on Friday.
“In keeping with my commitment to open government and transparency, today I am publicly providing my ‘of counsel agreement’ with Lavery, Selvaggi, Ambromitis, & Cohen, P.C, a small Hackettstown-based law firm serving clients in Sussex, Warren and Morris Counties,” said Bhalla in a press release. “While there is no requirement that I release this contract, I believe it is important to go the extra mile and provide robust public disclosure.”
According to the agreement, Bhalla will be compensated $60,000. He can also be compensated for bringing new clients to the firm. The agreement states that he will receive 20 percent of all gross revenue paid by the client in excess of $60,000 plus 15 percent of all gross revenue in excess of $750,000.
Bhalla said, “I will not be practicing law, but rather will serve as a resource to other attorneys at the firm, providing advice from time to time. I particularly look forward to being a mentor to young lawyers at the firm. The arrangement will be periodically reviewed by corporation counsel to ensure that no conflicts emerge. This is similar to my recent decision to continue my term as a Trustee of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey.”
He said the new job will not interfere with his full-time commitment to Hoboken and that since his inauguration he has already accomplished a lot.
“I am often the first one to arrive in the office and the last one to leave,” said Bhalla in the release. “I assure you that will not change. I know it takes a full-time mayor to secure $1 million of state funding for transportation projects—a significant upgrade over previous years. It takes a full-time mayor to upgrade Madison Park and successfully crack down on those bars that flout our laws and harm our quality of life.”
“While I am proud of what we have accomplished in six short weeks, we could get so much more done with a council that worked cooperatively with me to move Hoboken forward,’ Bhalla added. “It is now more than three months since the November election. It is time to put it behind us and work for the best interests of the City we all love. I know if we do so, Hoboken’s best days are yet to come.”
Read more about this issue, and many others, in this weekend’s print edition of the Hoboken Reporter, or come to hudsonreporter.com.
