Hoboken’s elected officials are still sparring over an ethics ordinance, which was approved in a 6-2 vote at the Aug. 7 council meeting. It aimed to prevent city employees from using public property for political campaigning.
The latest development stems from Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s failure to sign the new legislation, sponsored by Councilman Mike DeFusco and Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, into law.
Despite the inaction, the legislation became law automatically on Aug. 22.
The Defusco/Fisher duo has long been at odds with the mayor. Defusco narrowly lost to Bhalla in the 2017 mayoral election.
Dueling press releases
“The Mayor and his administration have repeatedly misused taxpayer resources to advance their own political agendas,” DeFusco said. “Politics should never be operating out of City Hall … It’s alarming, though not surprising, that Mayor Bhalla would intentionally fail to put his signature on a piece of common-sense legislation that bars city employees from performing political activities during business hours on the taxpayers’ dime.”
Echoing DeFusco, Fisher said that Bhalla “chose the ‘no action’ approach, allowing the ordinance to become law without his signature. Now, we will hopefully begin to see an end to the repeated politicking out of City Hall, particularly in the Mayor’s own office, where his communication director Vijay Chaudhuri uses his taxpayer funded position to make defamatory and politically charged statements.”
Spokesperson Chaudhuri said, “The City’s Corporation Counsel advised Mayor Bhalla a portion of the ordinance pertaining to the prohibition on the Mayor advising his opinion on a ballot question, while permitting the Council members to do so, is unlawful. Given this, both the Corporation Counsel as well as Mayor Bhalla did not sign the ordinance.”
According to the ordinance, the city council is allowed to support or oppose a ballot proposition during an open public meeting as long as the notice of the meeting includes the title of the ballot proposition. It also permits an elected official to provide a statement in support or opposition to any ballot proposition as long as it is in an open press conference or in response to a specific inquiry.
“The City Council is only permitted to discuss ballot questions at a published public meeting because the governing body is responsible for voting whether or not to bring the measure to the ballot,” said Caitlin Mota, spokesperson for DeFusco. “Mayor Bhalla, like every other resident of Hoboken, is entitled to share his position on important issues. What he cannot do is use taxpayer-funded or gifted resources for political gain, much like he did when voters overwhelmingly chose to bring runoff elections back to Hoboken.”
Chaudhuri responded, “Instead of launching their usual political attacks at the Mayor, they should work toward real ethics reform, which includes addressing the rampant vote-buying brought to light through the corruption trial of Frank Raia, one of DeFusco’s largest political donors. Until this occurs, their antics are nothing more than petty politics during an election season.”
“Petty politics is the tool of choice for Vijay who is the spokesperson for the City of Hoboken and always seems to forget he is no longer the mayor’s campaign manager,” Fisher shot back. “His response is exactly the kind of line-crossing that this ordinance is meant to stop.”
Council members Emily Jabbour and Jim Doyle who ran with Bhalla for his mayoral election in 2017 issued a joint statement, opposing the ethics ordinance:
“Councilwoman Fisher and Councilman DeFusco’s nettlesome nonsense regarding ‘Ethics Reform’ is nothing more than sophomoric political grandstanding,” the council members said. “The tone and petty swipes at the mayor’s staff betray their true, election-year intent.” They charged that the two were tempted to “‘lard up” a legitimate fix with other unreasonable and unlawful provisions … these include a provision restricting the Mayor’s right to express himself on significant public (not political) issues while granting it to the council…”
Alleged violation
While the ethics battle rages, First Ward resident Michael Watson, who is on the Hoboken Democratic Committee, filed an ethics complaint with the state’s Department of Community Affairs on Aug. 23 against DeFusco, claiming he violated his own ordinance by performing political activities during official city business on the taxpayers’ dime.
The complaint stems from a DeFusco Twitter post at 7:23 p.m. during the Hoboken City Council meeting on Aug. 7.
“Packed Council chamber for a rainy August night. Come out to #Hoboken City Hall, have your voice heard” read the tweet accompanied by a photo of council chambers.
“When Councilman DeFusco, a city employee making over $35,000 in taxpayer dollars (salary and city health benefits), took a photograph in Council Chambers during an official meeting of the City Council and then posted that photograph on his political campaign social media platforms during the meeting, he violated the City Ordinance that he, himself, drafted and touted,” the complaint states. “It is clear that during the official Hoboken City Council meeting described, Councilman DeFusco spent his time advancing his own political interests via his campaign social media with photographs he himself took at the meeting.”
In response to the allegations, Mota said the complaint “is nothing more than a bogus allegation against Councilman DeFusco, who used his non-governmental Facebook page to encourage residents to attend arguably the most important City Council meeting of the year.”
During the meeting, the council introduced an ordinance which would allow the city to acquire Union Dry Dock through eminent domain and passed a resolution to enter into a settlement agreement with the developers of the Monarch Property.
For updates on this and other stories keep checking www.hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Marilyn Baer can be reached at Marilynb@hudsonreporter.com.
