The City Council has passed a resolution to allow voters to determine next November how they will hold future elections.
The majority of the council voted (7-2) to let the public determine later this year whether the city should go back to holding runoff elections for mayor and council, which were eliminated by public referendum in 2012. In the past, when more than two candidates were running for local office, the top two vote-getters would compete in a runoff election a few weeks later (unless one candidate commanded more than 50 percent of the vote). This led to longer elections, more costs, and more political wrangling.
But now that the last mayoral election, with six candidates, resulted in the winner (Mayor Ravi Bhalla) getting only around a third of the vote, most of the council wants to go back to some version of runoffs.
The question is, which version? On Wednesday, the council also unanimously passed a resolution urging the state legislature to consider allowing instant runoff elections, which would mean a winner would be chosen on Election Day rather than a few weeks later in a separate election.
This past Wednesday’s council vote negates Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s veto in January of a prior attempt to put runoffs on the ballot.
Bhalla said he was concerned with potential voter drop-off as well as illegal activity related to the election.
In fact, he has attempted to paint those voting in favor of runoffs as being also in favor of vote-buying. However, accusations of vote-buying have been made in Hoboken in regular elections in the past as well.
Councilman Jim Doyle and Councilwoman Emily Jabbour voted against the 7-2 override.
Jabbour has been a proponent for instant runoffs instead, and wrote a resolution with Councilwoman Jennifer Giattino urging the state legislature to permit them in New Jersey. In an instant runoff, instead of voting for a single candidate, voters rank the candidates in order of preference. Ballots are initially counted for each voter’s top choice, losing candidates or those with the least votes are eliminated, and ballots for losing candidates are redistributed until one candidate is the top remaining choice of a majority of the voters.

Public asks for override

Nine residents spoke at the meeting about runoff elections. Most were in favor of a referendum, including former council members Dave Mello and Michael Lenz. Mello ran for council on Freeholder Anthony Romano’s mayoral ticket in November, and had been a Zimmer ally in the past but was sometimes independent while on the council. Lenz supported Giattino’s campaign.
They both said last November’s election was divisive and the public should be able to vote in a referendum on whether to reinstate runoff elections.
“It’s true, that we have dealt with some level of election fraud in this city, but a lot of other things are also true,” said Mello. “It’s true that now-Mayor Bhalla sent out extremely negative Republican-bashing mailer after Republican-bashing mailer, mailers that directly bashed my former colleague, Councilwoman Giattino, drawing attention away from the issues that you truly should be grappling, with and moving to the worst of what electorates tend to be about: hate for somebody that’s different than us.”
“December runoffs have their problems, but eliminating the runoff entirely created an even bigger [problem],” said Lenz. “One that nobody anticipated when we made the switch from May to November that without intending to, we have created a situation where running a divisive campaign, narrowly focused, is the surest path to victory.”
Resident Franz Paetzold said he would probably be more in favor of instant runoffs should they be enabled by the state legislature, but that he feels the people should be the ones to decide if runoff elections should be brought back.
“While it may be true that there are fewer voters vote in the runoff because it is in December, in contrast to [the general election in] November … it is also true that more focus will be on the local runoff election if it is the only thing on the ballot,” said resident Dan Tumpson.
Peter Bologna, who moved to town two years ago, was the only resident to speak in favor of the veto. “I believe an examination of the evidence shows that runoff elections opens the door for improper interference and manipulation of a free voting public,” said Bologna, who added that his vote means a lot to him and should be treated as such.

Council discusses the vote

Each councilperson also weighed in on the issue before casting their vote.
Doyle, who ran with Bhalla, said he felt that the referendum shouldn’t be on the ballot in November as there wouldn’t be much else on the ballot. He cited a statement made by Councilman Michael DeFusco calling Bhalla’s veto a “cynical ploy.” He noted, “There’s a conscious decision to put this vote up in the year with the historically least amount of turnout.”
DeFusco responded, “I called it a cynical ploy after the mayor issued his veto because he spread half truths and this is a smokescreen by this current administration and his council colleagues, the two that sit on this board, to distract from the real issue,and the real issue is that we had a mayor elected with 32 percent of the vote.”
Council President Ruben Ramos, who teaches history, said that Hoboken is the only municipality in New Jersey in which a mayor doesn’t need to be elected with more than 50 percent of the vote.
DeFusco also read a leaked text message between the mayor, one of the mayor’s relatives, and others in which the relative said, “Great job with the mayoral veto memo. Important public education moment and opportunity to box in our opponents. We know an override will happen, in that scenario it makes sense to take the opportunity to shape the frame of the discussion and for our opponents to have to respond to the frame we set.” The relative does not hold a government position, so the reference to “our” opponents is unclear. Bhalla’s responses were brief and don’t use any language about strategy or opponents.
“This is the type of a cynical ploy I was talking about,” said DeFusco. “This ordinance merely offered up a question to the voters, who are then to answer, ‘Do we want to select one of two people or do we want deeply entrenched politicians introducing spoilers into an election so that the will of the majority is never heard?’ ”
Councilwoman Emily Jabbour cited her experience on the rainy election day last November as one of the reasons she was against the referendum. She said people in the campaign were worried about voter turnout once the rain began, and that in December, the chance for snow would decrease turnout.
“By the time we got to November I think the entire city was sick of hearing from most of the people out there campaigning,” she said.
“I know, the last administration, Mayor Zimmer was very good at creating a boogeyman to produce her success,” Ramos said, “to say ‘That person’s evil, that person’s bad, that person’s no good. You have to vote for me because I’ll protect you,’ and Mayor Bhalla is looking to follow the same playbook.”

Mayor says he knows of fraud

In response to the council’s override, Mayor Ravi Bhalla issued a statement through a spokesman, implying malfeasance. “On the issue of reducing voter fraud, last night Council Members Cunningham, Fisher, and Giattino have chosen to align themselves with Council Members DeFusco, Ramos and other beneficiaries of voter fraud.”
When city spokesman Juan Melli was asked what evidence he had that councilmen had been “beneficiaries” of fraud and which authorities they had reported the fraud to, Melli sent a link to a Hoboken Reporter article from nearly eight years ago, “Attorney General to probe 4th Ward votes” which details a 4th Ward election and 190 “suspicious” ballots sent to the attorney general for investigation. The article does not mention either DeFusco or Ramos.
When asked about the council people specifically, Melli responded, stating “In the specific instance referenced in that story, then-Councilman Bhalla submitted extensive affidavits and evidence of voter fraud regarding the candidate Councilman Ramos supported in the election. He reported it to the Hudson County Prosecutors Office, which referred it to the Attorney General’s office. He also personally met with and reported this voter fraud to the FBI.”
“Mayor Bhalla is talking about a systemic problem of paying large numbers of election day workers, which amounts to paying for a vote,” Melli added. “This has benefited some candidates more than others and is a problem a December runoff will make worse. He is not making any specific accusation of voter fraud.”
After reading Melli’s statement earlier, DeFusco responded, “This false, disgusting smear is the latest proof that Mayor Bhalla is totally disinterested in working with the City Council to bring Hoboken together and is instead intent on wasting taxpayer resources on completely unsubstantiated, divisive political attacks. For a mayor to use a taxpayer-funded spokesman to spread lies and deceit without any credible evidence borders on libel.”
“Mayor Bhalla,” he continued, “should be ashamed of himself for engaging in a Trump-like level of deceit and sleaze that is doing nothing to heal the wounds in our community. Mayor Bhalla should be using his first months in office to solve the problems our city faces like fixing Washington Street, not on petty political drama.”
“By now we are all aware that Mayor Bhalla has no problem in utilizing gutter politics and is once again making false accusations without any evidence to sully anyone who dare challenge him,” said Ramos in response.
Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher said, “The texts are troubling and the mayor’s statement is…reckless. It’s really a shame because the council has been working really well with the administration on all issues important to residents.”
Councilman Peter Cunningham, who supported Giattino for mayor, said, “Given the divisive nature of the elections, I have been very sensitive to my 5th Ward constituents and their concerns about having a collaborative relationship with Mayor Bhalla. We can agree to disagree on this run-off election matter, but for the mayor to say one thing and do another is disappointing. His tone does not reflect the collaborative relationship that I have and will continue to work toward.”
“I find it really disheartening that the mayor met with the three of us and talked about collaborating and working together, which is exactly what I think good government should do, and then came out with a statement that’s so divisive,” said Councilwoman Jen Giattino. “ I was definitely surprised. You talk about working with people and then don’t actually talk to them about this. You just put out a statement like that.”

Marilyn Baer can be reached at marilynb@hudsonreporter.com.

Former Council President Campos found guilty of fraud Thursday

Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced in a press release that a federal jury had found former Hoboken Council President and attorney Christopher Campos, age 40,  guilty of bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. 

 Campos was charged in 2016. “Campos and his co-conspirators fraudulently obtained millions of dollars in car loans by using at least 20 straw buyers to acquire more than 200 new automobiles based on false representations that, among other things, the straw buyers would use the cars for their personal use when, in truth and in fact Campos and his co-conspirators obtained the vehicles in order to lease as livery cabs,” sates the release.

Campos served on the Hoboken City Council from 2001 to 2007. Also, in 2014 he served as a $35,000-$40,000-per-year full-time aide to former Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia. 

 Campos is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 20 and could face up to 30 years in prison.  

Campo’s co-defendant, Julio Alvarez, pleaded guilty to bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud on June 9 and he will be sentenced on Sept. 8.

 “As a unanimous jury found, Christopher Campos, an attorney and former Hoboken City Council president, defrauded lenders out of millions of dollars,” said Kim. “He recruited straw buyers to obtain loans for cars supposedly for ‘personal use,’ when in fact they made up a fleet of over 200 vehicles Campos and his co-conspirators leased to livery drivers. Campos now awaits sentencing for this massive fraud.”

 In total, the scheme carried out by Campos (a Hoboken native who now lives in Palisades Park), Alvarez, and others involved at least approximately 20 straw buyers, the purchase of more than approximately 200 new vehicles, and more than $7 million in fraudulently obtained loans from a variety of financial institutions.

Mother of Hoboken’s Cake Boss dies, age 69

Mary Valastro, mother of TLC’s “Cake Boss” star Buddy Valastro, died Thursday morning after a long battle with ALS at the age of 69. 

ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gherig’s Disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that weakens muscles, impacts physical function, and is always fatal. There is no cure.

According to the ALS Association, a little over 6,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year and it is estimated that as many as 20,000 Americans have the disease at any given time.

Buddy Valastro, whose Hoboken bakery spawned a TV show and franchises, took to social media after her passing. 
 “It’s with an extremely heavy heart that I must share the news of my mother’s passing. She left for heaven this morning, surrounded by the family. This is a difficult time for all of us and I do ask for your patience and respect while we let this sink in. Her battle with ALS has ended, she is no longer suffering and I hope she’s dancing to ‘I Will Survive” with my dad right now.’ he wrote on Instagram. 

Buddy Valastro took over Carlo’s Bakery when his father died in 1994 and turned it into a popular tourist attraction and brand opening several more locations, a line of bakeware, cookbooks and of course a reality tv show. 

His mother, who appeared in the early seasons of the show, retired after her diagnoses in 2012.

First class of eighth graders graduates Hoboken Dual Language Charter School

Hoboken Dual Language Charter School (HoLa) graduated its first class of eighth graders on Monday, June 19, an historic achievement for the school. The students started their journey with HoLa as second graders in 2010 when the school opened.

Charter schools are public schools that are founded by community members, teachers, and parents.

The school has been the subject of a lawsuit by the Hoboken Board of Education. In 2015, the school board sued the state to prevent HoLa’s expansion to eighth grade, the board majority arguing that the charter schools siphon too much money and resources from the other public schools.

 So far, the outcome has favored HoLa, as the NJ Department of Education granted the schools’ expansion.

 The case is currently awaiting a decision by the state’s Appellate Court, which heard oral arguments in May.

The ceremony attracted several politicians: Mayor Dawn Zimmer and Freeholder Anthony Romano, both of whom spoke at the ceremony, as well as council members Ruben Ramos, Michael DeFusco, and Ravi Bhalla. More than 50 percent of those are running for mayor.

The commencement speaker was Carlos Lejnieks, Hoboken resident and executive director of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Essex, Hudson and Union counties.

The New Jersey Department of Education designated the school a Model World Languages School for two terms in a row—a distinction our school still holds.

HoLa is also the first charter school in the state to implement a low-income preference in its lottery, a spokesperson said. Over 400 students apply for 44 kindergarten spots every year.

Hudson County CASA is seeking volunteers

Learn how to become a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer and help foster children find safe and permanent homes. The next information session will be at Little City Books at 100 Bloomfield St., Hoboken, on Tuesday, June 27 at 7 p.m.

Hudson County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is a non-profit organization committed to advocating for the best interests of abused and neglected children. CASA works through trained community volunteers to ensure that needed services and assistance are made available to children while helping to move them toward safe and permanent homes. Hudson County CASA volunteers are everyday people who make a direct impact in foster children’s lives. They are trusted, dedicated adults who seek to improve children’s well-being. CASA volunteers get to know their assigned child and his or her circumstances and provide valuable information to the court. Judges rely on the volunteers’ recommendations to make the best decisions about the children’s futures. 

For further information, visit www.hudsoncountycasa.org

Hoboken Historical Museum hosts talk with Ramapough-Linape Indian Nation representatives

The Hoboken Historical Museum will welcome two representatives, Owl and Two Clouds, from the Ramapough-Lenape Indian Nation to speak about their history and the significance of their Split Rock Sweetwater Prayer Camp in Mahwah, NJ.  The talk will take place at the Museum, 1301 Hudson St., on Sunday, June 25, at 4 p.m., and admission is free. 

The Ramapough are descendants of a nation of indigenous Lenape people whose ancestral lands included the western banks of the Hudson River where Hoboken now sits, and whose language gave rise to the city’s name, a Dutch interpretation of “Hopoghan Hackingh,” or “Land of the Tobacco Pipe.”

In October 2016, they formed the Split Rock Sweetwater Prayer Camp in Mahwah, formed in solidarity with the Standing Rock Indian Reservation out West, to educate the public on the impending crises of the oil and natural gas pipelines that threaten the water supply there.

Celebrate the historic game of baseball

On Saturday, June 24, at noon, the 1859 Hoboken Base Ball Club (formerly known as the Hoboken Nine) will commemorate the historic game of June 19, 1846, played by the New York Nine and Knickerbockers that is widely regarded as the birth of modern baseball. The Hoboken squad will play the Chesepeak 9 at Stevens Institute of Technology’s Dobbelaar field and admission is free. The game will be played using the original rules from 171 years ago. Visit https://hobokennine.jimdo.com/

PSE&G to begin electric reliability work

Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G), will begin construction on new critical underground electrical infrastructure in Hoboken as part of the utility’s Madison Street Substation Project. This work is part of the overall plan for the station to ensure reliable electric service for residents and businesses in the area.

Construction is planned to begin on or around Monday, June 26, and will continue through December of 2017.

Construction will occur between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays.  Work preparation may begin at 8:30 a.m. on Saturdays. Road closures will not take place prior to 9 a.m.

For questions, call 1-800-901-5035 or visit pseg.com/hoboken.

Fundraiser for charity that helps needy with legal services

Over 150 people attended the Fourth Annual “Justice for All” Fundraiser in Jersey City on June 20 in support of The Waterfront Project, Inc., a nonprofit in Hudson County that provides free legal services to low-income residents.  The signature event featured a tribute to its founder, Monsignor Robert Meyer, Pastor of the Catholic Community of Saints Peter and Paul in Hoboken.

The project started in Hoboken.

“In just the last 12 months, The Waterfront Project grew from a part-time staff of two to a full-time staff of five, serving close to 200 residents a month and more than doubling its operating and fundraising budgets,” stated Board President Isabel Chou.  She said the growth “really speaks to an underserved need in Hudson County.”

Monsignor Meyer developed the idea of a free legal clinic when he observed the development of high-rises, brownstones and condos along the waterfront, in stark contrast with a growing homeless population.

Local Girl Scout troop urges residents to help save the bees

Hoboken Girl Scout Troop 12032 educated community members about the importance of bees and how to help sustain the bee population at Rummage and Ruffage last Saturday. 

Part of their outreach efforts as they work to earn their Girl Scout Bronze Award, the girls researched the issue, wrote informational flyers, and produced and distributed seed bombs.

Seed bombs are hardy, pebble-sized nuggets of dirt, clay and organic seeds for local flowers that will attract bees and promote pollination.

On Saturday the girls also had children’s activities including seed planting.

“The bee population has been in decline in recent years. If this continues unchecked, crops including coffee and many fruits and vegetables would be negatively impacted,” according to the release.

The City Council has passed a resolution to allow voters to determine next November how they will hold future elections.
The majority of the council voted (7-2) to let the public determine later this year whether the city should go back to holding runoff elections for mayor and council, which were eliminated by public referendum in 2012. In the past, when more than two candidates were running for local office, the top two vote-getters would compete in a runoff election a few weeks later (unless one candidate commanded more than 50 percent of the vote). This led to longer elections, more costs, and more political wrangling.
But now that the last mayoral election, with six candidates, resulted in the winner (Mayor Ravi Bhalla) getting only around a third of the vote, most of the council wants to go back to some version of runoffs.
The question is, which version? On Wednesday, the council also unanimously passed a resolution urging the state legislature to consider allowing instant runoff elections, which would mean a winner would be chosen on Election Day rather than a few weeks later in a separate election.
This past Wednesday’s council vote negates Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s veto in January of a prior attempt to put runoffs on the ballot.
Bhalla said he was concerned with potential voter drop-off as well as illegal activity related to the election.
In fact, he has attempted to paint those voting in favor of runoffs as being also in favor of vote-buying. However, accusations of vote-buying have been made in Hoboken in regular elections in the past as well.
Councilman Jim Doyle and Councilwoman Emily Jabbour voted against the 7-2 override.
Jabbour has been a proponent for instant runoffs instead, and wrote a resolution with Councilwoman Jennifer Giattino urging the state legislature to permit them in New Jersey. In an instant runoff, instead of voting for a single candidate, voters rank the candidates in order of preference. Ballots are initially counted for each voter’s top choice, losing candidates or those with the least votes are eliminated, and ballots for losing candidates are redistributed until one candidate is the top remaining choice of a majority of the voters.

Public asks for override

Nine residents spoke at the meeting about runoff elections. Most were in favor of a referendum, including former council members Dave Mello and Michael Lenz. Mello ran for council on Freeholder Anthony Romano’s mayoral ticket in November, and had been a Zimmer ally in the past but was sometimes independent while on the council. Lenz supported Giattino’s campaign.
They both said last November’s election was divisive and the public should be able to vote in a referendum on whether to reinstate runoff elections.
“It’s true, that we have dealt with some level of election fraud in this city, but a lot of other things are also true,” said Mello. “It’s true that now-Mayor Bhalla sent out extremely negative Republican-bashing mailer after Republican-bashing mailer, mailers that directly bashed my former colleague, Councilwoman Giattino, drawing attention away from the issues that you truly should be grappling, with and moving to the worst of what electorates tend to be about: hate for somebody that’s different than us.”
“December runoffs have their problems, but eliminating the runoff entirely created an even bigger [problem],” said Lenz. “One that nobody anticipated when we made the switch from May to November that without intending to, we have created a situation where running a divisive campaign, narrowly focused, is the surest path to victory.”
Resident Franz Paetzold said he would probably be more in favor of instant runoffs should they be enabled by the state legislature, but that he feels the people should be the ones to decide if runoff elections should be brought back.
“While it may be true that there are fewer voters vote in the runoff because it is in December, in contrast to [the general election in] November … it is also true that more focus will be on the local runoff election if it is the only thing on the ballot,” said resident Dan Tumpson.
Peter Bologna, who moved to town two years ago, was the only resident to speak in favor of the veto. “I believe an examination of the evidence shows that runoff elections opens the door for improper interference and manipulation of a free voting public,” said Bologna, who added that his vote means a lot to him and should be treated as such.

Council discusses the vote

Each councilperson also weighed in on the issue before casting their vote.
Doyle, who ran with Bhalla, said he felt that the referendum shouldn’t be on the ballot in November as there wouldn’t be much else on the ballot. He cited a statement made by Councilman Michael DeFusco calling Bhalla’s veto a “cynical ploy.” He noted, “There’s a conscious decision to put this vote up in the year with the historically least amount of turnout.”
DeFusco responded, “I called it a cynical ploy after the mayor issued his veto because he spread half truths and this is a smokescreen by this current administration and his council colleagues, the two that sit on this board, to distract from the real issue,and the real issue is that we had a mayor elected with 32 percent of the vote.”
Council President Ruben Ramos, who teaches history, said that Hoboken is the only municipality in New Jersey in which a mayor doesn’t need to be elected with more than 50 percent of the vote.
DeFusco also read a leaked text message between the mayor, one of the mayor’s relatives, and others in which the relative said, “Great job with the mayoral veto memo. Important public education moment and opportunity to box in our opponents. We know an override will happen, in that scenario it makes sense to take the opportunity to shape the frame of the discussion and for our opponents to have to respond to the frame we set.” The relative does not hold a government position, so the reference to “our” opponents is unclear. Bhalla’s responses were brief and don’t use any language about strategy or opponents.
“This is the type of a cynical ploy I was talking about,” said DeFusco. “This ordinance merely offered up a question to the voters, who are then to answer, ‘Do we want to select one of two people or do we want deeply entrenched politicians introducing spoilers into an election so that the will of the majority is never heard?’ ”
Councilwoman Emily Jabbour cited her experience on the rainy election day last November as one of the reasons she was against the referendum. She said people in the campaign were worried about voter turnout once the rain began, and that in December, the chance for snow would decrease turnout.
“By the time we got to November I think the entire city was sick of hearing from most of the people out there campaigning,” she said.
“I know, the last administration, Mayor Zimmer was very good at creating a boogeyman to produce her success,” Ramos said, “to say ‘That person’s evil, that person’s bad, that person’s no good. You have to vote for me because I’ll protect you,’ and Mayor Bhalla is looking to follow the same playbook.”

Mayor says he knows of fraud

In response to the council’s override, Mayor Ravi Bhalla issued a statement through a spokesman, implying malfeasance. “On the issue of reducing voter fraud, last night Council Members Cunningham, Fisher, and Giattino have chosen to align themselves with Council Members DeFusco, Ramos and other beneficiaries of voter fraud.”
When city spokesman Juan Melli was asked what evidence he had that councilmen had been “beneficiaries” of fraud and which authorities they had reported the fraud to, Melli sent a link to a Hoboken Reporter article from nearly eight years ago, “Attorney General to probe 4th Ward votes” which details a 4th Ward election and 190 “suspicious” ballots sent to the attorney general for investigation. The article does not mention either DeFusco or Ramos.
When asked about the council people specifically, Melli responded, stating “In the specific instance referenced in that story, then-Councilman Bhalla submitted extensive affidavits and evidence of voter fraud regarding the candidate Councilman Ramos supported in the election. He reported it to the Hudson County Prosecutors Office, which referred it to the Attorney General’s office. He also personally met with and reported this voter fraud to the FBI.”
“Mayor Bhalla is talking about a systemic problem of paying large numbers of election day workers, which amounts to paying for a vote,” Melli added. “This has benefited some candidates more than others and is a problem a December runoff will make worse. He is not making any specific accusation of voter fraud.”
After reading Melli’s statement earlier, DeFusco responded, “This false, disgusting smear is the latest proof that Mayor Bhalla is totally disinterested in working with the City Council to bring Hoboken together and is instead intent on wasting taxpayer resources on completely unsubstantiated, divisive political attacks. For a mayor to use a taxpayer-funded spokesman to spread lies and deceit without any credible evidence borders on libel.”
“Mayor Bhalla,” he continued, “should be ashamed of himself for engaging in a Trump-like level of deceit and sleaze that is doing nothing to heal the wounds in our community. Mayor Bhalla should be using his first months in office to solve the problems our city faces like fixing Washington Street, not on petty political drama.”
“By now we are all aware that Mayor Bhalla has no problem in utilizing gutter politics and is once again making false accusations without any evidence to sully anyone who dare challenge him,” said Ramos in response.
Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher said, “The texts are troubling and the mayor’s statement is…reckless. It’s really a shame because the council has been working really well with the administration on all issues important to residents.”
Councilman Peter Cunningham, who supported Giattino for mayor, said, “Given the divisive nature of the elections, I have been very sensitive to my 5th Ward constituents and their concerns about having a collaborative relationship with Mayor Bhalla. We can agree to disagree on this run-off election matter, but for the mayor to say one thing and do another is disappointing. His tone does not reflect the collaborative relationship that I have and will continue to work toward.”
“I find it really disheartening that the mayor met with the three of us and talked about collaborating and working together, which is exactly what I think good government should do, and then came out with a statement that’s so divisive,” said Councilwoman Jen Giattino. “ I was definitely surprised. You talk about working with people and then don’t actually talk to them about this. You just put out a statement like that.”

Marilyn Baer can be reached at marilynb@hudsonreporter.com.