"BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, Councilwoman Fisher shall be designated the Chairperson of the ad hoc committee, who will be the presiding officer at the hearings and possesses the power to issue, execute, or direct subpoenas on behalf of the committee as deemed necessary."
You cannot make this shit up!
GA didn't!
This verbiage comes from a Resolution sponsored byBeth Mason Tiffanie "Torquemada" Fisher, to form a kangaroo court "ad hoc committee"of four Councilpersons: Mike Russo, Ruben Ramos, Peter Cunningham and Tiffanie Fisher to "investigate current* and proposed Suez agreement, specifically, the negotiations, the amount alleged due to Suez, and the decision not to budget for the alleged amount due."
Um, does Fisher realize that Ramos is conflicted out of investigating the contract amendment he approved as a Councilman in 2001?
Ramos would be a fact witness.
Did I mention that Tiffanie Fisher gave herself possession of powers to "issue, execute, or direct subpoenas"?"
Yeah, I did. At least, Senator Joseph McCarthy graduated law school.
What are Fisher's qualifications to grant herself powers to "issue" and "execute" subpoenas?
Is that even legal?
What does Corporation Counsel have to say?
This megalomaniacal grab of judicial powers by a legislator to investigate a sitting Mayor calls for investigation!
Moreover, this granting of subpoena powers raises all kinds of questions:
Tiffanie Fisher, with Council President Jen Giattino's consent, chose to grant quasi-judicial powers to investigate Mayor Zimmer to these individuals:
How's that for judgment? Not so good, right?
As has been reviewed as nauseum this week, the original contract was structured with a contingent liability, not a material liability.
Then on Wednesday. the Mayor issued a press release and numerous documents, including a Q&A, which not only absolve her from the accusations made at the Council shitshow, but make it clear that the renegotiated SUEZ contract is not as it was portrayed to be by a City Council's in a rush to set up a pre-election kangaroo court run by Tiffanie "Subpoena power" Fisher.
Stick a fork in Mayoral candidate Jen Giattino. Whoever came up with this plot should be fired from her campaign. Pronto.
This political maneuver stinks of everything good government is not supposed to be.
GA didn't!
This verbiage comes from a Resolution sponsored by
KANGAROO COURT RESOLUTION*
Hoboken City Council Resolution pack pp. 214, 215
http://www.hobokennj.gov/docs/council/respack17/9.19.17.respac.pdf
Hoboken City Council Resolution pack pp. 214, 215
http://www.hobokennj.gov/docs/council/respack17/9.19.17.respac.pdf
Um, does Fisher realize that Ramos is conflicted out of investigating the contract amendment he approved as a Councilman in 2001?
Ramos would be a fact witness.
 |
| HORRENDOUS 2001 2nd Amendment t APPROVED by 4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos |
Did I mention that Tiffanie Fisher gave herself possession of powers to "issue, execute, or direct subpoenas"?"
Yeah, I did. At least, Senator Joseph McCarthy graduated law school.
What are Fisher's qualifications to grant herself powers to "issue" and "execute" subpoenas?
Is that even legal?
What does Corporation Counsel have to say?
This megalomaniacal grab of judicial powers by a legislator to investigate a sitting Mayor calls for investigation!
Moreover, this granting of subpoena powers raises all kinds of questions:
- How did Council President Jen Giattino allow this? Fisher is also her mayoral campaign spokesperson.
- Why, oh why are Giattino, Cunningham and Fisher getting in bed with Mike Russo and Ruben Ramos?
Tiffanie Fisher, with Council President Jen Giattino's consent, chose to grant quasi-judicial powers to investigate Mayor Zimmer to these individuals:
MIKE RUSSO
RUBEN RAMOS
How's that for judgment? Not so good, right?
As has been reviewed as nauseum this week, the original contract was structured with a contingent liability, not a material liability.
Then on Wednesday. the Mayor issued a press release and numerous documents, including a Q&A, which not only absolve her from the accusations made at the Council shitshow, but make it clear that the renegotiated SUEZ contract is not as it was portrayed to be by a City Council's in a rush to set up a pre-election kangaroo court run by Tiffanie "Subpoena power" Fisher.
Stick a fork in Mayoral candidate Jen Giattino. Whoever came up with this plot should be fired from her campaign. Pronto.
This political maneuver stinks of everything good government is not supposed to be.
This can't be the actual resolution. I worked with Tiffanie on it and know for a fact it included the words "ExKYOOOS Me" and "With all dyooo respect" at least five times each.
ReplyDeleteNot that she doesn't write her own stuff.
All that hysteria for nothing. There's nothing on the agenda about Suez next week on the council.
DeleteSo, all the hyperventilating to get some answers on the Suez contract for nothing.
Remember when Reform was for transparency and getting financial details on big contracts?
Not for some.
And of course you don't find it the least bit peculiar that such a document made it into the meeting packet. Nope, not one bit. You don't at all care that it was drafted, who drafted it or what it contains b/c by your estimation it just was fabricated out of thin air and is meaningless. Is that what we are supposed to believe? Because I believe it is an absolute scummy move by some pretty scummy people playing the dirtiest kind of political games.
DeleteIf Giattino and Fisher are directing this sh*t show, the horsey seems like he's happy to be a good little pony to be ridden through it. Good bye credibility. The groundwork of a diversionary witch hunt has been set and Giattino and Fisher aren't backing down but rather picking up the pace. "Instead of renegotiating a bad deal for Hoboken's residents ASAP, this should be put off for the next Mayor. While we try to stoke publicity and appear to act for the public good." Sigh.
DeleteThe lot of them have crossed over to the dark side. They aren't OG, just something different and equally malevolent.
DeleteSmartyJones you have become a punchline. It's tragic.
DeleteHopefully by now everyone has had a good night's sleep and can focus on the task of unseeing our plans to implement the Team GiaFusco Pre-Election Junta.
DeleteThe sooner you unsee it, the sooner you can go back to thinking of us as pro-reform like yourselves and not some dark anti-democratic cabal with designs on using legal devices to punish our opponents and use city council meetings as campaign ads.
Just let your little malleable minds drift back to that happy moment.... What didn't know and when didn't you know it? Why, nothing at all. How happy you were then!
Night-time sleep is over. It's time for your day-time sleep. Drift off, little ones....
Unsee...Unsee...Unsee...Unsee...Unsee.
What did mother always say? Unseeing is unbelieving.
Make mother happy.
I'm also working with Jen, Tiffanie and Peter on their requests for council back pay if Jen loses.
ReplyDeletei never really had a problem with these council members, then more recently i came to question their actions and motives. now i just think they're a-holes.
ReplyDeleteIs this a joke? You have a CC member on that kangaroo court who is in part responsible for the mess and then the son of the mayor who negotiated the bad deal we are currently stuck in. Jen - if you are reading this, you and Tiffany are starting to look very very stupid right now. Stupid, unethical and downright slimy.
ReplyDeleteBoards in Hoboken have subpeona power; why wouldn't the city council as well? I mean, I know we're not supposed to question the current mayor...EVER....but...
ReplyDeleteTaking my satirical hat off for a second to express something I mean with utmost sincerity -
DeleteYou're a clown.
@indie, you honestly have no issue with russo (whose father made the original deal) and ramos (who voted for that deal) being on this committee? you're ok with that?
DeleteWell they really have no choice but to put hopelessly conflicted people on this kangaroo court. Do you really believe they want one of the honest CC members on the Kangaroo court? Do you think they want a lawyer who can rip the Fisher's arguments to shreds? Having an expert on the panel wouldn't serve their political interests at all and make it clear this whole thing is a farce. They also don't want it to appear too conflicted a panel so they are avoiding putting the mayoral candidates on it and the guy running on an opposing slate. But it is obvious the panel is still hopelessly conflicted - but hey, this is all gutter politics anyway. Not like they actually want real answers. This is all about pointing fingers, casting blame and making the mayor look bad. And I suspect Indie is all for that.......
DeleteIf it were true that council had that authority, then why the need for the ordinance? Because it isn't true, and the ordinance doesn't change anything and says a lot of how this group would govern. No one here believes the lies, the spin and the JG camp's motivations Indie, except you and the occasional mental fart from the linguistically-challenged Ho-beauken-doubt.
Deleteme: Did I say anything about Russo in my comment? I was responding to the subpeona item.
DeleteSGI: So I guess the truth makes you so angry that your retorts fall to the level of those of the equivalent of a 5-year old. No worries, I get it.
Oracle: I can't answer your question, I just know that I've served on a board that has subpeona power and has exercised it and that's a fact.
Jesus, everybody's so hysterical.
OK -- Truth time. This IS a joke, right??
ReplyDeleteNo. See above. I posted the resolution because I am hearing that Reform folks don't believe it's true. It's posted on the Hoboken City website. I searched resolution pack last night, its on pages 214, 215. See for yourself:
Deletehttp://www.hobokennj.gov/docs/council/respack17/9.19.17.respac.pdf
Anyone who votes for that farce of a resolution will never get my vote again. I am done with them. The mayor has more than answered their questions. This is all politics - all about trashing the mayor and Ravi by extension. It is absolutely disgusting.
DeleteI swear - elections really tell you who a person is inside and I am not at all liking what I am seeing from more than a few of these people.
I'm genuinely curious what makes them think they'll get a different outcome from their strategy than Mason did. The scheme is virtually identical to the hospital debacle, which was a colossal fail. Perhaps they think they can somehow learn from her mistakes and implement this more effectively. But the fact that Lenz spent so many years unsuccessfully courting some of her key consultants leads me to believe they know that's not the case.
DeleteI fully agree with "Da Ojo Rojo"..."this is all politics-all about trashing the Mayor and Ravi by extension."I truly cannot believe how craven Giattino, Fisher and Cunningham are. We all know what horrible Bottom Feeders Russo and Ramos have been...they have always been corrupt, up close and personal. No surprises there, Folks.
DeleteI am a retired attorney, having practiced corporate transactional law for many years. While I had no affinity for this type of legal practice, I DID learn quite quickly that "Accounting" is a lot more of an art than a science. A liability that needs to be entered on the books and records of the debtor is a liability, the existence of which is objective, absolute and beyond question. A "Contingent Liability", on the other hand, is a possible debt that may or may not come due at some point. Contingent liabilities need not be booked and accounted for until it becomes clear, in accordance with the weasle-like words of the accounting profession, that the liability is actually due and payable.
The Suez Water Contract Liability ("SWCL") is clearly a contingent liability at this point because Suez is currently treating it that way. The more that the totally ignorant members of the City Council...i.e., "Jen" Giattino, "Mike" DeFusco, Peter Cunningham (who clearly should know better) and the moronic crew of Mello, Ramos and Russo, keep telling the Whole Wide World that they believe the SWCL is clearly a debt that must be paid NOW, the more is the likelihood that the Accountants will decide to book it that way.
Way to go, "Jen" and "Mike"!!! Lord, deliver us from these MORONS!!!
@reformbaseball - I think this is purely diversionary. I truly don't think that Jen and Tiff believe there is merit in trashing the Mayor or Ravi other than distracting the public while creating separation from themselves and the current Administration. Mikey is a f*cking moron. I think he believes in what his advisors are saying and he's basically a mouth piece for hate against the Administration. That he can join in on bashing anyone else is a plus and if he has a reason to get up on a pedestal, he will - to remain relevant (because honestly, what the f*ck has he really accomplished!?).
Deleterudydawg - thank you for shedding light on the hysteria from the camp you're in. I get it now, the thing that's being spread to the Whole Wide World by your camp is apparently that Jen, Tiffanie and Peter are saying that this debt must be paid NOW. I haven't heard a single one of them say any such thing. Can you point to the article, the quote, the post or anything else where that's what they said? What I've heard is that there is a debt and it was not disclosed.
DeleteIndieCom, I am not from a hysterical camp. I truly am fed up with the Crap from your Side. Same Crap...12 years and counting! Puleez...when I said "Now", in the fanciful world of Accounting, that does not mean today or even tomorrow. Why don't you look it up? Duh!
DeleteIt is simply fascinating to watch people hear the same words, read the same points and still lack the ability to comprehend what they're being told. I thought Tiffanie was an accountant? How rudydawg, an admitted lawyer who dealt with accounting but not an accountant, understand this better than Tiffanie? I just don't get it. Even I understand what's happening here, and I merely stayed at a Holiday Inn last night.
DeleteAfter reading all of today's posts, I'm in the camp of reform needs to oust the non-reformy reformers. And that means Jen & her ilk have got to go.
IMO, it's become pretty clear why Zimmer picked Ravi to succeed her.
DeleteIMO, the measure of a person's intelligence can be gauged in how quickly they go ask more knowledgeable people for advice when confronted with a question they absolutely don't know the answer to. There are a lot of really dumb people over on the other side who prefer to remain ignorant out of political expediency or just outright stubbornness. Oh well, we all know for sure who not to vote for this time around.
DeleteI really like the way you think, snoopy! You are one really smart beagle.
DeleteYup, and Ravi, please do a better job of finding candidates to support going forward.
DeleteI am going to criticize Zimmer a bit here. She did a poor job of finding people who shared her values and deserved our votes. The recent actions of these faux reformers have shown us all how undeserving of our support they truly are. Zimmer meant well but clearly it did not work out as intended.
Let's bear in mind it's not like there are people beating down the mayor's door looking to put their reputations, savings, family lives and mental health in jeopardy all for the perk of staying out until 3 a.m. every other Wednesday listening to the worst people in the world.
DeleteIf nothing else, Jen popping onto the radar when she did saved us from Joe Branco. Past "reform" candidates in the 6th included Tom Foley, who wound up goinh through a messy bank fraud arrest and eventual acquittal, Bill Noonan, who is definitely NOT our friend, and Daniel De Cavignac, who was all over the map and eventually left town. Slim pickins.
Kurta would have been a major coup in the first, but for a variety of reasons, his campaign sputtered, opening the door for DeFusco.
Before Peter ran in 07, the last "reform" candidate in the 5th was Ines Garcia Keim, who later moved to the 2nd, partly to position herself to inherit that seat when Mason became mayor.
The "reform" candidate in the 4th was Soares, who is what he is. Pinchevsky was a born triangulator if I ever saw one. Dana did yeoman's work in the HHA and deserves a medal, but politically she's 1000% on the wrong side of this and there's zero doubt if she'd won she'd be part of the inquisition. A perfect case study in how hard it is to really know people in this ambition-fueled realm until the shit really hits the fan.
3rd ward has often gone uncontested because Russo has been perceived to be a lock. There's a few promising prospects there that never seem to be able to pull the trigger due to the nature of their day jobs. Another problem Zimmer faces in recruiting - the real good ones have better things to do and too much to lose. That Lincoln guy seemed promising but turned out to be another case study in everything looking hunky dory until the rubber meets the road.
Which brings us back to the 2nd and how we wound up with Tiffanie. Was she Zimmer's first choice? I have no idea. I heard another name being tossed around and then fizzle out. I do know that Greaney, the guy who ran last time, got whisked in from out of town by Lenz, Marsh and Soares with the hope of getting the drama we're seeing unfold now accelerated to 2011 to try to derail Zimmer from a second term. They rammed him down her throats as a candidate and created such relentless noise about him that it was virtually impossible for her to put any serious thought into any other options that may have been out there. That's how they do. Just as with Jen, they made a full court press from Day One to get her ear and eventually got their hooks in.
So I'd reconsider any criticism of Zimmer on this point. Getting good people to run is hard enough. Getting them to run and stay good when you've got the scum of the earth lurking in the background whispering sweet nothings to stoke the ambitions of well-intentioned newbies who aren't hip to their game, all while simultaneously fighting the other bad guys who are out in the open trying to block her agenda? Damn near impossible. This woman's a superhero for holding it together as long as she did.
as maya angelou once said: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them."
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFriends, I think it's time to call a public rally in front of City Hall in support of Mayor Zimmer before the next Council meeting. Thoughts? I think we need to let these shameless politicians know what the people think of using City Council proceedings effectively to run an election campaign. I'd remind folks that they are doing so on the public dime.
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to say since I've supported all of them, but I truly have had it with Peter, Tiffanie, and Jen. I am highly skeptical that the war they have chosen to wage will not continue past November. The truth is that Jen keeps placing 4th in every single poll. She's playing the spoiler and she knows it and yet keeps persisting in her quest to destroy the Mayor and Ravi, rather than our dark side opponents as a true Reformer would. It also looks like she is intentionally trying to destroy the City Council. What a completely crappy way to run an election campaign. I think they need to be gone. Whatever we have to spend, how many ever doors we need to knock on to educate people, we need to make it happen. I want them out.
4th place Jen destroys Reform, destroys the Council. This is ridiculous. Talk about Masoning yourself.
Not a bad idea, @All Hoboken. As I had mentioned to GA in the past, I think as Mikey and Jen have less name recognition than the mayor, they seem to be subscribing to the strategy that if they fight with the big dogs, they will at least get publicity and some recognition.
DeleteOn the national stage, the media, pollsters, even the DNC didn't really think Trump stood a real chance. Then he won the primary. And now we see far too much of the orange f*ckface in our daily lives for anybody to keep a single meal down. As you stated, what we need is more voices in support of truth and integrity.
If the Fisher assualt on good government is not supported by Giattino and Cunningham they should say so or expect everyone to think they are behind this idiocy too.
ReplyDeleteThis is beyond stupid.
ReplyDeleteTiffanie (and Jen) have shown themselves to be way over their heads with regard to the Suez contract. Either they are being purposefully stupid or are just venting their anger at the Mayor for being “disrespected” (which is the word I keep hearing is the reason for their animus towards the Mayor). Who the eff cares if they are “disrespected” and want to blow a good deal for Hoboken and the taxpayers because their itty bitty feelings were hurt? Put your ego and ambition to the side and stop talking about “transparency” (I thought we got rid of that word as a reason to screw the taxpayers when we got rid of Mason) and start looking at the deal specifics. Take the “I hate the Mayor” blinders off for fuck’s sake and just do your damn job without political hijinks.
I looked at the contracts and the proposal and I only see upside to the City over the atrocious deal that Daddy Russo and RAMOS foisted on the City. What the fuck is wrong with Tiffanie and Jen? So they hate the Mayor and want to trash Ravi by proxy. Get over your narcissistic and egotistical political ambitions and focus on what the hell you were elected to do – protect the City.
And I don’t want to hear anything more about how Tiffanie is just asking good financial questions. She certainly is not “executive material”, IMO. Her performance at the council meetings so far demonstrates nothing other than that she really doesn’t understand the financial issues at play and is just bloviating to settle her hurt feelings because she thinks that the Mayor has “disrespected” her by not saying “How high” when Tiffanie says “Jump”. Kiss my ass! Why is Jen letting Tiffanie lead her around by a nose ring? That is certainly not demonstrative of having “executive material”. At this point, the two of them deserve each other. If they blow the Suez deal, there will be nothing to salvage of their political aspirations.
I won’t try and summarize what GreenGopher and Mel have posted, but I have my own independent basis for hardily seconding everything that they have posted.
But the butt hurt in the whole mess is the fact that Tiffanie wanted RUSSO and RAMOS on the committee. Shades of Beth Mason making a deal with Russo regarding the Church Towers tax abatement debacle. She would take the word and advice of the Russo clan and Ramos (who saddled us with the Suez contract) over the Mayor? Fucking incredulous. She needs to go, the sooner the better. Second Ward, you switched Beth Mason for Tiffanie Mason. Not sure anymore that was an improvement.
Hey, All Hoboken, I'm all in! I have refrained for the last few years from getting involved in the typical BullShit that is Hoboken Politics. However, I can no longer sit by and listen to "Jen", her stupid cohorts Tiffanie and the completely craven Peter Cunningham. God, I live in Cunningham's Ward and have doggedly supported him over the years. I cannot believe how he's flipped for "Jen". WE DEFINITELY DO NEED A PUBLIC RALLY IN FRONT OF CITY HALL!!! WE HAVEN'T HAD ONE OF THOSE SINCE MAYOR ZIMMER SAVED THE HOSPITAL! BEFORE THAT, THE CRAZED HOBOKEN POLICE DEPT HELD A RALLY TO TRASH CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR ZIMMER. LET'S DO IT, EVERYBODY!!! STAND UP FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT AND AGAINST THE TRASH THAT "JEN" AND "MIKE" ARE PEDDLING!
ReplyDeleteNow see what you've done??
ReplyDeleteYou made the administrator of the Team GiaFusco Reform Resistance Corporate Website take time out of another busy day of continuing after the jump to come over here and tell you people what not to talk or think about. I hope you're proud of yourselves.
His very reasonable request is that you all stop reading our team member Fisher's resolution.
After all, her resolution in no way reflects her thoughts or her attitudes toward power. She only wrote and submitted it.
Thus our website administrator's message is a simple one: transparency. Always transparency. No more, no less.
In this case, we're angling for the transparency of pretending you never saw this naked power grab or the attempt to secure vast extra-legal authority in the hands of the central figures of a political campaign so they could turn every council meeting in the final weeks before the election into a televised show trial/campaign advertisment on behalf of their candidate.
That kind of transparency.
So do the neo-transparent thing: Don't read it and don't think about it. Don't speculate on what it might suggest about our leadership team here at Team GiaFusco with respect to democracy and the uses of legal authority for political purposes.
Why, if Comrade Backroom and Comrade Backroom's Patsy (sorry, I don't have the names in front of me at the moment) sponsored a resolution to put themselves in charge of, say, auditing our candidates campaign finances with full subpoena power - but pulled it at the lasssssst minute...
Well then, rest assured the Team GiaFusco Reform Resistance Corporate Website would be very loudly and energetically telling everyone to ignore their resolution because it got pulled. Plus, you know, transparency and what-not.
Or look at it another way. Say, there's a guy in your office. A swell guy, you figure. A hail fellow well met. Likes your teams, laughs at your jokes. But at lunch time he always stays behind to jot some notes in his journal while the rest of you go grab a bite. Still, a swell guy on the whole. Then one day he leaves the journal open and you notice it's a pamphlet about the benefits of population control through the use of eugenics and the occasional ethnic pogrom. But - and this is crucial - he never publishes it or acts on it (as far as you know). So, he's still a swell guy. No need to think of him any differently. Am I right or am I right? Your fault for being nosy, if anything.
So then. Enough of this, this... witch hunt. If you want something to investigate so bad, why don't you investigate GA?? Have ANY of you people noticed that EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE ON THIS WEBSITE* IS ABOUT COMRADE BHALLA??.
Bhalla, Bhalla, Bhalla, bonkers for Bhalla, nothing but Bhalla, every single article.* Who's paying her for this endless wall-to-wall coverage*, that's what you should be asking. It's a disgrace, that's what it is. We may have to add her to our resolution. Which is none of your concern.
Team GiaFusco: Transparent Change that's Transparently Changey
*On September 6th. He was in that one. There's a picture and everything. Pretty bonkers if you ask me.
This is Tiffanie (I dont know how to change the handle from anonymous google). Under the proposed contract: Suez will collect $203 million in water bills from Hoboken rate payers over 17 years; (~ $12 million / year). This is calculated using info from http://www.hobokennj.gov/docs/Suez-Agreement-QA.pdf - Attachment A, column Franchise Fee, applying the rates in the contract (1.5% of revenues in year 1 increasing to 5% annually). They will pay $71 million will go to pay for bulk water rates. Their direct staffing and costs are $20 million. They expect to write off $3 million (1.5% of revenues). And they will spend $2 million to upgrade the metering technology to make reading meters more exact, and to be able to find leaks faster and sooner. That leaves Suez with $107 million of cash flow before overhead, taxes and investment in our 100 year old water system. Of that $107 million, Suez pays a capped amount to the city of between $31 million (City's 7/12 announcement) and $35 million (using City's numbers from Q&A) the difference being in the amount of the franchise fee we receive. The page 6 of the 7/12 presentation says $4.8 million, schedule A of the Q&A says $9.6 million. That means Suez keeps $72 million to cover overhead and taxes. From this they will net out the $8.3 million that the City owed it from 2014 to today. So Suez keeps $63 million (to cover its remaining costs (overhead and taxes). The City gets $35 million (using my numbers) to cover its remaining costs (repair and replacement of our water system). That seems like a lot of profit for Suez with capped liabilities. I do not know if these numbers are correct. These are my calculations using the limited information that has been provided to the public. We asked the City for this financial underwriting three times. First on 7/11 and the consultant said the spreadsheet wasnt in a presentable form, Second on 8/29 and the response from the city was "oh, you havent gotten it? I thought I sent it...". Third on 9/4 when was told by the city that they would not give it to me. This is what I have been focused on. Trying to understand how our water revenues get divied up so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past and give Suez more of OUR money than they should get. As I have said publicly, the proposed contract is better than what we currently have simply because we increase the amount of water revenues we get from $350k/yr to $1.8M / yr average. But Suez still gets to keep twice that or $3.7 million per year. The question we raised at the meeting on 8/29 without having the benefit of this information was whether there were alternatives out there that would allow us to recapture more of that $3.7 million per year. We were told by the City's consultant that the answer was potentially yes. And we discussed a few alternatives, albeit briefly including an operating contract (even potentially with Suez) and taking it back in house. And when I asked the City's consultant whether we pursued any of these or had any discussions, he said no, they had not which was a surprise given the City had announced publicly that they were rebidding the contract (http://hobokennj.gov/water/).
ReplyDeleteThis isnt a witch hunt nor is this fun. We are trying to understand the proposed contract enough to decide if we should vote yes or no. And it has been difficult to get information to determine this. On face value $40 million in incremental benefits seems great (actually now $44 million if you use the higher franchise fee). But not necessarily if we are leaving $63 million on the table and have not considered alternatives to recapture more of this. Or even were provided explanations as to why this amount of pretax profit makes sense. All we heard from the financial consultant was that our contract was above market.
Tiffanie, your job is not to negotiate for the city nor to micromanage the city's negotiations, its to vote up or down on the contract the City has the negotiated. You are not the Unitary Executive.
ReplyDeleteYou think SUEZ makes too much money? Then vote it down.
SUEZ is a business, not a charity. Perhaps they are in business to make a PROFIT. From where I sit, $40M PLUS the water leak detection technology looks great. You don't think so? Then vote NO.
SUEZ is not United Water, it's a multinational corporation- the founding company built the SUEZ canal in the mid 19th century. In short, its not a schlock outfit that needs Hoboken to get richer.
This whining that "you/we need more information, the city won't give me/us information...." is right out of the Beth Mason playbook. Someone's not answering your email? Then show up at his office and get it. Someone's not answering your call? SHow up at his office and get what you need.
The issue here is POLITICS not water. 52 days out of a mayoral election, you are the spokeswoman for Jen Giattino, and Peter Cunningham supports her. Ravi is supported by the Mayor. You can talk until you're blue in the face, but calls for an "investigation!" and this Resolution with your name on top says it all.
Really, an "ad hoc committee" to INVESTIGATE the Mayor's negotiations 52 days before an election, giving yourself SUBPOENA POWERS and naming MIKE RUSSO, RUBEN RAMOS on your committee? If I didn't see your Resolution, I wouldn't have believed it. Aside from the fact BOTH Russo and Ramos are conflicted out of any such committee- Russo's dad negotiated all 3 agreements, and Ruben approved the 2001 agreement- why in G-D's name would you grant those two powers of investigating City Hall? Has Russo's dad paid the City the $324K judgment back yet? Did you know one of the first city employees fired by Fiscal monitor Judy Tripodi was Ruben's mom? Both have personal animus toward City Hall.
Even the thought of empaneling such an "ad hoc committee" and giving yourself SUBPOENA POWER is the issue.
It was on the agenda. It was in the resolution pack. City Hall sources confirmed you called to pull it on Thursday afternoon. What gave you second thoughts? Did Jen Giattino know about it? Did she tell you to pull it? Who advised you to form this "ad hoc committee"to hold public hearings? How did a group of Reformers: Jen Giattino, Peter Cunningham and yourself fall so far off-course that you would align yourselves against the Zimmer administration with paragons of virtue MIKE RUSSO and RUBEN RAMOS????
That's the only investigation I'd like to see.
Tiffanie has claimed she was
Deletedenied the financial information needed to evaluate the deal. Her own post here shows that to be a lie.
Tiffanie's claim to have had nothing to do with her own investigation resolution is also pretty obviously a desperate stupid lie.People would take her opinions more seriously if she would just stop lying.People would take Jen more seriously as a candidate if it wasn't so painfully obvious Tiffanie is running her show.
Tiffanie again... I think of the role of the city council is to create and vote favorably for legislation that is in the best interest of the city. I am not going to apologize for wanting to understand in detail the economics of this long dated contract and ask questions about it. I would actually say it is my responsibility to taxpayers to do so. I am not suggesting that I would be the one to negotiate - I fully recognize it is the Mayor's role. But are you suggesting that I should not at all question the decisions of our mayor? Werent you aligned with Jen and I on the 7th and Jackson project where you and we questioned the scale of the project and the need to give that developer a PILOT worth $128 million? Where we were the only two no votes? It was ok then, but not now?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the resolution. After the last council meeting, where the auditor ended his comments by saying the liability, if found to be material, would have needed to be disclosed, I called corporation counsel and asked him what the paths were that would allow us to get more information. He told me two choices - either form an investigative subcommittee or you can have the entire council pursue it. Of the two choices - the subcommittee sounded better because it involved less people and we could make it not include any who is running for office. Lesser of two bad options. Friday afternoon he sent me an email saying we could not hire an independent professional. On Monday I sent an email to him saying we wanted to pursue the subcommittee path and to let me know what we needed to do to codify. On Wednesday I decided that I would rather first try to submit a full list of questions on my own to the administration (which I have yet to do) than to pursue this path which felt too extreme. So I emailed corporation counsel on Thursday at 1:35 pm as I mentioned above...
You can say that this is political - and I would agree that in this environment it is nearly impossible for it not to be. But this is not campaign related. It is coincidental only that it was just Jen, Peter and I in the room when we first heard about the liability that related to prior periods. This was meant to be reviewed in the Ad-Hoc Infrastructure Subcommittee that Ravi asked to have set up in January and that he chairs that only Ravi, Mike R and I are on. But because of the circumstances around Ravi's recusal, he could not join subsequent meetings. So we moved it to finance - which is where it should have been - which I chair, and added Peter to the group. Ravi is a member as well, but still could not participate.
I am not writing this to convince you to change your position which is politically driven as well. I am just trying to provide some balance of information on this.
Tiffanie, you may not be aware of this but overhead covers SG&A which means selling, general and administrative expenses. The cost of sending out bills, processing those payments, running a call center and such would fall under SG&A. None of those expenses would fall under the cost of running the system or direct staffing costs. Sending out people to read meters would probably fall under operating expenses but I cannot tell from that exhibit. What I can tell is it appears SG&A is taken out of net revenues before overhead and taxes. Your analysis appears to be missing SG&A, a major source of costs for a utility. I think your analysis is very flawed and grossly overstates potential profitability. I'd also bet you are missing far more in SG&A than I just pointed out.
DeleteIs my position politically driven? NO. I would dump Ravi in a heartbeat if he pulled this kind of sh*t. Ka-boom. I get NOTHING for my advocacy. Zip. Zilch. I have been writing commentary and investigating "Dark Side" antics for 7 years. I was sued by a Beth Mason cabal for it. Principle, competence, integrity, ethics come first. Ironically, so-called friends have turned on me for it, because my judgment has led me elsewhere. Some have gotten a lot of help and support from me over the years, now they plunge a knife in my back. So be it. For me, Hoboken comes first. These Council antics have only validated that I made the right choice.
DeleteThe fact that the "more voices are better" gang will more than likely put this City in Dark Side hands again has caused great heartache, to me personally and to others who remember what this city was before the good-government people came into power. Apparently, that is not a big factor among your "Investigate Zimmer" crowd, angry because of the not-nice way they were treated, carried away with various agendas. The 'Investigate Zimmer" crowd want their pound of flesh for being disrespected. Both you and Jen lied to me when you said early on that you'd look at whichever Reform campaign was getting traction, and if it wasn't Jen, you've concede because keeping the City in Reform hands was the most important thing. You told that to others as well.
I believe by any measure, Ravi is ahead, but within the margin of error with Stick and DeFusco. None of you give a damn. You'd rather turn this City back over to the Dark Side. Your relationship with these dirtbags looks pretty cozy- appointing RUSSO! and RAMOS! on a committee to investigate the Mayor's contract. UNBELIEVABLE. All I can do is pray the City does not fall prey to crooks and robbers.
As for the Jackson Street project, I am not strongly in either camp. Both sides have good arguments for and against. Yes, its true: initially I reacted in horror based on its SIZE and MASSING, and its impact on LIGHT and SHADOW. I wrote about here: https://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2016/05/big-building-big-pilot-big-shadow.html Later, I found out the 424 units were a done deal. Advocates for the project gave me some balance.
All right. We didn't want to do this but you're forcing us to pull out the big guns.
ReplyDeleteLeave Tiffanie alone!!!!
Also, please see the helpful disclaimer on our Team GiaFusco Reform Resistance Corporate Website: There's a new poll going around and we're preemptively letting you know that it's total garbage, so that when our candidate turns out to be a non-factor again, you'll know the poll results don't matter again. Just like the last four times.
Team GiaFusco: Unpolled Change that's Unpollably Changey
Silly Zimmer Zombies! Don't you know Tiffanie is good at math? That means when she says two plus two equals five, trust her, she's the expert. Just because you've been running the city for a decade and deftly balanced the bloated budget after a half-century of rank corruption doesn't mean you get to tell her that her facts don't add up. Addition and subtraction is HER forte, so get with the program or get out of the way. Tiffanie has all the answers you Sikh!
ReplyDeleteBeware, All! Mike Lenz is conducting his"own informal" telephone poll about when "you" first found out about the Suez Water Company liability. It's clear he's on Giattino's side. I wished him the best and hung up. A rational person doesn't even attempt to debate Mr. Lenz who knows all.
ReplyDeleteYou've got to be kidding! Did he know you, or is he randomly calling registered voters?
DeleteYes, he's working for the Giattino campaign. Of course, he doesn't disclose that relationship in his Letter to the Editor published in this week's HR.
"On Giattino's side." My friend, Giattino is but a "vessel," in his parlance. He's been plotting all that we currently behold for many years.
DeleteLenz knew me. He said he was calling all "Reform Minded" people he remembered from past elections. What a sleaze!
DeleteHe's always calling all "reform-minded people he remembers from past elections." Then he calls Mike Russo, Carmelo Garcia, Frank Raia and whoever else will take his call and tells them what he thinks he can deliver from the Reform base.
DeleteMike's ego-stroking openers are the stuff of legend. "I'm calling because you're YOU, and I think you're the type of person who will understand this" was one of his favorites for a while. He's got quite an arsenal. And enough folks who get off on the occasional ego-massage to keep him afloat all these years despite the obviousness of his sleaze to most of us.
But this is good. Deconstructing the Giattino campaign is exactly what's in order right now.
Continues the disturbing trend. What does it matter when the public found out about the liability? That's the council's job. The Giafuscos seem to have known about it for quite a bit longer than they claim. Is the purpose of this "poll" to confirm that nothing leaked out to the public between the time it was discussed in July and when the Giafuscos pretended they found out in September?
DeleteI have never considered Lenz reform minded.
DeleteI got the call too. All I could think of as I listened to his oh so slow syntax was why is he calling instead of Jen? She's the one running for mayor. She's the one I want to hear from. Not Fisher or Lenz. Can this woman ever speak for herself. I'm way past giving her the benefit of the doubt anyway but I'd listen to what she had to say if she called me herself. But hiding behind first Tiffanie and now Lenz just makes the case why she has no business running for Mayor.
ReplyDeleteTrue story:
DeleteAfter Marsh resigned, a few council members then associated with "Reform" met to discuss whom to appoint as a replacement. Before Doyle got brought up, another Reform luminary, I'm not going to mention the name to avoid rupturing relationships any more than they already have been, but you can probably fill in the blank if you've been paying a bit of attention to the way the factions and their prejudices have lined up over the years.
Anyway, one of the obvious short-listers to be at least considered under such circumstances who is also known to be disliked by the faction that consists largely of who's now coalesced around Jen, if you get my meaning...
anyway, his/her name gets brought up, and Jen immediately pounces with "That's a non-starter for me." Someone else in the room who didn't get the Team Jabberwock memo asks, "why not"?
Jen's answer:
"Because, ummm -- I, uh, can't remember."
redraven, can you recall what he said? What was the pitch?
DeleteWell the important thing is that Jen will be notified if we decide she should drop out, and we'll give her a note card to say why so she doesn't have to remember.
DeleteWant some some exciting news? We're developing some opinions for her to have. She'll be pro-Kasich, but against his social security cuts. And pro-environment, but taking a wait-and-see approach on Scott Pruitt. She'll believe in climate change but think it's best left up to the private sector. And how about this: she's firmly anti-nazi! Progressive or what?
Team GiaFusco: Change that's Changey
Hey, GA!!! I didn't see your "Welcome Back" not till just now. Thanks so much!!! I have a bit of a delicate constitution, thereby requiring me to take in the Hoboken Political Scene in very small doses. But, it's good to be back!!'
DeleteDAWG in da house!!!! Woot woot woot! We need you!
DeleteYou know how your side is creaming the other side in a discussion? Comments get turned off.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't "Jen" ever say anything? The only things we hear from her campaign are from mr. crazy horseshitville and now Tiffanie. Why do her handlers keep her so sheltered? Can we finally hear an opinion or position or ANYTHING from "Jen"? The
ReplyDeletePerhaps she is smart enough to know that she doesn't know WTF is going on w/ this contract (like her handlers) and smart enough to realize she shouldn't say anything because she knows nothing (unlike her handlers). Either that or maybe they haven't told her what to say yet. If the later is the case, I am sure her handlers will have her script written in no time. It will probably just rehash that letter one of her handlers wrote for the distorter or the comments her handlers have made online.
DeleteYour patience is just about to be rewarded!
DeleteWe're just putting the finishing touches on a Big Binder for Jen to read from. The feedback we're getting from focus groups on our GioPinti Strategy has been extremely positive. "Almost lifelike," raves Insider NJ
The Jen 2.0 Launch will be later this week. And watch out for the Jen Mobile App! It gives you all of "Jen's" answers, and you'll almost swear she's saying them herself!
Team GioFusco: Change that's Changey
i never figured "Jen" is be a vessel, surprised she's allowing it to happen. She's smarter than that.
ReplyDeleteNope, not a "vessel." The GioPinti is a fully upgraded Big.Binder.Reader. It's a much higher calling. Vessels can't even read!
DeleteThe GioPinti combines the worst of the past with.... Well, that's actually about it.
Team GioFusco: Change that's Changey