The Mayor's Letter (the alleged backstory)


Weren't you wondering what prompted the mayor to 'out' some of Jen Giattino's privately-held views in her letter? 

All I could say after reading it was, "Wow."  

Because Dawn Zimmer keeps everything so close to the vest this letter was, to put it mildly, uncharacteristically frank.  In particular, revealing what Jen Giattino said to her behind closed doors.  Very un-Zimmer like. 

What compelled her? 

In the past 24 hours, GA has asked this question to various sources. A particular catalyst emerged, one that seemed to have (allegedly) lit our Chief Executive's fuse.  

It started on Facebook.  

On October 15, 2017, Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher wrote a post titled "Inside Baseball."  

In the post, Fisher broke the confidentiality of a closed discussion that took place in late June between Bhalla, the Mayor's Chief of Staff , Jen Giattino, Peter Cunningham  and herself.  Fisher wrote:  "In June of this year... Councilman Ravi Bhalla told Council President Jen Giattino..."

In fact, the closed discussion was Bhalla's effort to prevent a reform split; he proposed to support Giattino in 2021 if she did not split the Reform faction now.  Giattino, Fisher and Cunningham chose to split Reform instead; risking City Hall to Mike DeFusco or Stick Romano.  

GA assumes that when one Council member shows no respect for confidentiality of closed meeting discussions with other Council members and the Mayor's representative, publicizing private negotiations, that sets a precedent for it to happen again. 

And one of them arrived in your mailbox yesterday. 

Sources suggest that Fisher's politically-motivated violation of confidentiality of a closed discussion between her Chief of Staff, Bhalla and herself on Facebook for the Giattino campaign influenced the mayor to reveal pubicly what Jen Giattino had told her privately.  

The mayor's revelations in her letter are "not hearsay, she was there."





What's really interesting to me:
(1) the revelations in the mayor's letter. GA had heard the one about the Southwest Park from Giattino's friends,  and
(2) the folks who violated the Mayor's trust on October 15 are howling that this letter is "filled with lies."

Whom do you believe? 


Comments

  1. i've long trusted mayor zimmer, see no reason to change that now. none of this is surprising, these are all typical republican positions. it appears that national party beliefs do indeed impact on local matters, once a repub always a repub.

    also...reform has made mistakes along the way, but have we made a bigger mistake recently than supporting the rise of "tiff"? she's got a real record of unthinking commentary, just go to her Facebook page and read how she regularly makes factually challenged statements and then almost always ends up trying to walk them back or spin them a different way when called out. not very strategic, that's for sure. and don't even get me started on the whole democratic committee chair actively campaigning for a republican thing.

    anyone else in the 2nd ward worth considering?

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    1. You're right, 'me.' These are Republican positions. You know, the "R-word" that Ravi is not supposed to talk about. If he uses the "R-word" that's hateful. Well, judging from positions she has expressed privately, it looks like the "R-word" is fair comment for the Bhalla campaign. What other Republican positions does she have that will impact how she governs as mayor? How cone she wouldn't state her position on rent control?

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    2. Each conversation cited by the Mayor is so indicative of the Republican point of view. "Jen" doesn't want her taxpayer dollars used to pay for a park that her kids won't use and "Jen" doesn't want her taxpayer dollars used to pay to protect a building her dear "Tiff" lives in from future storm surges and flooding because it's not included in the Rebuild by Design Plan. The typical miserly Republican point of view!

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  2. amazing the "SHOCK" this letter and the response to Ravi's anti-republican mailing. Where was everyone about two weeks ago when Ravi and Dawn were basically being blamed and destroyed for everything from the failure of Godfather 3 to the new Taylor Swift video (it is really bonkers).

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  3. Totally whack, when I started reading this piece I thought we were about to hear how Tiffanie shared information from a closed session at the city council meeting or something. THAT would be confidential! All she was doing was sharing some facts about a conversation with Ravi. How the rest of us will perceive or respond to knowing that information will vary from person to person.

    In response Zimmer throws a tantrum and makes a bunch of unfounded (childish) accusations with no evidence to suggest there is any truth to what she's saying.

    More than one person in more than one election camp has said/posted, etc. concern about healing wounds and coming together after the election. Obviously the outgoing mayor isn't concerned.

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    1. "throws a tantrum"? really? looks like a pretty straight forward statement of facts.

      c'mon, indie, you're better than this.

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    2. Okay, Indie. Then as you would put it, "all the Mayor was doing was sharing some facts about conversations with Jen. How the rest of us will perceive or respond to knowing that information will vary from person to person."

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    3. You do not know the Mayor, Indie. She does not have tantrums and she does not make unfounded (childish) accusations with no evidence. Dawn Zimmer is one of the most even tempered people you'd ever meet.

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    4. Ha-ha rudy, from your response, it's very clear that you don't know the mayor...

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    5. ...or, you've never had the audacity to question anything she's done.

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    6. rudydawg,
      Keep in mind that Zimmer didn't give Indie the Tenant Advocate job that she didn't want. Okay Indie, you made whatever point you came to make, now don't hijack this thread. It's not The Indie Show.

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    7. You're the one that brought up tenants, not me. But I won't share a couple of examples of the mayor's tantrums that I've been a direct party too. Not here anyway.

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  4. Dawn and Ravi are as cool as the other side of the pillow. That’s how they roll. It’s the only way we could have gotten through the circus that was the old guard as the old guard desperately tried to hold on to corruption and nepotism in the first 2 years of the Zimmer Administration before Jen and Tiff rolled in...

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  5. DawnGone. LenzFrenz.

    Me Tarzan, You Jane.

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    1. DawnGone! Here's my answer to Mike Lenz ("DawnGone") who shed his "PinkNova" to post this : "What.... no reply from Nancy Pincus or her GA Peanut Gallery?

      (Note to DawnGone Mike: I am banned from commenting on the horse shit site, so how can I reply?)

      You see, Chief Crazy Horse wrote an entire post over something I wrote in my comments section- yes, they are monitoring comments over here- based upon observation of the council meeting, and yes, found out later my conclusion was wrong, re: who pulled resolution A4 off the agenda on Oct 18.

      Here is Jim Doyle to explain:

      "The background is that the administration pulled it after 1. I emailed Jen as council president asking it's genesis, 2. She called the BA and asked the genesis (the answer to which was Jen Gonzalez the city planner), and 3. Patrick Wherry pulled it. I specifically asked Patrick if Jen had pulled, and he said no, he had."

      There you go, folks. That is the genesis of Resolution A4 being pulled. Jim told me it is back on the agenda next week.

      Chief Crazy Horse (and "DawnGone" Peanut Gallery member ) do not hesitate to apologize over "TextGate", Bhalla's imaginary poll results, and all the crap you've been spewing over local and national politics for the past year!

      Sincerely,
      GA

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    2. Pink's Gone attempted to tell me he was leaning toward Bautista a while ago. I think he realized that being an obvious Jen partisan and writing a 3 volume work about Suez while claiming to support someone who hadn't uttered a word about Suez sort of "expired" the old handle. So he turns up today calling other people liars while simultaneously changing his name. Good form. 10 more days of bullshit.

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    3. Nothing new with this particular individual. He had a nice game of footsie going on with Cammarano in 08 and 09 before he managed to hitch to Zimmer’s wagon while convincing himself she was hitching to his.

      “Dawn Gone” indeed. Not the tune he was singing when she campaigned for him in 2010, that’s for sure.

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    4. Speaking of which, the VBM factor in the 2010 special election was indeed formidable, but Lenz lost on the machines too. That’s not fraud. That’s pathetic. If he’d listened to Dawn about all that wheeling and dealing and not dined with donors with pending development applications or cut backroom deals to take care of old buddies, he’d probably have still lost by VBM, but at least he’d have gone out with dignity.

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    5. I am a little fed up with the dishonesty of tweedle-scum and tweedle-scummier. Stop changing names all the time. The simple fact you have to do that should tell you how disgusting, dishonest and unpopular you two jerkwads are.

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    6. I also love to make references to “out of state ex pats” - except the one in Wisconsin whose name you will NEVER hear me dare mention again.

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    7. 10 posts on MSBreitbart before any other candidate besides #4thPlaceJen or Ravi is mentioned. The election is not being won on the blogs, but damn that must make Mike and Romano feel good.

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    8. update that to 11 Posts and his twitter is pure anti-Ravipalooza. His twitter account has 22 followers btw- the election is def. being won on that.

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  6. I personally do not think pink_nova/dawngone is Mike Lenz though I understand the reasons folks think that and it is certainly possible.

    For one thing, despite his many fkaws Mike, is smart and pink_nova is not. Mike would never have tried to mask his identity claiming to support Ron Bautista. He's much too smart for that.

    Jen has at least 3 supporters who believe they are the smartest person in any room. Mike is one of them. IMHO pink_nova/dawngone is more likely one of the other two.

    It is interesting however that Mike, which contributed not a penny to his own council race, has contributed $1,500 (if I remember right) to Jen. I guess he sees this as his last chance at real power.

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    1. If Jen's supporters were as smart as they think, they wouldn't be backing Jen.

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    2. Jen's supporter's and everyone else should support Karen Nason for Mayor. You know exactly where I stand and there will never be a lie coming out of my mouth or some hidden surprise. Come on folks "PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER" pull the curtain push 1 H where no one is watching you, and telling you what you need or what to do. You know you have the power to change! Service over Ambition! No more of the same!

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    3. No matter what happens in this election, you're already a winner, Karen. PS. Nice tune.

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  7. just received this letter via email, team bhalla putting pressure on the snowflake insurrection. had to laugh when i read the HR article about this letter where they give jen a chance to respond. tellingly, she doesn't really deny making any of the statements (the best she can muster is a "i'm not going to get into a he said/she said over what was supposedly said three years ago...").

    i feel so much better knowing that she composts (oh my, how non-republican..."tiff" will approve!!) and voted for pot-smoking screwball gary johnson for president.

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    1. According to "Tiff", "Jen" believes in climate change...but not the cause. That is, she thinks the climate is changing, but not as a result of human activity. She's a typical know-nothing Republican. These people are going to kill all of us one of these days.

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  8. Happy to get the letter via email too. I think it's longer than the letter we got in the snail mail.

    I find Jen as completely full of it. to here Jen's supporters tell it, she's a Republican, but... she believes in climate change. She's a Republican, but... she believe in a woman's right to choose. She's a Republican, but... she supports marriage equality. She's a Republican, but... she does not know who she will support for Governor of NJ.

    Something does not add up. I think she is full of it. For the record, as I said, she also gave Ravi a hard time about the anti-hate resolution after the election. Who is Jen? Dawn and Ravi are raising clear and important questions.

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    1. "Jen" is all things to all people. It seems that her groupies and hangers-on all project onto her who/what they want her to be. I was blown away to view the "Jen" love fest that was going on amongst the audience members just prior to last week's debate at DeBaun Auditorium at Stevens. It was nauseating.

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