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| The affected buildings straddle the First and Fourth Wards |
"we’re all ok. top floor apartment is destroyed, fortunately the fire didn’t reach below that, although i have water damage in my apartment (the floor beneath) - they said it originated in the apartment above me. we weren’t able to go back, but they did escort us to go in and get some important things to take with us. mayor Bhalla showed up and was there all night with us, and arranged with former mayor Zimmer (who lives a few blocks over) to take in 4 people.
fortunate to have a fire dept across the street, likely would have been much much worse. hoping to be able to move back in sometime “soon” but who knows - still need to inspect, etc. etc.
all in all shitty situation would rate 5/7."
-fosiacat on reddit
That photo was taken last night at the scene of a raging fire at 510-512-514 Observer Highway- between Madison and Jefferson- right on the border of Mike DeFusco's First ward and Ruben Ramos' Fourth Ward. Terrible!
Where were Councilmen DeFusco and Ramos, to help displaced constituents and monitor the emergency?
Not there.
Mayor Bhalla was there all night, helping to relocate displaced residents, making sure that everyone had a place to sleep. That's his job.
DeFusco and Ramos were sleeping all night. Apparently that's their job. And attacking the mayor.
Oh wait... just in... DeFusco Tweeted, "Hope you're okay, guys! I slept pretty well while you all got burned out of your homes!"
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| Mayor at the scene of last night's fire in downtown Hoboken |
This is the present state of dysfunction in our local government. The Council majority attacks the mayor, the mayor works.
Now his Council enemies are trying to run the mayor's "of counsel" gig across the field for a touchdown. The problem is, he has handed them the ball.
GA'S TWO CENTS (AGAIN)
Personally, GA wishes he had not taken this "of counsel" role. Nobody gets rich working in the public sector, nor should they. Whatever the mayor does, it will be scrutinized, it should be scrutinized, and really why should the City expend resources on scrutinizing the mayor?
Will the Council get any work done? Unlikely.
They will be up his ass 24/7, plotting and planning political theater, churning out press releases, trying to turn public opinion against him for their own political advantage instead of doing the People's work. Face it. After the first 26 questions get answered, they'll ask 26 more, and 26 more... they will continue to obstruct every potential Executive accomplishment that they can. Look at last week's power grab- taking appointment powers away from the mayor to reward political friends.
What would alleviate the inevitable political obstruction? If the mayor waives the part of the contract where he gets a piece of new business and just takes the base salary of $60K. If he does this, I think it would disarm his enemies, and make his friends a lot more comfortable.
The art of compromise. Think about it, mayor!
That said, Bhalla is working his butt off, 24/7. People see it. A few weeks ago I bumped into him on a Sunday afternoon at the scene of a residential fire on 6th Street. I didn't see 6th Ward Councilwoman Giattino there even though its her ward - just sayin'. (Maybe she was there. Didn't' see her, though.)
So peeps, how about we all watch and see WHO is working, and WHO is running their mouth. Stay tuned.
THE MAYOR's "OF COUNSEL" STATEMENT AND AGREEMENT
Statement of Mayor of Hoboken Ravi Bhalla Upon Public Release of His Of Counsel Agreement with Lavery, Selvaggi, Ambromitis and Cohen, P.C
“In keeping with my commitment to open government and transparency, today I am publicly providing my “of counsel agreement” with Lavery, Selvaggi, Ambromitis & Cohen, P.C, a small Hackettstown-based law firm serving clients in Sussex, Warren and Morris Counties. While there is no requirement that I release this contract, I believe it is important to go the extra mile and provide robust public disclosure.
As the agreement outlines and as I announced last week, I will serve in a limited ‘of counsel’ advisory role. I will not be practicing law, but rather will serve as a resource to other attorneys at the firm, providing advice from time to time. I particularly look forward to being a mentor to young lawyers at the firm. The arrangement will be periodically reviewed by corporation counsel to ensure that no conflicts emerge. This is similar to my recent decision to continue my term as a Trustee of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey.
These limited engagements in no way interfere with my full-time commitment to the City of Hoboken. I am often the first one to arrive in the office and the last one to leave. I assure you that will not change. I know it takes a full time Mayor to secure $1 million of state funding for transportation projects—a significant upgrade over previous years. It takes a full time Mayor to upgrade Madison St. Park and successfully crack down on those bars that flout our laws and harm our quality of life. It takes a full time Mayor to ensure that the City garnered a AA+ bond rating. And it takes a full time Mayor to win the battle against the Christie Administration on Union Dry Dock. These are just some of the accomplishments of my first 6 weeks in office.
While I am proud of what we have accomplished in 6 short weeks, we could get so much more done with a Council that worked cooperatively with me to move Hoboken forward. It is now more than 3 months since the November election. It is time to put it behind us and work for the best interests of the City we all love. I know if we do so, Hoboken’s best days are yet to come.”
Terry Castellano would have been there too.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts:
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that he was there, but not necessary. I think it's above and beyond his job to be there & he should get some credit for that. But, I don't had out demerits for council people not there.
The side job looks bad. Your idea is a decent one for disarming the council.
FWIW - having corporation counsel review for conflicts means that the city taxpayers are paying someone to do something that wouldn't be necessary if the mayor didn't have a second job. That sucks. I'm sure the NJ bar requires Bhalla to disclose any conflicts he has to his clients, but I'm not so sure there's any such rule for disclosure to his constituents. Maybe someone with more knowledge can definitively answer that.
Regardless, the conflicts issue should fall squarely on Bhalla & his law firm to pay for - not taxpayers.
The issue is hypocrisy, snoopy. A council that governs by tweet, Facebook and press release, that churns out political attacks, and seems to do no W-O-R-K.
DeleteIn my opinion, conscientious and caring council person(s) would have been there to help their constituents- as Oracle said Terry C. would have been there.
A conscientious and caring mayor would have been there, too. And he was.
Understood. FTR: I don't believe for a second that Terry cared about anyone that wasn't her friend or family member. She liked to be perceived by those people as caring, and for that reason she'd have shown up, but I lived in her ward for years and she never seemed to care.
DeleteLooks like Unelectable went rogue again instead of collaborating with the solution chosen by his betters on the council.
ReplyDeleteTo show there’s no hard feelings, we will not report his embarrassing “it’s all about me” behavior on any of our corporate websites.
Give that the GiaFusco team has said pretty much everything bad they can think of except that the arrangement is even arguably illegal, it pretty obvious that this is completely legal. That's a pretty important point when the usual suspects are trying to make people think otherwise by blowing smoke and talking about Russo and Cammarano, two actual convicted criminals.
ReplyDeleteThe "concerns" are really about the horrible things the trolls are claiming the Mayor will do in the future , not about anything he's actually done so far (other than finesse a campaign promise). Here in the real world, Hobokenites know from experience that if the Mayor is a crook, he doesn't need a position with a law firm to steal. I voted for Ravi because I trust him to be Mayor, and I wouldn't trust him to be Mayor if I thought he was the kind of person whose judgement on conflict issues couldn't be trusted.
We certainly should be vigilant about all our elected officials. If the Mayor actually does something illegal or unethical, he certainly should be held accountable. So should the GiaFuscos. And we should trust but verify everyone. Personally, I believe Mike DeFusco is far more likely to do something unethical or illegal than the Mayor, but he is answerable so far only for what he has already done - not what I fear he will do in the future. And the same goes for Ramos, Giattino, Cunningham and Fisher.
The GiaFuscos have the right to disapprove of the Mayor's decision to take on this position and to publicly say so. Thanks to the Mayor's release of his Agreement members of the public have the information they need to form and express their own opinions both publicly and privately (as GA has). Those who feel strongly will no doubt hold the Mayor accountable at his next election if they still feel that way when the time comes.
And those who want the City Council members to move on and do their jobs will no doubt hold those who play never ending politics about this at the public's expense accountable in 2019.
My two cents: Former Mayor Dawn Zimmer and he husband opening up and welcoming four of those displaced by the fire into their home in the middle of the night ... PRICELESS.
ReplyDeleteI really don't want to hear complaints about people working PT as counsel while also being an elected official. Crap, we have a CC member who at one point had 3 taxpayer funded jobs complete with benefits and a full time sub in his classroom and both of his elected positions were part time. Are any of those tools complaining about him or his triple dipping pensions? Hell no, they made the windbag CC president. And remember, unlike Bhalla, he didn't do squat for anyone but himself at any of those three jobs.
ReplyDeleteSo if Bhalla can put the time in to do his job and still moonlight doing some legal work on the side, more power to him. He will do 100000000% more for Hoboken than Jen or Mike ever could even if he does legal work on the side.
As for the optics, considering how many politicians have side jobs (or where their political position is PT), this to me is entirely normal. What is not normal is for politicians where their position is PT to be a FT pain in the ass - which is what Jen, Tiff, Peter & Mike have become. And what is even more interesting to me is how Russo has at least publicly not been a complete pain in the ass like those 4. I suspect he gets that the optics of acting like those 4 is far worse than the optics of anything else going on in town. He is playing the long game, those 4 can't see past next week and their next "gotchya" stunt.
And don't forget, Rojo, the Ramos family had city jobs all around, and the illegal side hustles of almost every previous mayor is not even mentioned by the ethically challenged current council majority members, two of whom are unemployed. Maybe it's jealousy.
DeleteAnd the one councilperson-formerly-known-as-a-reformer who IS employed might want to give careful consideration to how involved he wants to get in making allegations that others intermingle their political and professional interests a little too loosey-goosey... lest anyone's uptown brownstone proves to be made of glass.
DeleteSpeaking from experience negotiating law firm partner agreements, there is nothing nefarious or unusual about the mayor’s agreement with his law firm. Actually, I have signed very similar agreements. Law is a business, and the attorneys that make up the membership of law firms have agreements with each other that set forth things like compensation, health and life coverage, etc. No different than most other businesses which are made up of professionals. Hell, doctors, dentists, nurses, brokers, sales people (actually anyone who is not an hourly or wage employee), all have employment agreements. And the Mayor’s is not unusual in either the scope of employment or compensation.
ReplyDeleteOf course there has to be an escalator clause. Who knows what may happen in the future.
Ravi may have a client come to him from his contacts totally unrelated to Hoboken that results in a large fee and that other attorneys in the firm will work on. I would never agree to a cap on the potential earn out of any business that I generated. Sheer stupidity.
Ravi is not going to be Mayor for a lifetime. Even if he only serves a four year stint, sitting out for four years on the legal profession as the Mayor of a City in Hudson County will not generate a huge payday when he returns to private proactive. To the contrary, it will likely hurt him economically as he won’t bring any city work with him and he would have foregone four years of business development.
I don’t see what being mayor actually gets him from a professional standpoint. You have to be Senator or Governor (maybe an assembly person) to get clout in firms in order to get big bucks (federal senators and representatives are a golden ticket as well). That is said from the perspective of someone who has actually participated in such decisions.
Lawyers eat what they kill. No different than any other business. Just saying that he was the Mayor of Hoboken is not going to have much impact on a firm’s decision as to what billings that he has to bring with him. And he is not important enough of a political figure to be influential on the big issues for which the heavy hitter clients would pay hefty legal or lobbying fees.
As to the hypocrisy and hand wringing – would Defusco quit his job? I doubt it, as a four year sit out in his business is a likely death sentence.
Did Mayor Roberts give up his bar? Would Stick give up his bar? Those two scenarios are more fraught with potential conflicts that Ravi’s situation.
All of that said, would I prefer that Ravi had not taken a side gig? Yes. But that is a purely personal and selfish preference, as I would like him to be all in on Hoboken. As long as he does his job (which he seems to be doing quite well) then it really doesn’t matter to me. What I really see here is an attempt to economically coerce Ravi into making a choice between his legal career and being Mayor of Hoboken for four years (minimum) by the group of misfits that are on the council.
BTW, did Bernie Kenny give up his law practice when he was a State Senator? There are way too many examples to choose from in this regard.
As to conflicts, if Ravi does do something in the future that poses an ethical dilemma or conflict, it will be dealt with then. I doubt that Ravi is another Cammarano who threw away his legal career for a $15,000.00 zoning variance. It is apparent to me that the disaffected and emotionally overwrought council persons hate Ravi with a passion and that their thinly veiled racism is showing when they think the absolute worst of him at every turn with no evidence to back it up.
This “what if” crap only indicates to that the idiots on the council either think we are stupid or that they, themselves, are really stupid and lack a basic understanding of how businesses are structured.
great comment, thanks.
Delete@Not-Perry-Mason: You stated you negotiated partnership agreements and this language is typical. Partners are owners of the firm, so it makes sense that partners get to share in the spoils of client billing. But, did you note that this was a counsel role? Are you stating that this contract is typical for an employee? I think you specifically state it is not typical for wage employees. Of Counsel are employees of the firm, so I wonder how this fits in?
Delete@Snoopy, incentives to "of Counsel's" for originating business are pretty common. I've worked at firms that even provided incentives to associates. In fact I had such an incentive as an associate at a NY firm, though I never took advantage of it. There's no reason for a lawyer to bring in new business to a firm if they are not compensated for it, so if the firm is interested in growing its business through lawyers other than its partners it makes sense for the firm to incentivize other lawyers, especially more senior ones like Ravi.
DeleteThe existence of the incentive says nothing about whether the lawyer will earn any. Like I said, I never brought in any clients and frankly never tried to because the incentive was too small to motivate me.
I think it was reasonable for the Council to ask the Mayor to make the terms of his agreement public. He's done that. It would be reasonable for the Council to ask Corporation Counsel to brief them on the nature of the periodic reviews he will undertake to identify and address conflicts and let them know about any that arise. I'm sure Corporation Counsel will be happy to do that.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the first time this type of situation has existed. In fact it's pretty common around the state.
Anything beyond that is political nonsense and the public will know it when they see it. Telling the public "don't worry about what I do on the Council" like Cunningham did ain't gonna fly when the stuff you're doing on the Council is pissing people off. And since November, Cunningham, Giattino and Fisher have been pissing alot of people off. Following DeFusco to try to bring back runoffs was a pretty dumb move when pretty much everybody who has voted for them in the past also voted to get rid of runoffs in 2012.
It's not too late to turn it around - we're less than two months into Ravi's mayoralty, but so far it seems like voices of reason are sorely lacking in their echo chamber.
I agree.
DeleteHow many public pensions does Ruben have again? How many times has he voted in ways that could be interpreted as beneficial to parties who've had influence over his fortunes as a person whose entire professional career and livelihood to the best of my knowledge has been in the public sector? How is it that the councilpeople formerly known as reformers don't have any "concerns" about this?
ReplyDeleteThey're hypocrites, that's how.
Delete