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| The Mayor's Task Force on Public Safety includes Police Chief Ferrante, Provisional Fire Chief Crimmins, Police Capt. Pasculli, Police Sgt. Kucz, Police Sgt. Montanez, Health Officer Frank Sasso, Battalion Fire Chief Buoncuore, Fire Captain DiVincent, Business Administrator Marks, Corporation Counsel Aloia, and Environmental Services Director Pellegrini. |
THEY DID IT!
Folks, there's a new mayor in town. This one will not allow Hoboken residents to be hostage to a calendar of bar-crawls, known as "The Cons"; dreaded days when our streets are awash with drunken out-of-towners who hit our police, pee on our sidewalks, hurt local business, cost us (taxpayers) bigly.
On Bhalla's first day in office, he promised to end SantaCon.
On Bhalla's first day in office, he promised to end SantaCon.
And he did - 2 weeks later. On January 16, Bhalla announced the formation of The Mayor's Task Force on Public Safety "to address violence and quality of life issues resulting from intoxicated bar patrons"
RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY
Sources report that mayor has been meeting with his Task Force on Public Safety to find the best way to address the city's plague of Cons; the next one is on March 3rd, Lepre-con, the last was 2017's extraordinarily disruptive SantaCON.
Next, Hoboken's municipal prosecutor was brought in on penalties for liquor license charges that had occurred on December's SantaCON ("tavern sheets"). The Task Force did not wish to rely solely on the usual monetary fines which have failed to stop serial offenders. No, they had other penalties in mind.
And at last night's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) meeting penalties were handed down.
The penalties imposed by the ABC Board for SantaCON violations include SUSPENSION (on LepreCON) and one business CLOSURE.
HOBOKEN NIXLE: PENALTIES, POLICE
Next, Hoboken's municipal prosecutor was brought in on penalties for liquor license charges that had occurred on December's SantaCON ("tavern sheets"). The Task Force did not wish to rely solely on the usual monetary fines which have failed to stop serial offenders. No, they had other penalties in mind.
And at last night's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) meeting penalties were handed down.
The penalties imposed by the ABC Board for SantaCON violations include SUSPENSION (on LepreCON) and one business CLOSURE.
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| Yesterday, the mayor briefed the Inter-Agency group of Law Enforcement Officers on March 3rd's scheduled Leprecon |
HOBOKEN NIXLE: PENALTIES, POLICE
Hoboken ABC Board Issues Suspensions For Liquor License Violations
The City of Hoboken Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Board held their regular bi-weekly meeting on Thursday, February 22nd to consider various charges against 11 Hoboken liquor licensees.
All of the ABC charges scheduled were adjudicated and include the complete shutdown of five establishments on the privately-organized LepreCon event. They are as follows:
1 Republik: Closed on March 3, 2018 and shall close on May 21, 2018 for a 30-day suspension. After the 30-day suspension, the establishment shall permanently close pending transfer/sale of the license to new ownership.
Hoboken Bar and Grill: 30-day suspension to begin immediately (February 23, 2018.)
Green Rock Tap and Grill: 20-day suspension, one day of which is March 3, 2018.
Mill’s Tavern: 24-day suspension which includes being closed March 3, 2018.
The Shannon: two-day suspension to be served March 3 and March 4, 2018.
Six other establishments agreed to settlements as well, but received lesser penalties.
“This represents a major accomplishment in fulfilling my commitment on Inauguration Day to address this public safety nuisance,” said Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla. “The vast majority of bar owners are responsible license holders, but a very small number of establishments have failed to adequately control their patrons and the activities within their premises, leading to severe public safety issues. The discipline agreed to by the owners is appropriate and I hope will lead to an understanding that public safety is a top priority and that the ABC board will not hesitate to enforce the liquor license regulations.”
Additionally, the State of New Jersey Attorney General’s Division of Alcohol Beverage Control has agreed to send 12 to 14 State ABC detectives to Hoboken on March 3, 2018.
Along with Hoboken Police ABC detectives, they will be monitoring establishments to ensure compliance with all ABC regulations, including not admitting underage guests, not overserving patrons, not exceeding capacity, and other health and security regulations.
“I am extremely thankful to New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and its ABC Division Director David P. Rible for his partnership in protecting the public safety and quality of life of our community,” added Mayor Bhalla.
The following public document was handed out at last night's ABC Board meeting.
ABC BOARD NOTICE OF CHARGES
GA Note: Props to an outstanding job by my neighbor, newly-minted ABC Commissioner Paul Blanos, on his debut meeting!
I'm guessing 12/16 was santa-con?
ReplyDeletePrediction - the CC goes bonkers over this purely b/c the mayor did something and they either want the credit or to cast him as the villain.
ReplyDeleteFirst Ward Councilman DeFusco's reaction maybe interesting as all of the offending bars are in his Ward and many of the owners have supported his political ambitions balanced against his his on and off again claims of wanting to end the chaos and disruption they cause to the rest of the City.
DeleteI would predict the rest of the City Council will either agree with the new plan or their objections will be muted to allow them to later pander to both sides of the issue.
from nj.com: Councilman Peter Cunningham told The Jersey Journal he thinks the license suspensions are "draconian." "I am not happy with LepreCon, or SantaCon, but in my opinion, this is not a method to get things done in a collaborative fashion that serves everyone’s interest," he said.
ReplyDeletegood lord, talk about being tone deaf to city residents, out of step on a major local issue and being on the wrong side of a debate. the city has tried "to get things done in a collaborative fashion" for decades but bar owners always just strung us along and continued to do whatever they wanted. did peter sleepwalk through the past 5-10 years? at a certain point, you have to speak a language they understand.
i'm really beginning to wonder why i ever voted for this guy. has he been swept up in butthurtmania and changed, or was he always such a dumbbell?
They'll try to work "not very collaborative of him" into every press release. Secure in the knowledge that the average person probably doesn't know what childishness they are up to or how they have intentionally excluded Doyle and Jabbour, sought to legally handcuff Bhalla from day one.
DeleteThey can't be gone soon enough.
bingo, dang! here's MDF, following his marching orders in his hmag quote: “I agree that the city must do what’s necessary to protect our quality of life,” said First Ward Councilman Michael DeFusco, “but I would much prefer to see a more collaborative approach that takes the needs of both residents and hospitality employees into account, rather than the Mayor’s approach.”
Deleteit's literally the same thing as dumbbell peter's quote. i'm sure the others are not far behind.
The bar owners will never listen until they are shut down for essentially profiting off of drunken antics of knuckleheads. It is past time the city did something about this and I am happy with the result. No bar will promote the likes of leper-con if this is what happens when those lepers in their green outfits barf all over town and cause trouble.
DeleteAs for Peter, time to find a replacement.
the needs of the hospitality employees? WTF? this drunken stupidity is partly their fault? they don't card everyone. they overserve. those bars have nowhere near enough security. the bar owners practically invite overcrowding, over dringing and mayhem. The authorities should be policing the bars more aggressively every weekend and not just when one of these bar crawls happen.
DeleteSo now Peter is on the side of the bar owners against the judgment of th ABC Board in conjunction with recommendations of the the Public Safety Board including Chiefs Ferrante and Crimmins PLUS the consent of Hobokens municipal prosecutor?
DeletePeople please post links to further sympathetic statements from the Banana Council. I mean, defenders of the "tavern sheets." Not many bars in Peter's ward. Lots of 5th ward residents cheering the rule of law. I hope the Banana Council keeps it up!
Something is going to land on them shortly- figuratively speaking. Save those quotes people!
These steps were taken by the ABC board (not the mayor) because of very specific violations. Have any of these bozos bothered to find out what the violations were?
ReplyDeleteABC proceedings are quasi judicial. They are not "collaborative" except to the extent that there can be a settlement which is essentially the equivalent to a plea bargain in a criminal case.
c'mon, numberscruncher, you're letting facts get in the way of the spin.
DeleteWe were not told that "bothering to find out" would be on the test.
DeleteNot very collaborative.
This council majority is creeping me out. They call any decsions where they are not consulted on "not collaberative"- even those of a quasi-judicial autonomous board like the ABC. Are Zoning Board decisions "not collaberative" too?
DeleteThey don't like the mayor's choices for the Rent Leveling board so they are going to seize control by ordinance.
This is a rogue majority. A bunch of do-nothings... they are spending all of their time on political attacks while the mayor and his council WORK for Hoboken.
Actually it doesn't matter whether they were consulted or not. The definition of "collaborative" is the council calls the shots and the mayor says "yessir boss!".
DeleteI've heard they tried to bully Zimmer too behind closed doors. It never worked out well for them. Maybe that's one of the reasons she decided to endorse Bhalla without "consulting" them.
If they wanted to be the mayor they should have run for mayor. Oh wait, Jen and Mike did that and were rejected by the people.
Delete