Could Planning Board Commissioner Mike DeFusco be too busy playing "gotcha!" with toilet signage to notice a looming conflict-of-interest at the Planning Board?
GA fact-checked an anonymous comment made yesterday, that Michael DeFusco's mayoral campaign had received $1,200 from a developer with an application pending before the Planning Board. Guess what?
GA fact-checked an anonymous comment made yesterday, that Michael DeFusco's mayoral campaign had received $1,200 from a developer with an application pending before the Planning Board. Guess what?
It's true.
Note, the $1,200 contribution was made on November 7, 2017, two months before Jen Giattino, Tiffanie Fisher, Peter Cunningham and Ruben Ramos replaced Planning Board Commissioner Jim Doyle with Mike DeFusco.
It's legal, of course. As stated, the contribution was made ahead of his appointment to the Planning Board.
Nevertheless, it behooves Councilman DeFusco to redirect his attention from investigating toilet signage to conflicts in his own backyard. The onus is on him, the Planning Board commissioner, not the Applicant, to present pending conflicts-of-interest to the Board. (The Applicant already reported the $1,200 contribution on a disclosure form and signed a sworn "Affidavit of Non-Collusion" explicitly stating that there has been "no collusion" between his LLC and any member of the Planning Board.)
Nevertheless, it behooves Councilman DeFusco to redirect his attention from investigating toilet signage to conflicts in his own backyard. The onus is on him, the Planning Board commissioner, not the Applicant, to present pending conflicts-of-interest to the Board. (The Applicant already reported the $1,200 contribution on a disclosure form and signed a sworn "Affidavit of Non-Collusion" explicitly stating that there has been "no collusion" between his LLC and any member of the Planning Board.)
Take a look-- these are public documents accessible on the City's website here.
CONTRIBUTION DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
APPLICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT
Curiously, this application was pulled off the July 10 agenda, when Planning Board Commissioner Mike DeFusco was away on vacation.
Things we'll never know: Did DeFusco intend to participate in this hearing and not recuse himself? Would he have volunteered the information about the conflict and recuse himself?
It's not rocket science; Planning Board Commissioners who receive political contributions from Applicants must recuse.
Interestingly, the zoning changes that DeFusco successfully steered through the City Council, which expand lot coverage/decrease the "donut hole" knock out a variance for this Application (and many others, inevitably). Note, even if that one went down, 2 other variances remain.
Planner Ken Ochab (a nice guy) shows the variances on his zoning chart-- his full report available here.
KEN OCHAB PLANNER'S REPORT
Finally, GA was unable to find any record that the campaign reported this $1,200 contribution to ELEC. It might be my mistake, but I looked through Mike DeFusco for Mayor and Team DeFusco reports filed after 11/7/2017.
Feel free to check these public documents yourselves, let me know if you find this contribution: search here.
The ironies keep coming, don't they.
"no collusion".
ReplyDeleteyeah, umm, I don't believe it in this case either.
Leave me alone, GA. I'm busy dusting Hoboken toilet signs for finger prints. If they aren't Ravi's finger prints then my people will write a press release asking why? Tiffanie will ask for an apology.
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of Yappy the Alt-Right Real Estate Agent who is so devoted to ME that he would never venture over here from my far right paradise, Horse and Friends, I must protest in the strongest possible terms your disgusting attack on a gay man('s pay-to-play relationship with a developer)!!!
ReplyDeleteSurely you have noticed at Horse and Friends our record of sensitivity to the needs of gay men (to enter into pay-to-play relationships with developers). We have long believed that what we are calling "democracy" demands this stance. But you seem not to share our opinion that a gay man (in our political coalition) should enjoy the same privileges as all other citizens (when there's money to be had from a developer writing checks to your campaign).
The shame! The outrage! The lost revenue opportunity!
I will be discussing your conduct with Secretary of State Putin this weekend if he takes my call this time and isn't too busy. I feel like I call him all the time. I just never know how much is too much. I want to seem engaged, but not needy. Enthralled, yet slightly aloof. I would ask Mikey D for tips, but he's got that thing with the toilet signs this weekend. And Pence just scares me. Don't ask .
#MAGA anyway!!!
Yappy LOVES a little P2P amongst friends!
Delete"Hi, I know you only develop in the Meadowlands and have never built in Hoboken, and that I'm running on a purely anti-development platform, but I'm flat broke and I've got a running mate who never runs out of excuses why he won't lift a finger for our own campaign, so, you know, help us out! We're the GOOD guys!"
"Brother, can you spare $500 for a 4W kamikaze mission? Pay no attention to that pending application behind the curtain. Coach House salad bar's on me!"
And who knows what the stakeholder map looked like for that gutterball that dropped a few years back...
But hey, we're the GOOD guys!
I'm very busy. Called in the F.B.I. to prove collusion between the toilet sign maker and the Bhalla administration. They will prove the mayor gets a commission for every toilet sign he hangs which is a Pee-to-Play violation. Once I prove Bhalla has Pee-to-Play violations, my people will write a press release and Tiffanie will ask for an apology.
ReplyDeletePee-to-Play violations are not prosecutable by the City of Hoboken. So I will change the law! Leave me alone.