Yikes! He had to do it.
First Ward Councilman Mike DeFusco had to go and bust up a rare showing of unity between all 9 members of Hoboken City Council and Mayor Bhalla.
Yep, it's true. Yesterday morning, the mayor met with the Council's Infrastructure and Finance Subcommittee: Ruben Ramos, Jen Giattino, Emily Jabbour and Tiffanie Fisher. All present agreed with the mayor's 3-step proposal to address Hoboken's water main breakage crisis. As mentioned, the mayor's plan includes seeking a court order to obtain information being withheld by SUEZ; information vital for the City to analyze what has gone "wrong" with our water infrastructure. Upon reaching agreement, Council President Ramos, suggested the following statement be drafted on behalf of all 9 members of the Council, to show solidarity with the Mayor, that all parties would work together to resolve this crisis.
Isn't it nice? Just like the good old days.
CITY COUNCIL STATEMENT
Dear Residents,
As we are all painfully aware, Hoboken has seen an extraordinary number of water main breaks over the past few years which have come to a head with three major incidents over the past week. As a governing body, we have been committed to allocating necessary resources to upgrade our water infrastructure, including approximately $5 million annually since 2016 targeted at high priority areas recommended by our water provider, Suez. Clearly this has not been enough, and we recognize that we need to do more.
To that end, we are committed to working to resolve this important issue and look forward to working together with Mayor Bhalla and his administration to put in place a plan that will solve our chronic water infrastructure issues both in the near and long term.
While we all may notbe able to be physically present for this morning’s press conference because ofwork and family obligations, we, as a City Council, speak with one voice withregard to this important matter.
Sincerely,
Ruben Ramos, Jr., Council President, 4th Ward
James Doyle, At-Large
Vanessa Falco, At-Large
Emily Jabbour, At-Large
Michael DeFusco, 1st Ward
Tiffanie Fisher, 2nd Ward
Dr. Michael Russo, 3rd Ward
Peter Cunningham, 5th Ward
Jennifer Giattino, 6th Ward
GUESS WHO BREAKS WITH COUNCIL
At this writing, the mayor's 3-step plan is supported by 8 members of the Council--sans the First Ward Councilman. Which is a mystery to me. Whose side is he on?
SUEZ's apparently. The Mayor and 8 Council members are acting in the best interest of Hoboken residents, who are sick of constant water main breaks. Mike DeFusco, very late to the scene, is thanking SUEZ on Twitter. GA is (still) blocked on Mike DeFusco's Twitter, but I'm told he's having multiple Twitter-gasms.
Oooooh aaaaah.... hating on the mayor feels sooooo good....
All Twitters aside, doesn't Mike DeFuscos' complaint about the mayor on CBS News prove he's an irredeemable jerk? Kinda dumb, too. Because who exactly was he playing to...
Do the millions who watch CBS Nightly News vote in Hoboken?
The guy's a frickin' robot. He just cannot turn it off. Maybe he should have told CBS News where he was hiding all weekend while the Mayor, his aides, and other Hoboken city workers were on the scene of the water main breaks in his First Ward.
TEA LEAVES
GA's Earwitness News reported that Ruben Ramos was overhead musing about running for Hoboken Mayor in 2021.
Well... doesn't this split between the Mobsie Twins on the mayor's SUEZ action support that Q-Tip? Normally those two are working the same side of the street. Could it be that Ramos sees the light? Has he cut DeFusco loose?
If so, all GA can say is: what took so long?
Sources tell me that Ruben has long been advised by close friends to distance himself from DeFusco and his "negativity."
If so, all GA can say is: what took so long?
Sources tell me that Ruben has long been advised by close friends to distance himself from DeFusco and his "negativity."
Could it be that message has finally sunk in?
Leave it to Dweeber. Whining at every turn isn't very "may-err-uhl" either.
ReplyDeleteIs something wrong in his head? Hoboken dodged a bullet last Nov.
ReplyDeleteIf Ravi hadn't sued Councilman Mike DeFusco would be claiming Ravi had dropped the ball by not suing and demanded that the Mayor take legal action. Mike is predictable in that whatever Ravi does Mike is against it.
ReplyDeleteI live in the 1st ward, I donated to Mike's campaign, I went door to door to ask people to vote for Mike, and I apologize I was wrong.
I'm guilty, too. In my own defense, he acted so differently when we served together on the ZBA. He was respectful, positive, earnest; I didn't catch a whiff of narcissism. Seemed like a good kid.
DeleteBut Giattino was right. She never liked him. Nor did Cunningham and Fisher. When DeFusco totally flipped on the admin (Zimmer) I recall telling Jen that she was right about him. But now... they are allies! They put him on the Planning Board! Still hard for me to wrap my head around that. They were that angry at Ravi? Are they still?
Anyway. You have company. I was wrong about him, too.
On average, if you just do the opposite of whatever DeFusco suggests, you are probably doing the right thing. The man is such a moron that if he stands in one place too long a puddle of drool collects around his ankles.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Mike is political not policy and service oriented. He uses his City Council perch to play politics constantly, rather than engage in thoughtful, sober policy deliberation. When Mayor Zimmer negotiated a contract that would have Suez significantly work to upgrade our infrastructure, he calculated that it was not in HIS personal political interests to support it during election season last year so he attacked Suez and the Mayor helped kill a new maintenance contract. He has now calculated that it is in HIS personal political interests to have a contrasting position with the Mayor and the Council, so he is reversing course and saying we should definitely work with Suez in complete contradiction to his position just a year ago. Why is he so inconsistent? Personal politics. I think people see through it. Complete politician. Cares about himself, everything else, including the public interest, is a distant second.
ReplyDeleteMike is kind of stuck with taking whatever position Bhalla doesn't want to take, like getting to the buffet last and acting like you got there first.
ReplyDeleteFor laughs Bhalla should make a really odd pronouncement just to goad Mike into fiercely upholding the contrary position. For instance, "This administration will never support the elevation of squirrels into leadership positions in the fire department."
The very next day, "And why not, Mr Mayor!"
Mike, just a gentle reminder that reflexively contradicting isn't the same as arguing.
he's basically become a yappy clone. all signs point to him having an as ineffectual and brief political career as yappy as well.
ReplyDeleteNot shocking considering who advises him. Why does anyone listen to yappy? He has worse political instincts than Bit Mazin.
ReplyDeleteLast time in the First Ward is was anybody but Terry, next election, anybody but Mike, even Terry.
ReplyDeleteHe has no political savvy unless you count petulant brat with supercilious charm as a strategy.
When he was a small child, he was probably told by his grandmother, "when you grow up, you will be ridiculed, disliked, ignored and shunned". To which he replied: "Why, Nonna, is it because I'm...different?". "No, she said, because you're irritating as fuck".
ReplyDeleteGot to love how Tiffanie doubles down on being stupid in her next press release posted elsewhere. She clearly has no concept of what was going on w/ the Suez contract renewal a couple years ago and she still has no clue. She is giving MDF a run for his money on who is the dimmest bulb on the CC.
ReplyDeleteNeither of them shuts up long enough to listen.
Delete