COUNCIL WAR ON EASTERSEALS
Oy vey. This is a disgrace.
Somebody, please get GA a pic of the windowless room in the Harlow, that's currently being used for building storage. It is not the Taj Mahal. It is 1,000 square feet that is reserved for public use by the City of Hoboken.
It's also the room that Tiffanie Fisher, Jen Giattino, and Ruben Ramos are trying to take away from Easterseals NJ. Specifically, two employment development groups that have to move from their Jersey City location by the end of September. Both would work out of the Harlow space, and provide employment services for Hoboken disabled and seniors. The reason why Jersey City gave them a rent-free space was because their work prevents homelessness.
Last Wednesday, in an evil ballet, Fisher, Giattino and Ramos colluded to table the vote for the Easterseals ordinance. Carrying the ordinance has stopped the Charity from obtaining a lease before they have to move out of Jersey City.
How did this trio get the dirty deed done?
Giattino asked Corporation Counsel for a legal reason why "we" (the council) can't carry the ordinance to the next meeting. Of course, there was no "legal reason" why the ordinance couldn't be carried. Aloia answered Giattino. He did not "pull the ordinance." Corporation Council had no authority to pull the ordinance that his Law Department vetted and allowed on the Agenda. The Council pulled it.
Ramos said, "Its being pulled."
So why did Councilwoman Fisher lie like a rug on my Facebook page:
Tell ya why she lied. Consciousness of guilt. Shes not proud of herself. Nor should she be.
None of them should be. They should be ashamed. They did not want constructive input, they wanted to get rid of the ordinance. None of them want to own what they did, so their ringleader blamed Brian Aloia. SAD.
Hoboken people are good. Hoboken people are kind. Hoboken people are generous.
Public opinion will not be kind when folks know how this trio kicked the charity to the curb. She and her cohorts stooped this low because Mayor Bhalla's Chief of Staff is an unpaid volunteer Easterseals Board member. The City owns the room, and wants nothing for it but $1/year.
So the City of Hoboken with its $118M budget can't afford to let a charity (which will help our most vulnerable residents) work out of one frickin' room?
NO. Tiffanie Fisher, Jen Giattino and Ruben Ramos apparently want a tenant who can pay market rate rent. They opposed this act of charity; negligible in our City's $118M budget. Really. So, Hoboken can't afford to let groups who employ disabled and seniors work out of our City's currently vacant room? Anybody else feel that this is as low they've ever gone?
Got a new name for them: the Council of Spite.
FISHER TRIED TO RAISE $10,000 FOR HER POLITICAL OPERATIVE
awesome Freudian slip, re-read the first sentence after her bullet points: "...honest elections and good governance -- both of which I fight tirelessly".
ReplyDeleteLOL!!
The Harlow is just down the street from Fox Hill Gardens, and I would assume that a few of those residents might interested in some of the programs EasterSeals has to offer. This is in Peter Cunningham's ward. Did he not have anything to say about this?
ReplyDeleteI believe others have written that it is impossible for the Administration to pull the resolution of a city council member. In other words, the Mayor's administration has no power to pull a City Council member's resolution, right?
ReplyDeleteAssuming that the above it correct, from a good government perspective, Tiffanie is failing to educate the public on the powers of a member of the City Council, and in fact, is misleading the public on the powers of the City Council. If she wanted to make a public policy argument against Easter Seals receiving this space at the exact same rent as it had in Jersey City (zero dollars), she could make it and leave it from the public to decide whether she's on the right track or not. Instead it looks like she is misleading the public on who can pull a City Council member's resolution and who can't for either nefarious or ignorant reasons (it's clear to me the reasons are the former not the later based on past performance of misleading when called out).
I can't wait until 2019. It's amazing how foolish they truly are with their behavior and petty politics. If they think this is a political win, it's so not. The best politics is good government and that starts by being truthful and accurate about what happened here.
Ms Fisher is well known for her affection for rabbits, so this may all boil down to her fear that the Bhalla Administration is not only trying to replace her as Councilwoman but is looking to replace the Easter Bunny with the Easter Seal.
ReplyDelete