UPDATE:
Hoboken people are good!
Hoboken people are kind!
Hoboken people are generous!
The number of Hoboken residents now offering to reimburse Carolyn Caufield for the $235.41 she paid out-of-pocket for coffee/croissants to serve members of the public has skyrocketed! This morning, there were 6 offers... the new total of good folks with a heart, who have stepped up for Carolyn is SEVENTEEN!
Yep, seventeen good Hoboken citizens have stepped in after the City Council majority refused to reimburse the 23 year-old City worker for her $235.41 expense. The ringleader of the Croissant Cabal was Mike DeFusco, calling the coffee and croissants served to the public a "waste of taxpayer money."
The rest of the Croissant Cabal fell in line like dominoes, and voted against refunding Ms. Caufield. (They're getting played like dominoes, too.)
Ms. Caufield, Chief of Constituent Services, was delighted to purchase refreshments for Hoboken residents, young and old, who have attended a series of constituents meetings with the mayor. But she expected to be paid back.
Not what the sore losers of the Council majority had in mind. They chose to stiff the young lady because she works for the Mayor. Yes, the City Council majority slips further and further into indecency (oh boy, if you thought this was crappy, GA's got one coming tomorrow. Hint: how about keeping free medical services for homeless out of Hoboken?)
Hey people! Next time you hang out with HPD Chief Ferrante, there won't be any coffee in your cup! Because last night Tiffanie Fisher, Mike DeFusco, Jen Giattino, Ruben Ramos, Mike Russo, Vanessa Falco and Peter Cunningham decided that expenditures of public money on refreshments served at constituent meetings are "a waste of taxpayer money!"
Hoboken people are good!
Hoboken people are kind!
Hoboken people are generous!
The number of Hoboken residents now offering to reimburse Carolyn Caufield for the $235.41 she paid out-of-pocket for coffee/croissants to serve members of the public has skyrocketed! This morning, there were 6 offers... the new total of good folks with a heart, who have stepped up for Carolyn is SEVENTEEN!
Yep, seventeen good Hoboken citizens have stepped in after the City Council majority refused to reimburse the 23 year-old City worker for her $235.41 expense. The ringleader of the Croissant Cabal was Mike DeFusco, calling the coffee and croissants served to the public a "waste of taxpayer money."
The rest of the Croissant Cabal fell in line like dominoes, and voted against refunding Ms. Caufield. (They're getting played like dominoes, too.)
Ms. Caufield, Chief of Constituent Services, was delighted to purchase refreshments for Hoboken residents, young and old, who have attended a series of constituents meetings with the mayor. But she expected to be paid back.
Not what the sore losers of the Council majority had in mind. They chose to stiff the young lady because she works for the Mayor. Yes, the City Council majority slips further and further into indecency (oh boy, if you thought this was crappy, GA's got one coming tomorrow. Hint: how about keeping free medical services for homeless out of Hoboken?)
_____________
Hey people! Next time you hang out with HPD Chief Ferrante, there won't be any coffee in your cup! Because last night Tiffanie Fisher, Mike DeFusco, Jen Giattino, Ruben Ramos, Mike Russo, Vanessa Falco and Peter Cunningham decided that expenditures of public money on refreshments served at constituent meetings are "a waste of taxpayer money!"
Phew, what a relief to know that the fiscal stewards of Hoboken's $118M budget want to protect you from drinking a cup of coffee that your taxes paid for.
What is GA talking about?
Last night, Mike DeFusco plucked one line item from $4,441,445.54 in total claims-- refusing to pay for $235.41 spent on coffee and croissants at several constituents meetings. The money had been paid out-of-pocket by the 23 year-old Chief of Constituent Affairs, Caroline Caulfield, so the expense was a reimbursement to her.
Well, DeFusco bloviated on about "taxpayer waste," that "taxpayers" shouldn't pay for serving coffee or refreshments; his outrage fueled by sour grapes over being booted from a recent Marine View residents meeting. (Has he tried to arrange one of his own Marine View constituents meetings yet?)
Anyhow, if you want to understand how petty this really was, the expense for coffee and croissants that DeFusco, Fisher, Ramos, Giattino Russo, Cunningham and Falco voted NOT to pay, was 0.00053% of the total $4.4M they agreed to pay.
By this petty outrage, the City Council Majority has set a precedent. Future constituents meetings will be brown-baggers. Bring your own cup. You might get billed for what you slurp from a water fountain.
What about the 23 year-old City worker who paid for the coffee and croissants?
What about the 23 year-old City worker who paid for the coffee and croissants?
So far, a half dozen members of the public have offered to reimburse Caroline for her expense... that's not including GA commenter Da Ojo Rojo. You see, the optics of the Council's pettiness, their thirst for retribution against Mayor Bhalla, is not lost on the public. This foot-stomping over something very small, something that constituents like, makes them look like petty jerks.
Caroline will get her money back, one way or another. Hoboken people are good. And generous.
Oh, by the way... GA found out that refreshments served to DeFusco's constituents at Marine View were not in last night's Claims. Well, let's make sure they find out who doesn't want them to have a cup of coffee when they meet with the mayor!
So people. Bring your cup to the next "Water with a Cop" and a bag of ice to share.
They call it Petty Cash for a reason.
ReplyDeleteIn all of Hoboken there isn't a more petty person then Michael Defusco.
After MDF's recent troubles with Hoboken donuts, he must have been triggered by anything to do with pastries.
ReplyDeleteIn his upcoming campaign literature, he can boast to Hoboken taxpayers:
ReplyDelete"My council colleagues and I have reduced wasteful spending, and you will benefit from tax relief in the upcoming year of 0.00738198 cents"
How about we dock him for every council meeting he misses, which has to be about $ 1,000.00 each time.
DeFusco is a sideshow. He might be re-elected if the runoff isn't brought back, but he's gone if there's a December runoff. And he's certainly not part of any serious conversation about the 2021 mayoral race.
ReplyDeleteRuben Ramos is the face of the real opposition, not DeFusco or Fisher. The only ones who don't get that are DeFusco and Fisher, neither of whom is the sharpest tool in the shed politically.
Ruben is shrewdly letting DeFusco and Fisher take take the lead in attacking Ravi so he can portray himself as the adult in the room who can bring the City together. Supporters of actual good government who see Ramos for the ambitious, unethical, empty suit he's always been need to keep our eyes on Ramos and not be distracted by the DeFusco/Fisher clown show.
Tiff is there to give Ramos and Defusco a whiff of reform. You may not see it but she’s still popular with an influential demographic who won’t look twice at those two unless they have her blessing. Ramos will do well with the old guard. But that’s not enough. Tiffs job is to bring in the reform minded but fairly apolitical Kids First demo. We’ll see.
DeleteI expect Tiff plans to run herself not support Ramos or DeFusco. And city wide she's pretty much unknown so her blessing wouldn't mean much except maybe to a few people in the tea building (and even there her luster is wearing thin). Keep in mind if the tiny constituency you refer to mattered Jen Giattino would be Mayor.
DeleteYou’re talking about Tiff winning. I’m taking about her putting Ruben over the top. If there’s a runoff she’ll run with him. She might run with him in the first round. Flexible ethics.
DeleteRamos hopes to reassemble the Cammarano coalition and add in DeFusco, Fisher, Giattino and Cunningham plus the Lenz/Minutillo KF faction. If he can do that he will certainly be a formidable challenger.
DeleteBut elements of that coalition - specifically Russo, DeFusco and Fisher want to be mayor too. So the coalition may be hard to put together. They may pretend now that they are bound together by "anybody but Ravi" but when the rubber hits the road it will be every man and woman for themself.
I don't see any of them stepping aside for the Ramos team unless and until they have been eliminated.
If Ruben hasn’t figured out yet that Fisher will frag him when the time comes, he’s, um, not very good at math.
DeleteTiff run? Ha, she is both politically tone deaf and obtuse. She makes some of the crackpots running for the mayor of Chicago look good (and there are some really off the rails candidates in that race).
DeleteFisher is not as strong as you think.... she stepped down as our board president for a reason. The 2nd is ready for change.
DeleteShe's amazingly Beth-like. Always grand-standing, always playing the presiding ethicist, meanwhile making every decision based on immediate political calculus. I'm starting to wonder if there's something in the water in the 2nd ward. God-willing she'll meet the same fate as Beth 1.0. Out and forgotten.
DeleteBut I thought she was still the condo assoc president, no?
Is Ramos good at math?
ReplyDeleteIs Giattino?
ReplyDeleteWell I know Giattino can count to four to get to her name on a list of election finishes.
ReplyDeleteI see that the old Budget Hawk Mike Russo is back!
ReplyDelete