Exclusive: popular Washington Street bars sue Hoboken City Council, et.al.

The 3 dozen or so masochists who live-stream Hoboken City Council meetings may have seen this coming...

It's a lawsuit... and some of GA's favorite Washington Street bar-restaurants are litigants.

Yep. On October 2, 2018,  the owners of East LA Restaurant, Mikie Squared Bar and Grill, Court Street Restaurant and Karma Kafe filed a lawsuit against The City of Hoboken, Hoboken City Council, Hoboken ABC Board and Los Charritos, Inc. 

Heavens to nachos!  What's it about?

The following facts are included in the verified complaint.

• On July 6, 2018, Charritos filed their petition to transfer a liquor license as an exception to the 500 foot rule.  
• On August 24, 2018, Charittos was notified they would receive a hearing at the next Council meeting (September 5).  Only the Hoboken City Council failed to notice the hearing, then failed to put the hearing on the meeting Agenda as an item for action.  
• On September 5, 2018, the Hoboken City Council gave verbal approval (no resolution) to transfer the liquor license to Charritos restaurant in New Business.
• On September 17, 2018, about 50 members of the public came to support a "Reconsideration Motion" which was proposed by the (objecting) bar owners' attorney, Joseph A. Pojanowski, Ill, Esq.  The "Reconsideration Motion" simply asked for the Council to void it's September 5 approval, and re-notice the hearing in order to comply with the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). A Reconsideration Motion would allow members of the public-- for and against the Charittos license transfer-- to be heard, and would cure procedural defects made by the Hoboken City Council.   

Fair, right?  Pojanowski made a compelling argument before the Council. He spoke about the violation of OPMA and further, alleged that the Petitioner failed to meet "extraordinary circumstances" criteria required to permit exception to the 500 Foot rule, and that their application was defective.   (GA's no lawyer, but in my own personal view, there's no way around skirting OPMA.)

GA watched the discussion.  Some members of the Council- and Corporation Counsel Brian Aloia-- conceded that there were procedural problems with the approval but.... shit happens.  The Council denied the request for reconsideration.

Yeah, I couldn't believe it. We are talking about adding a liquor license on Washington Street, creating precedent.  Especially after the HUB debacle, you'd think the City would be on their toes about adding density to Hoboken's liquor licenses.

And because the Hoboken City Council refused to cure procedural errors the City of Hoboken is in court.  A self-inflicted waste of taxpayer money.  

Why this matters: if the process was flawed to transfer a liquor license, and if the petitioner does not meet the nebulous "extraordinary circumstances" required as an exception to the 500 foot rule, then why even bother having a 500 foot rule?  The precedent set would open the floodgates for the granting of licenses to any applicant for any reason, anywhere. 

What needs to be done: our '500-foot rule' ordinance needs to define what "extraordinary circumstances" are, then hold Petitioners to prove they meet them.

So, here we go. GA holds Council President Ruben Ramos and his Council majority responsible for this needless litigation.  The Council majority generally votes together as a bloc. And, in GA's opinion, they hold personal animus toward East LA owner former Mayor David Roberts, for withholding his endorsement in the 2017 election, and later, for supporting their nemesis, Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

Everything is politics, you know.  Everything.   

Hoboken Bar-restaurants v City of Hoboken, et. al by GrafixAvenger on Scribd