Council dilemma!!!
GA has learned that Hoboken University Medical Center's Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet at 9AM on Thursday. Yes, the morning after this Wednesday's City Council meeting.
The timing is fortuitous because the Council needs a public discussion about who will replace the Ramos-crony improperly seated on the board last June.
You see, last June Ruben Ramos snuck behind his Council colleagues' backs to slide his political crony, Eduardo Gonzalez, into an HUMC board seat which hospital bylaws grant to a Council member. Gonzalez has no legal standing as a Board Trustee, either to sit on the board or to attend board meetings. NONE!
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| Ramos unilaterally appointed a crony instead of his Council colleagues appointing a Councilperson |
Therefore, if Ramos sends Gonzalez to the HUMC's Thursday morning Board of Trustees meeting, the Council-imposter should be asked to leave! (Maybe the Hospital can hang a "No Trespassing Eduardo" sign?)
It is unclear why Ramos did not defer to the City Council on the vacancy left by Russo appointee Anthony Pasquale. While Pasquale was not on the Council, he was the initial appointee made upon purchase of the HUMC by HoldCo; their bylaws state that appointees following the initial "council minority" appointment are to be "a member of the Hoboken City Council."
And so, Ruben Ramos had no legal authority to unilaterally award the seat to a political crony. It was underhanded, dishonest and a celar violation of the HUMC bylaws and New Jerey's Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).
Yes, not only did Ramos hide this board appointment from his Council Colleagues, he avoided a public appointment process- an OPMA violation. It is not hyperbole to say that Ramos stole the seat. He stole the seat. Why? To impress his pals with his power? To burnish Eduardo's resume for another council run?
We will be watching. Hoboken City Council would be negligent not to send a member to Thursday morning's HUMC Board of Trustees meeting. Who will they pick?
My guess is these bozos genuinely had no idea the successor board member had to be a council member since that would have required reading the by-laws as GA did.
ReplyDeleteCunningham, Giattino and Fisher probably knew about the appointment but didn't want to publicly vote for Eduardo given his baggage so they all agreed to break the law and and have Ramos secretly make the appointment.
Now that they've been caught (thanks to GA), it will be interesting to see if they lie about knowing and throw Ramos under the bus, claim they didn't know, or just join in a conspiracy to cover it up by having Ramos as CP cut off any discussion.
Anything Gonzalez voted on or deliberated over, any decisions or actions he participated in, may now be seen as null and void and exposes the hospital to legal liability. Any suits would also likely name the City of Hoboken as well because of Ramos's action in autocratically appointing his friend to the hospital board in the first place.
ReplyDeleteNo surprise to me. The rotten apple doesn't fall far from the rotten tree....
ReplyDeleteTiff, Jen and Peter like their rotten apples.
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