GA checked into last night's Council meeting about halfway through-- did I miss anything?
Here's what I saw: Tiffanie Fisher committing epic legislative malpractice predicated on a lie: "$600K is the most that Hoboken has ever spent on legal contacts..." A quick Google search shows that is FALSE: in 2013 our Reform-majority council approved "over $700K in legal fees"- 15% higher than legal fees on last night's Agenda.
Based upon Fisher's blather, Council President Ramos and Vice President Giattino allowed her to unilaterally cherry-pick (in real time) which legal contracts to pay in full and which to slash.
After several minutes, Fisher read the Agenda aloud, announcing which contracts the Council would pay in full in which to slash by 70%. No debate, no discussion.
And no thought, apparently on the impact of a 70% reduction of fees for the attorneys providing vital legal work to the residents of Hoboken. Corporation Counsel Brian Aloia had to interject that one contract Fisher chose to cut payment on performed the bulk of their legal work in the First Quarter. Included among those Fisher arbitrarily put in the "work without pay" column were the Special Counsel Tenant Advocate Attorney and the City's Tax Appeal attorney (a former judge who has worked through five Hoboken mayoral administrations).
Imagine, Fisher cutting the payment on the contract for the city's TAX APPEAL attorney. Only the little people pay taxes. Like us.
WHY the punitive slashing of payment to the City's lawyers? Councilman Mike DeFusco answered that: he groused that the mayor was a lawyer so these legal contracts were helping his friends.
Not only is this vindictive, it is stupid. These people WORK and provide VITAL SERVICES to residents, protect the City's interests thus protect taxpayers.
FISHER'S GOVERNMENT SERVICES SHUTDOWN
There is a cause and effect to this arbitrary and vindictive action, which mirrors the callous indifference of the Trump Administration. In this case, it is the callousness and indifference to the legal needs to Hoboken residents. Trump arbitrarily decided to stop paying 800,000 federal employees, expecting them to work for free-- until they get compensated some day in the future. Hoboken's attorney's contract fees correlate with the amount of total anticipated work: they cannot regulate how much work they have and when it will come. They may get hit in the First Quarter or the Third Quarter. Hence, cutting payment on Contracts will result in working without compensation, otherwise reducing services.
In the vernacular, this is shitty. Attorneys have overhead, and other clients.
GA asked sources close to City Hall for the real impact of these arbitrary contract payment cuts.
"People will be hurt by Tiffanie Fisher's vindictiveness. The tenant advocate and the tax appeal attorney will now be forced to pick and choose which residents to help because of the reduced budget. Those who are not helped because of the budget cut will suffer because of Tiffanie."
The source continued, "Generally though, paying incrementally also demonstrates to these professionals how unstable Hoboken has become due to the city counsel. Confidence waivers and they take a more conservative approach overall since they can't count on the next time they'll be paid, or if they'd be paid at all."
Fisher and her Council allies have lost their way. This is not good government. This is rage.
Fisher, Giattino and Cunningham are all Republicans, so they're just following their leader. But Cheryl The Droning Gnome, one of Jenn's handmaidens, will be upset if her tenant advocacy clients don't get help.
ReplyDeleteAnything to make the mayor look bad. Except everything they do backfires. Vibrantly.
Only 293 more days.
Fisher is an idiot. A complete idiot. I don't think even Mason was this stupid.
ReplyDeleteA lawyer in private practice just called me up... sputtering mad, saying this treatment will cause competent professionals to QUIT, so then all the City can hire are inexperienced attorneys or hacks. Lawyers have expenses and overhead and cannot depend on 'unreliable' clients to decide when and if they'll get paid. This abusive treatment is the game that Mason's gang used to play, but at least they PAID the City's legal contracts. Unbelievable.
DeleteCouncilman DeFusco knows about helping his friends. When a developer friend needed a kind word about his 13 story, 190 residential unit building on the Jersey City Hoboken border, he showed up at the Zoning Board meeting in Jersey City to give it.
ReplyDeleteUp next on the Alt.Right Reformers agenda: 1) eliminate weekends 2) no ice-cream allowed in Hoboken 3) Charge for oxygen! Yup, they have all the best ideas......
ReplyDeleteThis is nothing. Just wait until we get to budget hearings next month. If they can't fire city staff, no problem, they'll just cut the department's payroll appropriation. They are so in lock step with what's going on the Washington, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a Hoboken government shutdown. They've completely forgotten, or simply don't care about their constituents. 11/5/2019.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI love that Tiffanie is looking out for tax payers. I think you’re giving her more credit than she deserves. It was really Russo and Peter who demanded the fees be reduced. But you know and I know that one councilwoman can’t make these decisions alone. You need at least 5. And what was the final vote at the end? 9-0? Apparently you missed those parts.
ReplyDeleteI assume it was 9-0 to pass some kind of contract - not on whether to slash the not to exceed amounts. The council didn't vote on whether to slash them, the only vote was yea or nay on the contract as slashed by Tiffanie.
DeleteIf that's correct your reference to a 9-0 vote, implying the slashing had unanimous support, is pretty misleading.
How is gutting the fees for an attorney who hears TAX APPEALS and another who helps DISPLACED TENANTS "looking out for taxpayers"?
DeleteNo, it is HURTING taxpayers. These attorneys provide vital legal services FOR taxpayers. How is refusing to pay the contract of an experienced TAX APPEAL attorney who's worked through 5 Hoboken administrations "looking out for taxpayers"? Any tax payer who has filed an appeal now has to be concerned about impact of this 70% cut. Why should any competent attorney continue to work for the City of Hoboken if they cannot rely on their CONTRACTS being paid? They can't. Attorneys have OTHER clients and overhead.
Fisher failed to do due diligence before she claimed that Hoboken's $600K in legal contracts was the "most ever." In fact, $600K may have been the lowest in recent Hoboken history. I will research the $ that Hoboken has paid for legal contracts, and you can be sure the city is spending LESS now than it did in years past. And, not even talking about the days of corruption in City Hall when litigation was rampant, lawsuits settled, and the settlement split among parties "upstairs".
Yes, I agree that all 5: Ramos, Fisher, DeFusco, Giattino and Cunningham were on the same page going in, and let Fisher unilaterally decide which contracts shall live and which shall die a death of a thousand cuts-- in this case, 70% cut. This is going to spread like wildfire around the legal community in Hudson County, and probably the state. Let's see who wants to work in Hoboken now.
Numbers' Cool computer counterpart isn't intentionally misleading. She's a math wiz who counted the votes correctly because, wiz that she is, she can count as high as 9.
DeleteBut since understanding what was actually being voted on isn't math, she struggles with that.
Did you watch a different meeting than me? The one I watched was Facebook live. The council asked her to make recommendations. She walked through each one at a time and then council voted 9-0 on consent on all of the revised contracts. Including JabRDoyle. Maybe you should watch again to avoid being misleading.
ReplyDeleteI watched the meeting in real time. Are you pretending that the vote on consent ever had a chance of failing? The Fisher-Ramos-DeFusco- Giattino-Cunningham Stamp of Approval was on it, the fix was in. What Jim and Emily vote for or against on this council is almost never determinative. I do know you're trying to blame the council minority for Fisher unilaterally slashing payments to legal professionals, and her allies pontificating in favor of the cuts. Not a single one of them thought about the impact on residents. Not a single one.
DeleteThe video clip will tell the story, so I'll cut it when I get a chance.
Here is the problem with your analysis. A no vote would mean that the contract would not be funded AT ALL. Also, she went through the contracts list while at the meeting, not before. What I saw was just a general consensus of the five obstructionists (as confirmed by Defusco) to just slash fees as a way to get even somehow with the Mayor, who Defusco claimed (without any evidence) that the Mayor was rewarding his lawyer friends with legal contracts. Google Legal Degree Fisher had not a clue what she was doing on a substantive basis. I will happily file a tax appeal now, knowing that the attorney will not have the resources to fight all of the appeals that will be filed this year and that the likelihood that I can get a default judgment against the City just increased dramatically. Silly, silly, idiotic stuff that went on last night. What in the world makes Fisher so angry? Cut off your nose to spite your face comes to mind as an appropriate reference.
DeleteIsn't that what numbers said? The only unanimous vote was to pass the contracts as slashed. There was no vote at all on the idea of Fisher slashing them or on each slash. Implying that Doyle and Jabbour voted to support Fisher's decisions is, as numbers said misleading, but since I'm less diplomatic than he is, I'll call it what it really is which is a lie.
DeleteYou should watch it again to avoid being a liar.
I apologize for starting the pissing contest about CCNC's false claim of unanimity. It's distracting from the real issue which is that arbitrarily slashing the not to exceed amount of legal contracts on the fly at a council meeting is both stupid and irresponsible for all the reasons GA has explained.
DeleteIt would be just as stupid and irresponsible if it really had unanimous council support so I'm sorry I brought that up. I never expected it to trigger the back and forth it did.
CCNC must think claiming there was unanimity somehow gives Fisher cover. It doesn't. Stupid and irresponsible is stupid and irresponsible no matter how many people (actually or fictionally) supported it.
I sincerely hope some developer fucks over Hoboken right before the election because of this petty maneuver and this whole mess blows up completely in Tiff's face.
DeleteShe really is an idiot. I mean, this is perhaps one of the dumbest things I have heard of in the entire time I have been following Hoboken politics.
DOR-- Don't wish for that! The reckless, stupid decsion to withhold payment on contracts for purely political purposes has already hurt Hoboken. Trust me, the word is out. Nobody wants to do business with an erratic client who may or may not pay you. Unlike cutting contract payments in real time, businesses have to plan 6 months ahead. Fisher & Friends for no other reason than mindless grandstanding have created economic instability for these businesses. Looking out for the taxpayer? Hardly. A bunch of fake Democrats that have shown their true colors. They all could give two shits about the welfare of residents. Stiffing the TAX APPEAL attorney? One of the commenters above said that if the City doesn't process the Appeal, a default judgment is automatically granted. How foolish was it to stiff the Tax Appeal Attorney? Think about it. These people are unfit to govern Hoboken.
DeleteThey will not learn until their irresponsible behavior results in severely negative consequences for the city that they personally end up taking the blame for.
DeleteDOR There are already a few developers looking to f over Hoboken residents. If Fisher can't delay a final decision on the inevitable construction on the Monarch until after the election she will be voted out. People get pissed off when they lose their million dollar views and their properties drop in value.
DeleteFisher will lose the views from her multiple condos in the Tea Building too. Manning pulled out just in time. No views, no amenities, plummeting values. I'd be pissed if I owned there.
DeleteWhat the hell happened? Who dropped the ball and why are they still in office or employed by us? The planning board?, the zoning board? The zoning officer? And why does Applied get to keep their extra height and square footage if they aren't providing the community givebacks of the ball field and tennis courts as promised?
If Applied prevails and the Monarch gets built, then Hoboken should force them to dismantle the extra floors on their other buildings, which has been done in other cases.
I hope Bhalla isn't playing footsie with the Barry boys, or the Tea building owners are fucked.
We're still waiting for the URSA-Tarragon community center and pool. Any day now.
DeleteSecond Ward residents in November will able vote their frustrations by removing Fisher. If they face losing their views Fisher loses her ward seat. As far as playing footsie with the Barry boys I would much more concerned with the DeFusco, Fisher, Giattino, Cunningham and Ramos who will need big money and Applied to stay in office. VBM election fraud will not have ended with a few arrests.
DeleteAnon 11:30, If I am not mistaken under the Zimmer Administration the City settled the lack of givebacks from URSA-Tarrgon with them turning over an acre of land near ShopRite.
ReplyDeleteI agree! The Tiffanator is AWESOMENESS!!!
ReplyDeleteThe taxpayers are sick and tired of meeting contractual obligations. Enough already. Plus it’s fun to tune in and watch the Tiffer pick winners and losers in real time! It’s like we’re back in Roman colosseum times!
The taxpayers are also sick and tired of hearing about Defusco’s existing pay to play violations. They only want to hear about conflicts Bhalla might have one day. And she honors their requests!
Tell the people what they want and then give it to ‘em! That’s our motto!