Council seeks to DEPOSE mayor, BA, on political ally's tort claim AGAINST Hoboken

 

The Left Coast is burning, the Florida Pan Handle is drowning, Trumpistan seized 700+ USPS mail sorters to rig the presidential election, ICE detainees in Georgia have allegdly been mutilated by a "uterus collector," and oh yeah, 1,218 Americans died of coronavirus yesterday.     

Each Hoboken household is juggling myriad covid-related impacts; not small ones either. Big ones. Job loss or job changes, parents who are supervising virtual-classrooms or have sent children back to the classroom, all are living with the kind of stress and uncertainty that was unimaginable one year ago. I could never have imagined I'd be checking a daily incident report for deadly virus outbreaks at my kid's out-of-state college. 

So, the unprecedented chaos coming from all directions puts the petty antics of a few Hoboken City Council members in its proper perspective. Cataloging this never-ending Theater of Stupid is not worth my time.  However, when Council members abuse their legislative powers to violate the public trust, it's a matter of public concern.  So, I'm bringing it to your attention. 

Tonight, a resolution sponsored by Tiffanie Fisher and Michael DeFusco invokes alleged "investigative powers" to depose the Mayor and the B.A. on allegations made by a public employee in a "Notice of Tort Claim" he filed against the City of Hoboken and "John Does" on August 21. But, are you ready for this...  

Claimant's allegations rely in part on published hearsay by Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher!  Thus, Fisher becomes a part of the Claimant's case, a likely subject of discovery. And, the "Notice of Tort Claim" starts a 90-day clock after which the Rules of Discovery apply.  

It seems that Claimant will need Fisher to identify sources of the "noise" she was "met by."

"On or about May 28, 2020, the City officially by-passed Claimant and the number 2 candidate to promote Carter to Battalion Chief. Hoboken’s 2nd Ward representative Tiffanie Fisher was reported to have stated that it was the Mayor’s decision as to who got promoted.  She further publicly acknowledged that the bypass of the highest ranked candidate, which was Claimant, was met by “noise” due to Claimant’s support of the “non-Team Bhalla candidates.”  The City publicly touted in the press that it promoted the Department’s first female Battalion Chief."

But the real "problem" with this resolution is the impropriety of City of Hoboken legislators doing third-party discovery on allegations of political supporter's claim against the City of Hoboken. 

This Fisher-Defusco stunt aims to insert into the City Council as "investigators" of a tort claim against the City.  The Council forgets its place. 

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

This is not the first time that Fisher has stepped out of her lane, to assert investigative authority into the Executive branch.  In 2017, she attempted to grab subpoena power by resolution, and hold kangaroo court hearings on the Suez water agreement- story here.

Also in 2017, Fisher tried to create a "Municipal Audit Committee" to oversee the Executive Branch independent auditor. Fisher's committee would be comprised of herself (Chair of Revenue and Finance Committee), an ex-finance official for the City of Hoboken, two residents appointed by the City Council and 2 residents appointed by the Mayor- story here. 

 

Both 2017 Fisher power-grab resolutions were reviewed by the City of Hoboken Law Department and found not viable.  That's two that I recall. 

Number three is on deck tonight.