Ramos' Attack on school PILOT funding BACKFIRES

RAMOS & ALLIES PIT HOBOKEN DISTRICT PARENTS AGAINST CHARTERS IN A CYNICAL POLITICAL SCHEME THEY KNEW WAS ILLEGAL 

Hoboken district school parents and charter school parents have been horribly used by Ruben Ramos and his Council allies.  Ramos sponsored a Resolution to 'redo' a 2017 PILOT agreement negotiated by the City of Hoboken with the developer of 770 Jackson, calling for monies designated for the Hoboken District schools to be split up among Charter districts.  

Needless to say, this turned Hoboken parents from the various districts: City of Hoboken, Elysian, HoLa and Hoboken Charter into adversaries, while anti-Administration Council members exploited the divide they created. 

Generally speaking, Charter school parents have supported the Bhalla administration. With City Hall's announcement that the 770 PILOT was to be distributed to the Hoboken District, mayoral wannabe Ruben Ramos saw this PILOT as a political opportunity. Ramos, backed by his Council allies, anointed himself savior to the Charter school parents by demanding 'equity' in the distribution of the PILOT monies. In doing so, he knowingly creating a wedge issue to stoke division among the parent community and for his own political gain. 

The selfish behavior of Ramos- manufacturing conflict to reap its political rewards for himself, reminds one of Trump's rhetorical fire, dividing America into us versus them:  adversarial "red" versus "blue" states. In Ramos' case, he pitted the Hoboken district parents against Charter parents to war over the distribution of PILOT funds.  

Note to Ramos, et. al: Hoboken parents do not appreciate being stoked into their us versus them war over PILOT funding, so they may be the beneficiary of future votes. But, here's the kicker...

On Monday, Ruben Ramos and his cronies learned that they had no statutory authority to divide PILOT funds and that his proposed resolution to do so was ILLEGAL.   

The following legal memorandum from the City of Hoboken Corporation Counsel was issued to Council members on Monday, two full days before the council meeting.  Yet, City Council President Jen Giattino did not pull the illegal resolution, nor did its sponsor, Council Vice President Ruben Ramos.  

They fooled the 691 signatories on a petition opposing the resolution and numerous parents, the Hoboken district school board attorney, and a BoE member, who waited for hours to give testimony, into believing the Ramos resolution was viable. But Ramos and his allies knew it was not. They knew it was illegal and would have to be withdrawn.  Yet they sat there while an antagonized public pleaded with them not to approve the Ramos resoltuion.

LEGAL MEMORANDUM ON DISTRIBUTION OF PILOT PAYMENTS

The big question is why? Why did Ramos and Giattino permit this charade to go forward, a charade pitting Hoboken neighbors against each other?   

GA can tell you that the Hoboken's parent community sees these council members with new eyes. 

Ramos, Giattino, Fisher, Falco, DeFusco have shown they really don't care about our schools-- they just see parents as future votes. Moreover, the Hoboken School District is autonomous and does not answer to the City Council nor Mayor. The Hoboken District answers to the New Jersey Department of Education.  So this Council would be wise to stay in their lane. Vanessa Falco is free to attend a school board meeting to raise her issues with District recreation; neither she nor her Council pals have the legal authority to "program" how the district spends its money.  If you try, you are making fools of yourselves. 

 

So yes, this Council ploy has backfired bigly.  

People are pissed. A lot of people. The Hoboken parent community has seen the real face of Ramos and his council allies, who toyed with their emotions, pitted neighbor against neighbor, even after they knew their scheme was illegal. As one stakeholder put it to me:

"They've shown us they don't care about our schools. They care about their own political agendas. It's really sad." 

 

I agree.