Fiery Language From Hoboken Officials As Cannabis Dispensary Debate Heats Up

HOBOKEN, NJ — Amid an ongoing debate over a cannabis dispensary applying to open in a storefront owned by the wife of Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, three council members in Hoboken on Wednesday issued a press release blasting a vocal opponent of the dispensary, who's also one of the most vocal critics of the administration of Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

Apparently, battle lines are being drawn as residents and political officials speak for or against certain non-medical dispensaries in Hoboken.

Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, who was the first city official to alert residents of her neighborhood to Story Dispensary's application this past spring, has continued to oppose the application for Fulop's wife's dispensary on 14th Street.

On Monday, Fisher sent out a newsletter reminding opponents of the dispensary, which is located in her ward, to speak up at a Planning Board meeting that night.

On Wednesday, three council members allied with Mayor Ravi Bhalla compared Fisher's criticism and actions to "abuse" in a joint press release (below).

They said that her comments at the Monday Planning Board meeting made the unpaid Planning Board members "uncomfortable."

Council members Phil Cohen, Emily Jabbour, and Joe Quintero have issued three joint press releases this year, all three of them about Councilwoman Fisher.

Cohen was asked Wednesday if the recent release (posted below in full) could be seen as an attempt to squelch the most vocal opposition to the mayor. Cohen responded that it's worth checking out the links in the press release, and to look at Fisher's newsletter from Monday, which refers to the "bad guys winning."

"The other incidents that described are also very specific, including links to some of those incidents," Cohen noted.

Fisher responded Wednesday, "My colleagues should fight harder for good government principles instead of against and heed their own words instead of intentionally trying to mislead the public to score political points. I’m not going to fix all of the defamatory statements they made except for one — I never called cannabis applicants 'bad guys,' just the elected officials trying to enrich themselves and their friends at the expense of the public. I fully support our new, legal cannabis industry and the laws put in place for its responsible governance.”

Another Voice Heard From

Meanwhile, former Councilman Peter Cunningham, on Wednesday, took aim at Cohen in a message to constituents, referring to a number of issues.

Among them, he referred to a different non-medical cannabis application up for discussion this week, Blue Violets Dispensary at 628 Washington St.

Blue Violets had applied to open in Hoboken before the council passed a rule this year limiting the dispensaries to six in total in the mile-square city.

On Wednesday night, the City Council voted in favor of permitting the Blue Violets dispensary to open, in a narrow 5-4 vote.

Below is the release from Cohen, Jabbour, and Quintero, followed by former Councilman Peter Cunningham's letter.

Press Release from council members Cohen, Jabbour, and Quintero:

HOBOKEN COUNCILMEMBERS CALL ON TIFFANIE FISHER TO END IRRESPONSIBLE CONDUCT AND ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR

Today, Council Vice President Emily Jabbour, and Councilmembers Phil Cohen and Joe Quintero called on Councilmember Tiffanie Fisher to end her abusive behavior and irresponsible conduct and rhetoric, targeting numerous public servants, elected officials, community board members, and members of the public. Below is a full copy of the letter sent to Councilwoman Fisher.

Councilmember Fisher,
We write to you to address your recent, concerning behavior. As fellow members of the Hoboken City Council, we all have a strong interest in maintaining the integrity of this body and an obligation to lead by example. We fear that your pattern of behavior fundamentally undermines the civility and collegiality that should be the hallmark of public service.
In the past week alone you: (1) publicly harangued, insulted, and berated members of the Planning Board; and (2) leveled wild and unsubstantiated allegations against other elected officials with whom you disagree.
This comes on the heels of just this year: (1) filing frivolous litigation against the City of Hoboken as a citizen that was dismissed with prejudice; (2) initiating meritless investigations of City employees you dislike at taxpayer expense; and (3) routinely accusing Mayor Bhalla of illegal activity and referring him to the Attorney General for investigations — which are uniformly turned away as baseless political attacks — tactics you routinely roll out to appeal to base emotions to stoke fear and paranoia of residents in pursuit of your political agenda.

Specifically, at the conclusion of last Thursday’s meeting of the Planning Board, you confronted members of the Board, subjecting them to verbal abuse. A number of Planning Board commissioners — all volunteers — and members of the public who witnessed your unseemly conduct, have complained about your conduct, stating that it made them “uncomfortable.”

In your numerous newsletters and on your official social media pages, you launch wild and unsubstantiated allegations against elected officials including Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, Mayor Ravi Bhalla, city staff, and against your City Council colleagues, including former member Vanessa Falco. You have caused the City to have to hire attorneys, at the taxpayer’s expense, to “investigate” a number of City employees against whom you have personal and political vendettas. You have filed or threatened to file, baseless “ethics complaints” against municipal employees including against one employee during the employee’s first week on the job and against another employee when that employee was pregnant and about to go on maternity leave. You should know that some of the subjects of your irresponsible rhetoric have received threats against their safety, threats which are currently under investigation by law enforcement agencies.

Perhaps most concerning, is your repeated use of fear and paranoia to manipulate residents in service of your political agenda. You have characterized hard-working union members as “outsiders” in Hoboken who are to be feared. You stoke fears that cannabis, a legal product in our community, is attracting “the wrong element” to Hoboken which will be less safe because of cannabis customers who are “outsiders” and will destroy our neighborhoods. As you know, cannabis users are our neighbors, our friends, and our family members. Whether in the brownstones or in the Housing Authority, Hoboken residents regularly enjoy this legal product.

Many residents rely on cannabis products to address their serious medical issues: chemo patients; people suffering from chronic pain; people suffering from chronic anxiety in extremely anxious times; and people who deal with many other conditions for which cannabis gives them relief and makes their lives immeasurably better. We also represent recreational cannabis users, adults who responsibly enjoy cannabis just as people enjoy having a drink.

Unfortunately, while we should engage in an open and honest dialogue about cannabis, your discourse has patently failed to balance the valid concerns and fears that we are all trying to address with the interests of the many cannabis users who seek to have safe and convenient access to these legal, regulated products. You simply label those you believe are associated with cannabis dispensary applications as “bad guys” and those who agree with you in opposing cannabis dispensary applications as “good.”

In the past days, a number of residents that we represent have reached out to say enough is enough. Put succinctly by a concerned resident who wrote to the entire City Council and was concerned about your behavior: “Fear mongering and over-exaggeration are the tools of the desperate.”

We have all observed a near complete deterioration of political discourse at the national level. Where once colleagues who disagreed were merely opponents, today they are characterized not only as enemies of one another, but “enemies of the people.”

To be clear, there is no place in Hoboken for this sort of irresponsible rhetoric. As members of this Council, we are committed to uplifting the political discourse in, at a minimum, our Mile Square City. We unequivocally reject the petty and abusive politics that has, sadly, become standard and that, regrettably, your behavior serves to normalize. Just because you disagree with an elected official’s position does not mean the person is a “bad guy” or needs to be locked up. Just because a municipal board unanimously voted in opposition to your view does not give you license to insult or badger the volunteers who serve on that board.

We urge you to reconsider your actions and conduct yourself in a manner that reflects the best of the people you represent, elevates the level of discourse in our community, and appropriately represents our governing body.
Councilmember Phil Cohen
Councilmember Emily Jabbour
Councilmember Joe Quintero

Letter from Former Councilman Peter Cunningham:

It's disappointing to see that our councilman Phil Cohen led the charge to roll back campaign finance reform eight months ago, supported the massive High School project overwhelmingly defeated and has supported an inordinate number of recreational cannabis facilities in Hoboken.

The consequences of recreational cannabis facilities are unknown, but several other Hudson County communities have declined to entertain these licenses. Why Hoboken could not take a more practical approach is beyond any sensible understanding. Is it the money? Is it the politics, like what looks to be the case with the proposed facility at 14th and Hudson?

I am writing to specifically call out the recent Planning Board approval for the facility at 7th and Washington street right across the street from All Saints Day School. The City Council passed a law to prohibit recreational cannabis facilities to operate within 600 feet of a school. This measure became law before the official application was submitted to the Planning Board and that's a fact.

How could the PB approve this application? This will now be before the City Council tonight to approve the PB decision.

I would hope and moreover implore our elected officials to side with the law, be respectful of the rule of law and its intent to protect our children at this stage, and vote no.

It is also important to commend those that have taken the time to stand up and stand out on these insensibilities. As always, please let me hear your thoughts, for or against, as I always respect other opinions, and please circulate as you wish.

Other Cannabis Dispensary Background

The controversial application from Story Dispensary to open a recreational cannabis dispensary on 14th Street continued at the Planning Board meeting Monday night, Sept. 19 after being continued from the Aug. 11 meeting.

Several other dispensaries had already been approved in Hoboken.

The condo association for the building containing the potential Story dispensary has filed suit against the owners. That suit has been dismissed because the application hearing hasn't concluded. The plaintiffs can re-file the suit after the hearing is resolved.

At the Aug. 11 Planning Board hearing, a traffic engineer for Story testified for four hours. The engineer maintained that traffic for the dispensary wouldn't differ much from traffic for a restaurant.

He was asked many questions, and in the process noted that he had recently worked for the county of Hudson on the 14th Street Viaduct.

Fisher said Monday in her newsletter that there are other potential conflicts of interest when it comes to that dispensary. "The only thing a high-volume dispensary will do at this location is enrich elected officials and their friends," Fisher wrote. "The Cannabis industry was touted to be about social equity and justice, but it turns out it is just another way to enrich elected officials and their friends."

Read past stories about Hoboken cannabis dispensaries here and here: Pot Thickens: Hobokenites Organize For Hearing On Cannabis Dispensary

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