Hoboken Council Members Criticize Mayor For Juggling 2 Jobs

HOBOKEN, NJ — Is Ravinder Bhalla capable of working as a lawyer at the same time he serves a full-time position as Hoboken’s mayor? According to several City Council members, the answer is no.

On Tuesday, Hoboken City Council members Jen Giattino, Tiffanie Fisher, Peter Cunningham and Mike DeFusco issued press statements criticizing Bhalla's recent acceptance of a paid job at a law firm outside the city. Each said that Bhalla needs to be a “full-time” mayor for Hoboken.

The mayor of Hoboken gets an annual salary of $116,000, the highest in Hudson County, Giattino and DeFusco said.

DeFusco was one of the mayor's harshest critics, calling on Bhalla to disclose his full job description and employment agreement.

“Ravi Bhalla promised that he would serve the City of Hoboken as a full time mayor when he was running for the position, but unfortunately that appears to have been nothing but a bait and switch tactic,” DeFusco said. “Mayor Bhalla claims this position is about mentoring young attorneys, but given his past ethical lapses including one violation recently affirmed by the Local Finance Board, that’s a tough pill to swallow. In reality, this is a financial boon for the mayor that creates the potential for significant conflicts of interest where he will be in a position to use his public office to create business development opportunities for his new employer. That’s why it’s so important that we fully understand Mayor Bhalla’s relationship with this firm and for the City Council to continue acting as a watchdog to prevent any abuses of the public trust.”

BHALLA'S REPLY

A spokesperson for Bhalla provided Patch with the following statement on Tuesday afternoon:

“[Mayor Bhalla] will serve in a limited ‘of counsel’ advisory role for Lavery, Selvaggi, Abromitis & Cohen, P.C., a small, Hackettstown-based law firm servicing clients in Sussex, Warrren and Morris counties. There are not any hours, it is an advisory role. The salary is roughly what a clerical staffer makes, well south of $100,000.

“As Mayor Bhalla, promised in the campaign, he is and will continue to serve as a full-time mayor. He’s usually the first person to come to the office and the last one to leave it. The ‘of counsel position’ is a limited advisory one and in no way will impact his full-time commitment to Hoboken.”

The spokesperson added:

“Mayor Bhalla is off to a great start, using his full-time energy to secure $1 million in state funding transportation projects, upgrade Madison Park, and ensure that the city achieved a AA+ bond rating, among other accomplishments. Before council [members] launch their attacks, they should get their facts straight. It might be time for Mayor Bhalla’s former opponents to put the campaign behind them and start thinking about Hoboken first.”

'FULL-TIME FOR THE PEOPLE OF HOBOKEN'

Giattino, Fisher and Cunningham’s Tuesday statements follow below.

GIATTINO: “During the election when asked how he would do a full-time job as mayor while working as a lawyer, and when asked how he would avoid conflicts of interest with his politically-connected law firm, he repeated the promise that he would quit his law job to work ‘full-time for the people of Hoboken.’ Voters in Hoboken took him at his word and elected him Mayor. Now we find that when he said he’d quit his job, he apparently thought he had a loophole to take a job with another firm that is as politically connected as the one he left.

“The mayor of Hoboken gets a salary of $116,000 annually, the highest in Hudson County. Only two towns in Hudson County - Hoboken and Jersey City - have full-time salaries at these levels for full-time mayors. All other towns have part-time salaries for part-time mayors who have additional jobs.

“[Bhalla] knew what people believed when he promised to quit his job and work full time for Hoboken. Hoboken pays for and needs a full-time mayor. He should follow through with his promise.”

FISHER: “How can we all not feel bad about this? Both the message itself and how it was disclosed only on his personal Facebook page on a Friday evening before a long holiday weekend.

“His commitment to being a full-time mayor, his commitment to ending any conflicts or perceived conflicts with his politically connected law firm, and his commitment to putting Hoboken first and not using the platform of the mayor as a stepping-stone to higher office were all questioned during the election. We relied upon his own words when he said to HMAG on November 2, 2017, just five days before Election Day, ‘If I am elected Mayor, I will be working full-time for the people of Hoboken.’ But now, we have to question all of these again.

“Am I surprised that he broke his promise to Hoboken residents? I want to be. We clearly need to know more about the overall structure, time commitment, financial incentives and potential conflicts that he has in this new arrangement and how it will be managed going forward to fully understand the implications to Hoboken. But I can say that I have worked with many lawyers with this title in my professional career over the years and in all cases their primary role was client facing and revenue generating, not ‘mentoring and guiding young attorneys.’ This would be the first.”

CUNNINGHAM: “Hoboken is a small yet very complicated city with urgent infrastructure and development needs requiring a full-time mayor. At over $110K per year plus benefits, he or she is appropriately compensated to be a full-time mayor. The people of Hoboken expect it, and the job requires it.

“With not more than 50 days into Mayor Bhalla taking office, I was shocked and disappointed to learn late on Friday that Mayor Bhalla has accepted paid job responsibilities at a politically connected law firm in Morristown. This not only breaks a campaign promise, but calls into serious question his judgement and commitment to Hoboken.”

“Mayor Bhalla should be focused on many of the ongoing and developing issues of Hoboken like Washington Street, Rebuild by Design, redevelopment projects, Union Dry Dock and voter fraud. Instead Mayor Bhalla has found it more important to ‘mentor’ young lawyers? The press release announcing his new position, however, stated that his requirements would instead involve 'strategic advice.’ The citizens of Hoboken expected that his strategic advice would be focused on Hoboken — not a law firm in Morristown. This unfortunately leads to more questions and concerns about his time commitment and conflicts of interests to say the least.”

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File Photo: City of Hoboken