On this Friday morning we are all awaking to the news about the President and First Lady having tested positive for Coronavirus.
As the media are putting it, it is the biggest health threat to a sitting president in decades. I wish both, and all who are suffering from this terrible virus, a full recovery. It is just another reminder to stay vigilant. Practice social distancing. Wear a mask. Use common sense.
This newsletter includes the following:
- Hoboken Food Pantry – Cereal and Tuna Needed! Drop off or order online these much needed items.
- Policing Policy Task Force Survey – A real opportunity to provide important feedback about our police and their policies.
- Hazardous, E-Waste and Tire Collection Event in Hoboken this Sunday at Hoboken’s DPW garage.
- 15th Street Safety Improvements – design work starting for the redesign of the street.
- Dark Streets – If you know of a block that feels unsafe because it is dark, please let us know.
- Halloween 2020: Perfect Misalignment Of Stars – The last time Halloween was on a Saturday, in 2015, it was ugly… HPD are on it!
- All Things Coronavirus – A recent Murphy / Fauci interview worth listening to and feedback on walking safely on the waterfront.
- Hoboken Family Planning Clinic – My Facebook birthday month fundraiser to help those in our community who need it most.
- Voter Info – ICYMI
- A Teenage Star Among Us – Again. Ally Fung creates a teen CERT program for Hoboken.
- Keep Scrolling – Budget Edition
HOBOKEN FOOD PANTRY – CEREAL AND TUNA NEEDED!
Going forward, I will be routinely including an appeal for the Hoboken Community Center’s Food Pantry. As you know, I have worked closely with the HFP since the beginning of the pandemic and help run the uptown location along with a number of volunteers, many who are regulars now like me, twice monthly on food distribution days. There are many amazing non-profits in Hoboken, but this one is special to me and I want to use my platform to promote it. So each appeal will be for food, money, volunteers or all of the above. So here goes…
10/2 – Food Pantry Appeal for Cereal & Proteins
The HFP is in short supply of Cereal and Canned Meat Proteins like Tuna. The next time you shop, pick some up or order online including from the HFP Amazon Wish List: Here are a few links, but many others are listed: PROTEINS: Pink Salmon, Canned Tuna, and Chicken Vienna Sausage. CEREAL, the healthier choices and family sized (big ones) are preferred: Life, Special K and Cheerios.
The next food distribution date is next week. So if you’d like to drop off items you can do so at the pantry at 1301 Washington (entrance on 13th) during the upcoming following times:
- Monday 10/5: 930–1130 and 12-2
- Tuesday 10/6: 10-12, 2-4, and 6-8
- Wednesday 10/7: 10-12, 2-4, and 6-8
If none of these times work, please email [email protected] to arrange another time. If you would prefer to donate $$, HFP will use your dollars to buy items likes these. All donations welcome – click HERE to donate. And if you choose to volunteer, use the same email listed above or the Hoboken Charity Quest app (which is amazing!) which you can download on your smart phone and sign up for many volunteer opportunities across the city.
POLICING POLICY TASK FORCE SURVEY – PLEASE RESPOND
Last week the administration put out a Policing Policy Task Force Survey that is still up and open for responses. It is short and anonymous. It basically asks for your feedback on any interactions you have had with Hoboken Police Department. I believe most, if not all, have had only positive interactions with HPD.
But the second to last question goes a step further: “Do you think it would be a good idea for the City of Hoboken to institute a Public Safety Review Board to provide oversight of the hiring, policies and complaints against the Hoboken Police Department?”
I believe the spirit of this question is more centered around whether we need oversight around “use of force” measures. I personally don’t believe this is necessary in Hoboken. But… the question also asks “oversight…of policies”…
What I hear about most from many, and I mean many, of you all the time are daily quality of life issues that you believe are not effectively enforced by Hoboken PD. Example – cars and bikes running stop signs, Uber’s parking in crosswalks, drunk driving, cars speeding, e-scooters (when we had Lime and now), double parking in the bike lane day and night on Washington Street, aggressive homeless residents on our sidewalks, and late-night noisy crowds and cars along the waterfront. Do any of these ring a bell? Emails from you on these issues represent about 2/3 of what I hear about. More enforcement isn’t the only answer, but it is part of the answer.
Again, I am not sure a Public Safety Review Board is the way to address this. I have advocated at length with Hoboken PD on every one of the issues mentioned above. And the response is always an immediate effort, but also ends up being resource (lack thereof) related and prioritization within scarce resources.
When pushed, I mostly then hear from you something along the lines of “I don’t want to take police resources away from the real issue of crime fighting” which is what makes us all feel personally safe in Hoboken. I have lived here going on 27 years and I can tell you as a single woman, personal safety has been a critical factor to me staying in Hoboken.
Currently HPD sets all policies and practices for enforcement without oversight. And I know that they do actively respond to residents and work within their resources to address the issues above. But this is where my input from you tells me that we need more of a response then we are getting. So this is the opportunity to tell them this: There is a last question in this survey: Do you have any additional comments or feedback?
What can come of this? Maybe resources shift more to address the issues you have raised. Maybe more police resources are added next year. There is no downside to providing this feedback so please do. #morevoices.
15TH STREET SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS
Speaking of safety concerns… As I have mentioned, the city has received grant funding to redo 15th Street from Park to Washington St. For those who do not remember, 15th Street has been identified for over a decade as one of the top three most dangerous stretches in Hoboken. The intersection of 14th and Willow has the number one spot.
This project will include repaving as well as redesigning the curb structure at the various intersections. This work was supposed to be done last spring but was delayed due to COVID. The most recent update is that the city has hired an engineer that has just started the design process. I have asked to have a community meeting with the Hoboken team as well as the engineer to collect feedback from residents to ensure the design captures the concerns witnessed by those who live in the area. I am hoping to schedule this meeting in the next two weeks. I will come back with more information on this next week.
DARK STREETS
This topic came up in our City Council Infrastructure Sub- Committee meeting this week. PSEG and VERIZON will be installing several replacement and new light poles across the city that will be joint purpose – cell technology embedded in lighting structures. Co-locating is a huge positive as it reduces the number of poles on our sidewalks. This project was approved by the city council in 2017. It came up again because the companies plan to start installing soon.
I raised the possibility of addressing some of our darker streets at the same time. I don’t know if there are that many, but for example I believe some of you have told me 13th between Garden and Willow is dark and feels unsafe because of this. If there is a location that you can think of that could use a light pole, please let your ward Council member know. Reason being is that they probably have already heard about these areas in the past so can better aggregate feedback for neighborhoods they are most familiar with.
Also, just raising these does not mean they will get done. I just believe if they are going to move forward with a large project like this – it is probably easier to include a couple more poles than have a whole separate project. Let me know…
10/4 – HOBOKEN HAZARDOUS, E-WASTE AND TIRE COLLECTION
Have a few extra tires, old computers, or old paint you need to get rid of? The Hudson County Improvement Authority is hosting a collection day at the Hoboken DPW Garage this Sunday (10/4) from 9-1pm. See below for details. If you don’t already, I would encourage you to follow the HCIA on FB to receive notifications for these and other events like paper shredding days.
HALLOWEEN – PERFECT MISALIGNMENT OF STARS
Last week the CDC put out these guidelines for Halloween and then Hoboken followed suit earlier this week with guidelines that for the most part followed the CDC’s. Although I do not have my own children, my birthday is just before Halloween so I grew up with this holiday being the biggest of the year for me. The kind of holiday we all love as adults – no stress of buying gifts or hosting family. 😊
In recent years, Hoboken, especially uptown in the brownstone area between 11th and 14th, has become a huge draw for visitors who want to come to see the amazing house decorations and have their children have a true and easy “door to door” trick or treating experience. Last year the estimate was 5,000 people in a roughly 6 block area that was closed to traffic and parked vehicles.
Although the mayor’s notice about Halloween indicated that there will be no closed streets this year, it failed to address what has become an annual event and in this pandemic, a possible public safety concern not just for those who live in that area, but for all of Hoboken - the thousands of visitors who come to Hoboken to see the season decorations and to trick or treat on halloween night.
I heard from a few neighbors in that area who expressed this same concern and I spoke with Hoboken PD and OEM yesterday. Chief Ferrante is already in process of putting a plan together that day which is also a Saturday, the night the clocks add an hour, and if necessary, game 7 of the Word Series. Although crowds are much less than in the past due to COVID, we have seen this combination before in 2015 and it was ugly. Suffice it to say that HPD and OEM are aware of the issue with the potential for large crowds coming to Hoboken to trick or treat and will be working with the administration to address this concern.
ALL THINGS CORONAVIRUS
If you haven’t already, I would encourage you to watch Governor Murphy’s FB live interview with Dr. Fauci last week. It is only being streamed on FB but my understanding from Murphy’s Senior Advisor anyone can access it (he watched it and doesn’t have FB). The most interesting part to me included two things: one, that Fauci believes the risk in N.J. is now low because of all the efforts of our leaders and two, when he walks through the process of how a vaccine gets made and approved. The latter is fascinating, includes multiple independent and anonymous reviewers along the way. This part of the discussion is about 2/3 the way through the interview. Worth listening to.
Also, a couple of weeks ago, I attended a zoom Coronavirus update hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations for state and local officials. The topic was status of COVID and the guest speaker was Dr. Tom Frieden, a renowned specialist on epidemic and disease control, who answered questions from those participating on the call.
My question was “What do I tell my constituents who are concerned about walking outside amidst the many who walk and run without masks?” His answer was effectively that you are 20x less likely to get coronavirus when you are outside than if you are inside. And if you add wearing a mask, it reduces the risk even further. The reason is that when you are outside, the concentration of the virus is dramatically given the space for it to survive is so much larger. Think about being in an 8x8 bathroom with 8 foot ceilings vs. the unlimited space outside when you are walking on the waterfront. He hoped that those running would try to avoid people walking, but he still said the risk is very low.
Clearly it is your comfort level, but I wanted you to have this feedback.
HOBOKEN FAMILY PLANNING CLINIC – FACEBOOK BIRTHDAY MONTH FUNDRAISER
I don’t just love and support Hoboken Food Pantry. Hoboken has so many great non-profits, and this is one of the best. And one that many in our community are not aware of but has been around helping economically challenged residents for almost 50 years. Located at 124 Grand St., Hoboken Family Planning provides accessible and affordable reproductive health and cancer screening services for uninsured and low-income women and men in Hoboken, West New York and Union City. Opened in 1972, the Hoboken clinic serves over 400 women annually and focuses on education and services to help manage reproductive health, diagnose chronic diseases, and discover cancer at an early, treatable stage.
Facebook does this amazing thing – it asks you just before your birthday month if you want to raise money for a non-profit. This year I have chosen Hoboken Family Planning. If you are on FB and would consider supporting this incredibly important organization, please CLICK HERE to donate to my fundraiser.
If you are not on FB but are interested in donating, you can send a check to Hoboken Family Planning, 124 Grand Street, Hoboken NJ, 07030.
Everyone is generous in their own ways, thank you for considering Hoboken Family Planning in yours.
A TEENAGE STAR AMONG US – AGAIN!
You may remember Ally Fung who at just 14 collaborated with the Hoboken Museum to create a walking tour of Hoboken app called Hoboken Walks. Its available for both apple and android phones.
VOTER INFO – ICYMI
Yesterday I sent out a huge email titled Voting – Everything You Need To Know To Be A Voter. Just click to read if you haven’t already.
Reminder to "Keep Scrolling" for more...
Feel free to email me at [email protected] or call me at 201-208-1674 to discuss what you have read or anything else that is important to you.
TiffanieFisher
Hoboken City Council, 2nd Ward
Engage. Inform. Advocate.
“More Voices are Better”
Keep Scrolling – Budget Edition
I received a few emails about the budget a my reference to the mayor and his three aides costing the city almost $1M seemed to be of particular interest. My math is below. The attached memo is the source of much of this information:
Mayor Bhalla
Salary - $118,000
John Allen, Mayor’s Chief of Staff (see below)
Salary - $124,500 (grew from $90,000 in 2018).
Stipend - $15,000 (no change since 2018, just different reason – now ABC)
Total Compensation - $139,500 (up 33% since initial hire)
Vijay Chaudhuri, former campaign manager and current communication director (see below).
Salary - $91,000 (for some reason this went down $4k vs his initial salary in late 2018)
Stipend – For OEM $7,500 (began this year)
Total Compensation - $98,500 (up 4% although also received some income as consult to the mayor)
Jason Freeman, former Assistant Chief of Staff, now Director of Operations
Salary – $90,000 (up $5K from initial hire)
Stipend #1 – for OEM $10,000 since late 2018.
Stipend #2 – for BA work $37,200 since early 2020.
Total Compensation - $137,200 (up 61% since initial hire).
Getting to almost $1M
- Total Salaries Mayor plus Three Aides - $423,500
- Payroll Benefit Load of approximately 30% - $127,000
- Total Stipends Three Aides - $69,700
- Police Detail / Security for Mayor – approximately 125% of Police Captain salary (50 hours divided by two police superiors) plus annual cost of SUV - ~$200,000
- Police Payroll Load plus Longevity of 50% - $93,750
- Total - $914,000 This excludes the approximate $75,000 spent on the separate constituent services office, a function historically covered by the Mayor's office.
More on the three aids. Keep scrolling is where I write about the political side on issues I think are important for the public to know especially when it involves unethical and dishonest practices that aren’t commonly known.
Mayor Zimmer only had two aids – a communications director and chief of staff. And in addition to communications and handling the mayor’s scheduling/business this office/team also handled constituent services. Mayor Bhalla started with his three aids and then quickly added a separate constituent services office to offload the function of constituent services to. So effectively he had four aids to do the work that Mayor Zimmer did with two. The City Council has tried to reduce this since the onset, recently by eliminating the office of constituent services. This was NOT the City Council firing the director in that office. This was the City Council saying to Mayor Bhalla – choose three aides, not four, to support you and the City. And Mayor Bhalla chose to keep Vijay, John and Jason:
- Vijay Chaudhuri, the mayor’s former campaign manager is the city’s communications director. He writes all of the mayor’s scripts including his Nixle alerts, has repeatedly lied publicly and maligned elected officials in his official capacity. He has also shopped bogus, defamatory stories about certain council members to the press in an effort to discredit them.
- John Allen ran for City Council on the mayor’s ticket and was officially the mayor’s Chief of Staff until recently. To demonstrate that the “mayor’s office” was reduced, he now has a new title, Associate Corporation Counsel but still unofficially acts as Chief of Staff. In his new role he is paid $12K more than our Corporation Counsel, fills a seat that was paid 71% less before it was vacated, and is paid 30% more than our other Associate Corporation Counsel who does 80% of the work and is a woman. If you don’t remember, John directed and scripted personal friends on multiple occasions to come to council meetings to personally attack certain Council members (including me) and write bogus ethics complaints and letters to the editor in efforts to discredit Council members.
- Jason Freeman, was the mayor’s deputy chief of staff and was recently promoted to director of operations, asked by the Mayor to temporarily take on the most important role in the city, acting as Business Administrator, which was vacated by Director Stephen Marks in February of this year. The administration began a search for Marks’ replacement that was put on hold due to COVID. The role is critically important and IMHO Hoboken needs a person who has considerable experience in health care, development, procurement, labor and every other issue our city faces. All city employees and functions report to this person who also oversees all hiring decisions. Jason is currently the subject of alleged political retaliation in a tort complaint filed by a Hoboken Fire Captain.
This… all of it, is just not acceptable. And even more it is not acceptable that all this costs taxpayers almost $1M. We asked the mayor to make cuts in the budget this year and he made very few as you saw. And in fact added when it came to benefitting himself and his insiders.
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