Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher: John Allen, Chief of Staff to Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla Believed Orchestrated Personal Attacks Against Council Members
PRESS RELEASE
Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher: John Allen, Chief of Staff to Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla Believed Orchestrated Personal Attacks Against Council Members
Hoboken, NJ. Hoboken politics has reached a new level of low when the mayor’s office directs members of the public to deliver personal attacks against council members seen as political opposition. Repeatedly since June, certain members of the Hoboken City Council who did not support Mayor Bhalla in last year’s election have been subjected to personal attacks by two Hoboken residents, Michael Donnelly and Anthony DeLeonardo. Each Donnelly and DeLeonardo appeared to have no previous political activity in Hoboken and each have been identified as having ties to John Allen, Chief of Staff to Mayor Ravi Bhalla.
“These aren’t two guys who came to a meeting for the first time to advocate for something that happened to them personally like getting a parking ticket under an arcane parking rule. These two each presented prepared statements on complex issues that were not directed at either of them.”
Mr. DeLeonardo, 26 and who recently moved to Hoboken, authored a fabricated ethics complaint in November against Councilwoman Fisher for her role in removing a long time Hoboken planning board commissioner and known supporter of Mayor Bhalla. He then came to the December 5th City Council meeting and read prepared statements with racially charged accusations.
“Attacks on City Council members at council meetings are a given and protected by the First Amendment. But when the mayor’s office is seen to be behind these attacks, that crosses an important line and isn’t acceptable. This most recent attack comes as a surprise given I have had a great working relationship with the mayor and his team on many important topics in Hoboken including our communities’ opposition to Union Dry Dock, our critical anti- flooding project Rebuild By Design, economic development initiatives like establishing a special improvement district, and restructuring our water infrastructure contract with Suez.”
You can read the email here that Councilwoman Fisher sent to her constituents including more color behind the orchestrated attacks.
Contact:
Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher – 201-208-1674
- I believe both Mr. Donnelly or Mr. DeLeonardo were asked by others to perform their attacks, that they had probably no reason or experience to know or be aware of the content of their orchestrated attacks, that they both appeared to rely on statements seemingly prepared by others with similar content as seen on Ms. Pincus’ blog, and that they both have ties to Mr. Allen and others in and close to the mayor’s office.
- A 2nd ward neighbor who I first became aware of when he attended a council meeting in July for the first time.
- At the meeting, he read lengthy, prepared statements that included fabricated ethical and political charges against four council members (including me).
- He returned to the August City Council with more prepared comments and similar attacks.
- Mr. Donnelly, who is in his mid 30’s I do not believe to be a lawyer, submitted written ethical complaints to both the Hoboken corporation counsel and the Local Finance Board against other council members that read as legal briefs, with multiple and specific code references.
- Through social media, it was discovered and publicized that Mr. Donnelly is a part time stand-up comedian and is close to Mr. Allen, as evidenced by the multiple pictures on Mr. Donnelly’s Instagram page and Mr. Allen’s wife’s FB page of he in small social groups with Mr. Allen.
- On Friday, September 14th, Mr. Donnelly was seen by people (one who I know personally) and it was reported publicly that he had dinner with Mayor Bhalla and John Allen at Dino and Harry’s.
- We haven’t seen Mr. Donnelly at a council meeting or heard from him since.
- On 11/7, Mr. DeLeonardo, who is also not a lawyer, emailed the complaint noted above to the City Clerk’s office and Hoboken corporation counsel.
- Referenced in the complaint and attached to it was an email that I had sent to Councilwoman Emily Jabbour, seemingly printed from her own email account – only she and Councilman Ramos (cc’d) were on that correspondence so I can only guess how it came into Mr. DeLeonardo’s hands.
- Corporation counsel replied to Mr. DeLeonardo that the complaint needed to be filed in Trenton, which I do not believe has happened yet.
- That day I received multiple calls from members of the press inquiring about the bogus complaint against me and heard that someone close to the mayor was actively marketing the story to the media.
- Also that day, Ms. Pincus wrote about the possibility of this complaint being filed on her blog.
- Through social media again, it was discovered that Mr. DeLeonardo only recently moved to Hoboken and is friends with a Hoboken Democratic Committee member who is close friends with Mr. Allen (we looked for it and it wasn’t difficult to find…).
- The next time we heard from Mr. DeLeonardo was a month later when he came to the December 5th Council meeting, where he seemed to coordinate with Ms. Waiters and make their personal attacks against me.
- These attacks were focused on racism and were almost entirely different than and unrelated to the bogus ethic complaint he filed about me on November 7th.
- Mr. DeLeonardo and Ms. Waiters walked out of the meeting together after doing a double high five.
- It was almost immediately confirmed and later publicized that Mr. DeLeonardo went to John Allen’s house after leaving the council meeting.
- Mr. Allen has since stated publicly in an “interview” with Ms. Pincus that he is friends with Mr. DeLeonardo.
- Mr. DeLeonardo did not return to the meeting last night.
Thank you to all of you who already reached out to me with your support. It means everything to me. And as always, please if you have any questions or want to discuss this or anything else, feel free to email me or call me at 201/208-1674.
