After postponing the vote last month, the Hoboken City Council approved two new municipal directors at Wednesday evening’s meeting.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The governing body had two separate resolutions in front of them: to name Jennifer
Gonzalez head of the new Department of Climate Action & Innovation and then to appoint Diana Aviles to run the new Department of Parks, Recreation, & Public Works.
“Last meeting I had questioned the process of selecting this director for this position. I just wanted to state for the record that after speaking with the administration, we had worked on a professional growth plan,” explained 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano said of Aviles.
“And making clear objectives so their could be progress on this so that any concerns anybody has for the person who might be selected for this position and what they provided for me was enough to push me over the edge and I’m okay with this.”
5th Ward Councilman Phil Cohen called Aviles, who served as the deputy director of Transportation and Parking for years, an “outstanding employee” and congratulated her prior to the unanimous vote (9-0).
Gonzalez, who served as the city’s director of Environmental Services five years and had her new role announced at the beginning of the year, was also appointed unanimously (9-0) as part of the consent agenda.
Expectedly, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla applauded his appointments being confirmed.
“My administration is incredibly proud to promote two highly qualified and accomplished women in Jennifer Gonzalez and Diana Aviles to lead their respective departments,” he said in a statement.
“It is an understatement to say that their track record of success has been invaluable to our city’s progress on a wide variety of quality-of-life issues. I look forward to working with them in their executive leadership roles, and I thank the City Council for their support.”
Promoting someone who offers no summer recreation and almost nothing for kids when they are out of school all summer, congratulations to the mayor who thinks people outside Hoboken wont know how little he actually cares about the middle class. Wait until people find out how the middle class cant afford to live here anymore.
You miss the point of this. It’s in time for Ravi’s escape efforts to get elected to Congress. The mayor’s overstaffed, overpaid office will all be doing what’s expected there.
Tthe “new” Department is simply a name change. The Public Works, Parks and Recreation were all under the Dept. of Environmental Services. Nothing changed except Ravi added another high salary to the already bloated payroll. So now the parks will remain filthy, the streets will becrawling with rats and the recreation department will still offer substandard programs for our kids. Bhalla is all smoke and mirrors. There’s nothing to see here, folks. Nothing has changed except our higher than ever municipal tax bill.