Two of Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s adversaries on the city council are claiming he broke the municipal ethics code by doing a TV interview about his candidacy in the 8th District congressional race last week.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
On Thursday, Bhalla and U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8) joined David Cruz on NJ Spotlight News’ “Chat Box” ahead of their anticipated showdown at the ballot box for the June 4th primary.
The incumbent appeared in studio, while Bhalla did the interview remotely from the Hoboken mayor’s office, which goes against a city ordinance that prohibits campaigning and/or politicking on city property.
“No elected official nor any employee of his or her office nor any person appointed to, employed by or contracting for the City may use or authorize the use of any public property (as defined in § 29-11), directly or indirectly, for the purpose of political campaigning or politicking for or against election of any person to any office or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition,” the municipal code says.
“It shall be the responsibility of any employee, appointee or elected official who observes any prohibited forms of political campaigning or politicking to report such conduct to the Business Administrator or the Corporation Counsel, who shall report same to the Mayor and the City Council.”
4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos, a potential 2025 mayoral candidate, didn’t pull any punches when expressing his thoughts.
“This is just another example of a flagrant disregard for ethics, the mayor’s office cannot be used as a campaign backdrop and this type of behavior is unacceptable. He’s obviously free to campaign for Congress, but using City Hall to do so is a clear violation of our code of ethics,” he told HCV.
2nd Ward Councilman Tiffanie Fisher, another possible mayoral hopeful, agreed with colleague, taking it a step further in calling for a state investigation into the matter.
“Yet another example, on a long list, of how Mayor Bhalla exploits his office and taxpayer owned assets for his personal use. I am calling on the DCA to investigate what amounts to a Hoboken and state violation of ethics laws,” she added.
Bhalla for Congress campaign spokesman Rob Horowitz said that the mayor erred in judgement and that such an error won’t occur again.
“The mayor realizes it was a mistake to do the interview from a conference room at City Hall and will not make the same mistake again,” he said in an email.
Ramos said he was glad to see Bhalla acknowledge the mistake, though chided “he’s paying a lot of money to his campaign team, so someone should’ve know the rules,” while Fisher added that she doesn’t believe it was a misstep since there is “reason to believe he’s running his congressional campaign out of City Hall.”
Bhalla is one of two declared Democrats, the other being Kyle Jasey, the son of former Assemblywoman Mila Jasey, seating to unseat Menendez.
The Mile Square City mayor’s team has said they raised a million dollars thus far and have also been looking to make headway by teeing off on the legal woes of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Rob’s father, who is accused by federal prosecutors of accepting bribes and acting to benefit both Egypt and Qatar.