The Hoboken City Council failed to override outgoing Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s veto preventing a freeze of the Camera-based License Plate Enforcement for Access & Response (CLEAR) program during the end of last night’s over three-and-a-half hour meeting.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“The mayor vetoed the CLEAR camera ordinance that was passed by the council last week, but he vetoed it late Friday afternoon after the agenda was published so we just didn’t have a chance to put it on the agenda and it fell off of our radar,” explained 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher.
“This is kind of timely that we need to do it as quickly as possible, given we have businesses and residents that are still asking us to fight for them so this would be asking for it to be urgent, given the conversations that we had and the businesses that are concerned about loss of sales, we are asking people to consider a vote to override the mayor’s veto.”
Deputy City Clerk Jerry Lore called for a vote after 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano seconded the emergency resolution.
During the vote, Council at-Large Emily Jabbour, the mayor-elect, voted no, stating she did not see the resolution, which Fisher said was “ridiculous” since she knows how an override works.
Councilman at-Large Joe Quintero protested since the vote was already underway and the measure failed 5-4, with Jabbour, Quintero, 5th Ward Councilman Phil Cohen, and Council President Jim Doyle voting no.
The motion was unsuccessful since a veto override requires a two thirds majority of the governing body, which in this case is six votes.
The council voted an identical 5-4 tally earlier this month to halt the CLEAR program, which has been cracking down on illegal parking via automated cameras, but Bhalla vetoed the effort, citing that the pilot would end on December 31st, both as HCV first reported.
Great that our incoming mayor has no idea how a veto works. Bodes well for the next four years. I think that was the most she spoke at the council meeting.
By law, the ordinance would not have gone into effect until 20 days after the veto override which means that it’s effective date would have been after the 12/31 program expiration date anyway. Bhalla shouldn’t have vetoed I the first place but the override vote was politically motivated posturing falsely characterized as an “emergency” measure.
It’s time for our elected officials to stop behaving like children.
Just want to make sure I’m connecting this post to the reality.
So the pilot ends 12/31. Machines just get shut-off then? Surely any summons generated after 00:00 1/1/2026 is invalid, no?
So your point is that a veto override is post-dated weeks into the future and will not become enforceable until after the pilot ends. And, despite the feigned emergency, they all know this?
Almost seems too dumb to be true. Then again we live in the age of trump. Politicos are always testing the depth of the public’s gullibility.
You’re one the really good “reads” on here btw.