Hoboken council OKs forming committee to probe Pellegrini memo leaked to HCV

The Hoboken City Council approved a resolution last night to create an investigative committee to look into the release of Matthew Boxer’s memo about potential criminal acts committed by former Health and Human Services Director Leo Pellegrini to HCV.

By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View

The May 1st, 2023 memo was posted on X by Chief News Correspondent John Heinis before adding it to his story about a lawsuit filed by Pellegrini where he alleges quid pro quo, retaliation, and defamation by Mayor Ravi Bhalla and his administration.

The memo, which had not previously been shared with the governing body, said that Boxer, New Jersey’s first comptroller, referred the matter to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office after reviewing documents provided by the city.

“ … We had an employee who released sensitive information, and then we were told the mayor waived that privilege, which now no longer makes it sensitive or privileged. But I don’t necessarily understand the entire timeline and how it was articulated to that employee how he was allowed to do that,” 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo, a resolution co-sponsor, explained.

He continued that he was not sure if any other city officials were involved or if the mayor is allowed to waive privilege when it related to a criminal investigation, also mentioning that the preceding closed session raised more questions and that transparency is crucial.

“ … When we’re confused, and we don’t have the transparency, when we can’t see the accountability, that’s a problem. And so if we can’t see it, you definitely can’t see it … We’re gonna find things out, hopefully, that we can see if they’re real, not real. And if there’s nothing there, there’s nothing there,” 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano, the other resolution co-sponsor, explained.

He also echoed Russo’s sentiment that clarity and transparency are essential here.

“I understand this is a committee as a whole that you’re suggesting … I never in all my years in the peanut gallery and up here have I seen this has ever occurred … I’m not particularly averse to it. My question to you is, how do you see this playing out?” Councilman-at-Large Jim Doyle asked.

He also questioned if the expectation was for the committee to have subpoena power, or simply asking people to come to meetings and speak.

“We did, and they didn’t,” Presinzano replied.

“I reached out through email, and I was hopeful I could get some of those answers through email, that didn’t happen. So I went down the route of asking corporation counsel to draft a Rice notice. We did that. We requested that that particular employee come tonight,” Russo answered.

“They declined. We asked some questions in the closed session, as you know, caused me to have more questions of the process: when that happened, when the release of the document was issued, why it wasn’t then afforded to the city council at that point.”

Russo said he did not want to make this about the congressional race, where Mayor Ravi Bhalla unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8), but said that the council should still act to see if any impropriety was committed.

“Is your intent currently to focus on one individual, or is it multiple employees?” Doyle asked.

“Those questions get answered along the way,” Russo replied.

“But the scope addresses that?” Doyle continued.

“The intention is to have those questions answered by the individual who actually did it. But now in a memo that wasn’t afforded to the council, we now have another player involved, right, that made a decision. Were there any other people involved in that decision? Was there advice from corporation counsel? Was there outside advice?” Russo noted.

2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher said that these are determinations that would have to be made by the committee since few details had been released to date.

“It was given to the press with the potential appearance of it being campaign driven. Everything about this is unique. We should be held to certain standards and not abuse our privilege for our own personal benefit. We may find that it’s nothing, or we may find that it is something.”

However, 5th Ward Councilman Phil Cohen wrote the whole thing off as nonsensical political theatre.

“ … If you look at Washington and how congressional hearings go when it comes to answering questions of witnesses, it’s a circus. I think that they’re going to be selling tickets to the circus here … Before the last council meeting, a bunch of my colleagues were on the steps of City Hall asking for another investigation. It seems to be the flavor of the week to have these investigations,” he asserted.

“I think it’s clear that the campaign for mayor for 2025 is kicking off and that this is what it’s gonna to be like for a while. This is political theater at its best, it’s creative. The other thing I want to say is there’s no mystery as to what happened here. We got a memo that explained exactly what happened … We now know now that it was authorized. We all know that it was authorized in a way that was legal … Welcome to the circus.”

Russo said he was surprised that Cohen would take that stance as an attorney, reiterating that he is hopeful the investigation doesn’t bring anything new to light, but said it’s their jobs to ask what happened.

4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos agreed that the explanation at this closed session did not jive with what was said at the prior closed session.

“… Closed session material being thrown out there with the memo that none of were privy to, I wasn’t privy to it, I don’t think anyone else was privy to it, but John Heinis was privy to it before any of us were privy to it. There was a reason John Heinis received it and none of us did,” he said

” … Miraculously that day, something happened that none of knew was gonna happen, but John Heinis has access to the memo. But we don’t want to know how that happened? … I don’t think any of us could dig our heads in the sand.”

Doyle continued that he thought the issue was more complicated than it was being presented as, but he would support the measure since he had no issue with finding out the particulars of what happened.

Councilman-at-Large Joe Quintero added that he thought the closed session “was pretty straightforward” with establishing a timeline of what happened and therefore would no, though didn’t have an issue if his colleagues disagreed.

“I do think it’s interesting that no one’s seen this and I think it’s probably because of the way the administration operates and how they lack any transparency, not even with the public, but with the city council, which is just unbelievable to me,” stated Council President Jen Giattino.

“ … I was hoping that this would be ‘you know what, we don’t have to vote on this’ … but after closed session, I just feel like even more covered up than I did prior. This is not a first offense for this person. We’re well aware of that.”

The resolution passed 7-2, with Cohen and Quintero voting no.

“The Council can, at any time, create any committee of their choosing; however, the releasing of the memo was in fact a demonstration of the administration’s transparency, given the misinformation from the disgruntled former employee’s complaint that was littered with false claims,” city spokeswoman Marilyn Baer said today.

“The City Council has received a separate memo from outside counsel reaffirming that Mayor Bhalla, in his authority as the Mayor of Hoboken, has full authority to waive attorney client privilege on behalf of the City and allow his administration to share the Boxer Memo with the public, which was done so, and clearly states that the former director’s actions should be referred to law enforcement.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from city spokeswoman Marilyn Baer.