In a joint letter to the editor, Hoboken council members Tiffanie Fisher and Ruben Ramos, both mayoral candidates, seek to set the record straight on Councilwoman-at-Large Emily Jabbour’s claims about former Health and Human Services Director Leo Pellegrini.
Dear editor,
Hoboken deserves leaders who are honest with residents—not ones who twist facts to rewrite history.
That’s why we feel compelled to correct the false narrative Councilwoman Emily Jabbour shared in her statement following the sentencing of former City Director Leo Pellegrini.
Let’s be clear: No one on the City Council defended Pellegrini once we became aware of the allegations of embezzlement. To suggest otherwise is political spin—designed to score points, at the expense of the truth.
Councilwoman Jabbour claims she acted in February 2023 to remove Pellegrini from oversight of the Recreation Department because of these concerns—and that we opposed her.
That’s simply not true.
At the very same February 1, 2023 City Council meeting that Councilwoman Jabbour cited—where she also shared selective clips of statements from ourselves and Councilman Russo—she offered a very different explanation for removing Leo from running the recreation department. Her own words that night:
“…The logistics of this, to be very specific for the members of the public, is to relocate the Division of Recreation from the Department of Human Services into Environmental Services and—as alluded to by Councilwoman Fisher—the purpose of this is to create efficiencies with respect to how programming and facilities are linked…”
That is not the language of someone sounding the alarm on corruption. It’s the language of someone advancing a bureaucratic shuffle.
If Councilwoman Jabbour had been briefed on more serious allegations—as she now implies— then she failed to share them publicly and failed to act on them transparently.
And it’s misleading to now claim credit for a move that she and the administration explicitly framed as routine at the time.
Her language at that meeting painted a picture of a Council member either not informed about the underlying concerns—or simply reiterating the administration’s stated rationale without questioning it.
Either way, it was not the warning of someone sounding an alarm on corruption.
And Councilwoman Jabbour’s claim that we “aligned with” Pellegrini at a press conference are also false.
The event took place in May 2024—more than a year after he had stepped down and after the Council was already aware of the embezzlement allegations.
We called on the Attorney General to investigate new claims that had been made in his wrongful termination lawsuit, which pointed to a potential abuse of office for personal or political gain, out of a desire to protect Hoboken taxpayers.
We did not defend Pellegrini or support his lawsuit—and clearly stated at the time that he should be investigated as well.
Hoboken deserves better. We need leaders who tell the truth, own their record, and focus on fixing the system—not protecting it.
Council members Tiffanie Fisher and Ruben Ramos
Hoboken City Council
Silly season.
Demanding that allegations made by Leo be investigated is the same thing as supporting him.
Is there any candidate worth my vote? I’m not sure there is.
No, it’s not. Let’s not avoid the consequences of criminality of one with the second floor at City Hall.
Both things can be true. And are.
Curious, why did you make up a Jewish name?
Gefilte horse is into feigned ethnicities. Maybe it’s his therapeutic way of dealing with the guilt and self-loathing from creating the “terror flier.” It weighs so heavily on his conscience that he pretends to be other people.
To paraphrase the old Billy Joel song….
Gefilte horse started the flier.
It was always silly.
Now he’s a Hebrew filly.
Gefilte horse started the flier….
Ravi operatives are so clownish they even attack a family’s Germanic and Lutheran heritage. Anything to distract from the 2017 Ravi Terror Flier.
Go through City Hall and you won’t find two people who will answer where it isn’t that dirty crew on the second floor.
The Gefilte Avenger has returned
Toxic Avenger is like the Mullahs. She’s always chasing Godot but she’ll never catch that Horse. After the Ravi Bhalla years of waste, incompetence, lawsuits and destruction of the Hoboken budget with sky high taxes, why bother?
That Horse fellow had it all right. Toxic Gefilte Avenger was wrong and picked a corrupt loser. That’s left a mark. Welp!
That’s quite a combo! An incel who trolls Jews!
What’s the next fake Jewish name the Ravi Terror Flyer guy (and flyer author & distributor) will post under? Not much of an Italian stallion, sausage beater!
The more you keep misdirecting the more likely someone in the know drops a dime on your boss. The Ravi Terror Flier and the Mile Square City shakedowns aren’t going to bury themselves.
Worst kept secret in City Hall.
This is comical
Ruben and Tiffanie were given a choice to vote to remove Leo from running recreation. They voted no. Emily voted yes
Enough said. Tiffanie and Ruben should take the L and move on.
Are ramos and fisher saying they DIDNT vote against moving recreation away from Leo months before any knowledge of the embezzlement came out? It doesn’t seem like that way. It looks like they admitted that vote – just not for the made up reasons Emily wants the public to believe. Emily is Ravi 2.0 – just look at who is around her. She is managed by Jason Freeman and Vijay and is funded by John Allen. All the miscreants behind team bhalla. And there is a rumor she even has Jason’s wife Rachel Hodes as one of her running mates.
Humans make mistakes. Politicians are human. Chalk it up to bad judgment and kneejerk opposition to all Administration actions.
Many of Leo’s friends didn’t want to believe the allegations. Many went on record saying so, including Ramos and Fisher- instead of letting the investigation play out- which would have been the smart thing to do. But hate makes one stupid.
Of course, such past public errors in judgment are fodder for opposing campaigns; it would be political malpractice not to. Flipping it on Jabbour, or any other candidate who brings this up, is foolish and only amplifies the original poor judgment. Advice: own your past errors and voters will respect you more.
Lyin’ Emily. Did you watch the video? A completely different story then the one she tried to tell. Just like her mentor Bhalla, when the truth doesn’t work for you, you spin the message until it works, truth or not. If she was the hero she thinks she was that night at that Council meeting why didnt she just say she knew it was about Leo’s embezzlement? It didn’t look like Fisher knew. After eight years protecting Ravi a leopard doesn’t change its spots. Hoboken doesn’t need Ravi part 2.
Why so hard on Little Lyin’ Emily? She has nothing to run on after being a fledging duck to the corrupt Bhalla Administration she voted in lockstep with for years. She’s no hero but thinks she’s virtuous because you know, she likes those boys instruction manuals in the library teaching them how to service young men (cough, cough). Disgusting.
Leo owns his crimes. Not Mayor Bhalla or any Council person.
But according to the charges, the criminal activity went undetected for 7 years having started at the very beginning of the Bhalla Administration. Perhaps they started even before under Zimmer, though all the charged crimes were all under Bhalla.
It’s obvious that proper internal controls and oversight was lacking.
The buck for that starts and stops with Mayors Zimmer and Bhalla and their teams. They trusted him and he abused their trust.
Councilwoman Jabbour taking credit for Leo getting caught is ludicrous. It went on for 7 years under her nose and the nose of the Mayor she faithfully served.
I don’t think she, or any Council person, or Mayor Bhalla for that matter is responsible for the wrongdoing but they certainly aren’t deserving of any credit. Nobody is covered in glory here.
The public is owed an apology. Instead elected officials somehow think they deserve credit.
My vote will go to the candidate who owns apologizes to the public and explains what internal controls they will institute to make sure there is accountability all the way up the food chain – including for the Mayor.
So far I haven’t heard that from any of these folks.
And you won’t Humility is not a virtue shared by anyone on Team Bhalla, though it should be a job requirement. To follow up on your point – my vote will go to the candidate who stands up and says “this is how our budget got so far out of whack and this what I plan to do to fix it.” And since Emily was part of the Team that created the mess, she should be expected what she might have done differently.
“But according to the charges the criminal activity went undetected for years having started at the very beginning of the Bhalla Administration. ”
Councilwoman Jabbour has always been part of Bhalla administration.
The Divine Miss Em
Thinks she will win this with mommies and drag queen dance parties at a popular coffee shop…