Hoboken 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo is expected to secure the council presidency at Wednesday’s reorganization meeting, sources familiar with the situation told HCV.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Russo is the longest serving member of the governing body, first elected in 2003 and most recently securing a fifth term in 2019. He has never previously served as council president.
Sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said Russo was “a lock” to be the next council president.
After the council approved new salary ranges last month, the council president is now able to earn up to $40,000 a year.
In August, Russo floated the possibility of running for mayor, creating a poll asking residents who they’d vote for in the November 2nd election.
Ultimately, Mayor Ravi Bhalla was elected to a second term running unopposed, with he and his council slate locking up a late endorsement from Russo.
Russo, a physical therapy doctor by trade who works at the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, is also currently the council appointee on the local housing authority board.
What will you have to give up to pay for the $500 a month increase in your school taxes ?
It is your money and your choice on January 25th.
Vote NO.
Russo is a sellout. I used to like him and his father, but not anymore. He’s attached his cart to the Ravi – Emily – Phil cart, shamefully!
And now I have to pay $600 more in taxes to support a $330,000,000 high school for privileged kids?? What happened to my Hoboken!!!
SHAMEFUL MICHAEL!
You’re completely mistaken. This is Our Town. Michael is going to get his and what’s ours. Ravi is looking to cash out on Hoboken, then we get it all. Only Dawn’s yuppies will pay. Ravi sold them out and Stack is behind Michael all the way!
high school for privileged kids?
isn’t it a public school?
I want wish everyone, especially Ravi a happy new year. Without our deal, this wouldn’t be possible. Now, we are truly One Hoboken, and can bring back Hoboken to what we all know it was. Dawn and Stan knew this great day was coming and I wish them the best back in the Catskills. I look forward to leading Hoboken, the council, regaining control of the HHA and having all Ravi followers on and off the council and in the mayor’s office heed me as acting mayor.
John will continue to head collections in bars and restaurants, Jason remains in charge of pizza and Bleepjay will be redeemed from AOC by following me. Next, my super majority on the council with my colleagues Jim And Emily clearing my path. Thanks to their continued cooperation.
Please don’t ever bring up negative things about Michael Russo and his family.
Sure his father was a convicted felon, his mother held some sketchy jobs. they all lived in taxpayer subsidized Church Tower housing despite having a shore home and substantial income. Then there was that awkward FBI Big Sting video but he says he is a good guy and is deeply hurt that people bring up his and his families past indiscretions.
Jen and Tiff own this. They aligned themselves with Ramos and DeFusco the day after the 2017 election because of their hatred and jealousy of Bhalla. If they had come together as genuine reformers would have and joined the team they could have influenced Bhalla for the better.
Instead, they played juvenile political games as DeFusco’s cheering section. They left Bhalla with nowhere to turn but Russo.
They also squandered all their credibility making even legitimate criticism of Bhalla seem like just more of their nasty nonsense to most voters.
It’s pretty disappointing that over the past 4 years Mike Russo has been a far more effective and more honorable Councilperson than either of those two supposed reformers.
Thanks Jen and Tiff!
Prize for most insane post ever posted.
Prize for being too dense to understand. Since 2017, Mike Russo’s power has come from the math created by Tiff and Jen. His power could have been theirs. But sadly of the three only Mike had the smarts to understand the world around him and use it to his advantage.
The meek may inherit the earth. But not the stupid.
Let me get this straight. Team Bhalla crew are saying that they have to align with Michael Russo because of Jen and Tiffany worked with DeFusco and Ramos?
Aren’t they all supposed to work together?
You’ve got Jen and Tiffany taking up too much real estate in your brain. Doing the right thing has nothing to do with who is aligning with whom. Are Jen and Tiffany tying Emily, Jim, Phil and Joe up, holding a gun on them and saying “You must align with Russo.”
Come on, it’s all about power not about the best for the community.
Working together for the community is one thing but Jen Giattino and Tiffanie Fisher won’t work to do bad by Hoboken and make Ravi and Russo richer.
It’s that simple. So, here we are with the public sex event of Ravi and Russo about to come out of the dark. We were warned but too many believed the lies.
Now they get to live with themselves and what they’ve done..
2017’s “Reform resistance” cabal Cunningham, Fisher and Giattino embraced Ramos and DeFusco, the ethically challenged, in an alliance against Bhalla. That cabal aligned with Ramos and Defusco to throw Eric Kurta and Reform’s 2015 successful campaign eliminating corruptible runoff elections under the bus. For them, it’s all bitterness, jealousy and anger over 2017, it still is. Just like that Terror Flier Doofus, still stuck on old grievances. After Fisher and Giattino aligned with Hoboken’s biggest Pay-to-Player and the VBM king of the 4th ward, they and their flunkies (like the Terror Flier Doofus) lost the moral authority to say “boo” about Bhalla working with Russo. But they will! Watch the hypocrites sing like canaries on crack!
Whataboutism in the extreme there, buddy. You are truly saying that Fisher and Giattino were bad so now Ravi has to be worse.
The Ravi-Russo Alliance has been in place. You lying losers denied it, attacked others to hide it.
Now, it’s all in the open. Stop lying. It’s over. Ravi bent over for Russo. He likes it. Hey Mickey, he likes it. 😱
Who will Defusco, Fisher, Giattino and Ramos vote for as the new Council President ? Bet it is Russo.
Maybe Ramos since Russo helped on his 2013 campaign. Very doubtful for most of the rest.
I want to see Jim Doyle choking on his vote as he becomes a part of this disgusting Ravi-Russo farce. Little Emily is clueless and plays dumb. She knows nor cares about the history of corruption in Hoboken. It doesn’t even register with her. Pathetic.
Little Emily is clueless and plays dumb.
Stick to fawning over Jen gramps.
No lie can hide the truth. Ravi is a crooked scumbag. Russo knew from day one. Now they are together cashing in. No surprise.
Are you saying that Jen and Tiff didn’t throw in with DeFusco and Ramos after losing the 2017 election? Are you saying they weren’t pissed off that Russo went his own way rather than join with them?
Come on. No lie can hide the truth right?
Ravi smartly figured out how to govern effectively without a Council majority. Russo figured out how to parlay a divided Council to his advantage.
Being smarter than Jen and Tiff isn’t a really heavy lift, but certainly both Bhalla and Russo have shown that they are.
Neither Jen Giattino nor Tiffanie Fisher ever ignored any proposal that was good for Hoboken. They just didn’t bend the knee to Ravi. Most of the council votes were unanimous or were sorted in the end. So on taxes, Ravi wanted to keep all the federal riches doled out to Hoboken in his little piggy bank but Tiffanie Fisher with Jen Giattino kept pushing and pushing and refusing to take ZERO returned to Hoboken taxpayers as an answer.
Eventually, Ravi would agree to a far smaller tax reduction but not for the lack of his effort trying to stave it off.
Of course, we should acknowledge Dawn Zimmer and Stan Grossbard here too. Without their backroom 2017 inside deal with Ravi who we all knew was more than a little ethically challenged, none of this would be possible.
Tiffanie Fisher and Jen Giattino’s base everything the do or say on the City Council on their own failures and bitter resentment of Mayor Bhalla success.
You need to take some more drugs, Tea Leaves. Ravi’s “success” as you call it is built on lies, deception and scamming. Now it’s built further by publicly bedding Russo.
Ravi is no reformer. He’s a partner in Hoboken’s renewed culture of corruption. He’s a Russo.
You’re confused about how democracy works. Mayor Zimmer didn’t choose Mayor Bhalla in a backroom or a front room. Hoboken voters chose Mayor Bhalla. Twice. If you recall, Jen finished 4th in 2017, not just behind Bhalla but behind DeFusco and Romano. She and Tiff were both too scared to run last year. If you’re mad Ravi is mayor and not Jen, blame the voters. Or blame Jen for being such a lousy candidate in 2017.
Is the “little piggy bank” you’re referring to the City’s surplus?
You’re right about Fisher and Giattino being completely ineffective at blocking Bhalla’s agenda. They couldn’t muster the courage to actually do anything, including run against Bhalla last year. Beth Mason was certainly a more effective obstructionist than they’ve been. Like I said, being smarter than Jen and Tiff is a pretty low bar.
Creating the dynamic that led to Mike Russo being the swing vote on the Council and now Council President is probably their most significant achievement.
So from Mike Russo to the gals:Thanks Jen and Tiff!
The federal cash spree has nothing to do with the city’s surplus and everything to do with Ravi’s hoarding attempt.
Yes, the Ravi & Russo partnership in crime is Ravi Bhalla’s most significant achievement, outside of the terror flier. Your scummy hero.
Trump is the ultimate scummy hero to those who post the insane hatred on this site.
President Trump has nothing to do with what Ravi does. Give Ravi a chance though; he’s not done yet. There’s time so he can join Carmelo in the clink. Ravi is now spearheading Carmelo’s Vision Money-Money scheme.
Sssssh, keep it on the down-low. Ravi doesn’t want anyone to know. Only Russo who he’s putting in as Chair of the HHA. They have big plans $$$.