Hoboken’s Chief Resilience Officer Caleb Stratton will add assistant business administrator to his resume in the new year, while two staffers for Mayor Ravi Bhalla will also take on new roles in 2020.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Caleb has been key to the progress of our sustainability priorities, including the development of a municipal micro-grid in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories,”Mayor Ravi Bhalla said in a statement.
“As we embark on an ambitious resilient infrastructure agenda, Caleb’s innovative approach will be essential to our success.”
John Allen, Bhalla’s chief of staff since his administration took office, will serve as assistant corporation counsel – a role he served in on a few select occasions in 2019.
“John has been invaluable partner to me as my Chief of Staff and has established strong working relationships across county and state government,” Bhalla added.
“I’d like to thank John for his service, and we are lucky to have an attorney who brings both public and private sector experience to address the legal challenges facing the City of Hoboken in a professional, ethical, and cost-effective manner.”
Meanwhile, Jason Freeman, another early hire by the mayor as his deputy chief of staff, will now be taking on the role of Bhalla’s director of operations: a newly created position at City Hall.
“Jason has played a dynamic role in my administration and always brings a strong work ethic,” the mayor also said. “His understanding of Hoboken’s issues makes him a vital asset to my Administration.”
The mayor’s office further stated that both the deputy chief of staff and chief of staff positions have been eliminated, leaving Bhalla with Freeman as his director of operations and Vijay Chaudhuri as his director of communications.
At the end of last year, Bhalla vetoed local legislation that would’ve limited the number of people he could hire in his office and it appeared that Freeman may be laid off following the passage of this year’s $117.6 budget in June, though that never actually came to fruition.
The goose is finally dead, Bhalla is now faced with a double digit tax hike so he’s now re-arranging the deck chairs on the sinking ship.
Sadly a few on the council are selling out and getting back in bed with Bhalla. Good, they can go down with the SS Bhalla.
No matter how many polls, workshops, community meetings and anti fights, no matter how hard the Zimmer do nothing team and Bhalla stepping stone planners tried Hoboken has no new ratables and we are stuck with nothing but lawsuits and blocks of bus lots uptown, while our neighbors thrive.
Sadly just more of the usual rantings of a hand full of disgruntled political operatives searching for a advantage.
Blame others when Ravi Bhalla brings another tax increase to the table.
This one promises to be much bigger with layoffs.
A new year but same old horse manure being shoveled from the barn
Thought HobokenHorse is on vaca. If he confirms the Ravi Bhalla tax hikes & layoffs, then it’s real. Ravi’s political operative cave will cover up the truth and lie about all of it, the usual.
Much of the ultra biased rumors that are published on that site are just that ultra biased rumors. The never-ending psychotic hatred, extreme right wing political rants and occasional blatant racism against Mayor Bhalla published by that site are well known and as a result almost all of it’s once rational audience of years past has evaporated has become a near dead outlet.
Yawn. Ravi badly needs a new paid political operative. HobokenHorse kicked the crap out of you liars over and over and made life in the mayor’s office hell because the truth was told there and here. The stupid lies, defamation and personal attacks against anyone who rightly criticized Ravi Bhalla for a hosts of bad policy actions failed. Badly.
Ravi is currently cashing a right wing paycheck for a no-show job with a Republican law firm. All that magical contract money rolling down the hill. Somehow he’s escaped arrest like the other HudCo clowns.
Hoboken voters took noticed and kicked your asses sending Ravi Bhalla to the bottle to drown his sorrows. Hey, why don’t you put up some new photos of Ravi and Linda Sarsour, the anti-Semite. I’m sure that will impress everyone again.
Looks like the cat is out of the bag. HobokenHorse confirms there’s big problems in the mayor’s office with Ravi Bhalla’s budget. Points to the the patronage saving efforts, upcoming tax increases and layoffs. Guess that means Ravi Bhalla’s operatives will soon move from outright denial, up the personal attacks, claim nothing is Ravi’s fault and then the inevitable stupidity: blaming the council for HIS budget.
Get ready Hoboken for Ravi’s Stronger Foundations!
Yeah, ok…whatever.
Ravi is bad, blah blah blah, rinse and repeat. Same ol tired pap from the sad, lonely anti-Bhalla crybabies.
You can call us anti-Bhalla crybabies, but we’re the ones who are stuck paying for the corruption that reigns in City Hall. Yes, we’re crying because Ravi still has two years to dig a deeper tax hole than the one we’re facing this year. Maybe we’re crying because we’re watching Bhalla and his inept crew kill our town. Those of you who praise him must be able to afford the HUGE tax increase you’re about to be paying. Any council person who jumps to Ravi’s side needs to be questioned as to what prompted the move. That’s what the Feds are for.