Hoboken's City Council voted 7-2 Wednesday to move $105,000 from operating expenses into salaries and wages for the corporation counsel's office, a transfer that drew sharp objections from two council members who argued it sidesteps the city's own salary rules. The money will help cover the $190,000 annual salary of Corporation Counsel Diana Jeffrey and fund a still-vacant assistant corporation counsel position budgeted at up to $150,000 a year.
Councilman Michael Russo and Councilman Paul Presinzano cast the dissenting votes, with Russo arguing that Hoboken is not in compliance with its salary ordinance on multiple accounts, according to Hudson County View. Russo said his objection was not based on whether Jeffrey deserved the $190,000 salary, but on process: he maintains the city council, not the mayor, is supposed to set every municipal salary. Jeffrey's salary was set by Mayor Emily Jabbour rather than through the salary ordinance, per the outlet's reporting.
Presinzano, for his part, asked whether the resolution simply reduced $105,000 from other expenses and moved it into corporation counsel salaries and wages, according to the same account. Business Administrator Jennifer Gonzalez responded that the city could realize savings because the assistant corporation counsel position remains vacant, and said the administration was unsure whether the full $105,000 would ultimately be spent. She added that all other encumbered contracts remain accounted for and that other staff salaries are included elsewhere in the budget.
A Legal Precedent From the Fire Department
Russo grounded his objection in *Crimmins v. City of Hoboken*, a case involving Fire Chief Brian Crimmins. Russo has cited that ruling as precedent for the council's authority over municipal employee pay. The article cites New Jersey Statute 40A:9-165. The state's fight with Hoboken over the Crimmins matter previously carried real financial teeth: in March 2025, the New Jersey Civil Service Commission threatened daily fines of $100, capped at $10,000, if the city failed to reinstate Fire Chief Crimmins.
Municipal code does give some flexibility here, noting that corporation counsel compensation may be set as an annual salary or fixed fee by the mayor, or as an hourly rate under a contract within council budget constraints. The corporation counsel office's overall budget, at $621,762, will not change as a result of the $105,000 transfer, per the reporting. According to the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller, policies governing the procurement, use and management of legal counsel can help reduce costs and promote transparency.
A Year of Legal Whiplash at City Hall
The transfer caps eight months of structural back-and-forth over how Hoboken staffs its legal department. In January, the Jabbour administration shifted the city to an outside counsel model, hiring Arlene Quiñones Perez of DeCotiis, FitzPatrick, Cole & Giblin LLP under an arrangement the administration projected would save roughly $150,000 annually. That contract had Hoboken paying a $40,000 monthly retainer for eight months, according to Hudson County View.
Combined, the former firm contract plus Jeffrey's current and potential assistant salary total $415,000, the outlet reported. Hoboken had one corporation counsel and two assistant corporation counsels on staff in 2025, and the city paid two employees under the DeCotiis contract before Jeffrey's appointment. The former outside-counsel arrangement and the new in-house salaries are discussed together.
Jeffrey's Path to City Hall and Added Duties
Jeffrey was appointed Hoboken's corporation counsel on August 17, taking over after Quiñones Perez departed, as Hoodline's reporting on a separate cannabis bribery suit previously noted. Before coming to Hoboken, Jeffrey spent eight years as Executive Director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, departing that post in April under a mutual separation agreement valued at $325,000 after earning $239,799 in total compensation over 2024 and 2025.
At the same Wednesday meeting, the council voted 8-1 to allow Jeffrey to also serve as a municipal prosecutor and municipal court judge. Backfilling positions like the assistant corporation counsel role remains exempt from Hoboken's hiring freeze, allowing the search for that hire to continue.
Mayor Frames Moves as Cost Control
Jabbour, Hoboken's mayor, has cast the return to in-house counsel as part of a broader fiscal strategy.
Whether the $105,000 transfer squares with that framing remains a matter of dispute between the administration and its critics on the council. Russo has said the city council approves every salary in Hoboken, a claim that sits at the center of the ongoing tension between his reading of the salary ordinance and the mayor's authority to set individual compensation for department heads like Jeffrey.
