Hudson Reporter
Hoboken councilman’s use of Airbnb comes under fire
Former running mate and political adversaries question Councilman Mike DeFusco s travel ×
Councilmembers Vanessa Falco, Mike DeFusco, Jim Doyle, and Tiffanie Fisher at a council meeting in 2019
Several elected officials, including a former running mate and political adversaries, are questioning First Ward Councilman Michael DeFusco’s travel and the rental of his home on Airbnb during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to his public AirBNB profile, which has been active since 2013, DeFusco rented his home 23 times between August of 2020 – six months into the pandemic when the Hoboken Health Department reported roughly one or two new cases of COVID-19 a day- and as recently as March 2021 when the Hoboken Health Department routinely reported double-digit figures for new COVID-19 cases.
The news is troubling to some Hoboken officials.
“Since last summer, Councilman Michael DeFusco has notably been absent from Hoboken – absent from signing-up seniors for vaccines, absent from volunteering in the community, absent from supporting our struggling small businesses, and absent from certain City Council meetings and several community meetings, Council members Jim Doyle, Emily Jabbour, and Phil Cohen said in a joint statement. Now, we know why. As elected officials, we’ve been doing our jobs representing our constituents, safely and in-person when appropriate and safe to do so, helping our City recover from the pandemic. At a bare minimum, Michael owes his constituents a full and complete accounting as to why he’s been an absentee Councilman, with overseas travel to COVID-19 hot-spots during the height of the pandemic. If he’s unable to do so, perhaps he should no longer serve on the City Council.
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