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Posted by From the West Coast on July 24, 2004 at 11:44:18:
Jersey Journal
2/27/04 $70G contract awarded despite attempt to withdraw it
By John Martins, Journal staff writer The Board of Freeholders yesterday approved a $70,000 consulting
contract for a grants consulting firm, despite a request from County
Administrator Abraham Antun to remove the item from the board's agenda. Presented Tuesday at the freeholders' pre-meeting caucus, the contract
would renew for another year the services provided by the Funding Group,
which is based in Upper Montclair and is headed by partners Barbara
Lawton and Joseph Lauro. Antun asked the freeholders yesterday to remove the item from the
agenda for further administrative review, but a move put forward to pull
it was defeated. Chairman Sal Vega of West New York said he was upset with a comment
made by a county spokesman in yesterday's edition of The Jersey Journal
that the administration itself was pulling the item. The freeholders board is the only entity that can remove an item from
its own agenda, Vega explained, adding that the spokesman's comment was
disrespectful to the boundaries between the legislative and executive
branches of government. Still in opposition to awarding the contract, Freeholder Bill O'Dea of
Jersey City moved to carry it over until the board's next meeting. That
motion also was defeated. The contract was finally approved by a vote of 4-3-2, with O'Dea and
Freeholders Albert Cifelli of Harrison and Bill Braker of Jersey City
voting no. Freeholders Barry Dugan of Bayonne and Tilo Rivas of Union
City abstained. Initially sponsored by Vega and Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons of
Hoboken, the contract was approved by Vega, Fitzgibbons and Freeholders
Thomas Liggio of North Bergen and Ray Velazquez of Jersey City. Velazquez said he supported the contract because the Funding Group was
able to bring in more than $2 million in grants through the New Jersey
Historic Preservation Trust, the state's Green Acres program and the
U.S. Tennis Association for tennis clinics at Washington Park. The group was also able to bring the Garden State Games to Hudson
County, Velazquez added. O'Dea said the group was being retained to write winning grant money
applications, not bring in supplemental recreational programs. He added
that the historic preservation grant the Funding Group is taking credit
for was actually submitted in 2002. Cifelli, however, said during the meeting that he didn't want his vote
to be construed as either a gesture of dislike for the Funding Group's
partners or indication of a lack of confidence in the quality of their
work. His reasoning, he said, was that he wanted the contract to follow a
more performance-based standard of billing. "I do not feel the way the contract was presented to us is the
appropriate way governmental contracts should be written," Cifelli
said. Approval of the contract, however, does not mean the firm will be
retained by the county administration. County Executive Tom DeGise would
still need to sign off on the contract. Reached yesterday evening, DeGise said he would discuss the issue
further with Board Chairman Vega so both the executive and legislative
branches of government can come to an amicable consensus on the issue.
He also came to the defense of his spokesman, saying the lapse in
protocol was his fault.
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