The Hoboken City Council and city Police Chief Kenneth Ferrante debated what the best plan of action would be to formalize a service contract between the city’s housing authority and police department at Wednesday’s meeting.
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Hoboken Ward 2 Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher seemed surprised this was still an ongoing issue, agreeing with 4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos’ sentiment that there has to be a template agreement out there the city can work with.
At that point, Ferrante noted that despite no sort of formal agreement with the HHA, the police department has continued to send officers to watch their facilities.
With 5th Ward Councilman Peter Cunningham asking why an old contract could not be brought up to date, Ferrante explained that two sets of attorneys at the HHA – including the current ones – had received documentation on this and nothing further ever happened.
After Councilman-at-Large David Mello, also a commissioner for the HHA, expressed his confidence in the board and Executive Director Marc Recko, Fisher and Ramos suggested having the next public safety meeting with representatives of the HHA present.
“It’s just a matter of working out the details. Our attorneys have it, it’s not a simple concept. They’ve been doing they’re due diligence and we’re expecting to bring it to our board in May. We’ve also been meeting with police on a monthly basis and they continue to provide us great service,” Recko told Hudson County View.
“This agreement would allow them to have access to our buildings, then giving then key passes, act as our agent and make trespassing arrests, issues like that.”
The HHA recently secured court orders to keep eleven people from HHA buildings.