The Hudson County Board of Commissioners officially accepted $392,750.26 in grant funding related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup last week, although some raised concerns over what the county received in comparison to some of the municipalities.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
The board voted unanimously (9-0) on Thursday to accept the grant for the FIFA World Cup Grant Program Award for Hudson County from the New York/New Jersey 2026 World Cup Host Committee Inc.
The contract runs retroactively from July 4th, 2025 through August 31, 2026.
Board Chair Anthony Romano (D-5) recognized Hudson County Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Edoardo “Junior” Ferrante and Deputy Coordinator Mike Kenny as they prepare for the World Cup.
“They’re going to be coordinating all the efforts with regards to FIFA,” Romano said.
“I want to thank you. Chief Kenny has had much experience with all the different major events that he’s handled in Jersey City. We’re in good hands with him and Director Ferrante.”
While there wasn’t much discussion at the regular meeting, at the May 27th caucus meeting, Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2) joined Romano in decrying the allotment to Hudson County in the grant versus the other municipalities that received monies.
“How much of this is going to the Sheriff’s Department? Can they get that fair cut out of this?” Romano said.
A short time later, Hudson County Administrator Abe Antun stated “it’s not a lot money,” explaining that the county is getting $79,249 for overtime for OEM, and $2,425 for motorcycles for the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office.
Upon learning that information, Romano was not pleased.
“So out of the $392,000 awarded to the county, the sheriffs get two thousand dollars. Is that what that basically is? There’s something wrong with that picture,” Romano stated.
O’Dea asked where the rest of the funding went to, which Antun answered the remaining money is going to Harrison, Secaucus, and Jersey City.
Jersey City is getting $36,000 for police overtime, which drew more questions from O’Dea and Romano about that since the games are closer to Harrison and Secaucus, although Antun didn’t have those answers since the grant was awarded by the host committee.
“I’m just saying, I think there should be a little more of a lot, and I think the sheriffs are going to be all over the county, all over the three municipalities, all over the whole area,” Romano said.
Antun noted that while “everyone was disappointed with these allocations,” he can’t explain how the numbers were arrived.
“This is what we received. OEM is coordinated. But we’re largely a pass through, we’re just really acting as an administrative function,” Antun declared.
While he din’t have specifics, the breakdown shows that for Jersey City, the funds will go towards the security of one of the soccer teams competing in the World Cup.
In Secaucus, Antun said they received a higher figure because they are running a police detail from the train station to Harrison.
Romano noted that one of the soccer teams is staying at a hotel in Hoboken, but they didn’t receive any funding for their police department.
Antun noted Harrison is receiving the funds in several categories, including for their OEM for $93,000, for their police operational overtime for $86,000, for their fire operational overtime for $12,240, and for their EMS operational overtime for $5,200.
They also have $16,000 earmarked for police equipment.
Romano grew more skeptical of the allotment as heard more details of the other dispersement. Antun replied that he had similar questions, but wasn’t getting detailed answers.
He added OEM provided a detailed memo on this, but was unclear if it addresses any concerns raised by the commissioners.
Romano opined that he would rather see law enforcement receive the money over fire departments, since they will be responsible for crowd controls, among other things.
“If there’s any kind of incident, they have to secure the area,” Romano noted.
Antun said he’s not disputing any of that, but “that’s what we were given.”
