Hoboken council votes 5-3 for $15K contract with firm that employs ex-director

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The Hoboken City Council voted 5-3 to approve a $15,000 contract for the firm that employs former Transportation and Parking Director Ryan Sharp, considerably less than the $50,000 initially proposed.

Screenshot via YouTube.

By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View

“Government jobs have many different benefits, I would know as a former public employee myself … In Hoboken the retirement benefits are even better than most governments because even if you stop working for the city, you can continue working for the city,” Kevin Davis said during public comment on the resolution.

“ … I took a shovel and did a deep dive into that part of the agenda and I found a letter from our former transportation director, who left the city in July, pushing for this contract providing on-call transportation consulting related services.”

Sharp announced he was departing for a private sector job in July, but he did not leave Hoboken City Hall until September 3rd, as HCV first reported.

He now works for Alta Planning + Design as a principal and safety leader and his December 30th letter to Hoboken Water Engineer William B. Lupo encouraged the city to invest in their services.

“Not only are you voting on a contract for $50,000 for the former transportation director’s firm. But his predecessor … also consulted for the city last year,” Davis added, urging the governing body to ask more questions about what was in front of them.

“Could you get into the details and weeds of this?” 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo asked Business Administrator Jason Freeman.

“We do on-call contracts throughout the year. You adopt a number of them,” Freeman answered, acknowledging that Sharp works for the firm in question.

“This is a national organization that does tremendous work. There is not a single person on this earth that knows our transportation system better than Ryan Sharp,” he declared.

“Do we not have faith in our current staffing that they have enough knowledge on those projects?” Russo continued, to which Freeman said they do have on-call engineers with similar skillsets.

“This is added support to ensure we are doing these as well as we absolutely can,” Freeman argued.

“Could you explain what that added support looks like though?” Russo pushed.

As an example, Freeman said the city has their own corporation counsel, but hires outside counsel for a number of different projects and endeavors.

“This is the same kind of situation, we have added support for all that,” he concluded, to which Russo thanked him.

4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos mocked the notion that this was an essential or needed service.

“ … I think this is a redundancy, it almost seems like the homeboy hookup and I think we do want to get away from those things as we move forward with our city. It is definitely redundancy,” he asserted.

“I think a majority of the city … when we had a reimagining of one of our interior streets in Hoboken, we had a meeting at Wallace School about that, I think people were pretty upset about how that was happening, so I don’t think public sentiment has changed about that aspect about our interior streets in Hoboken.”

Ramos concluded by saying the contract should be voted down.

“I like Ryan. I think he added a lot of value. I think having an on-call contract … this isn’t the time for that,” 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher argued, calling for a more precise agreement.

5th Ward Councilman Phil Cohen argued that an expert can handle a situation quicker than someone with less experience.

“What if we just reduced it?” Fisher asked.

“If I just do a quick calculation here … It’s 166 hours to phone a friend. We’re gonna talk to Mr. Sharp or his firm 166 hours? That’s a lot. So for me, I echo the responses already of the redundancy,” stated 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano, who said he would not support a $50,000 contract.

Councilwoman-at-Large Emily Jabbour, who sponsored the local legislation, asked if her colleagues would be more comfortable with an “introductory level” contract, noting that Sharp’s successor still hasn’t been hired and suggesting $20,000 instead of $50,000.

“How about 15 [thousand dollars]?” Fisher asked, to which Jabbour agreed.

Russo then asked where the city was on hiring a transportation director, to which Freeman said final interviews will begin soon, with about 40 people applying.

“If we have 40 applicants and we’re going to hire a new director, what do we need the old director for?” Presinzano questioned.

Jabbour said she expects the interview process to take some time and there are some pending matters that need to be considered.

“I know there’s a Vision Zero Task Force meeting scheduled and I would hate to lose any of the expertise that could be accomplished by ensuring you have someone with as much of a background as Ryan Sharp does,” Jabbour said, urging to move forward with a $15,000 contract.

Councilman-at-Large Joe Quintero agreed that was the best course of action to move forward.

“We all like Ryan. But let’s not act like he did all the work himself. We do have people in-house who know the job as well,” Ramos said, noting that contracts add up and they need to take a more responsible approach to the budget this year.

Council President Jim Doyle asked Corporation Counsel Brian Aloia if there was any issue with contracting with Alta, to which Aloia said there was not.

Ramos interjected that the city had not considered this firm before Sharp began working for them.

“No one’s hiding the ball, he has specific knowledge,” Doyle argued.

“What’s the reasoning behind hiring a firm that employs him for $50,000?” Russo asked.

“He said if we have an issue in Hoboken, don’t hesitate to call him!” he exclaimed.

Shortly thereafter, Jabbour asked for a motion to amend, which Cohen made, bringing the contract down to $15,000 from $50,000.

The amended resolution passed 5-3, with Presinzano, Russo, and Ramos voting no.


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