Traditionally, the administration of Mayor Anthony Russo gets what it wants at City Council meetings, because six of the council’s nine members see eye-to-eye with the outspoken mayor, while it sometimes seems that the other three members would rather poke his eyes out. But tradition did not hold Wednesday night when the council voted 5-4 against an administration request to pay Meadowlands Associates, a public relations firm headed by Anthony Amabile, almost $8,000 for work it had done on a newsletter that was mailed to residents at the beginning of the year. Amabile has been the mayor’s political consultant for all of his campaigns since 1993, and has also earned hundreds of thousands of dollars through city contracts. He has had a $48,000-a-year public relations contract with the Hoboken Parking Authority and a two-year $36,000 contract for public relations for the south waterfront. But Wednesday, the tide turned on him. Council members Michael Cricco and Roseanne Andreula joined three anti-administration councilmen, Dave Roberts, Tony Soares and Ruben Ramos Jr., in voting against paying Amabile for producing, printing and sorting a “Hoboken 2000” mailer. The mailer detailed recent city happenings like the opening of Pier A Park and contained information about a city tree and flower planting program. But council members complained that they weren’t consulted on the contents. The line item regarding payment to Amabile appeared Wednesday under the postage account asking for $7,758 for Meadowlands Associates. When asked why Amabile had been retained even though his last contract with the city had expired in September, Business Administrator George Crimmins told the council that “the item is below the bidding thresh hold and can be secured by a company that does not have a professional services contract with the city.” The majority of the City Council was not pleased that a newsletter bearing their names had been developed by Amabile without their input. “We should have a say in something that goes out with our names on it,” said Councilman-at-Large Tony Soares. “The work of this company is highly questionable.” Soares said the calendars Meadowlands Associates prints at taxpayer expense sometimes do not get to residents until March. “They don’t do anything on time,” he said. City Councilman Michael Cricco, who voted against paying Amabile, told the council that one calendar had identified him as a councilman who “was concerned about issues in Weehawken.” Surprisingly, even Russo did not rise to the challenge of defending Amabile’s work. “I am not such a favorite fan of Anthony Amabile’s, either,” the mayor said. “I empathize and I agree that you should be conferred with by the public information officer.” But he did add that the “newsletter was something good for the city.” City Councilman Stephen Hudock agreed. “This is a type of positive information that is passed on to residents about positive accomplishments that have occurred in the city,” Hudock said. “I don’t have a problem with it.” But the majority of the council saw it differently. After the meeting, Cricco said that he did not find Crimmins’ explanation for why Amabile was hired compelling. “The man’s contract with the city had expired and there was a reason for that,” he said. “If the council does not renew a contract then the administration should think before they go out and hire that guy to do work for the city again.” He added, “This had nothing to do with politics; it had to with what was best for the city.” But some members of the council said that politics did play a role in their decision to vote against the measure. City Councilman Dave Roberts, a Russo critic, argued that the newsletters that have been developed by Amabile and mailed at taxpayer expense were designed to cast the mayor in the best possible light, while leaving critics out. “I print my own newsletter and I have the liberty of editorial freedom with it because I pay for it,” Roberts said. “I find it unbelievable that the city sends out communications at taxpayer expense that have serious, heavy partisan overtones.” City Councilman Ruben Ramos Jr. charged that Amabile had masterminded a campaign to discredit him when he ran for the City Council last year. At the time, flyers were distributed questioning his integrity and the integrity of his father Ruben Ramos Sr., who works at the Housing Authority. The flyers were anonymous, but Ramos Jr. has long suspected Amabile. “I’m supposed to approve that expenditure when this man has said very negative things about me and my family?,” Ramos asked. After the meeting, Crimmins shrugged his shoulders when asked what would happen to Amabile’s bill. “That’s up to him,” Crimmins said. Amabile was on vacation and not available to comment, but it appears that his only recourse for collecting the outstanding bill may be the courts. Several of the council people who voted against paying Amabile said they still support sending out a newsletter to inform the public. Both Roberts and Soares said that they would be in favor of establishing a committee to look at the best way to go about informing the public at minimum expense. In the meantime, the administrative critics were gleeful of their victory. “I feel like we were firing missiles across Russo’s bow for awhile,” Soares said. “But in that meeting we had a direct hit.”
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
