Mayor David Roberts’ investigation into the Hoboken Parking Authority and the automated parking garage at 916 Garden St. has worked its way up the legal food chain and is now the subject of a Grand Jury probe.
According to a subpoena obtained by the Reporter, the state’s attorney general has ordered the city to produce numerous documents related to the garage and its construction.
In June 2002, Roberts, frustrated with the lack of progress at the 324-car garage, announced that he launched an independent investigation into the garage.
At that point the project was three-years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget.
According the mayor’s spokesperson, Bill Campbell, the project is approximately $5.5 million over its original $6 million budget.
In October 2002, the garage opened and the public began to use the facility. Now, according to City Business Administrator Robert Drasheff, there are approximately 160 customers using the garage, which automatically lifts cars on pallets and places them into slots, and it is the first of its kind to open in the U.S.
Also in October 2002, the City Council voted to dissolve the HPA amid allegations of mismanagement and cost overruns. The vote by the city’s governing body sealed the fate of the 33-year old autonomous, quasigovernmental agency that was created for the purpose of building garages and managing the city’s parking spaces.
On Jan 1, the HPA, which had been directed by seven appointed commissioners, was replaced by a new entity, which is now operating under the title of the Hoboken Parking Utility
The Utility is controlled directly by the City Council and the mayor’s administration. On Jan. 1, the city assumed all assets, liabilities, debts, and obligations of the former Parking Authority.
When Roberts launched his investigation, Police Chief Carmen LaBruno and Professor Constantin Chassapis, director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, lead the fact-finding mission into the garage.
The results of that investigation were passed on to the state’s Attorney General Office, and now documents are being requested by the state’s Grand Jury, according to officials.
Drasheff said Wednesday night that only because of the mayor’s investigation, this matter reached the Grand Jury. "These events are directly related," said Drasheff about the recent subpoenas and Roberts’ start of an investigation in June 2002. "Discovering what actually happened [with this garage] is only going to benefit Hoboken taxpayers."
What the subpoena asks
According to the subpoena, which is signed by Deputy Attorney General Basil Merenda, the city was ordered to present on Tuesday, Feb. 4 all documents relating to the development, bidding, or award of any contract for the construction for the garage from 1997 to the present.
Included in the subpoena are all bid packages, specifications, and documents received from vendors, as well as the advertisements for bids and the request for proposals.
The city was required to produce to the Grand Jury correspondences, minutes, e-mails, notes, and calendars or date books from all Parking Authority members and employees. Also, the city must hand over the minutes of any Parking Authority meeting, at which the contract, or proposed contract, was discussed.
The sale is off
On Nov. 7, the Parking Authority entered into an agreement to sell the garage to Feldman Equities of New York and Arizona, in conjunction with Robotic Parking, the Florida Based Company hired to install the garage’s automated systems.
But Friday morning the Mayor’s spokesperson Bill Campbell said that Feldman has informed the city that it is backing out of the contract. According to the contract, Feldman had until Feb. 11 to exit the contract without penalty. "After learning about the investigation they decided to walk away from the deal," said Campbell.
In the immediate future, Robotic Parking has a service contract to manage the garage until Feb. 28. Campbell said the city is currently exploring different possibilities for who might manage the garage after that date. "Right now we are weighing our post Feb. 28 options," said Campbell.
As for the long term outlook, the city has two options. The building can still be sold in a competitive, public bidding process. Because the Parking Authority was autonomous, it did not have to publicly bid the contract, according to Drasheff, but now that garage is owned by the city any sale must, by law, be bided out publicly, which according to officials could generate a higher sale price.
The city’s other option is that the city can decide to manage the garage itself permanently.
Mayor David Roberts said Friday morning that he is glad that the city is no longer obligated to honor a contract that was made by a lame-duck-HPA board only months before the agency’s dissolution. "I’m very pleased with the turn of events," said Roberts. "We were uncomfortable with that contract because there was only one bidder (on the garage)."
The mayor added that for the time being the city plans to continue to accept customers and manage the garage itself, but did say that if the city does decide to sell the facility in the future, it will do so with using a public bidding process.
A representative from Feldman confirmed Friday that the contract has been terminated but declined to comment any further at this time.
Calls were also made to Robotic but that but those calls were not returned by press time.