Despite a lower bid from an information firm located in Jersey City, the Hudson County Board of Freeholders voted at their Dec. 14 meeting to award a $275,000 recordkeeping professional-services contract to a firm located in Pennsylvania.
In a heated and sometimes confusing debate, the freeholder board voted 6-3 to award the contact to Smart Business Advisory and Consulting, with three Jersey City freeholders voting against it.
In perhaps one of his last major initiatives before taking a job with the governor’s office, Hudson County Clerk Javier Inclán said that Smart Business of Devon, Pa., had the right experience and expertise to meet the county’s record keeping needs, when the Jersey City-based firm did not.
Jersey City Freeholder Bill O’Dea questioned the proposal to hire the Pennsylvania firm, partly because the matter was brought to the freeholder board late and would not allow the freeholders to investigate whether or not the Jersey City firm had subcontractors or some other provisions that would allow the company to perform the tasks needed.
“We are getting this very late and expected to vote on this without a chance to find out if the local firm is capable of doing the job,” O’Dea said.
Inclán said Smart Business had specific experience with other counties and municipalities in regard to shared services, and that’s why the county chose the firm. He said the Division of Archives, which oversees the program, would not likely approve of the other firm.
O’Dea, however, said the Freeholders Contracts Committee should get more time to evaluate the contracts.
Inclán told the freeholders that there was a tight deadline for reviewing the records needs of the first two municipalities, Bayonne and West New York. Thus, the board had to vote to award the contract right away.
The contract would allow the company to conduct a shared-services needs assessment for archives and record management. The company’s consultant would meet with county and municipal officials to determine what areas of management could be shared between the county and the municipalities.
The funding for the grant comes out of a Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant which is designed to build and improve the infrastructure of public-records administration for the county and municipal governments, and archives and records programs statewide.
Because the grants are not available to some communities with populations of less than 45,000, Inclán said the county wants to create shared services that would allow all 12 municipalities to benefit. Currently, Bayonne, Jersey City and West New York have been funded.
Inclán said the firm has only until February to complete the inventory of Bayonne and West New York, and if the freeholders waited to bring the matter before a committee, it might be mid-January before the company could start.
Got it late again
But a written response to the vendor from the county administration submitted in November said the deadline was flexible. O’Dea said the letter from the county actually showed that the company selected could have the work done by June 30.
In what has become a ritual objection to late submissions for voting, O’Dea protested the fact that the matter was being brought before the board late, giving the freeholders no opportunity to examine the details or evaluate other options.
He said the Jersey City firm not only has a much lower hourly rate, but also provides employment for special-needs people in Hudson County.
“We ought to look into this more closely,” he argued.
Newly installed West New York Freeholder Gerry Lange said he was also concerned about receiving the contract request late, but because the grant specifically addressed a need in his community, he said he would vote for the measure.
Freeholder Chairman Tom Liggio said he also had concerns about lack of time to review the matter, but agreed to support the resolution, saying that the members of the panel that reviewed the contract proposals had scored this firm as the best, and that a freeholder committee would not likely change anything.
County Administrator Abe Antun said every attempt was made to avoid bringing the matter before the board so late.
“We have tried hard not to bring things to you like this,” he said.
Jim Kennelly, spokesperson for the County Executive’s office, said the awarding of the bid to Smart Business was not a slight to the Jersey City company, Hudson Enterprises.
“We have a great relationship with Hudson Enterprises. They do a half a million dollars worth of business with us a year,” Kennelly said. “They didn’t win the bid. It just happened that the other company was the best mix for the scoring matrix. This is nothing political. The Pennsylvania company just fit what we needed.”
Kennelly went on to say that County Executive Tom DeGise has been honored by Hudson Enterprise as one of its community heroes.
“They are a hardworking company and we have a great relationship with them, and Tom DeGise’s relationship dates back to when he was on the Jersey City Council,” Kennelly said.
Hinesight to bring county offices up to speed?
O’Dea and other freeholders also questioned a nearly $5 million, five-year contract with Hinesight, Inc. for the operation, management, and administration of the county’s telecommunications systems.
O’Dea said that the county should receive regular reports about potential upgrades, and that the freeholder offices are far behind the technological curve.
“For a million dollars a year, we should be getting some kind of recommendations about upgrading,” O’Dea said. Liggio also said the freeholder board office needed to be brought into the 21st century.
“I have had a computer for five years and no applications for it,” he said.
O’Dea said that in some other governments – such as Jersey City – agendas can be obtained electronically. He said the freeholders do not even have a scanner to scan the agenda.
Freeholder Jeff Dublin said the freeholders should move toward a paperless office, which would have agendas and resolutions in electronic form.
Antun said part of the contract with Hinesight would provide for upgrades in technology for the new county office building – the former Block Drug site – so that the county operations for various offices would be up-to-date when they move in.