Hoboken Not In State Compliance, Has To Draft 'Action Plan'

The City of Hoboken has violated state law in the hiring process of the city auditor as well as awarding other contracts in 2008 and 2009, according to a letter from the State Comptroller's office (the letter is attached to this article).

The letter tells city officials they need to improve the way they award contracts for professional services, such as auditors, concluding that the procedures followed for some recent hires were lacking "accountability and transparency."

The state is also requiring Hoboken to better document the process and to notify the comptroller's office at least 30 days before a professional services contract is advertised by the city. 

In the letter—written on Feb. 1 and addressed to Business Administrator Arch Liston—the state is directing Hoboken to "prepare a detailed action plan that addresses the steps that City Hall intends to take to address the issues identified in this letter and provide the Action Plan to (the Office of the State Comptroller) no later than March 1." 

The letter states that the city did not "use a formal evaluation process" when hiring vendors. Conflicts of interest were not checked and the city officials in charge of awarding the contracts did not receive any instructions, according to the state’s letter.

"The contracts in question were awarded while Hoboken was under state oversight by Fiscal Monitor Judy Tripodi in 2008 and 2009," City Spokesman Juan Melli said in an e-mail. "We are working closely with the state on a remediation plan to make certain that there are no similar issues going forward."

The city also hasn’t been in compliance in the process of hiring an auditor, the letter states.

"The City has not been able to locate the responsive submissions for the auditor position," according to the letter. Because of that, the state has not been able to verify if the bidding process for that contract "was appropriate."

A resolution awarding a year-long contract to consulting firm Ferraioli, Wielkotz, Cernilo & Cuva, P.A., to perform the city audit was pulled off the agenda . The contract was not to exceed $80,000.

The council was allowed to vote on it, because the bidding for that contract happened before the city received the letter on Feb. 1, according to a spokesman at the State Comptroller's office. For all future professional services contracts, regardless of the amount of money, the city will have to give the state 30 days notice.

While Fifth Ward Councilman Peter Cunningham said at that meeting that the firm would work in the city’s best interest and came “highly recommended,” a majority of the council members argued that the firm, which first did work for the city when Tripodi was still in charge, was not vetted properly.

In an earlier e-mail, spokesman Melli said that Business Administrator Liston was working on the required action plan.