Which town website is the right one? Council minority faction points to confusion in soliciting contractors on the internet
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This debate has been going on since the end of last year, with opponents of Mayor Dennis Elwell's administration saying that the city should open itself up more to new bids. The debate continued at Tuesday night's Town Council meeting, as the councilpeople opposed to the Elwell administration said it was too hard to find the town's requests for bids on the internet.
A basic search of the word "Secaucus" on the website Google provides 3.4 million results. But while Secaucus may be relatively easy to find in a search engine, its official town website may be less easy to find.
Website confusion adds to professional services conflict
One way to increase competition is to put the town's professional service competition bids up on the Internet for the whole wired world to see. While the administration has been doing so, 1st Ward Councilman Gary Jeffas said Tuesday night that there was confusion when the last requests for bids went out.
"I'm not sure that we did all we could have in posting the bids," he said. "There are a couple of websites for the town of Secaucus. Is www.townofsecaucus.com the official town website?"
Mayor Dennis Elwell then attempted to answer the question.
"It's www.secaucus.net, I believe," he said. "When we first put the website together, we basically let the high school kids do it. One of the recommendations that I think that we should include in the coming budget would be to bring in some professionals to do it - not that the high school didn't do a good job. We should redo the website to make it a little bit easier to look at."
Jeffas said that the confusion presents a problem.
"A letter went out on Dec. 21 to all of our current vendors to say that their contracts were expiring and indicated [incorrectly] that they should go to www.townofsecaucus.com to download an application," Jeffas said. "But there was a sticker on top of the letter to those vendors saying that the website that they should go to is www.secaucus.net. My concern is that nobody out there who wanted to bid would have known to go to the right place, except those who received the letter from the town."
Jeffas then made a suggestion about what should be done to clear up this confusion.
"In my opinion, we should make a motion to undo what was done, carry the service contracts perhaps for another month, but the bids on a website that is accessible and well-known, advertise the website in the papers, and see if anybody else comes out of the woodwork so that we know that we adequately tapped the market," he said.
A vote, with a cautious result
Jeffas' comments had had a precedent at the Dec. 26 council meeting.
At that meeting, there was a proposal to authorize a list of "professional service" contracts, such as town engineer and town attorney, for the coming year. The meeting was the last gathering of the previous council, before several new members were added who oppose Elwell's administration.
The resolution came up for a vote again at the first meeting of the new council on Jan. 9. Jeffas joined with 2nd Ward Councilman Michael Gonnelli and 2nd Ward Councilman John Bueckner in voting no.
All three dissenting councilmen stated that they were not concerned with the professionals being considered, but with the procedure, believing that the process needed more competition. Still, the vote was approved 4-3.
Safety net
Soon after Jeffas' comments Tuesday night about the town's website, Bueckner made a motion to undo the town's authorized professional services contracts, referring to the way the whole process was performed.
"The sticker gave those who got it an unfair advantage in the bidding process," he said. "If you would have listened to us at the last meeting when we brought this up before the contracts were approved and signed, we could have stopped this in the bud. I definitely think that we should extend the previous contracts, and then we should got out and readvertize. Maybe that presents a bigger legal problem, but again, we should have thought of that at the last meeting."
After some additional debate, Bueckner's motion failed to pass by a 5-2 margin.
Gonnelli and Bueckner voted for redoing the professional services contract bidding process, while 1st Ward Councilman Richard Kane, 3rd Ward Councilman John Reilly, 3rd Ward Councilman John Shinnick, and Mayor Elwell voted against it.
Surprisingly to some, Jeffas also voted against it. An attorney by trade, Jeffas explained how his professional knowledge guided his decision.
"I'm voting no, for one reason and one reason only," he said. "Town attorney Frank Leanza noted in our discussions that such a motion could subject the town to potentially many lawsuits that would be very costly. I agree with that. Hopefully, in the future this is made right."
After the vote, Mayor Elwell suggested that Jeffas join with Shinnick to form a new website committee in order to end the confusion over the matter.
Both councilmen agreed to be appointed to this new committee.
Jeffas later elaborated on why he voted the way that he did.
"If you were to void a contract that has already been entered into, the town would have a great likelihood of a lawsuit," he said. "If you award a $75,000 contract, and then the next day you say that you are rebidding and that the contract is gone, it would be worth it to try to enforce that contract. There's a definite exposure there that has to be recognized and weighed."
He added, "What happened tonight wasn't a statement against the professionals that we have. It was more of a statement against the policy. It's got to be right in the future. It can't be this way."
During the remarks of citizens towards the end of the meeting, town resident Frank DeGilio noted that based on what he saw this particular evening, council meetings will no longer be business as usual.
"After seeing what happened tonight, I'm hopeful that all you gentlemen will be intelligent, vote the right way, and not be politicians just looking at your own agenda," he said.
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