Voting on engineer splits Hoboken Council

Tuesday, September 13, 2005
By BONNIE FRIEDMAN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITERHOBOKEN

The nine-member City Council narrowly agreed to appoint an engineer from the company Schoor DePalma Wednesday night, signaling the first rift in the newly elected council.The appointment of Robin Persad to serve as the city's engineer sparked criticism from members of People For Open Government, who accuse Mayor David Roberts of violating the city's pay-to-play ordinance banning companies who hold city contracts from donating to political campaigns.

Two Schoor DePalma employees contributed to the last election cycle, including Ralph Tango, who gave $1,600 to the Roberts Team, and William Kersey, who contributed $300 to the Hoboken Democratic Party."I hope you vote against this resolution," said Bob DuVal, a member of the grass-roots organization. "Once again this is pay-to-play, a practice that nine out of 10 people in Hoboken voted against, and I hope you reject the resolution."Council members Theresa Castellano, Michael Russo, Michael Cricco and Theresa LaBruno voted in favor of tabling the resolution in an effort to gain a more thorough legal opinion.