Councilwoman Cangemi slams Web contract award

Adiscussion about open government in Red Bank was sparked at the Dec. 22 meeting when Republican Councilwoman Mary Grace Cangemi opposed a resolution about a pending contract.

The resolution, which was approved 4-2, will allow the borough attorney, the mayor and the borough clerk to prepare and execute a contract with C3 Citizen Communication Center to provide Web development and electronic citizen notification services.

Cangemi, a member of the Education and Technology Committee, said she never attended a meeting about the contract because she had never been notified they were occurring.

"I was unaware this was a recommendation of the technology committee, because I haven't been to a meeting," she said. "I don't know how [this recommendation] happened. I don't know where it happened. I'm thrilled we've made some move, but having been excluded from the process, I guess because I'm a Republican, … I can't stand behind this, because I don't know a darn thing about it. I'm a little confused as to why I don't, but I don't."

According to the proposal from C3 to the borough, the services will cost about $2,000 a month.

The initiative to update the borough's Web site was led by Councilwoman Kathy Horgan.

Horgan said Cangemi was not purposely excluded from the meetings.

"I'd like the minutes to reflect I'd like to formally apologize to you. It was nothing to exclude you. I just wanted to get this through," Horgan said to Cangemi.

Cangemi questioned why the process wasn't put out to bid and said the process was not done with enough openness.

"It is a process to me that, as a council person, appears to be, I don't want to say unfair, but certainly not open," she said.

John Carrino, who owns the patent on C3, answered questions from council members about his product.

Cangemi said she doesn't doubt the benefits of Carrino's services, which have been implemented in Middletown and Fair Haven, just the process by which his services were decided on.

"[There] may be other people out there who cost less for the same process, and I don't know that because of the way it was brought up," she said regarding the borough's decision not to put the Web services out to bid.

Stanley Sickels, borough administrator, said the borough looked at other neighboring towns and after doing so decided the process didn't need to go out to bid.

"One of the first things we did was try and seek out RFPs [request for proposal] and solicitations that other towns use," he said. "We found out none of the other towns use RFPs or solicitations for this process."

Sickles said because the C3 software is patented by Carrino, there is no way to compare his product to others.

According to the proposal from C3, general administrative services will include departmental calendars, publishing of government forms, creating and managing citizen surveys, publishing special events, and providing important notices.

Municipal service requests include instant delivery and routing, instant tracking of requests, and detailed department and administrative reporting.

The service will publish neighborhood watch information for the police department and manage citizen crime tips.

For the borough clerk, C3 will publish minutes and agendas, create and manage boards, and provide downloadable forms.

C3 support and development services includeWeb development, site design and integration with C3 components, ongoing webmaster support and services, administrative and client support, citizen account support, and new Web development services.

Cangemi said she would like to believe it was flawed methodology that left her out of the process, but it was a year without a meeting.

"It's a little bit bigger than flawed methodology," she said. "There was a year of opportunity to take a look at more than one option."

Cangemi said she appreciates the work done by the people involved and she respects Horgan's opinion, but "we spent $25,000 with nobody knowing how it happened except the people who were in the room privately. And that's disturbing to me."

After a brief discussion about whether the council should table the matter or take it to a vote, the council voted 4-2 in favor of the resolution.

Councilman James Giannell, the only other Republican on the council, voted against it with Cangemi.

The debate regarding the resolution was the second time during the meeting that open government was questioned.

During the workshop portion of the meeting, Cangemi said shewas unable to add an ordinance regarding health insurance for councilmembers to the agenda at the Dec. 8 meeting.

"Last week I attempted to introduce an ordinancewhich potentially, had it passed, would have saved the borough over $36,000 a year," she said.

Cangemi said the reason she was given was that ordinances cannot be put on the agenda if they are not workshopped first. She said that rule was broken when an ordinance regarding the number of taxi licenses in the borough was added to the Dec. 8 agenda.

"Last week we saw the taxi cab ordinance come in. When we asked, as members of council, 'How did this ordinance get on the agenda?' [We were told], 'Well, somebody called the clerk's office and they wanted it on,' " Cangemi said. "It wasn't even proposed by one of the members of this council, but somebody called in, so we put it on the agenda."

She said she was disturbed that an elected council member could not add on an ordinance for first reading, but an outside person could add an item to the agenda just by calling the clerk's office.

"I am greatly disturbed by the fact that when an elected council person, whether they're outgoing or not, asks for something to be put on the agenda as an ordinance, it is refused because it has not been workshopped, because they're in the wrong party, and somebody can call up on the phone and get something in as an ordinance on first reading," she said. Cangemi said she was bringing it up as a cautionary tale since Dec. 22 was her last council meeting. Beginning Jan. 1, all six council members will be members of the Democratic Party.

"I apologize if I failed our taxpayers by not coming forth early enough and having a discussion about insurance for council people. … We need to recognize it's not just about the process, it's about what's best for the people of Red Bank."

In addition, she said she has tried to acquire the minutes or the recordings from the meetings in order to review whether all ordinances had in fact been work-shopped, but she met with no success.

"I did not receive those from the clerk's office, although I did request them," she said.