With Hurricane Sandy still fresh in their minds, it was time for Hudson County business leaders to compare notes on how they weathered the storm.

So when they met last February, a group comprised mostly of Jersey City's financial service firms shared what worked well and where they could improve. They also recalled trying to run their offices amid street closures, curfews and other obstacles ? and they realized they could use a little help from City Hall in the next emergency.

"One of the very salient goals that came out of that was building more robust relationships with the public sector," said Maria Nieves, president and CEO of the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce.

She later added: "Unfortunately it's a crisis that makes everyone really understand the level of detail to which you need to go."

Public officials and business leaders across the state have been working more closely since Sandy, but it's especially critical in a place with one of the country's largest clusters of banking and financial service firms. So stakeholders in Jersey City have moved to close that gap by giving the chamber a seat at the table ? figuratively and literally.

Read More: NJ Biz