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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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donnajc65 wrote:
the reality is for many in the city there is still a need for a car. If you don't work in NYC, you need a car. If you live on the western slope and want to go shopping on Central Ave, you need a car. For most of the city, if you want to go food shopping you need a car. If your kid belong to Girl Scouts troop, you need a car. I hate the how the city looks like when owners take out the front garden for a parking spot, but I understand it. The city has not addressed the parking issues throughout the city and with the demise of Parking Authority, we will only see the ruthless enforcement of no parking rules by the police department.


People are also tired of cars blocking driveways, sidewalks, crosswalks, and fire hydrants.

Posted on: 2014/11/18 0:31
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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the reality is for many in the city there is still a need for a car. If you don't work in NYC, you need a car. If you live on the western slope and want to go shopping on Central Ave, you need a car. For most of the city, if you want to go food shopping you need a car. If your kid belong to Girl Scouts troop, you need a car. I hate the how the city looks like when owners take out the front garden for a parking spot, but I understand it. The city has not addressed the parking issues throughout the city and with the demise of Parking Authority, we will only see the ruthless enforcement of no parking rules by the police department.

Posted on: 2014/11/17 21:12
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Stringer wrote:
Parking Authority to be absorbed by Police Dept.
And JCMC awarded three-year ambulance contract with no city payments

by Al Sullivan
Reporter staff writer
Nov 16, 2014

After nearly a year of waiting for state approval, a divided City Council voted Wednesday to dissolve the Jersey City Parking Authority and place its operations under the Police Department. Councilmen Richard Boggiano and Michael Yun voted against the change.

This will result in a reduction of staff from 77 to 64, said Public Safety Director James Shea.

?All of these are administrative,? he said. ?The rest of the staff will be brought over whole if they choose to take the positions.?

The administrative staff will be streamlined so that there will be one director, one assistant director, and one supervisor. The rest of the staff will be workers.

Current employees will be brought on at their existing salaries, although future employees will be hired for less.

While the original proposal would have shifted meter repair and some other operations to the Department of Public Works, Shea said this change would be delayed for one year. He said with the DPW and the Jersey City Improvement Authority being merged, he wanted to let things shake out before he imposed additional duties on the newly-merged departments.

The most significant change with the merger will be the increase in hours of operation. Currently, the Parking Authority works during the day. Complaints after hours are handled by the police department.

?This is usually something like blocked driveways,? Shea said. ?And since such complaints came over as low priority, they were often not responded to promptly. The new operation will be 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Parking workers will respond to the complaints, not police.?

Councilman Richard Boggiano disagreed with this provision saying that when people call, they want police to respond.

Shea, however, said parking workers and police will be working closely together, and indeed, police will be able to provide needed information on vehicles that is not currently available to parking workers, such as background information that would justify having a vehicle towed or booted.

Read more: Hudson Reporter - Parking Authority to be absorbed by Police Dept And JCMC awarded three year ambulance contract with no city payments
http://www.hudsonreporter.com/view/fu ... ts-?instance=latest_story


Boggiano is wrong on his contention: people don't care who responds to a blocked driveway. They just want it unblocked! People want results, not some uniformed person. If this merger saves money and improves responsiveness, I am all for it.

Posted on: 2014/11/17 18:28
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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The City is not at all interested in creating new parking. Look at the Redevelopment Plans of recent year. They all seem to be embracing a policy of limited parking and pushing people to use mass transit -- a very common planning aspiration in new urban development. This may work in cities that actually have adequate mass transit. Jersey City does not.

Posted on: 2014/11/17 18:11

Edited by K-Lo on 2014/11/17 18:34:00
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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The fact are the residents will never know if they have in fact saved money with the elimination of the parking authority. Once the police department weighs into this the cost will balloon, it always does. Civilians are just less expensive than the uniformed employees. But what the city has lost in their haste to get ride of the parking authority is the ability to create much needed new parking structures around the city. That is now lost. The parking authority had now vision, so in the end they were known for just enforcement, not addressing the parking issues in places like DT. New Brunswick parking authority did a great job in blending redevelopment projects and community parking needs. That didn't happen in JC. When the dust finally settles on this merger, the parking authority line item in the city budget will as large if not larger than the autonomous agency. By that time, Steven will be gone and it will be the problem for some other administration.

Posted on: 2014/11/17 18:02
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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DanL wrote:
what happened to the other $1,750,000 in estimated savings?


"The estimated savings to the city is about $750,000 at the start, and more as new workers come on to replace retiring workers. The original estimate was $2.5 million."





Firstly, had you ever won an election you would know how budgeting works at the governmental level (or really- in any business case or proposal). In positive projections you always promote the best case scenario.

Secondly, and I fault your reading comprehension for this, the article states, "...and more as new workers come on to replace retiring workers." What this means is that there will be an initial savings of $750,000, and further savings will come thereafter in a somewhat staggered timing as workers are replaced.

I understand you have taken the role of bitter contrarian to everything this city does, but would you rather they did nothing and just let this agency operate autonomously? You/Yvonne et als. are really sad in your clear hate/jealousy of our Mayor. Quite sad.

Posted on: 2014/11/17 16:57
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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what happened to the other $1,750,000 in estimated savings?


"The estimated savings to the city is about $750,000 at the start, and more as new workers come on to replace retiring workers. The original estimate was $2.5 million."




Posted on: 2014/11/16 22:28
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Parking Authority to be absorbed by Police Dept.
And JCMC awarded three-year ambulance contract with no city payments

by Al Sullivan
Reporter staff writer
Nov 16, 2014

After nearly a year of waiting for state approval, a divided City Council voted Wednesday to dissolve the Jersey City Parking Authority and place its operations under the Police Department. Councilmen Richard Boggiano and Michael Yun voted against the change.

This will result in a reduction of staff from 77 to 64, said Public Safety Director James Shea.

?All of these are administrative,? he said. ?The rest of the staff will be brought over whole if they choose to take the positions.?

The administrative staff will be streamlined so that there will be one director, one assistant director, and one supervisor. The rest of the staff will be workers.

Current employees will be brought on at their existing salaries, although future employees will be hired for less.

While the original proposal would have shifted meter repair and some other operations to the Department of Public Works, Shea said this change would be delayed for one year. He said with the DPW and the Jersey City Improvement Authority being merged, he wanted to let things shake out before he imposed additional duties on the newly-merged departments.

The most significant change with the merger will be the increase in hours of operation. Currently, the Parking Authority works during the day. Complaints after hours are handled by the police department.

?This is usually something like blocked driveways,? Shea said. ?And since such complaints came over as low priority, they were often not responded to promptly. The new operation will be 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Parking workers will respond to the complaints, not police.?

Councilman Richard Boggiano disagreed with this provision saying that when people call, they want police to respond.

Shea, however, said parking workers and police will be working closely together, and indeed, police will be able to provide needed information on vehicles that is not currently available to parking workers, such as background information that would justify having a vehicle towed or booted.

Read more: Hudson Reporter - Parking Authority to be absorbed by Police Dept And JCMC awarded three year ambulance contract with no city payments
http://www.hudsonreporter.com/view/fu ... ts-?instance=latest_story

Posted on: 2014/11/16 20:02
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Jersey City dissolves city Parking Authority

By Michaelangelo Conte | The Jersey Journal
on November 12, 2014 at 10:03 PM

The Jersey City City Council voted to dissolve the city parking authority and incorporate its functions into the Department of Public Safety with the aim of cutting costs, improving efficiency and increasing accountability.

The move will include elimination of 13 positions but the remaining 64 parking authority employees will have the opportunity to be absorbed into the Public Safety Department.

Read more:
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ty_parking_authority.html

Posted on: 2014/11/13 5:41
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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great - if done well

and if not bonding and building parking which can be done thru another authority / agency

Posted on: 2014/11/12 13:57
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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I really hope the first thing that goes (in addition to the six-figure upper management) is the policy of CHECK OR MONEY ORDER ONLY to buy a godddamn $15 parking sticker.

Question -- how will dissolving the parking authority result in 24hr enforcement, as the video hinted at? Patrol officers can write tickets now (but rarely do) so if we're relying on patrol officers 100%, wouldn't that be a decrease in the amount of ticket writing? Am I missing something?

Posted on: 2014/11/12 12:05
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Posted on: 2014/11/12 5:22
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Jersey City to finalize consolidation of Parking Authority

Hudson Reporter
Nov 10, 2014

JERSEY CITY ? Mayor Steven M. Fulop said this week that the administration will move forward with the dissolution of the Jersey City Parking Authority, a measure that will save taxpayers $850,000 annually by merging the autonomous agency with existing city departments. The administration will ask the City Council to untable and vote on the ordinance to dissolve the Parking Authority and merger of functions into city government at their meeting Wednesday night.

The Parking Authority will become a division within the Department of Public Safety, and there will be no reduction of jobs within the enforcement and operations division. Streamlining of operations will take place at the management level, with a reduction of duplicative services and associated costs.

Read more: Hudson Reporter
http://hudsonreporter.com/bookmark/26 ... n-of-Parking-Authority-b-



Posted on: 2014/11/11 16:46
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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From the Jersey City Municipal Code sec. 3-51(E):

Awarding of contracts for professional and extraordinary unspecifiable services.

(1)

Subject to Subsection E(2), before submitting any proposed contract for professional or extraordinary unspecifiable services to the Council for approval, a Department Director shall solicit quotations, whenever practicable, for any contract of $7,500 or more. If a Department Director recommends that the contract be awarded on the basis of other than the lowest quotation received or considers it impracticable to solicit quotations, he or she shall file a statement of explanation of the reason or reasons why competitive quotations are considered impracticable.

(2)

There shall be exempted from the procedures established under Subsection E(1) any contract submitted by the Corporation Counsel for the appointment of special counsel to represent any officers or employees of the city in any legal proceeding or to represent the Jersey City Medical Center or its agents, servants and employees.



Reading the code, it appears that no-bid contracts are not allowed if the amount involved is $7500 or more. I don't think the exemption in subsection E(2) applies in this instance, because Weiner Lesniak was not hired to represent a particular officer or employee of the city.

But of course, Jersey City administrations not following the city's own rules is pretty much par for the course. The rule requiring all city employees (with some exceptions - i.e. water and sewer employees) to live within the city was routinely ignored by the Healy administration and continues to be ignored by the Fulop administration.

Posted on: 2014/8/28 16:38
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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JCMan8 wrote:
Quote:

Monroe wrote:
Quote:

Yvonne wrote:
Lesniak propelled McGreevy into the Governors office. Lesniak worked for McGreevy when McGreevy was Mayor of Woodbridge. Lesniak is McGreevys closest confidante & trusted adviser. Whats more to know ?


Lesniak's private law firm is JC's firm in the Port Authority lawsuit, and Lesniak is pushing the LSP casino project.

All while being State Senator representing the Elizabeth area.

That's what's more to know!


As I said, politics as usual. Not just Hudson County or NJ, but practically all politics. I just get a kick out of those who think only the other "side" is so bad while theirs is so good. Money and power are not limited to one political affiliation.

But again, this stuff happens everyday, it will never end (at least in our lifetimes), so I only care when it really affects me. I will get a bloated tax bill no matter what to subsidize this corruption, so no point in getting worked up when there's no benefit.


Oh, I agree totally-and it was created and perfected right in Jersey City with Mayor Hague almost a hundred years ago though.

Posted on: 2014/8/28 14:40
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Monroe wrote:
Quote:

Yvonne wrote:
Lesniak propelled McGreevy into the Governors office. Lesniak worked for McGreevy when McGreevy was Mayor of Woodbridge. Lesniak is McGreevys closest confidante & trusted adviser. Whats more to know ?


Lesniak's private law firm is JC's firm in the Port Authority lawsuit, and Lesniak is pushing the LSP casino project.

All while being State Senator representing the Elizabeth area.

That's what's more to know!


As I said, politics as usual. Not just Hudson County or NJ, but practically all politics. I just get a kick out of those who think only the other "side" is so bad while theirs is so good. Money and power are not limited to one political affiliation.

But again, this stuff happens everyday, it will never end (at least in our lifetimes), so I only care when it really affects me. I will get a bloated tax bill no matter what to subsidize this corruption, so no point in getting worked up when there's no benefit.

Posted on: 2014/8/28 14:30
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Yvonne wrote:
Lesniak propelled McGreevy into the Governors office. Lesniak worked for McGreevy when McGreevy was Mayor of Woodbridge. Lesniak is McGreevys closest confidante & trusted adviser. Whats more to know ?


Lesniak's private law firm is JC's firm in the Port Authority lawsuit, and Lesniak is pushing the LSP casino project.

All while being State Senator representing the Elizabeth area.

That's what's more to know!

Posted on: 2014/8/28 14:15
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Lesniak propelled McGreevy into the Governors office. Lesniak worked for McGreevy when McGreevy was Mayor of Woodbridge. Lesniak is McGreevys closest confidante & trusted adviser. Whats more to know ?

Posted on: 2014/8/28 13:27
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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It was a trolling article... the emphasis on no-bid contract, another $15k, politically aligned law firm - how much more crap can they drop into an article that's barely 500 words?

And... I would gamble that anything under a given threshold in JC is allowed to be no-bid.

Quote:

caj11 wrote:
Quote:

CatDog wrote:
Quote:

caj11 wrote:
Quote:

CatDog wrote:
maybe the law firm had experience with this type of thing? $35k is a freaking bargain for lawyers.


If it were for a full-blown trial on some injury claim of some sort against the city, maybe. To conduct a study on why we should abolish the parking authority, not so much. I'm certain a law firm in Jersey City could have handled this, and for less money. You know, I'm sure the lawyers spent a lot of time stuck in traffic driving between Parsippany and Jersey City for meetings at the city hall, and every minute of that time was billable too (the two places are not far apart, but sometimes there is serious gridlock, having commuted on that route for many years).

I also think a more run-of-the-mill management consulting firm in the area could have done this work as well for less money, because from the sounds of it, much of the study wasn't actual legal work anyway. The law firm could have been consulted on some issues (i.e. legalities associated with issuing tickets) but it seems like the city got hosed on this one, as it all too often happens.

Time to check the state election commission reports and see how much this law firm donated to mayoral and council member campaigns.
It's pretty obvious you've never had to hire a lawyer for something.

Also, this wasn't just a "study" that the lawyers were conducting. they obviously had to file paperwork and probably do a bunch of hearings with the NJ Civil Service Commission. Draw up documents dealing with termination of board members, integration of existing employees into other agencies, legal stuff to deal with the dissolution of the corporation, where assets go, all that stuff. I can't guess at the specifics, but there's a lot more to it than "a study" and $35k is really cheap for lawyers to do that kind of work, especially considering the amount of savings involved.


I have hired a lawyer, whenever I bought or sold my personal residence. Also when I was getting a deck built on my place needed to navigate the local zoning board. I used a Jersey City lawyer in all but one case. In any case, I wasn't spending taxpayers' money.

Maybe Weiner Lezniak was the best firm for the job, I don't know. The article also didn't report all of the things you mentioned about what the law firm had to do, it just sounded like they prepared a study that a consulting firm could do. But if what you say is true, I stand corrected. It just annoys me that both the Healy and now Fulop administrations, couldn't be bothered to use a law firm in Jersey City, but, as the article states, the "politically connected" Weiner Lesniak. Florio Kenney, in Hoboken, gets a lot of the city's legal work. Judging by the name of the firm, they must be "politically connected" as well. Then I remember the city used some firm in Secaucus, Chasen Leyner I think, to defend against a lawsuit filed by the former Atomic Wings owner over all the delays in opening.

There may have been no law firm in the city that could handle the work assocaited with the parking authority, but since it was a "no bid" contract, it also sounds like the city made no effort to find out. If they're going to spend our tax dollars, they could at least be making an effort to spend them at a local business. I know local businesses can't provide all of the city's needed services, or always do the best job, but it seems like the city could be making more of an effort to spend its tax revenues back in its own community.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 21:03
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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CatDog wrote:
Quote:

caj11 wrote:
Quote:

CatDog wrote:
maybe the law firm had experience with this type of thing? $35k is a freaking bargain for lawyers.


If it were for a full-blown trial on some injury claim of some sort against the city, maybe. To conduct a study on why we should abolish the parking authority, not so much. I'm certain a law firm in Jersey City could have handled this, and for less money. You know, I'm sure the lawyers spent a lot of time stuck in traffic driving between Parsippany and Jersey City for meetings at the city hall, and every minute of that time was billable too (the two places are not far apart, but sometimes there is serious gridlock, having commuted on that route for many years).

I also think a more run-of-the-mill management consulting firm in the area could have done this work as well for less money, because from the sounds of it, much of the study wasn't actual legal work anyway. The law firm could have been consulted on some issues (i.e. legalities associated with issuing tickets) but it seems like the city got hosed on this one, as it all too often happens.

Time to check the state election commission reports and see how much this law firm donated to mayoral and council member campaigns.
It's pretty obvious you've never had to hire a lawyer for something.

Also, this wasn't just a "study" that the lawyers were conducting. they obviously had to file paperwork and probably do a bunch of hearings with the NJ Civil Service Commission. Draw up documents dealing with termination of board members, integration of existing employees into other agencies, legal stuff to deal with the dissolution of the corporation, where assets go, all that stuff. I can't guess at the specifics, but there's a lot more to it than "a study" and $35k is really cheap for lawyers to do that kind of work, especially considering the amount of savings involved.


I have hired a lawyer, whenever I bought or sold my personal residence. Also when I was getting a deck built on my place needed to navigate the local zoning board. I used a Jersey City lawyer in all but one case. In any case, I wasn't spending taxpayers' money.

Maybe Weiner Lezniak was the best firm for the job, I don't know. The article also didn't report all of the things you mentioned about what the law firm had to do, it just sounded like they prepared a study that a consulting firm could do. But if what you say is true, I stand corrected. It just annoys me that both the Healy and now Fulop administrations, couldn't be bothered to use a law firm in Jersey City, but, as the article states, the "politically connected" Weiner Lesniak. Florio Kenney, in Hoboken, gets a lot of the city's legal work. Judging by the name of the firm, they must be "politically connected" as well. Then I remember the city used some firm in Secaucus, Chasen Leyner I think, to defend against a lawsuit filed by the former Atomic Wings owner over all the delays in opening.

There may have been no law firm in the city that could handle the work assocaited with the parking authority, but since it was a "no bid" contract, it also sounds like the city made no effort to find out. If they're going to spend our tax dollars, they could at least be making an effort to spend them at a local business. I know local businesses can't provide all of the city's needed services, or always do the best job, but it seems like the city could be making more of an effort to spend its tax revenues back in its own community.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 19:31
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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caj11 wrote:
Quote:

CatDog wrote:
maybe the law firm had experience with this type of thing? $35k is a freaking bargain for lawyers.


If it were for a full-blown trial on some injury claim of some sort against the city, maybe. To conduct a study on why we should abolish the parking authority, not so much. I'm certain a law firm in Jersey City could have handled this, and for less money. You know, I'm sure the lawyers spent a lot of time stuck in traffic driving between Parsippany and Jersey City for meetings at the city hall, and every minute of that time was billable too (the two places are not far apart, but sometimes there is serious gridlock, having commuted on that route for many years).

I also think a more run-of-the-mill management consulting firm in the area could have done this work as well for less money, because from the sounds of it, much of the study wasn't actual legal work anyway. The law firm could have been consulted on some issues (i.e. legalities associated with issuing tickets) but it seems like the city got hosed on this one, as it all too often happens.

Time to check the state election commission reports and see how much this law firm donated to mayoral and council member campaigns.
It's pretty obvious you've never had to hire a lawyer for something.

Also, this wasn't just a "study" that the lawyers were conducting. they obviously had to file paperwork and probably do a bunch of hearings with the NJ Civil Service Commission. Draw up documents dealing with termination of board members, integration of existing employees into other agencies, legal stuff to deal with the dissolution of the corporation, where assets go, all that stuff. I can't guess at the specifics, but there's a lot more to it than "a study" and $35k is really cheap for lawyers to do that kind of work, especially considering the amount of savings involved.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 18:32
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Yvonne wrote:
We spend millions of dollars a year to pay the salaries for lawyers on the payroll in JC. But we never use them, why not?


Because "lawyer" is a broad category and no one has experience in all the relevant areas of the law. The people you have on staff are for doing the things that are normal, everyday business as usual for the city.

It's much better to go get someone with the relevant experience than trying to force you in house counsel to do it an muck it up leading to lawsuits and bungled implementations.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 17:39
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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$35k is chump-change... for Weiner Lesnaik. It's maybe 70-90 hours of consulting and probably meaningless for the lawyer doing the work.

JC is likely using a resource that has done this type of work for another municipality. I know from experience that pulling a lawyer that has prior experience in a niche activity can result in less cost and faster turn around. I'm not really surprised they found additional crap that required more time either.

I dont recall what the stated monetary benefit is for dissolving the parking authority, but I'd gamble that $35k will be offset within weeks PA termination.

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caj11 wrote:
Quote:

CatDog wrote:
maybe the law firm had experience with this type of thing? $35k is a freaking bargain for lawyers.


If it were for a full-blown trial on some injury claim of some sort against the city, maybe. To conduct a study on why we should abolish the parking authority, not so much. I'm certain a law firm in Jersey City could have handled this, and for less money. You know, I'm sure the lawyers spent a lot of time stuck in traffic driving between Parsippany and Jersey City for meetings at the city hall, and every minute of that time was billable too (the two places are not far apart, but sometimes there is serious gridlock, having commuted on that route for many years).

I also think a more run-of-the-mill management consulting firm in the area could have done this work as well for less money, because from the sounds of it, much of the study wasn't actual legal work anyway. The law firm could have been consulted on some issues (i.e. legalities associated with issuing tickets) but it seems like the city got hosed on this one, as it all too often happens.

Time to check the state election commission reports and see how much this law firm donated to mayoral and council member campaigns.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 16:52
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Quote:

caj11 wrote:
Quote:

CatDog wrote:
maybe the law firm had experience with this type of thing? $35k is a freaking bargain for lawyers.


If it were for a full-blown trial on some injury claim of some sort against the city, maybe. To conduct a study on why we should abolish the parking authority, not so much. I'm certain a law firm in Jersey City could have handled this, and for less money. You know, I'm sure the lawyers spent a lot of time stuck in traffic driving between Parsippany and Jersey City for meetings at the city hall, and every minute of that time was billable too (the two places are not far apart, but sometimes there is serious gridlock, having commuted on that route for many years).

I also think a more run-of-the-mill management consulting firm in the area could have done this work as well for less money, because from the sounds of it, much of the study wasn't actual legal work anyway. The law firm could have been consulted on some issues (i.e. legalities associated with issuing tickets) but it seems like the city got hosed on this one, as it all too often happens.

Time to check the state election commission reports and see how much this law firm donated to mayoral and council member campaigns.


Why? We both know the likely answer. I gave up caring about this kind of stuff a long time ago. It's how politics in NJ (and probably most states) have worked for decades. Extremely unlikely to change in our lifetime.

I only care when it personally can affect me, such as the CarePoint/McCabe ambulance shenanigans. Those donors to Fulop who Fulop is helping may result in many JC residents being left with crippling medical bills from out of network ambulance rides and being directed to the most expensive hospitals in the country.

This is peanuts in comparison. Even if you conducted some kind of investigation and somehow rooted out some sort of wrongdoing, do you really think you'd see any benefit? It's not like you'd see some sort of tax savings. Any money saved would simply be spent elsewhere.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 14:39
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Quote:

CatDog wrote:
maybe the law firm had experience with this type of thing? $35k is a freaking bargain for lawyers.


If it were for a full-blown trial on some injury claim of some sort against the city, maybe. To conduct a study on why we should abolish the parking authority, not so much. I'm certain a law firm in Jersey City could have handled this, and for less money. You know, I'm sure the lawyers spent a lot of time stuck in traffic driving between Parsippany and Jersey City for meetings at the city hall, and every minute of that time was billable too (the two places are not far apart, but sometimes there is serious gridlock, having commuted on that route for many years).

I also think a more run-of-the-mill management consulting firm in the area could have done this work as well for less money, because from the sounds of it, much of the study wasn't actual legal work anyway. The law firm could have been consulted on some issues (i.e. legalities associated with issuing tickets) but it seems like the city got hosed on this one, as it all too often happens.

Time to check the state election commission reports and see how much this law firm donated to mayoral and council member campaigns.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 14:09
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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We spend millions of dollars a year to pay the salaries for lawyers on the payroll in JC. But we never use them, why not?

Posted on: 2014/8/27 13:54
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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maybe the law firm had experience with this type of thing? $35k is a freaking bargain for lawyers.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 13:51
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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maybe the law firm had experience with this type of thing? $35k is a freaking bargain for lawyers.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 13:51
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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You know, it's great and everything if the disfunctional Parking Authority is dissolved and merged into another department, but why did the city have to use a law firm that's based in Parsippany under a NO BID contract to figure it out?

Couldn't they have used a law firm in Jersey City, so this money would stay within, or closer to our community? Or at least had a formal bidding process for doing this study, given the amount of money involved? $ 35,000 isn't chump change.

Posted on: 2014/8/27 13:42
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Re: Jersey City Parking Authority Set to Be Dissolved
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Posted on: 2014/8/27 10:46
My humor is for the silent blue collar majority - If my posts offend, slander or you deem inappropriate and seek deletion, contact the webmaster for jurisdiction.
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