Trenton skipped bidding rules for $1.7M in parks and recreation contracts

The city of Trenton, which skirted state contracting laws to pay for an ill-fated Delaware River park beautification project, used the same tactic to favor several more companies with other no-bid recreation work all over town, public records show.

The expenditures totaled at least $1.7 million over roughly 40 months, according to an analysis of tens of thousands of pages of government documents obtained by The Jersey Vindicator. Each of the handpicked vendors, working under Recreation, Natural Resources and Culture Department then-chief Maria Richardson and her replacement, Paul Harris, had total compensation well in excess of a $44,000 threshold that triggers mandatory public bidding to achieve the lowest price.

While city officials have declined to answer The Jersey Vindicator’s inquiries about these and other expenditures, last week they announced that they agreed to hire a forensic accountant at the “urging” of state fiscal overseers. Forensic audits typically seek evidence of financial irregularities that may point to waste, fraud and abuse.

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None of the no-bid contractors has been accused of wrongdoing. Those who spoke to The Jersey Vindicator said they were experienced professionals who had accepted the city’s offer to work, and they stood by their services.

One contractor — whose charges ranged from $100 for two soap dispenser installations to $32,000 for a roofing job — was reimbursed in 59 payments. The installments totaled $408,025, or almost 10 times the bidding threshold. Another contractor, a tree specialist, was paid $308,900 in a series of 102 payments. In December, that company was awarded a two-year, $300,000 contract — this time after the city broadly advertised the work’s availability for competitive bidding.

The records also show more detail than previously publicly known about the transformation of Stacy Park, a once-grand strip along the Delaware River that fell into decline after much of it was paved to create Route 29, a state highway, more than 50 years ago.

Last year, Trenton-based E&E Outdoor Maintenance Service was paid $195,430 to remove overgrowth in the mile-long park. That project — which involved at least two other companies that clear-cut hundreds of trees — was shut down by the state Department of Environmental Protection because it lacked permits and destabilized the river’s banks in an area prone to major flooding. The job sits unfinished while environmental regulators and Trenton review proposals to fix erosion and other damage caused by heavy machinery and soil movement.

The Stacy Park job wasn’t put to bid. Neither were hundreds of more tasks, mostly at parks, for which E&E was paid an additional $598,962, according to documents obtained by The Jersey Vindicator via New Jersey’s public records law.

Julio Mercedes, the owner of E&E, also is a caterer, and he and his wife have provided food for private parties at Richardson’s home, Richardson told The Jersey Vindicator last month. Mercedes was paid $2,400 to cater a senior barbecue sponsored by the Recreation Department, records show.

Mercedes didn’t respond to voicemails and three notes left at E&E’s business address.

Forensic audit

Trenton circumvented bidding laws despite the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ fiscal oversight of the capital city, one of the state’s poorest cities. Though state financial monitors have access to Trenton’s hiring and spending information — a condition of $47 million in annual state taxpayer aid to fill budget holes — those staffers don’t comb for detail, according to Lisa Ryan, a department spokeswoman.

“DCA does not generally review or approve individual payments, but rather works with municipal administrations to analyze fiscal trends across departments and suggests efficiencies to limit expense growth,” Ryan said in an email.

The level of scrutiny will change with a forensic audit. Last week, the city — following The Jersey Vindicator’s Stacy Park stories and follow-up questions — announced it was agreeing to a Community Affairs recommendation to conduct a forensic audit on the park payments and look for “other potential purchasing irregularities.” All expenditures, even those below the $44,000 bid threshold, will be vetted by Mayor Reed Gusciora’s chief of staff, according to an emailed statement.

“The city recognizes that public trust and integrity are fundamental in all aspects of our work,” the statement read. “It is vital that we maintain the highest levels of transparency and accountability in our operations and ensure that all contracts — regardless of size — are handled in full compliance with state procurement laws and best practices.”

In a telephone interview, Gusciora said he wasn’t familiar with the particulars of Recreation Department contracting, and he welcomed a closer look at the city’s spending. “The buck stops with me,” he said.

Trenton officials declined to answer The Jersey Vindicator’s detailed questions about why the Recreation Department deviated from the standard contracting route, which involves soliciting sealed offers, opening them together at deadline and accepting the lowest bid. City Attorney Wes Bridges referred inquiries to city spokeswoman Ranai Morgan, who declined to comment in person at City Hall and didn’t respond to emails.

Paul Harris, who in July took Maria Richardson’s place as Recreation director, said he wasn’t authorized to speak on the matter. Richardson — who led Recreation for almost six years before she became business administrator — didn’t return phone calls and didn’t respond to requests for comment sent via emails, voicemails, texts and a note left at her residence.

Questioned about Stacy Park by city council members at a March 18 meeting, Richardson described the pay arrangement as “a misunderstanding.” Because the job was done in phases that cost less than $44,000 each, she said, she believed that the job didn’t need to be advertised. On April 15, the council passed a resolution that stated the work should have been put to bid, but the city would “formally ratify and authorize the payments already made to E&E.”

“E&E satisfactorily completed the work,” the resolution stated. “The services rendered by E&E were properly performed and provided a clear benefit to the public.”

Starting immediately, two Trenton employees — Richardson plus Chief of Staff Jim Beach — must authorize all expenditures, according to the resolution.

Federal tax dollars

Many Recreation Department initiatives were supported by the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, signed by President Joe Biden in March 2021 to stimulate the economy during and after the pandemic. Among New Jersey municipal governments, Trenton received the third-largest allocation, $72.9 million, to spend on its own needs and to distribute to local businesses and nonprofit groups.

In all, $8.1 million from federal taxpayers was marked for Trenton parks rehabilitation, according to U.S. Treasury data. For the state capital — a city of 90,000 people that’s chronically starved for revenue in part because nontaxable government buildings occupy prime downtown real estate — the windfall promised a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to deliver recreational sites from decades of neglect.

Hundreds of tasks on the Recreation Department’s to-do list went to a handpicked group that included E&E and at least four other companies, city records show. The crews removed hundreds of dead and dying trees in parks, repaired and upgraded youth ballfields, assembled bleachers, updated restrooms, painted, replaced doors, fixed windows and repaired historic buildings. On the no-bid work, the piecemeal payments were for as little as $100 and as much as $42,500 — just below the bid trigger.

It’s not clear why the department, when it compensated the vendors, chose not to publicly advertise or disclose the work’s scope, timeline, price cap and other information that is standard in signed contracts. Trenton officials didn’t respond to multiple requests to provide any resolutions and contracts with Recreation vendors whose payments, in the aggregate, exceeded bid thresholds.

The city’s website, which lists contracts and City Council resolutions to award or reject them, has no records of agreements with E&E and four other vendors:

Rich Tree Service of South Plainfield was paid $101,665. Of that, $58,124 — more than $14,000 above the mandatory bid threshold — was for Stacy Park tree removal. Reached by phone, owner Rich Lewandowski said a Trenton contract wasn’t necessary because his company has a statewide agreement for tree care.

Fair Tree Services of Trenton received $308,900, including $13,800 for removing 13 trees, grinding 10 stumps and taking away the debris in Stacy Park. Reached by telephone, Fair Tree co-owner Rafael Solaris said the city came to him with an offer to work, and his company did a good job. “We’re trying to provide quality and do the work the right way,” Solaris said. In December, Fair Tree was the lowest of three bidders for a two-year contract for emergency and routine tree maintenance.

Johns Contractor of Hamilton was paid $408,025, for mostly light construction and handyman-type tasks. In a phone interview, owner Ronny Garro said his company did good work and satisfied city officials. “Everybody is happy,” Garro said.

A fourth contractor, paid $323,000 in 120 installments, has a common name and multiple addresses. Its owner couldn’t be reached by The Jersey Vindicator. The compensation for one Cadwalader Park job alone — rebuilding a stone path — was made in four payments that in aggregate exceeded the bid threshold by more than $3,000.

The Department of Community Affairs, whose fiscal monitors oversee Trenton’s hiring and spending, has two memorandums of agreement with the city for annual budget help: one for $37 million in so-called transitional aid, from a pot of money reserved for financially distressed municipalities, and another for $10 million in capital city aid, intended to prevent substantial property tax increases to cover spending shortfalls.

Ryan, the department spokeswoman, declined The Jersey Vindicator’s request to interview the monitors. Ryan also didn’t respond to emails seeking comment on detailed, multiple examples of questionable Trenton spending.

Instead, she released a statement that said for all towns that get such state aid, the fiscal monitors’ “high-level technical assistance focuses on operational reform, adoption of best practices and sound financial planning. It does not supplant the professional employees in municipal administration and their responsibility for day-to-day operations.”