Hudson County Says It Will Release Brennan Courthouse Records in Parts After Hudson TV Files State Complaints

Hudson TV Exclusive. Disclosure: Hudson TV is the requester and the complainant in the matters described in this story.

JERSEY CITY — Hudson TV on Tuesday filed two complaints with New Jersey’s Government Records Council (GRC). The complaints say Hudson County has not produced public records on the William J. Brennan Courthouse heating-and-cooling project that Hudson TV requested under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) in August and September.

The complaints were emailed to the GRC at 1:42 p.m. on Oct. 13, with a copy to the county’s custodian of records, First Assistant County Counsel Christine Moro. In both complaints, Hudson TV asked to take part in the GRC’s free mediation program.

The first request: a promised link that never came

Hudson TV’s first request, emailed Aug. 19, asked for contracts, purchase orders, invoices and payment records for design and professional services on the Brennan modernization, including the HVAC plant. It also asked for the Board of County Commissioners resolutions that authorized that work, all documents on Bid No. 7963 (the heating-and-cooling plant replacement), and records on roughly $10 million in “Section 20 costs” listed in the courthouse bond ordinance.

Under OPRA, a custodian must grant or deny a request within seven business days. That deadline passed on Aug. 28. Hudson TV wrote again on Sept. 8, saying it had received no acknowledgment and no records. Moro replied the same day that the Engineering Department was handling the request.

On Sept. 16, Moro produced part of the records: the certified bond ordinance, the Bid 7963 tabulation and award recommendation, three of the four bid addenda, and the contract paperwork and payment records for French & Parrello Associates, the county’s engineering consultant on the project. She wrote that no document exists for the Section 20 costs because they “are just estimates,” and that “no award was made” on Bid 7963.

She also wrote that “the bid specifications for Bid 7963 are too large to be sent via email. We are going to provide you with a link to access the bid documents requested,” and that the last addendum “will be with the link sent to you.”

As of Tuesday, Hudson TV had not received that link, the Bid 7963 specifications, or the remaining addendum. Hudson TV’s second GRC complaint concerns those records.

The second request: 39 records, one acknowledgment

On Sept. 21, Hudson TV filed a separate, new request for 39 specific records that were not in the Sept. 16 production. They fall into these groups:

• the 2023 award to French & Parrello Associates (vendor no. 19186) and the four later “Additions” to that contract;
• missing payment records under county File 3389, including invoice 3389-10 and Purchase Order 245192;
• the full Bid 7963 file: specifications, all addenda, plan holders, the bids themselves, and any determination that a bidder was non-responsive;
• agenda item 25B, a proposed award to Hall Construction Co. of up to $33,693,000, along with records of the Aug. 20 and Aug. 25 special meetings and the county counsel legal review cited in the County Engineer’s recommendation;
• the file for Bid No. 8076, the rebid of the project;
• bond Ordinance 424-8-2026, which appropriates $45,044,332, including its published notices and the cost estimate behind it;
• any construction-manager contract for the project, the HMR Architects historic-architecture contract, and the resolution naming John C. Inagaki acting qualified purchasing agent;
• a limited email search of nine named county officials’ accounts from July 2 to Sept. 17 for “3389,” “7963,” “8076,” “Hall Construction” or “25B.”

Moro acknowledged the request at 10:58 a.m. that day. She wrote that it was being forwarded to Engineering, Roads and Public Property, Finance/Purchasing and the Law Department, and that “we are working on a link with many of the items you requested but are far too large to attach via email or pdf.”

No records, no link, no written request for more time and no denial followed. Under OPRA, a custodian who does not respond within seven business days has denied the request. Here that date was Sept. 30. Hudson TV sent a written follow-up on Oct. 12 to Moro and Maite Fernandez, copying the Clerk of the Board and the County Executive’s office. As of Tuesday it had not received a reply.

What Hudson TV asked the GRC to do

The complaints ask the council to find that the county violated OPRA’s response deadline, to order the records released (with a stated legal basis for anything withheld), to review in private any records the county claims are exempt, and to decide whether the violations were “knowing and willful.” The GRC has not yet assigned complaint numbers.

Why the records matter

The county has said the Brennan Courthouse HVAC system is at the end of its useful life. Where the courthouse’s civil courtrooms will sit during the work has become a public dispute. As Hudson TV reported Sept. 28, the Hudson County Bar Association and the Board of Commissioners have backed using the county Administration Building at 595 Newark Ave. That same meeting confirmed that cancelled special meetings left the county needing to rebid the construction contract, and the Hall award was never made. The plan to use 595 Newark Ave. runs up against the Courthouse Park plan for that site.

County now says it will release the records in parts

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, Hudson County Executive’s office spokesman Mark Cygan and County Counsel Alberico De Pierro spoke by phone with Hudson TV. The call was on the record; Hudson TV declined the officials’ request to speak off the record.

During the call, the officials said Hudson TV should file records requests through the county’s online OPRA portal, because the county counsel has more control over requests submitted there. The county had already processed both of Hudson TV’s emailed requests: Moro acknowledged them and forwarded them to county departments without raising the portal, and she says she sent Hudson TV a link to the records on Sept. 16. Hudson TV never received that link.

The officials said the county would order the release of the documents and send everything to Hudson TV in parts. They asked that this story note the county is now willing to send everything. They did not ask for mediation and did not ask Hudson TV to withdraw its GRC complaints. Hudson TV gave the county seven more days, until Oct. 21, to deliver the records. The complaints remain open.

County spokesman Edgar Martinez did not respond to Hudson TV’s earlier request for comment, emailed at 1:43 p.m. on Oct. 13 to him and Moro.

Hudson TV asks: Should Hudson County have to explain on the record why Brennan Courthouse bid records are still missing, or is a state GRC complaint enough pressure? Share your take in the comments.