Hudson County board adopts temporary appropriations and cash plan, awards $335,500 audit contract amid abstentions

The Hudson County Board of County Commissioners approved several finance and administrative measures at its Jan. 2 reorganization meeting, including 2025 temporary appropriations, the 2025 Cash Management Plan, and a professional services contract for county auditing services.

The clerk read a resolution awarding auditing services to Donohue, Gironda, Doria & Tomkins, LLC listing line items of $225,000 for the county audit, $58,000 for the social services audit and $52,500 for opinions used in offering statements, a total contract value of $335,500. Commissioner Aponte-Lipski moved the award and Commissioner Rodriguez seconded the motion.

On the audit contract vote five commissioners voted yes (Aponte-Lipski, Baselice, Cedeño, Cifelli and Rodriguez) while four commissioners recorded abstentions (Kopacz, O'Dea, Walker and Romano). The clerk recorded the abstentions during the roll call.

Board members also adopted 2025 temporary appropriations and the county Cash Management Plan by recorded votes as part of the meeting's administrative business. During the legal-advertising resolution discussion Commissioner Albert Cifelli asked whether newspaper notices would be published electronically; County Counsel Donato Battista responded, "I think for now, we'll go with this one. But the next meeting, we may have to do that." The clerk confirmed the notices had been sent to the County Clerk and local newspapers.

These actions finalize short-term spending authority and the county's cash-handling framework for the start of 2025 and put an auditing vendor under contract to perform year-end and program audits.

The auditing contract was awarded under a fair-and-open process as read into the record; several commissioners abstained from the vote as recorded by the clerk.