JERSEY CITY, NJ – New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, flush with tax money and a budget surplus is giving a North Jersey French art museum a $58 million infusion, according to Senator Michael Testa.
Now, Testa is urging Governor Phil Murphy to order a performance audit and State oversight to control costs related to the development of the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City, a French arts museum. The museum has already received $58 million of State funding, and Senator Testa believes that without proper oversight, this funding may be at risk of being wasted.
In a letter to Governor Murphy, Senator Testa pointed out what he believes to be significant waste and excess in the project. His staff reviewed publicly available documents and found several areas of concern, including hiring over 30 no-bid consultants, consultants hired to find other consultants, and more than $10 million in fees for using the French ‘Pompidou’ name. Additionally, millions more are expected to be spent on displaying art owned by France.
Senator Testa is requesting a performance audit and State oversight to control the costs of the project, especially considering that the Department of State has estimated that the total costs of the museum could reach approximately $200 million.
While Senator Testa acknowledges that Governor Murphy is unlikely to cancel State taxpayer support for the project, he believes that a performance audit and oversight can help mitigate excessive spending and waste. He wants to ensure that the taxpayer funds are being used efficiently and that costs are not unnecessarily ballooning.
Here’s what Testa and his team found:
– Approximately 30 million Euros (more than $33 million) will be payable just to the Centre Pompidou French Arts Museum in Paris. 10 million Euros (approximately $11 million) of that amount is for the right to use the Pompidou name on the museum for five years – assuming it ever opens.
– More than 30 no-bid consultants (and counting) will receive more than $40 million for the project’s soft costs. Among them are: consultants to find other consultants; consultants that review each other’s work product; consultants that duplicate the functions of project managers, engineers, and architects; and consultants of dubious need or with extravagant costs, including a food consultant, a “vertical transportation” consultant, a French legal consultant, and consultants for lighting, sound, and signage.
– Consultants were awarded contracts outside of public bidding while making substantial campaign contributions and contributions to nonprofits controlled by local officials – with the nonprofits reportedly paying to fly those same officials to Paris. Many were selected despite costs that were higher than other reasonable proposals.
– $10 million in debt was issued in 2018 by the Jersey City Redevelopment Authority with a one-year maturity. It has been renewed annually ever since with minimal principal payments despite a staggering current 6.5% interest rate. Millions of dollars of avoidable annual interest payments and no-bid professional fees wouldn’t be needed (and still won’t be) if the $58 million of State taxpayer money paid down the debt.