Wednesday, November 22, 2006
BY KATIE WANG

Star-Ledger Staff

The Newark City Council voted unanimously yesterday to award a $1.5 million contract to a consulting group that is connected to Mayor Cory Booker's campaign manager.

Without debate or discussion, the eight council members agreed to give the Irvington-based 660 Group a contract to handle all communications, public relations, branding and marketing for the council and administration for the next year.

Councilman Carlos Gonzalez was absent for the vote.

The group is run by Carl Ali Sharif, a son of Carl Sharif, the longtime political operative who is credited with ushering Booker and his team of council members into office in May.

"There's no impropriety with this," said West Ward Councilman Ronald Rice Jr. "Should they be disqualified if they were the best firm with the best proposal? It would be a problem if their proposal was not the best."

Councilman-at-Large Luis Quintana said there are no conflicts of interest since Sharif, the campaign manager, is not running the company.

"I see that this is not about Sharif," he said. "There's a need for this service."

Two other companies, Bruno Associates of Clifton and Tritonic LLC of Newark, also submitted proposals for the contract. Tritonic LLC entered its application in conjunction with Edelman, a global public relations firm.

Bruno Associates had represented Newark for 37 years until October when the contract was terminated.

According to its application, the 660 Group is made up of six individuals, including Carl Ali Sharif, who have a variety of experience in public relations work. The company has listed two subcontractors that it plans to use for its work with Newark: BCT Partners of Newark and Global Strategy Group of New York.

Randal Pinkett, a Booker ally who served on his transition team, is the president and CEO of BCT Partners.

Global Strategy Group handled internal polling for Booker during his campaign this year.

The 660 Group received its incorporation papers from the state in August and has represented few clients.

Individually, however, principals such as Edward Dandridge have had extensive public relations experience.

Dandridge is a managing partner of Brandsphere, a public affairs company based in New York.

The 660 Group application listed 16 references, which included Merrill Lynch and The Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia. Reached yesterday, both organizations said the 660 Group has never done work for them, but that Dandridge had.

Dandridge said the references listed were not for the 660 Group as a whole, rather the individuals who are part of it.

The 660 Group application also lists the "Booker Team for Newark" as one of its references. The Booker Team included most of the council members who voted in favor of yesterday's contract. Other references included Essex County Freeholder D. Bilal Beasley and Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith.

Carl Ali Sharif said his father is not involved with the company, even though his name was listed as a principal on the Web site during the summer. Carl Ali Sharif said his father's links to the 660 Group ended before the group filed for its corporation papers.

Desiree Peterkin Bell, the director of communications, said the 660 Group will be responsible for changing the perception of Newark through branding, marketing, newsletters and creating a website that is more interactive.