JERSEY CITY — Former Gov. Jim McGreevey, who was hired nearly six years ago to run a nonprofit that manages Jersey City’s job training and prisoner re-entry program, was fired at a special meeting of the nonprofit’s board on Monday night.

The nine-member board of the Jersey City Employment and Training Program voted 5-3-1 in favor of terminating McGreevey at the tail end of a meeting that ran over two hours and featured pro-McGreevey testimonials from nearly 30 people crowded inside in a conference room in JCETP’s Martin Luther King Drive office, called Martin’s Place.

McGreevey, 61, knew what was coming — he emailed supporters Sunday urging them to come to the meeting — and chastised board members for their decision.

“No one has given me the courtesy of a detailed reason why I am being dismissed,” McGreevey said. ”At a minimum I think in the interests of fairness and equity that I as executive director merit a reason for my dismissal.”

No explanation ever came. Board members Sudhan Thomas, Rudolph Daniels, Jeremy Farrell, Stacey Flanagan and Mark Rowan voted in favor of firing the former governor without comment. Bob Knapp, Jake Hudnut and Darrell Laval voted against. Anthony Lewis abstained from voting.

Hudnut, a former criminal defense attorney who is now Jersey City’s municipal prosecutor, called the board’s action “troubling” and said it could destroy the services JCETP provides to the city’s neediest residents.

“There are ways your concerns, our concerns, some of which are my concerns about JCETP can be addressed in a rational way,” he said.

When the board vote was finalized, members of the audience began to yell, “God bless Jim.” McGreevey shook Lewis' hand.

Thomas will take over for McGreevey for at least six months on an unpaid basis. McGreevey’s salary was about $119,000.

The board also voted in favor of hiring a board attorney, Englewood Cliffs-based Sobel Han, and an auditor to review the nonprofit’s finances, PKF O’Connor Davies. McGreevey’s allies on the board objected to awarding two public contracts before any review of the firms' proposals, but they were overruled.

Mayor Steve Fulop directed JCETP, a federally funded nonprofit, to hire McGreevey in 2013 when Fulop was elected mayor. The former governor later expanded his prisoner re-entry reach with the NJ Reentry Corp., which he chairs. That nonprofit has locations statewide.

For a while, McGreevey acted as a political adviser for the mayor as Fulop considered running for governor in 2017. The two Democrats had a falling out at about the time Fulop announced he would seek re-election as mayor instead.

Last year, Fulop tightened his control of JCETP by appointing his allies to its board of directors and by withholding federal funds that the city had previously distributed to the nonprofit. Thomas, a Fulop ally, took over as the board’s chair in July, replacing a McGreevey ally.

“We are hoping that tonight’s actions will ensure that the focus of JCETP re-pivots to serving the unemployed, underemployed and out-of-school citizens of Jersey City,” Thomas told The Jersey Journal following Monday’s meeting.

McGreevey is the second city official Thomas has helped dispatch in the last week. Thomas, the president of the Jersey City school board, voted along with six of his colleagues on Wednesday to tell Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles that she will not be rehired when her contract expires.

Fulop has publicly accused McGreevey in recent days of misappropriating funds, a charge McGreevey has denied and demanded Fulop retract.

McGreevey has said Fulop is retaliating against him because McGreevey fired one of Fulop’s political operatives last year (Fulop has denied this). In a letter sent to Fulop last week, McGreevey attorney Michael Critchley said McGreevey will sue if he is fired.

In his Sunday email, McGreevey told his supporters he is committed to remaining in Jersey City "if not at Martin’s Place, then at another location.”

A woman named Alma Colon was one of the dozens who urged the board on Monday not to fire McGreevey. An ex-prisoner, Colon said McGreevey was responsible for helping to turn her life around. She said she was “appalled” when she read that McGreevey’s job was in jeopardy.

"I was appalled and I was scared because he’s the only one that looked at a person like myself as a human being,” she said with tears in her eyes.

Alma Colon, right, urges the board of the Jersey City Employment and Training Program not to fire McGreevey.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.