Something is happening here but you don't know what it is...

...Do you, Mr. Mack.

The saga of the Tony Mack administration gets sadder.

While he awaits his day in Federal court on charges of conspiring to accept bribes in a make believe development deal, the indicted and embattled mayor continues to lose whatever shreds of credibility he may have had left.

In April, the Civil Service Commission ruled that the administration had wrongfully laid off former lead park ranger Michael Morris in favor of Mack croney, Robert "Chico" Mendez. The CSC gave the city a month to rehire Morris and dismiss Mendez. The city has done neither.

In fact, the administration is claiming that it wants to appeal the decision in the case. Strange, since the record shows that they did not even bother to respond to the matter when it was crawling through the CSC process.

Asking the city council to approve funding for an appeal that would seem to have no real standing but instead is based purely on the mayor's personal vendetta against a former employee is not going to be an easy sell. The governing body is increasingly wary of these kinds of wasteful and ultimately fruitless expenditures.

And, lest anyone think the council does not have a say in the matter, let us refer you to this little item from the city code:

 

 

§ 2-25 Special counsel.

 

Whenever (s)he deems the interests of the City so require the City Attorney may, with the approval of the Mayor and Council and within the limits of available appropriations, appoint special counsel to assist him/her in the preparation, trial or argument of such legal matters or proceedings as (s)he may determine. If the City Attorney should be disqualified with respect to any matter, the Mayor shall appoint special counsel, with the approval of the City Council, to represent the City for and with respect to such matter.

 

 Clearly, the governing body has the approval. Period.

 

This might be a mere annoyance to a mayor who has repeatedly ignored the laws if they didn't agree with his personal agenda, but it is only the beginning.

“We received notification from DCA earlier today that they will not even consider any funding in support of the hotel until they receive a copy of a plan from the city with respect to available options for funding and profits — a more comprehensive plan,” business administrator Sam Hutchinson said.

After an hour long presentation meant to coax the city council into approving a $200,000 expenditure to help cover the costs of transitioning the hotel from Marriot to Wyndham and changing management companies, members of the governing body engaged in a little question and answer session about the hotel.

 

All of the responses from LYCDC president Joyce Kersey, the LYCDC attorney and representatiaves from the management companies circled around having more money appropriated to effect the changes and better position the property in the market place. Very little was said about efforts to sell the hotel beyond vague references to giving consideration to any "serious offer".

In response to a question from council president Phyllis Holly-Ward, city business administrator Sam Hutchinson announced that he had just that morning received communication from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs informing him that they could not proceed without a concrete plan in place.

Seizing the moment to solidify the obvious (and reported) inclination of a majority of the body to cut off further spending on the hotel, Councilman Zac Chester immediately asked if the administration would pull the item from the docket.  Strangely, Hutchinson declined to defer to the mayor's higher authority and declined to withdraw the funding resolution from the docket.

It really didn't matter as the council has the authority to set its agenda and can add or remove items as it sees fit.

This didn't stop Councilwoman McBride from launching into an angy attack on the DCA, proclaiming that Director Neff was, in effect, the "mayor of Trenton" and that Mayor Mack had been reduced to nothing more than a mere figurehead.

The councilwoman was more correct than she knows.

The latest MOU signed with the state continued a three year trend of putting more control over city matters in the DCA's hands and creating less leeway for the mayor and his few remaining cronies to wreck their own particular brand of municipal mayhem.

The edict to not proceed with any further funding for the hotel without a concrete plan represents a very significant flexing of the state's muscles. It appears that the state "is not playing" anymore.

Something IS happening here.

 

Disappointed

Trenton City Council held a special meeting Tuesday night. The purpose of the meeting was to present publicly the legal process for filling any vacant elected offices (council or mayor).

The meeting was relatively brief, under an hour. The information was presented, council was provided an opportunity to raise any questions (they had none) and then members of the audience were invited to ask questions.

Despite reports last week of errors in the way the city legal department described the process to council in advance of the meeting, the information provided tonight was correct.

In short:

• If a vacancy occurs in a council position, the remainder of the governing body appoints a replacement by a majority vote. 
• If a vacancy occurs in the office of mayor, the council president becomes the acting mayor until the body appoints a replacement.
• In either case, if the vacancy occurs prior to September 1 of the final year of the term, a special election is scheduled for the next general or municipal election, whichever comes first.
• If a vacancy occurs after September 1, the appointee completes the term; no special election is required.

There were some good questions raised by members of the public tonight.

 

Q: Who can be appointed? A: Anyone who is legally qualified to hold the seat. Not just a member of council or the administration.

Q. What constitutes a majority vote on an appointment? A. Four votes out of the seven possible (in the case of a tie in voting for a replacement council member, the mayor may vote).

A little trickier question was about whether there would be an open process of soliciting names and resumes of those interested in filling any future vacancies and just how that process might be handled.

The council president promised as open and transparent a process as the law allows and an open call for submissions from interested parties. The law director rightfully pointed out that criteria for evaluating the submissions would need to be agreed upon by the governing body and made known to the public.

All well and good. Moreover, the proceedings went better, largely, than one might have expected after reading of the earlier confusion over the actual process.

What was unsettling, though, were questions raised about whether or not members of city council had been approached about securing their votes for one particular individual or another to be appointed mayor in case of a vacancy.

The reason for the line of questioning was a obvious belief that some sort of back room deal had already been made on just who council would appoint to fill a vacancy in the office of mayor.

The political climate in Trenton has long fostered an abundance of conspiracy theories. One could suppose it is a natural by-product of politics.

However, if this is the tone the upcoming campaign is going to take than we have a big problem.

Trenton is in crisis. We need competent, steady leadership. We do not need another thin-skinned, suspicious, administration. We need to build coalitions and to include all segments of the population. We can no longer afford to discount or disparage others simply because they are rivals or challengers.

It is a given that candidates cannot absolutely control what their supporters say and do, but they can make an effort or distance themselves from those who won’t behave civilly.

There is no room for the accusatory challenges launched from the podium tonight. Nor is there cause for the commentary passed between various members of the audience. That kind of behavior is not going to save Trenton. It is only going to send us further along the road to dysfunction and divisiveness.

If you are going to campaign through innuendo and rumor, you are not going to win a lot of votes. And you are not going to help Trenton.

It would benefit us all if candidates and their supporters would keep their conspiracy theories to themselves unless and until they have very credible evidence to back up their assertions. Failing to do so will not only hurt their chances of obtaining the goal they seek, it will severely inhibit the city’s ability to move out of these troubled times and onto recovery.

Isn't the whole idea for us to be better, do better than our recent history indicates we are?

The people have spoken

Walking the dogs Saturday afternoon, we headed up Front Street. As we approached the Old Barracks, the strains of fife and drums could be heard. The closer we got, the louder the music.

It was very easy to imagine walking that very street some 237 years ago and hearing the same music emanating from the parade ground in front of the Barracks. It was hard to suppress a smile.

Coming around to the back side of the Barracks we came upon the landscaping crew laying the sod around the almost completed "Petty's Run" historic site.

This site, if you don't remember was the focus of controversy late in 2010. Excavations at the site uncovered the remains of a pre-revolutionary steel mill as well as the city's first cotton mill dating from the early 19th century. The steel mill is the only one from colonial America to have been located and uncovered.

Under Governor Corzine, the site was to be featured as part of the Capital State Park. When the Christie administration came in, plans were frozen due to the state's fiscal crisis. Lt. Governor Guadagno determined the excavation should be filled in. Preservationists and history buffs were up in arms.

Finally, with a promise of financial support from Mercer County, the state cancelled the plan to completely fill in and cover over the site. Instead, the site would be fenced, landscaped and interpretive signage installed to explain and celebrate the significance of that location.

The work is nearly complete. The ribbon cutting for the site is tentatively scheduled for late in May.

As the strains from the Barracks Fifes and Drums Corps echoed across the capital grounds, it caused us to pause and reflect on the history and significance of that corner of the city. 

The Barracks stand as a testament to the will of people or that of the government. They were built to house troops during the French and Indian War, rather than to have the soldiers billet in the houses of townspeople.

The building is also a symbol of Trenton's significance in our War for Independence from Great Britain.

Today, the preserved and interpreted presences of the Petty's Run site is there to remind us of our industrial past.  The fact that the site will be available to the public to view is due to the force of the voices that spoke up for its preservation. It was a bloodless fight of the people to overcome the single-mindedness (dare we say, "tyranny"?) of the state house.

The principles fought for in the 1776 were achieved and honored in 2011. The people spoke. Government responded. Appropriately.

The fifes and drums played. We smiled.

It's really not that hard

The phrase “you can’t make this stuff up” has, along with its more scatological sibling, been uttered a lot these past 33 months or so. A whole lot. Daily, even.

So none of us should really be surprised to learn of new feats of absurdity accomplished by what is sometimes referred to as the municipal government of the city of Trenton.

Today’s example is another great idea gone wrong at the hands of an administration clearly not up to the task of guiding, let alone governing, this city.

A recap: our current mayor is under Federal indictment and awaiting trial on corruption charges. The trial is expected to be held this coming summer. If found guilty, at sentencing he loses his seat as the mayor, creating a vacancy in the office.

Ever since the mayor was arrested last September, and maybe even after the FBI raided his home and city hall on successive days in July of 2012, people have inquired about what happens “if and when?”

To the credit of Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward and the rest of the governing body, they determined it would be a good idea to hold a special council meeting to review, in public, the process of filling a vacancy in any of the elected offices in Trenton's city government. That meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 30 at 5:30 pm in Council Chambers at City Hall. This morning, Erin Duffy had an article in the Times about this meeting. A careful read of the piece indicates a problem. And not a small one.

Down towards the end of the piece, Duffy writes:

“Holly-Ward said the interpretation given to her by the city’s law department was that if the mayor stepped down permanently, the business administrator would serve as mayor for up to 60 days and then council would choose a new interim mayor.”

The text we underlined is key here. If this is truly what Holly-Ward was told, someone is mistaken.

If you look at the city code, you will find that Chapter 2-4 refers to the Mayor. Under that chapter, in articles E. and F. there are provisions for what happens when the mayor is not able to attend to the duties and responsibilities of the office on a temporary basis (E.) and when the position is deemed vacant (F.).

From the City of Trenton Code

2-4 Mayor.
E. Acting Mayor. As provided by the Charter (Section 3-12, N.J.S.A. 40:69A-42), the Mayor shall designate the Chief of Staff, the Business Administrator, any other department head or the City Clerk to act as Mayor whenever the Mayor shall be prevented, by absence from the City, disability or other cause, from attending to the duties of the office. During such time, the person so designated by the Mayor shall possess all the rights, powers and duties of Mayor. Whenever the Mayor shall have been unable to attend to the duties of the office for a period of 60 consecutive days for any of the above-stated reasons, an acting Mayor shall be appointed by the Council who shall succeed to all the rights, powers and duties of the Mayor or the then Acting Mayor.

F. Vacancy. A vacancy in the office of Mayor shall be filled by election for the remainder of the unexpired term at the next regular municipal election occurring not less than 60 days after the occurrence of the vacancy. Council shall fill vacancies temporarily by appointment to serve until the qualification of a person so elected.

In the first instance, the mayor is able to designate an acting mayor to serve for up to 60 days in place of the elected official. This could be the Business Administrator, a Chief of Staff (if we had one), the City Clerk or any Department Director.

Situations where this might occur would be, for example, if the mayor were traveling out of state (as was the case last summer when Mayor Mack went on vacation and designated Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson as Acting Mayor. It could apply in times of illness or other medical leave, etc.

The point being, the absence is temporary.

The second section deals with the circumstances of the office being vacated by death, resignation, or some other reason that the official can not serve out the remainder of the term. This would be, in a phrase, a “permanent absence” as would be the case should the current Mayor be removed from office as a result of the pending legal case.

You will note that in section F. there is no mention of the BA stepping in for any length of time. This raises the question: “Then who becomes Mayor?”

For the answer, we must turn to state law. There are two unlinked provisions of law that deal with the matter and they are pretty clear. One is found in N.J.S.A. 40A:9 which is a string of sections of law dealing with the organization of local government. The other is in N.J.S.A. 40A:16 which focuses on the succession of office in a uniform way.

The general law:

§ 40A:9-131. Acting mayor (applicable to all communities)

In every municipality, unless otherwise provided by law, if a vacancy occurs in the office of mayor, by reason of death, resignation or otherwise, the presiding officer of the governing body shall become the acting mayor until a successor is elected and qualified.

The municipal vacancy law:

§ 40A:16-12 (Applicable to Trenton’s Non-Partisan form of Government)

Appointment to fill vacancy where incumbent was not nominee of a political party; time to fill vacancy

If the incumbent whose office has become vacant was not elected to office as the nominee of a political party, the governing body may, within 30 days of the occurrence of the vacancy, appoint a successor to fill the vacancy without regard to party.

Again, there is no mention of the ascension of the BA or anyone other than the presiding officer of the governing body to be acting mayor until a successor is named.

Further, there is a court case which determined that both of those laws are not only compatible but should be read and applied together.

DeSoto v. Smith, 383 N.J. Super. 384, 891 A.2d 1241, 2006 N.J. Super. LEXIS 54 (App. Div. 2006)

As the result of applying Section 40A:9-131, a municipal attorney was terminated by the Council President who became acting mayor and council president temporarily pursuant to N.J. Stat. Ann. § 40A:9-131. In an effort to defeat the acting mayor’s dismissal, it was argued that section 131, which allowed the council president to serve as both acting mayor and council president, violated the “separation of powers” doctrine. However the Court ruled that the doctrine of separation of powers was not generally applicable to a Faulkner Act mayor-council government, because the design of the Faulkner Act provided for checks and balances which would enable the Council by a 2/3 majority vote to nullify the acting mayor’s dismissal under N.J. Stat. Ann. § 40:69A-43(c).

The bottom line is that the succession in office law (40A:16-12) provides 30 days within which the council is to select an acting mayor pending the holding of an election (or for the unexpired balance of the term of the former mayor, depending on the time of the vacancy). Pending that, the Council President becomes acting Mayor as well as Council President.

This contradicts the interpretation that Council President Holly-Ward says she was given by the city law department.
Want further evidence?

We need only look a few miles east of Trenton’s City Hall to the Municipal Building for Hamilton Township. When then Mayor John Bencivengo resigned in the wake of the guilty verdict last November, who immediately became Acting Mayor?

Kevin Meara was the presiding officer of the governing body (township council) and thus became the Acting Mayor until the selection of Kelly Yaede to hold the title until the special election in November 2013.

Why Trenton’s law department has come up with this idea that the BA becomes the temporary Mayor is beyond us.

Hopefully, the state of NJ through the Department of Community Affairs, Division of Local Government Services will complete their "review" of the matter and advise all parties as to what is the correct information. Otherwise, we will end up with another empty but well-intended gesture of trying to do the right thing.

Enough already

This situation about Paul Harris, the vehicle accident, whether or not he had permission to drive a city vehicle, etc. has gone on too long.

It seems pretty clear that a city vehicle had been repaired at the request and with the knowledge of the BA's office...specifically his assistant, John Seigle.

While it is quite plausible that Mr. Harris used the vehicle without formal, written permission, it does not seem likely that he did so without anyone's knowledge and assumed approval. The set up of the offices in which the vehicle keys are kept (in a lockbox) is such that it would be hard to obtain them during the work day without someone taking notice.

The amount of misinformation, misdirection and miss-appropriation of city resources, while par for THIS administration, is way beyond what is acceptable.

Both of the local dailies have reported on this. The Trentonian, the Times (twice) and Trentonian columnist L. A. Parker has commented on the matter.

It certainly appears that, as Mr. Parker puts it, Mr. Harris was made the scapegoat in an episode that points up several failings of Trenton City Government:

1. The city has way too many vehicles than are needed.
2. There are minimal policies and procedures governing who uses these vehicles, when and for what reasons.
3. There is lax adherence to the policies that do exist.
4. There is no adherence to the 2010 ordinance that was meant to rein in the abuses and costs of maintaining the fleet of passenger vehicles.
5. The city has failed to provide accurate information in this matter: either the inventory dated June 30, 2012 is incorrect or the statements that BA Sam Hutchinson did not like the "Crown Vic" he had been assigned is flat out wrong. This document says he was assigned a Chevy Caprice.
6. The vehicle in the police report, has a license plate number matching one that was "unassigned" at the time of the June inventory. Just like the Saturn that Mr. Harris had been driving around in for a few months and that it is claimed Mr. Hutchinson desired over the "Crown Vic (Chevy Caprice?)". The Ford Escape was, in effect, a "pool car" available to anyone needing a city vehicle to do city business (such as dropping off another employee to pick up a recently repaired auto).

Kevin Moriarty discusses this kind of "casual corruption" thoroughly in his blog post from the other day.

We suggest that the Administration rescind its disciplinary action against Mr. Harris, immediately (or whatever the proper action is according to the Civil Service rules.)

We also suggest that the Administration make immediate plans to reduce the current passenger vehicle fleet and adopt a straight up reimbursement policy/procedure for business use of a personal vehicle.

Civil Service Commission orders Mendez gone!

In an order issued on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, the NJ Civil Service Commission determined that the layoff of former head of the Trenton Park Rangers, Michael Morris, was faulty and ordered him reinstated.

Robert "Chico" Mendez who had been hired as a "seasonal" employee when Mayor Mack took office was ordered to be removed from his position.

Mendez, a long-time supporter of the mayor, had been put in charge of the Park Ranger staff even before the September, 2011 layoff that initially removed Morris from the city payroll.

This decision follows a similar one last September that called for the removal of Mack hires, Dave Briegle, Charles Hall and Henry Page from their posts as "Water Meter Readers" with the Trenton Water Works.

Hall, who worked in the city Recreation, Natural Resources and Culture department while being paid as a TWW employee has since plead guilty to charges in both the Tony Mack corruption case and the Jo Jo Giorgianni drug distribution case.

Manure

Trenton Mayor Tony Mack gave his "state of the city" address before city council Monday evening.

The text of the speech can be found on the city website, here.

Don't go there if you are looking for any revelations, significant accomplishments or measurable goals for the coming year.

Mayor Mack started off, as is his "tradition" reminding the audience that his administration managed to balance the budget even with the $55 million deficit his first year in office, $34 million last year and $26 million this year. He then criticized those who point out that balancing the budget is the law and his administration should claim no extra credit for merely doing its job.

In his view, there will always be a higher demand for services than the city's revenues will pay for. We suppose that means he still feels it is necessary to run sports leagues and put on festivals and parades even when there is no money for such unnecessary activities.

The next item was a brag about how much money in grants and aid has been awarded the city during his tenure. This is another indication of just how out of touch with reality he is.

Taking pride in surviving off of handouts is just wrong. A real leader (heed this all of you mayoral wannabes) would be seeking ways to raise revenues and LESSEN the dependence on grants and government largesse.

A responsible mayor would be working very hard to move the city towards a firmer fiscal footing with a long term goal of become something close to self-sustainable. (Another fault of too many of those desiring to hold public office, they don't look past the next election cycle).

Keeping to the grants theme, the mayor gave props to those individuals in the city who write the grant applications that successfully bring in the money.  Of course, he has no problem wasting money not using grant software the city subscribes to. How much more in grants might we bring in if we used this? We are paying for it regardless.

The mayor wraps up his fiscal responsibility pitch by claiming that the reason we have received so much financial assistance is because he has righted the budgetary ship. He then launches into the oft repeated sources of revenue he is ready to tap into...delinquent tax liens, unpaid municipal court fines and costs, and squeezing the last drops of money leftover from completed projects in the hope of applying them elsewhere.

This notion, again, demonstrates Mack's total lack of a grasp of the situation. Even if, and it is a big IF, the city were 100% successful in collecting the unpaid tax liens and the court revenues, it is a one shot deal. These are not revenue streams. They are little caches of money we may be able to tap into. Once. It is just another stop gap measure; one of those "one-shot gimmicks" that the mayor later decries.

Predictably, he touted the deal with Thomas Edison State College for the Glen Cairn Arms site. He conveniently forgot to mention that in last year's speech he listed, on page 13, under "accomplishments" that "the old Glen Cairn Arms site will finally be demolished, and a developer will be sought to create a more marketable and valuable site." {our emphasis}

First, if it is an "accomplishment" it has, by definition been done. So if it "will finally be demolished" (future tense) in could not have been accomplished (past tense). And, indeed, it wasn't accomplished. And it still isn't.

The city council approved the sale of the property and the city has signed a disposition agreement about what "will" happen. The fact remains, one year later, the site is exactly the same as it was when he gave last year's speech.

This year's speech is full of those kinds of statements inconsistent with his prior state of the city addresses. No reference to last year's "Comprehensive Crime Initiative" (that never was comprehensive or even an initiative). No commentary about the cops walking the beat.

He did state that the Trenton Police Department reopened the East and West district stations to "increase response time" and that is the way the script reads. Obviously he is as careless as he is delusional.

We could go through each paragraph of this less than 30 minute speech and point out all the things that are wrong. You don't deserve that pain.

We don't deserve this mayor.

The state of the city is quite simply worse than it was last year or the year before. Tony F. Mack's tenure as mayor has been nothing short of a disaster.

Let us hope his failures are noticed by those who seek to replace him and they do everything they can to not repeat them.