Montaño out, Harris in
The administration announced yesterday that Acting Housing and Economic Development Director Sasa Olessi Montaño was resigning to tend to family matters.
Regular readers of this blog will remember that we were less than thrilled with Montaño's appointment last year. It is unfortunate that she has an ill relative who she needs to care for, but we do feel it is good thing for Trenton that she is leaving the post.
Or it would be except for the political hack that has already been named to as her replacement, Jerome Harris.
Mr. Harris is a long time Palmer friend and husband of former Chief of Staff Gwendolyn Long Harris.
While the press release touts Mr. Harris as a former New Jersey Assistant Secretary of State and a former Assistant State Treasurer, his most recent work in the Palmer Administration has been as a "special assistant for intergovernmental affairs."
In yet another example of how Palmer plunders the city treasury for the benefit of friends, Harris has been paid over $50,000 for a part-time job. According to the press release, Mr. Harris has been "coordinating the efforts of the Trenton Green Initiative."
Wow! Good job! Heading up the largely imagined and symbolic Green Initiative for city that doesn't even practice recycling in it's own offices and facilities; a city who allegedly has hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of recycling equipment sitting in a warehouse somewhere gathering dust because it dismantled it's city-run recycling program.
And what else has Mr. Harris overseen for the Mayor? Did Mr. Harris personally pick out the official Hybrid vehicles for the Mayor to be chauffeured around in?
Oh, yes. Mr. Harris has been the Mayor's representative on the Planning Board.
Mr. Harris is but another in the long line of political appointees who makes a nice living, thank you very much, off of the backs of Trenton and New Jersey (remember folks, Trenton receives a lot of subsidies from the State). One could say his connections are the strongest part of his resume. And he's got the prime seat on the Merry-Go-Round that is Trenton's Housing and Economic Development Department.
Well, at least they didn't put Dennis Gonzalez back in charge.
4 comments:
I've been wondering why His Douginess didn't just issue a waiver. Can't Sasa do her job from Spain?
Well the distance certainly wouldn't have lessened her effectiveness in the position any.
She could only be as effective as she was allowed to be. You aptly pointed this out on your blog when she was hired; and we quote you “So, what hope does Ms. Montaño have of being truly creative and proactive about jump starting redevelopment efforts in Trenton? With Chief of Staff Renee Haynes and Assistant Business Adminstrator Dennis Gonzalez standing over her shoulder there is little expectation that anything will change.”
Anonymous in City Hall
It's sort of sad that we were correct in our observation.
Such is life during the Palmer regime.
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