Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Another member of Commodore Palmer’s crew is leaving the sinking ship.

Posting on NJ.com tonight confirmed rumor that had been swirling all day.

Trenton Business Administrator (BA) Jane Feigenbaum has announced she’s leaving to take the same position in Perth Amboy starting in January.

Feigenbaum’s tenure in Trenton has been marked by interesting financial ideas, including the proposed sell off of the outlying distribution system of the City Water Utility in order to partially fill a potential $26 million budget gap; even though the sale of water to suburban customers generated enough of a surplus in past years to augment Trenton’s operating budget.

Interestingly, Feigenbaum is headed to Perth Amboy, a city currently plagued with its own budget shortfall and an investigation into the prior administration. She apparently beat out her own assistant, Dennis Gonzalez, for the position there. Gonzalez was rumored to be seeking a position in Perth Amboy a few months ago.

As a consolation, Trenton’s Assistant BA will be bumped up to “Acting” BA. Justifying his choice for Acting BA, Palmer claims that Dennis Gonzalez has “done outstanding work in every job he has performed.”

Does that include threatening a citizen for questioning his effectiveness when he headed the Housing and Economic Development Department?

In a sideways acknowledgement of the many departures from his cabinet, Palmer tossed off a comment about how the city is “generally prepared for when senior officials leave.”

Yeah, generally…they can find another body to plug the hole and tout the party line. Not necessarily excel at the position.

Who row the boat when all the good oarsmen have left?

1 comment:

Christine Ott said...

Dennis Gonzalez also makes "outstanding" doodles at public meetings.