City council asks why? How?

Balk at hiring extra administrator.

Trenton’s City Council members don’t often get praised for the job they are doing. And there may be reasons for that, but last night they put the brakes on another excursion of the Doug Palmer express as the administration tried to ram through approval of a $75,000 contract to pay for an assistant business administrator.

Good for the members of city council for standing up and saying, “What!?!? NO!!!”

For those who missed it, the Times’ Meir Rinde wrote it up in this morning’s edition.

The long and the short of it is this:

At a time when the city has laid off employees, including much needed inspectors in the technical services division, the administration wants to contract with a person to perform “assistant business administrator” duties to ease the load of one Dennis Gonzalez who was “promoted” last year when former Business Administrator Jane Feigenbaum left to take a job in Perth Amboy.

Interestingly, the administration’s rationale for needing to hire this consultant is so the city can draft policies and manage assets in accordance with suggestions from auditors. Specifically, the adoption of whistle blower and conflict of interest policies as well as updating and maintaining a current inventory of city assets are needed and would be the responsibility of the consultant retained to serve as assistant business administrator.

Bearing the above in mind, we ask:

What did Mr. Gonzalez do when he served as acting business administrator? Wouldn’t these policies and the inventory have fallen under his responsibilities?

If Mr. Gonzalez failed to complete the required work as assistant BA, how and why did he get tapped to move into the “Acting” Business Administrator position?

And that’s another thing: isn’t the title “acting” a provisional one good for only 90 days after which time the appointment is to be brought before council for approval? If that’s the case, does anyone remember Mr. Gonzalez’s appointment coming before council for final approval anytime since, oh say, last February?

Voting citizens of Trenton take heed. Your current city administration continues to run roughshod over the rules and procedures of the laws that govern our city. Watch closely what they do in the next few months and watch even more closely those currently on council and all who seek your favor to gain office in the coming elections.

Their actions will speak much louder than their words.

Last night, Council made an excellent point.