Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Stupid is as stupid does...

...and says.

The following are direct excerpts from online stories regarding Trenton Chief of Staff/Deputy Mayor Paul Sigmund's lack of a valid driver's license when he was stopped for speeding in a city owned vehicle. Links to the full article are provide.

From the Trentonian: 


“It’s true that I don’t have a New Jersey’s license. I’ve been to DMV a couple of times but you need like six forms of identification to get a license. I will take care of it. And in regards to California, I have a permit that allows me to drive to work. I thought I could drive in New Jersey,” Sigmund said.


Sigmund attempted to explain his admitted mistake.

“I was totally lost in thought, rushing back to work because I had this great idea about improving our school system. I’ll tell you about it soon.”

Sigmund, in March, assured the Trentonian that he had “taken care of” his California problems, stemming from two unpaid tickets, and then promised to not drive a city car until he could show proof of rectification.

“I thought everything had been taken care of. I thought all of the restrictions had been lifted,” Sigmund said.
 
Again, from the Trentonian:
 
Mayor Tony Mack today said his Chief of Staff Paul Sigmund should not have been behind the wheel of a city-owned vehicle last weekend when he racked up tickets for speeding and driving without a license.

“In hindsight, Paul should not have been given a city car and he should not have been behind the wheel of a vehicle,” Mack said.

Mack said he had “no idea of how this occurred,” referring to Sigmund being issued the Trenton government Ford Escape without having a valid license.

Mack made one other statement, saying that he and Acting Police Director Joseph Juniak never discussed whether Sigmund should get a city vehicle.

“I didn’t speak to Juniak about this,” Mack said.



From the Times:

“My understanding, both from California and New Jersey, was that my license was valid,” Sigmund said yesterday.


He acknowledged he was speeding, saying he was “lost in thought” at the time of the stop and was unaware of how fast he was going.

During a press conference yesterday introducing former state treasurer David Rousseau as Trenton’s new finance adviser, Mack cited personnel issues in refusing to discuss whether he knew of Sigmund’s license status. But Sigmund said he told Mack about the issue earlier, when he believed he had it fixed.

“I brought it right to Tony’s attention the second I found out about it,” Sigmund said.

Sigmund said he drove to work yesterday morning, but would be leaving his sports utility vehicle at City Hall and finding another way home.

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yea, it says' you can't believe a word comimg out of CITY HALL.

Old Mill Hill said...

And there is more.

Last week, people were told CoS Sigmund was going to finalize the clearing of his driving privileges in California while back there for the Easter holiday.

This week, he was still being driven about town.

And then there is that weird situation at Police HQ on April 14 where a "volunteer" Park Ranger drove Sigmund to the ComStat meeting in his personal car (a Mercedes and PS was impressed) on his own time, but he was wearing a city Park Ranger uniform. Explanation: Mr. Willson was a volunteer Park Ranger and the uniform was to help perform his dutes to keep order. Of course Mr. Wilson said he was just at Police HQ (which is also the Municipal Court) to pay a parking ticket and just happened to give Sigmund a ride over. Sigmund was quoted in the Trentonian as saying Wilson "lied."
Yesterday, the Trentonian reported that an Open Public Records request filed by a citizen got a response that there are no volunteer park rangers.

So why was this guy in a city uniform and why did he drive the CoS to the police station?