First and foremost…laying off any employee of the Trenton Water Works does not save money! Let me repeat that. Laying off water works employees does not save money.
How is this so? Well as you should know by now, the Trenton Water Works operates on its own budget separate and distinct from the city of Trenton Trenton
Cutting the number of employees in the water utility does not save the city money or lower the property tax rate for Trentonians.
In fact, the argument can be made that reducing personnel costs at the water works actually hurts the city and can contribute to tax increases for city property owners.
How?
Because the city of Trenton
Got it? Good.
Now back to those technicians…why, you might ask yourself, would we lay anyone off from the water works, especially licensed professionals if it isn’t saving us money and thus lowering taxes?
Good and fair question. The answer lies in the fact that even though it operates on its own budget, the Trenton Water Works currently resides organizationally within the city Department of Public Works. Civil service laws require that if a layoff impacts a department it must impact every division within that department. You can’t lay off people from solid waste but leave the water works employees alone.
If you recall, late last winter the city announced a plan to essentially shut down operations each Friday for 13 or 14 weeks as a cost saving measure. This would have been an across the board shutdown…including licensed water utility staff. This plan was eventually shelved at least in part because the city could not show how it could conduct these layoffs and still staff the water utility with the properly credentialed individuals.
In a letter dated February 15, 2011, John Plonski, the Assistant Commissioner for Water Resource Management at NJDEP, sent a letter to Mayor Mack raising the concern of proper staffing of the treatment facility during these weekly furloughs. The letter reminds the mayor that the water system is required to have licensed staff on duty at all times.
Makes sense, right? There needs to be proper, professional operators of the water system that so many depend on for potable water.
When the September layoffs are approved and notices sent out, Mr. Plonski sent a second letter, this time to then Business Administrator Eric Berry. This letter, dated August 5, 2011 (scroll down past thesecond page of the first letter) is more forceful and direct. Mr. Plonski states the case quite plainly:
“The NJDEP has identified the lack of qualified personnel as a key problem adversely affecting TWW’s ability to effectively operate its water system.”
A thinking person might reconsider the wisdom of laying off technicians in a utility already short handed. Alas, our mayor does not think. Or does he.
You see, the two licensed individuals targeted for layoff just happen to have testified before the grand jury last year about the misdeeds of Stanley Davis, the mayor’s half brother. This is a case of retaliation pure and simple.
The mayor is not laying them off for matters of “economy and efficiency”. They are being singled out because they did the right thing and told what they knew about Mr. Davis.
Not convinced?
How about this: last winter and again this summer, city council tried to pass an ordinance rearranging the organizational structure to create a standalone water and sewer authority department that could be isolated from the layoff plans. The first attempt was shelved because the less than astute members of council couldn’t grasp why it was needed. Then the city withdrew the “Friday furlough” plan and the issue didn’t come again until the September layoffs loomed. That time, council passed the ordinance 4 – 3 but the mayor refused to sign it or discuss it and council couldn’t raise the fifth vote needed to override Mr. Mack.
It’s pretty common knowledge that when layoffs are planned, the most recent hires (the ones with least seniority) go first. How is it that the long term employees…the licensed technicians were slated for layoff when two laborers and three water meter readers hired shortly after Mayor Mack took office were not?
Certainly the two laborers, Rodney Washington and Terrance Bailey should have been on the layoff list. Both are known Mack supporters with legal and other problems in their pasts. They are also the ones named in a harassment complaint brought by Kevin Moriarty for their verbal abuse while he tried to collect signatures for the recall petition.
The meter readers, too, by common sense would be the first to go in a layoff. One, Charles Hall, is the nephew of Mack crony Harold Hall and although being paid by the water utility, is now assigned to oversee landscaping and design work in city parks. Work that young Mr. Hall is absolutely not qualified to do. Another is one time caterer and former owner of the now-closed Maxine’s restaurant, Henry Page. Page, another Mack “friend” reportedly cannot or will not complete his daily meter reading assignments, leaving them for others to do.
A week before the September 16 layoffs, Civil service stepped in and told the Mack administration to “bump” the technicians down to water meter readers and, presumably, layoff the two of the most recently hired readers.
That didn’t happen. Instead, the Mack administration tried to move the technicians into laborer positions. The techs balked; the administration moved to dismiss them entirely; a lawsuit was filed. A temporary restraining order halting the dismissal of the employees was also filed but ultimately, Judge Pereksta reversed it. “While I agree that the DEP is recommending that (the utility) be more fully staffed, it’s too thin (an argument) to say that there is going to be this major effect on the safety of the citizenry of Trenton
Assistant Commissioner Plonski states in his August 5 letter: “Recent service disruptions due to operational deficiencies, which have not yet been resolved, indicate that TWW should not decrease the number of experienced and educated individuals who hold the licenses necessary to effectively operate the water treatment plant and distribution system. Targeting those licensed personnel serving TWW for layoff at a time when significant operational issues still exist is inappropriate and threatens the ability of TWW to provide a safe, dependable water supply to the City of Trenton
Judge Pereksta feels that is “too thin to say that there is going to be a major effect on the safety”.
George Dougherty, attorney for the technicians has this to say: “The evidence is overwhelming that the reduction of the technician staff from an already low six to three is truly a dangerous thing to do.” .
So, we guess Judge Peksta is ok with putting the water supply at risk for the sake of Mayor Mack's spite against the people who he doesn't like. And we guess that Mayor Mack must not like customers of the city owned water utility.
Pass the bottled water.
