The Staton mess

Trenton’s city council voted last night to dismiss Deputy City Clerk and former At Large Councilwoman Cordelia Staton. This brings the curtain down on the first act of this saga. Let us hope that there is no second act in the way of a lawsuit.

 

The five individuals on council who voted to dismiss (Bethea, Caldwell-Wilson, Chester, Holly-Ward, McBride) Ms. Staton are to be commended for their action…if not they’re reasoning and rationale as reported in the press.

 

And even though we disagree with his position, we acknowledge that the South Ward Councilman Muschal stood by his principles and voted to keep the Deputy Clerk.

 

We are somewhat disappointed that the East Ward Councilwoman, Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, abstained for the vote. Hopefully, this was because of some reason other than an aversion to taking sides by making a controversial decision either way.

 

This situation quickly polarized city residents as demonstrated by the attendance at the August 5 city council meeting. Council chambers was packed and you could almost draw a line down the middle of the room that neatly divided the pro-dismissal and pro-Staton sides.

 

Overlooked in the outrage about Mayor Mack’s total mishandling of the situation are some facts which should be reviewed in order to put the whole affair in perspective.

 

Item 1: As far back as early 2007, Ms. Staton seemed to be aiming for the City Clerk position vacated by Anthony Conti’s resignation. Nothing wrong on the face of that, but keep in mind two points.

• She was less than one year into her second term as Councilwoman At Large.
• She was not certified as a municipal clerk* and may not have even started taking the required classes as yet.

Item 2: After not finding a suitable permanent replacement for Conti, in the fall of 2009 city council started taking applications from those interested the position. Ms. Staton put her name in for consideration even though after almost three years she was not yet a certified for the position.

 

Item 3: In February, 2010, Council member Melone spoke on the record of the need to let the new council taking office on July 1 to have the opportunity to select their own clerk and urged his colleagues not to make a permanent appointment. After repeated attempts to demonstrate a fair and impartial process at naming a permanent city clerk, Ms. Staton had removed her name from consideration, council terminated long time (and as yet un-certified) Acting City Clerk Juanita Joyner and hired Leona Baylor as Acting Deputy Clerk.** Citing the need for an experienced hand to guide the city through the spring elections, former clerk Anthony Conti was brought in as a consultant to help Ms. Baylor.

 

Item 4: In June, 2010, Ms. Staton discreetly resigned her council seat with less than a month to go in her term, quit her job at the Board of Education, and was quietly appointed Deputy Municipal Clerk for the city of Trenton by some of her colleagues. She still had not achieved certification as a Municipal Clerk.

 

Item 5: Voting in favor of the appointment were Councilman Melone (in apparent conflict with his stated position earlier in the year), Councilman Pintella (Staton’s running mate in 2002 and 2006) and Councilwoman Lartigue (who was not present at the meeting but voted via her cell phone). This vote raised a couple of procedural questions:

• Is Lartigue’s vote via cell phone allowed?
• What is the number required for a majority vote amongst the four council members actually present at the meeting, two or three?

Item 6: The Mack administration, regardless of its motives, was correct to point out the improper way that Ms. Staton was appointed. This did not give them the right or reason to treat her the way they did. You don’t fire someone by leaving a note on their chair while they are at lunch and you don’t call the police to have them escorted out of the building.

We’re sorry that Ms. Staton was mistreated by the Mack administration. Still that doesn’t remove the fact that she held the position through improper actions by the previous council as they tried to take care of one of their own.

 

We hope the current council will get some definite rulings on the propriety of voting by phone and other procedural matters before they get caught up in gaffes like their predecessors.

 

*Apparently, NJ state law allows the appointing of an Acting Municipal Clerk who has yet completed the course work and passed the certification exam providing that the appointee does obtain certification within a certain time frame.

 

**Also according to NJ state law, a person holding a valid municipal clerk certification can not be appointed Acting Municipal Clerk but can hold the title of Acting Deputy Clerk and fulfill all the duties of the Municipal Clerk.

 

That was the week that was

Or was it?

That was the week that was (or TW3) was a comedy show filled with political satire and parody that ran first on the BBC in 1962 and 1963 and then on NBC in 1964-65. The attitude of both the British and American versions was to illuminate the absurdities and foibles of contemporary culture and society by lampooning the establishment.

Last week’s three ring political circus in Trenton had similar, albeit unintended effect on the local government.

It began with the revelation that recently elected Mayor Tony Mack had nominated Carlton Badger, a convicted felon and admitted forger, to be the Director of Housing and Economic Development for the city. Mack tried defending his choice by saying Badger had paid for his past mistakes and should be accorded a second chance.

Few were buying it.

On the same day that the Times reported the above story, both papers ran advertisements that Mack’s Berkeley Avenue home was slated for a Sheriff’s Sale on August 25. The Mayor at first denied that he was in foreclosure. At a press conference two days later he claimed it was personal business and not for public consumption. And over the weekend Mayor Mack assured both the Times and the Trentonian that his finances were under control and “paid in full.”

At the same time, a story in the Bergen Record on Saturday delved deeper into Mack’s financial woes. It seems the Mayor has a history of financial difficulties stretching back several years and involving several properties. This includes two previous foreclosures on his residence.

There are also questions about his foundation, Tony Mack Cares, which hasn’t provided any reports on its operations or filed any tax returns since 2002.

The Mayor’s association with other questionable individuals does nothing to improve his image. The maximum contribution to his campaign (and long-time support) by the infamous Jo Jo Giorgiani and the financial issues of Pete Fields and Carla Hogan, Chairperson and Treasurer respectively, of the “Partners for Progress” Political Action Committee that helped fund the Mack campaign leave many wondering just what is going on.

And then there is the question of the $20,000 loan Mack made to his campaign in April.

Where did the money come from if Mack was already in foreclosure proceedings on his home, in arrears on rent for his business (Broad Street Grill, now closed), and he had no job?

Financial questions aside, Mack’s leadership continued to be questioned after he totally mishandled the dismissal of Deputy Clerk Cordelia Staton. It wasn’t just the rudeness of notifying Ms. Staton she was fired by leaving a letter on her desk chair while she was at lunch that was bad form. Someone, we can only presume the Mayor or one of his aides, called the police to have Ms. Staton physically removed from City Hall.

Mack’s highly public suggestion to city council that perhaps the calling of the police and the presence of local media personnel were planned did nothing for his credibility.

While we believe that Ms. Staton’s appointment in early June was done improperly, that misstep is nothing compared to the way the Mack Administration fumbled the attempt to dismiss her. Her removal now is most assuredly going to result in a lawsuit that will prove costly to the taxpayers of Trenton.

In an effort to defuse and disarm criticism of his personal and political missteps, Mack issued a hastily (and poorly) written press release touting his alleged successes of his first month in office. Unfortunately, the lengthy fluff piece is long on wishful thinking and short on actual substance.

What the events of the past week have demonstrated quite plainly is that Mayor Mack is not up to the task at hand. His decision making leaves much to be desired and shows that he is totally incapable of running the city of Trenton.

The only hope we have is for Mayor Mack to forget about appointing friends and cronies. He must…if he still can…surround himself with truly experienced and talented advisors and do as they direct him to do. Otherwise, he is going to sink the city deeper into debt than his predecessor did. Then will come the firestorm of ethics, if not criminal, violations.

Mack short on wisdom

City Hall a zombie land of hacks and paybacks.

The recent moves in and out of 319 East State Street seem to point out the new mayor’s shortcomings.

Respected and experienced municipal finance guru Bill Guhl suddenly departed last week after less than a month volunteering as the Acting Business Administrator. Indications are that Guhl’s suggestions on how to pull Trenton out of the economic swamp were not only falling on deaf ears, but that there was open resistance from the Mayor’s cronies. While some see Guhl’s departure as a diva-like act, others give him credit for trying but walking away rather than to continue to bang his head on the wall of mayoral indifference.

Next came the announcement that Carleton Badger was named the acting Director of Housing and Economic Development. Mr. Badger, it seems, has had some legal issues in the past that, amongst other things, cost him his real estate license for a time.

Quoted in an article in the Times, Mayor Mack brushes the lapses aside and suggests that Mr. Badger has “paid his debt to society.”

The problem is Mr. Badger didn’t have one ethical misstep. According to the Times, Badger “…has been twice indicted for forgery, pleaded guilty to a theft charge that was brought in 2001, and has a history of bankruptcies and other financial difficulties.”

Further on in the article, LeRoi Banks, a former business partner of Mr. Badgers, indicates that there is more to be learned.

"He took money from me a lot of different ways," Banks said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."

This doesn’t generate a lot of confidence in the statements that Badger has reformed and has readjusted his ethics.

At the tail end of the same article in the Times comes notice of three new appointments. Preacher and former West Ward Council Candidate John Vaughan has been tapped as an aide to Mayor Mack.

Why are we hiring more aides when we are looking at laying off city employees? Another irrational decision.

And what about the two ladies hired as grant writers? One is Councilwoman Kathy McBride’s daughter. The other is reportedly a bartender at the Mill Hill Saloon.

Obviously, these two individuals are highly qualified for the position. Right.

Another move that has heads shaking and tongues wagging is the lunch-time pink-slipping of former Councilwoman Cordelia Staton from her Deputy Clerk’s position.

We do believe that the 11th hour appointment of Ms. Staton by her former colleagues during the waning days of the previous administration was wrong.

We also believe that the Mack administration could have demonstrated a little more class in the handling of the situation.

Almost makes one wish for the good old days of the Palmer dynasty.

Almost.

The blame game

"It's not my fault. I didn't cause it." --- the late George Carlin, comedian

Trenton’s lame duck city council took a double-barreled blast in the Trentonian yesterday.

In his Thursday column, Trentonian scribe L.A. Parker claimed that the five members of council who voted against the city budget demonstrated a lack of “accountability.” Parker did give the South Ward Councilman, George Muschal, a pass for only having come on board after November’s special election. He chided the other four “No” votes (Bethea, Lartigue, Melone and Segura) for passing the responsibility determining the city’s tax increase to the state Division of Local Services. Parker claims the four did not own up to their part in helping “put Trenton in this position” of begging the State for money.

It comes as no surprise that Parker did not mention at all the irresponsible and spendthrift ways of the Doug Palmer administration that for the past two years has waited until the fiscal year was more than half over before submitting a budget to city council.

Instead, Parker wrote a companion piece in which Palmer “blasts” city council’s alleged irresponsibility in the matter.

“I introduced a budget to City Council and then it was up to them to schedule meetings or hold budget workshops. The ball was in their court. I don’t want to hear anything about my Plan B,” Palmer said earlier today.

“But now we have five city council members who are attempting to point the finger at me. I made my decisions. People elected me to be a leader and that’s what I have done. Being a leader is not for the weak of heart.”

Palmer praised President Paul Pintella and at large Councilwoman Cordelia Staton for “having the guts to take responsibility for the budget.

Both Parker and Palmer seem to ignore the fact that Council cannot act on the budget until it is submitted by the administration. And Palmer should have submitted a “worst case” budget months ago and not relied upon the Supreme Court to bail him out by allowing the TWW water sale to go through without the chance of a referendum, which it didn't do.

It is just too bad Parker doesn’t decry Palmer for not accepting his share of accountability in the matter.

Trenton’s electoral pickle

Bound to leave a sour taste
The abnormally large number of candidates running for Trenton’s elected offices (the mayor and seven city council seats) has raised the specter of a messy campaign season.

Mix in the totally incompetent way the current council went about replacing Acting City Clerk Juanita Joyner with a temporary, non-resident, Deputy Clerk and you have a recipe for complete electoral meltdown.

Even hiring in former city clerk Anthony Conti as a consultant to help the clerk’s office get through the May 11 election appears to be too little, too late.

In an interview with the Trentonian, Conti allows that even with an all out push, the clerk’s office may not be able to certify all candidates by the March 18 deadline.

It’s a mess. A complete and utter mess. A true case of “too many cooks spoiling the broth.”

Appointed Acting Municipal Clerk after Conti retired in 2007; Ms. Joyner has apparently completed all the required course work for the position but has yet to take the certification exam. Suddenly, this past fall, there was a big push to replace Joyner.

On the surface there appeared to be some questions about her competency, but there was also the coincidence of Councilwoman Cordelia Staton expressing interest in the position. (After serving two terms on council, Staton is not running for re-election this year).

This raised some eyebrows because the City Clerk oversees the election process on behalf of the city (the County Clerk and the County Board of Elections also have a role in the process, but the City Clerk is the primary authority). If Staton had been named clerk, her council seat would most likely have remained vacant until after the election. In the meantime she would be called upon to “referee” a Mayoral race featuring three of her council colleagues as candidates.

Many people were uneasy with the idea of Ms. Staton…who twice ran, and won, on the Palmer ticket with Paul Pintella and Manny Segura. Both are running for Mayor, but Segura has positioned himself as far from his former slate mates as possible.

There was reportedly considerable infighting amongst council regarding the suggested removal of Joyner just to replace her with Staton. After a couple of false starts to the process Staton withdrew her name from consideration.

Still, council suddenly and abruptly decided to not extend Joyner’s appointment. At the same time it was wisely and correctly pointed out that the incoming council should be the ones to appoint the next City Clerk.

One reasonable solution might have been to extend Joyner’s appointment through Labor Day at the latest. A certified, experienced individual…such as Mr. Conti, could then have been hired as a consultant through the elections to ensure a fair, transparent process.

Instead, council voted to end Joyner’ tenure as Acting Municipal Clerk effective Feb. 28 and retained the services of an Acting Deputy Municipal Clerk starting March 1...a mere three working weeks before the candidate certification deadline.

The person hired, Leona Baylor, is certified and has worked in the clerks office in Hightstown Borough. Baylor is not a city resident and that has raised some questions about the legality of her contract appointment.

Not to oversimplify, but if she is an appointee, she needs to be a resident; if she is truly a contract employee, she might be exempt. It all depends upon how you define the Acting Deputy Municipal Clerk position? And that definition may ultimately have to come from the courts…and cost the city more of our tax dollars to defend the case, not to mention possibly delaying the election process.

Candidates…many of which are running for office for the first time, are wondering where this all leaves them.

If the clerk’s office staff can’t adequately and accurately complete the certification process by the March 18th deadline, what will happen?

Legal sources have suggested that the courts can and probably would extend the certification deadline.

But even that may not be enough for some of the candidates. Especially in the city wide races where 385 certified signatures are required for a candidate’s name to appear on the ballot. Trenton voters can only sign one petition for Mayoral candidates and there are 10 running. That’s 3,850 separate individuals required to sign if all candidates are to get on the ballot. Not likely under any circumstances..

In the At Large Council race, voters can sign petitions for up to three individuals…one for each of the seats. With 11 people running for the three seats, odds are a little better that the candidates can get the number of required signatures. It will still be a daunting task.

What this really means is that, under the best of situations there would have been some attrition in the number of candidates come certification deadline day.

The screw-ups, fumbles and delays by council in filling of the City Clerk position almost guarantees a far from fair and even-handed election process.

The candidates will lose out. But more importantly, the city will lose out, yet again.

What part of "NO, THANK YOU" don't you understand?

Well it seems like our old friend E-Path is back on the agenda for City Council again.

According to Jim Coston's blog the CEO of this company that is desperate to build a city-wide WiFi mesh here in Trenton will visit Council and listen to their questions.

Questions, by the way, that the Palmer Administration has asked be submitted to them by Friday.

Ok, Mr. Pintella and Ms. Staton; Ms. Feigenbaum and Mr. Gonzalez; Douglas and Renee; in case you didn't get it the first few times we ran this by you:

Municipal WiFi models have yet to live up to their hype and promise.
E-Path has yet to deliver a system anywhere (read this or this -- including the comments or this).

Larger, more advanced and experienced corporations with deeper pockets have pulled out of the Municipal WiFi market.

These are facts, plain and simple.

Knowing and understanding all of the above, please tell us why the cash-strapped City of Trenton should commit to a contract with company that hasn't and probably won't build the system to deliver the services specified in the contract?

If you all are so damn sure that this will fly...let E-Path build the system and demonstrate it's total functionality and reliability. Then, and only then, should you have reason to come before Council and request approval of a contract for services.

Got it?

It figures

Newspaper reports indicate that the property swap, PILOT agreement and commitment of RCA funds to Maryland's Landex Corporation may just be approved. At the very least, the pending legislation will be on the docket for Thursday's Council meeting.

As we said before, it is another instance of a bad developer seeking help and money from the city to bail out their failed scheme.

Kudos to Councilmen Bethea and Coston for trying to inject common sense into the proceedings and questioning the notion of throwing good money after bad.

And Councilwoman Staton's concern about multiple exits from the properties is great...although current construction and occupation codes apparently don't require this.

Most telling though, are Council President Paul Pintella's comments. Lacking anything of substance to say on the matter, he is reported to have congratulated the developer on an "impressive PowerPoint presentation." The deep thinking Pintella concluded that he is inclined to support the proposal because "the current situation is unacceptable."

What else would we expect from him. Let's not forget how the City stepped in and bailed out the failed housing development initiated by the now defunct Urban League of Trenton. To Pintella, the City is apparently there to help struggling developers, no matter what their track record.

Let's take a pass on this deal and parcel out those properties to worthy developers who have proven their ability to provide decent home ownership possibilities. And let's work on getting Ms. Siegel and Landex to clean up their mess here in Trenton before they come asking for any further financial assistance or property swaps.

Just say no!

Tuesday’s City Council Conference session will include a presentation from Baltimore-based Landex Corporation. This is the group responsible for the Cityside apartments in various locations around town.

According to a report in the Times last week, Landex has proposed a property swap with the City of Trenton. Landex wants the City to turn over 14 buildings it owns in exchange for 22 Cityside buildings around Passaic and Spring Streets. The 22 Cityside properties currently each house 2 rental units, but under the proposed plan, the homes would be converted to single family, owner occupied units. Landex also wants a Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement, as well as a commitment of some Regional Contribution Agreement (RCA) monies as part of the deal.

Speaking for Landex, Chairwoman Judy Siegle admitted that renting to Section 8 tenants here in Trenton has not worked out as planned for the company.

Council President Paul Pintella and Council Vice-President Cordelia Staton both commented on the lack of quality in the current Cityside buildings.
It appears that under the proposed deal, Landex will utilize the RCA money and PILOTs to fund the conversion of all the properties into owner occupied units.

In essence, this failed corporate landlord that has been sucking up government money in the form of Section 8 rental payments, now wants the city to underwrite its exit from the rental business and support its development of properties for sale.

Once again, we have a would be developer coming to the city with its hands out looking for a contribution/financial support from our depleted coffers.

If Landex’s business model didn’t work out in the first place, what makes us think this new enterprise will succeed?

And what of these Section 8 tenants, where will they live? If they need rental assistance, they surely aren’t going to be able to buy one of these new homes.

Even if they could somehow finagle a deal to purchase a home, if they were “bad tenants,” how are they going to fare as property owners?

Nope. This seems like another bad idea that needs to be shot down.

We keep hearing that things have changed in Trenton and how developers are seeking out opportunities here in the city. But it always seems that they are seeking opportunities to get public funding, at least in part, for their projects.

One bad idea after another is presented, and there always seems to be a member of the administration ready to go to bat for the developer.

When will we learn to just say no?

Ok Kids. Recess is over let’s get back to work.

Apparently the death announcement of the K. Hovnanian project proposed for the former Champale site in South Trenton has brought out the worst playground behavior from some members of City Council.

Council President Paul Pintella has indicated that delays caused by “extending courtesies” to South Ward Councilman Jim Coston led to the projects downfall.

Is Mr. Pintella stating that the deal collapsed from working with rather than strong arming the elected representative of the South Ward to achieve a deal that was satisfactory to all?

Perhaps more interesting, is Councilwoman Cordelia Staton’s assertion that it was delays stemming from negotiations over “property values and assessments” that killed the deal. Trentonian reporter L.A. Parker characterized the Councilwoman’s stance as blaming “homeowners for challenging eminent domain procedures.”

Is she really suggesting that it was the residents who were against the government land grab of their private property who killed the deal?

For his part, Councilman Coston has reported that it has been his feeling for some time that the Administration desired to have a project done in Trenton by a nationally recognized developer such as K. Hovnanian and would do what was necessary to achieve that goal. Coston asserts that a remark from a high ranking administration official indicated that if this project did not get done, the land would remain undeveloped for the duration of Doug Palmer’s tenure as Mayor.

In other words, he was threatened to do it the administration’s way or suffer the consequences.

While not prone to accept all the rampant conspiracy theories that fly up and down the local grapevine, there is some history here that may just support Coston’s hypothesis.

In what may be a coincidence but is still interesting to note, Mr. Pintella mentioned at a TCCA meeting six or seven years ago that Trenton needed to attract developers like K. Hovnanian and/or Toll Brothers to town.

Since he is kept in Mr. Palmer’s expensive suit pocket, could it be possible that this was one of Pintella’s frequent bouts of verbal diarrhea where he let slip a little hint about something that might have been in the earliest discussion stages?

A little foreshadowing to indicate just how prescient an elected official he is?

And when the project was first proposed, it fit the footprint of the existing redevelopment site. It wasn’t until after the initial public approvals came in and some community meetings were held that the plans started to change and more land “might be needed.” At the builder’s request, the redevelopment area was increased to include privately held properties, thus paving the way for the use of eminent domain, “if needed.”

The city was so anxious to amend the redevelopment plan to comply with Hovnanian’s wishes that it was later determined by a judge that procedural errors were made which necessitated a “do over” and delayed the process further.

Of course, neither Mr. Pintella nor Ms. Staton mentioned that when they sought to blame someone for the failed project.

Hovnanian’s own fiscal troubles started to mount as the housing industry slowed. Was anyone really surprised that the company would give second thoughts to building in Trenton?

And is it equally unexpected that the Palmer administration, faced with losing yet another “high profile” project might try to quietly work toward a resolution…like a last minute request to extend the Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) payments?

It is completely plausible. This administration has proven so inept and challenged that it is desperate to have a name brand project as part of its legacy. To this end, the blame game will be utilized to deflect the harsh light of public disapproval from shining on the inadequacies of Mr. Palmer and his chosen few.

While others may have wished Councilman Coston had held a harder line against the expansion of the Hovnanian project from the get go, he at least tried very hard to serve and work with his constituents.

Mr. Pintella and Ms. Staton would do better to serve the people who ostensibly elected them to office than to the puppet master who continues to control their actions and words.

They need to stop these childish games of “I didn’t do it. He/she/they did it,” and get back to the business at hand.