Another strike against Jackson

It's not funny anymore.

The situation with Trenton Water Works is bad, but the issue of poor communication from the administration of Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson is way out of control.

The latter compounds the former.

Today, Trenton's water utility experienced another issue with poor quality resulting in a boil water advisory for customers in Trenton and parts of Ewing and Hamilton.

It was the NJ DEP who called for the boil water advisory and who, ultimately, got the word out. Trenton's communication mechanism was apparently paralyzed by the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

As word spread, first on social media, then via newspaper articles posted online, then a notice sent out by the Hamilton Township municipal government, there was nothing from the City of Trenton.

No robocalls, although several had been sent out reminding residents of no trash pick up today.
No posting on the city website until way after the fact.

This begs the question, yet again, #WheresEric?

The problems with the utility have been well documented elsewhere. It is unfathomable that a man who spent a good chunk of his career with responsibility, first as Public Works Director and later as Mayor, of the TWW couldn't get a handle on the issues even a little bit.

There have been problems with staffing for years and Trenton's residency requirement for employees was often cited as a problem. In 2014, Trenton's city council passed amendments to the ordinance that allowed the city hire from outside the city boundaries if need be. Still, TWW has been cited as being woefully understaffed.

Trenton was ordered to make cover and make other improvements to its reservoir. The money is there, yet the work has not been done.

The state Department of Environmental Protection, citing the city's continued failure to properly staff and manage the utility, told them to move ahead with contracting for an outside operator to take over.

That hasn't been done.

With each repeated failure of the water treatment plant, customers wait for information and advisories from the city. And wait. And wait.

The mayor is an "experienced" government officer who sold himself to voters as someone who could "hit the ground running" and successfully handle the running of Trenton. He's brought back lots of equally "experienced" city hall veterans as division and department directors. And he has well paid public information officer. Yet Jackson and company are incredibly tight-lipped when there's a problem with the drinking water supply (or missing employment tax funds or any other negative issue). If team Jackson communicates anything at all, it is late and lacking pertinent details.

Just look at today's notices posted on three municipal websites about the water issues:

Here's Ewing's notice to residents:

Hamilton posted this one:

And Trenton, finally...well after the fact...put up this very spartan announcement. 

Finally, just a mere 12 hours after first becoming aware of the problem, the city of Trenton utilized its robocall system to contact TWW customers.

It certainly shows that the first term mayor and his hand chosen team are not up to the task of running a water utility or a city; and certainly not both.

How can the mayor say he's working on economic development when he can't communicate? How can he claim to be making Trenton a better place to work and live when he can't safeguard the water supply? How can anyone feel good about investing in, moving a business to or residing in a city run by a bunch of mute misfits?

It remains to be seen if Jackson is going to run for a second term. As of a week ago, he had not filed his campaign paperwork. And we know he hasn't kept up with his finance reports from the 2014 campaign.

If he does run, there isn't a single voter in Trenton who should give up his or her vote to this failed mayor.

If he doesn't run let us hope he isn't given an appointment in the administration of incoming governor Phil Murphy. We can't think of any one less qualified for a continued government paycheck.

And, if Jackson doesn't run, voters would be well advised to not vote for any candidate or slate that gets a Jackson endorsement.

Eric E. Jackson has failed Trenton and it is time for the voters to fail him.

The rise and fall of Chambersburg's famed restaurant district

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on something I wrote a few months ago. Last August, a younger friend had emailed me asking if “the food in Chambersburgwas ever actually good?”

Here is a slightly reworked and expanded version of what I wrote back to him in response:

When evaluating "Chambersburg" of old, a few things must be kept in mind.

1. Range.

There was a wide variety of restaurants, everything from the workingman's bar with a dining room that served heaping portions of basic, comfort-type dishes to "nice" family-style restaurants, to high-end places with top notch service and quality (and top prices!).

2. Menu.

It bears remembering there weren't as many chains and but more "Mom and Pop" establishments to choose from. The food offered may have been more Italian-American than purely Italian, but there was a care in preparation and pride in the quality of ingredients that elevated it above the norm.

Veal/chicken/eggplant parmigiana are examples of dishes that might not be the epitome of high Italian cuisine but when prepared with a good, house made sauce and prime ingredients sliced and breaded and fried to order, the results were more than satisfying.

The American culture had not yet turned into the "foodie nation" we are today. Few of us knew about regional American cuisine, let alone the breadth and width of "exotics" like Italian (or Greek, Jewish, Polish, etc.). You knew what you grew up with and judged everything against that.

While I was obviously exposed to Italian cooking and dishes when growing up, we ate "macaroni" and the "sauce (my family didn't use the "gravy" term much) was red except for Christmas Eve when we had aglio e olio with anchovies.

My mother, a non-Italian Midwesterner, was probably the first to make "lasagna" in our family, but my Italian Grandfather’s sisters taught my Jewish grandmother to make ravioli from scratch and that was the only kind I ate for the first ten years of my life or so. It wasn’t until Porfirio's opened and offered quality, local product at reasonable prices that we stopped eating homemade ravioli and put Grandmom out of business!

3. Custom.

A good part of the high rating the Chambersburgof old received was based upon the presentation of the meal. No matter what level restaurant, there were touch stones to old world hospitality that go well beyond the abondonza of all you can eat pasta at Olive Garden. When you dined in Chambersburg, whether at Ceasare's or Diamond's, there was pride in what was put on your table and how it was presented.

When I was a kid, Marsilio's was the restaurant where I was introduced to eating in courses. The food was always good but it wasn’t as stylish as it became in the last decade before the Roebling Avenue site closed. Even if the dishes were served family style, the fact that the salad came out, then the pasta, then our entrees set the pace. The anticipation (for me) added to the enjoyment. It was the same up and down the price range of restaurants.

4. Mystique.

For non-Italians, the accessibility of this "exotic" cuisine and good service so close to home made it special.

Add to that the sense of being treated "differently" as a regular at places like Crecco's or getting your own “pitcher” at the later incarnation of Marsilio’s. In the really successful restaurants everybody was made to feel "special" (some just more so than others) and welcome.

So, yes, I think Chambersburg's reputation was deserved. I believe the old stories of people jumping on the train from DC just to come to Trentonfor a fine Italian meal. Why wouldn’t they? We used to drive to Baltimore just to get some steamed crabs and then come home. So what happened?

Chain restaurants have, in my opinion, taken the once authentic (or Americanized-authentic) and homogenized and standardized the quality out of Italian and other cuisines. They have succeeded by providing the "same experience nationwide" for a public too averse to taking a chance on a non-brand name dining experience. These are the kind of people who will forego the potential of experiencing a Tattoni's white chicken cacciatore or roast pork and instead choose a Caraba's or Macaroni Grill or Olive Garden meal; the same people who will stand on line to eat at McDonald's in Rome.

With their portion controlled, commissary assembled range of products; chain restaurants have created an economical dining option with ample nearby (and usually free) parking. They play into the mall mentality of the suburban clientele. Their sterile and soulless menu options offer up synthetic cultural adventures to the tract home and McMansion set.

But to be fair, the demise of Trenton’s Chambersburg is not just the fault of chains.

The restaurant business is tough. It takes many long hard hours to source, procure, produce and serve better than average meals. You need a dedicated staff. In the early days, that staff was mostly family. A generation or two down the line and the dedication to carrying on the family business wanes. The parents retire; the kids don’t want to carry on. The business closes.

For those few restaurants that did manage to continue on past the second or third generation there were other problems.

As the middle class flowed out of the city, the once loyal, Trenton-resident clientele diminished. It was less enticing to travel back to the city for a nice night out when all those options existed along Route 1 and elsewhere.

The ups and downs of the economy contributed as well. Marginal operations failing to attract new customers to replace their aging and dispersed regulars began to close.

The sagging fortunes of a mismanaged city and the demographic changes of the neighborhood kept the suburban customers away. The old line restaurants closed and/or moved out. The city’s famed restaurant district lost its luster and the critical mass needed to make it thrive.

The problem is simply that, for the reasons outlined above, the restaurants no longer had a customer base that would support them in their traditional locations. If the customers kept coming, the restaurants would have stayed.
The announcement that Rossi's is going to close the Trenton location after 80 years and move to Hamilton marks the death of the "old Chambersburg".

It will be interesting to see how well the Trenton restaurant diaspora will do and for how long.

And what of the new Latino eateries that have opened in the wake of the departure of the Italians, will they evolve to the point where there will be a new, vibrant Chambersburg restaurant district that will attract not only locals but diners from the suburbs and beyond?

Manure

Trenton Mayor Tony Mack gave his "state of the city" address before city council Monday evening.

The text of the speech can be found on the city website, here.

Don't go there if you are looking for any revelations, significant accomplishments or measurable goals for the coming year.

Mayor Mack started off, as is his "tradition" reminding the audience that his administration managed to balance the budget even with the $55 million deficit his first year in office, $34 million last year and $26 million this year. He then criticized those who point out that balancing the budget is the law and his administration should claim no extra credit for merely doing its job.

In his view, there will always be a higher demand for services than the city's revenues will pay for. We suppose that means he still feels it is necessary to run sports leagues and put on festivals and parades even when there is no money for such unnecessary activities.

The next item was a brag about how much money in grants and aid has been awarded the city during his tenure. This is another indication of just how out of touch with reality he is.

Taking pride in surviving off of handouts is just wrong. A real leader (heed this all of you mayoral wannabes) would be seeking ways to raise revenues and LESSEN the dependence on grants and government largesse.

A responsible mayor would be working very hard to move the city towards a firmer fiscal footing with a long term goal of become something close to self-sustainable. (Another fault of too many of those desiring to hold public office, they don't look past the next election cycle).

Keeping to the grants theme, the mayor gave props to those individuals in the city who write the grant applications that successfully bring in the money.  Of course, he has no problem wasting money not using grant software the city subscribes to. How much more in grants might we bring in if we used this? We are paying for it regardless.

The mayor wraps up his fiscal responsibility pitch by claiming that the reason we have received so much financial assistance is because he has righted the budgetary ship. He then launches into the oft repeated sources of revenue he is ready to tap into...delinquent tax liens, unpaid municipal court fines and costs, and squeezing the last drops of money leftover from completed projects in the hope of applying them elsewhere.

This notion, again, demonstrates Mack's total lack of a grasp of the situation. Even if, and it is a big IF, the city were 100% successful in collecting the unpaid tax liens and the court revenues, it is a one shot deal. These are not revenue streams. They are little caches of money we may be able to tap into. Once. It is just another stop gap measure; one of those "one-shot gimmicks" that the mayor later decries.

Predictably, he touted the deal with Thomas Edison State College for the Glen Cairn Arms site. He conveniently forgot to mention that in last year's speech he listed, on page 13, under "accomplishments" that "the old Glen Cairn Arms site will finally be demolished, and a developer will be sought to create a more marketable and valuable site." {our emphasis}

First, if it is an "accomplishment" it has, by definition been done. So if it "will finally be demolished" (future tense) in could not have been accomplished (past tense). And, indeed, it wasn't accomplished. And it still isn't.

The city council approved the sale of the property and the city has signed a disposition agreement about what "will" happen. The fact remains, one year later, the site is exactly the same as it was when he gave last year's speech.

This year's speech is full of those kinds of statements inconsistent with his prior state of the city addresses. No reference to last year's "Comprehensive Crime Initiative" (that never was comprehensive or even an initiative). No commentary about the cops walking the beat.

He did state that the Trenton Police Department reopened the East and West district stations to "increase response time" and that is the way the script reads. Obviously he is as careless as he is delusional.

We could go through each paragraph of this less than 30 minute speech and point out all the things that are wrong. You don't deserve that pain.

We don't deserve this mayor.

The state of the city is quite simply worse than it was last year or the year before. Tony F. Mack's tenure as mayor has been nothing short of a disaster.

Let us hope his failures are noticed by those who seek to replace him and they do everything they can to not repeat them.

Nothing was delivered

Nothing was delivered
And I tell this truth to you,
Not out of spite or anger
But simply because it's true.

Now, I hope you won't object to this,

Giving back all of what you owe,
The fewer words you have to waste on this,
The sooner you can go.

That pretty much sums up last night's city council meeting.

The anticipated appearance of secretary to the mayor Anthony Roberts to answer questions about the President Obama bust didn't happen.

It seems as though (per Council President Holly-Ward) Mr. Roberts never acknowledged the council's invitation to appear. Nor did Roberts acknowledge the Business Administrator's inquiries about whether he would appear.

And then the secretary to the mayor "called off sick."

Nothing is better, nothing is best,

Take care of yourself and get plenty of rest.

No opportunity to explain how contributions were solicited; how the foundry (in St. Louis) was chosen; who gave the secretary to the mayor the authority to approve a purchase order for the base. 

Nothing was delivered

But I can't say I sympathize
With what your fate is going to be,
Yes, for telling all those lies.

The other big draw tonight was the introduction of a (revised) ordinance to reduce the mayor's salary.

Now you must provide some answers

For what you sold has not been received,
And the sooner you come up with them,
The sooner you can leave.

 

As you will recall, the last attempt was stymied when East Ward Councilwoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, who voted in favor of the ordinance the first time, voted against it at second reading and against an override of the mayor's veto.

Reynolds-Jackson's arguments were a mishmash of things and she kept saying it needed to be reworked to clarify the language. She cited state Senator Shirley Turner's public comments AND introduction of a motion to amend the NJ constitution to call for the suspension of pay for indicted officials.

Although the East Ward representative never came forward with any revisions of her own, the ordinance was reworked to reflect her concerns and directly quotes Senator Turner.  Reynolds-Jackson still voted against the new version.

Nothing is better, nothing is best,

Take heed of this and get plenty rest. (Now you know)

The regular business of council was the review and adoption of the items on tonight's docket.

The purpose of docket review is to go over the items before the governing body. That is the time when questions are asked, explanations given (by the administration) so that the council members understand what they are acting on and why it is before them.

It has been a hallmark of the Mack administration, through all of the BA's, the short tenure of the Chief of Staff, and the various and sundry acting department heads, that there is seldom anyone present to offer explanations or illuminations to council on docket items. Without proper back up and/or explanations, there is no reason for council to act. This is how things are let go until the last possible moment. Or later.

This is how the city runs out of toilet paper.

Tonight, yet again, there was no one present to answer any questions that the governing body might have. No one, that is, except for Superintendent of the Sewer Authority Joe McIntyre.

Three items were pulled from the docket because there was no one present to answer questions. Three items that will be postponed until...?

Nothing was delivered

And it's up to you to say
Just what you had in mind
When you made ev'rybody pay.

One of the items pulled was a change order to an existing contract with Hatch Mott MacDonald.  HMD is listed as a contributor to the Obama bust. There are two other companies currently doing business with the city that are listed as contributors.

Councilman Zac Chester raised the question of whether these donations towards the bust violate the city's Pay-to-Play ordinance. He had asked this last month and had not received an answer. Tonight he was told by attorney Peter Cohen that the matter had not yet been reviewed.

No, nothing was delivered,

Yes, 'n' someone must explain
That as long as it takes to do this
Then that's how long that you'll remain.
 
The question was put to us earlier, "Just what did council accomplish last night?"

As with so many meetings over the past two and a half years, the bare minimum was done.

Nothing is better, nothing is best,

Take heed of this and get plenty rest.

Save a cop's job

We can all agree and accept that the city of Trenton is in bad financial shape.

We all recognize that there must be some severe cuts in staff and services to balance the budget.

According to the folks at Fix Trenton’s Budget, their survey showed people somewhat favored cutting spending on cops.  While we won’t argue the results of the survey, we do disagree and we do wonder if people will feel the same after the police department is reduced in size by one third.

Be that as it may, what is disconcerting now and was equally questionable at the time of last November’s layoff/demotion cycle (and the May correction to that faulty process) is the continued employment of do nothing folks.

For example, the two grant writers hired by Mayor Mack. Yakial McBride (yes, daughter of now Council President and then running mate of the mayor, Kathy McBride) and Samara Lentz.

At last check, neither of these women had produced any significant grant income for the city.  Ms. Lentz in particular has had her hands on two grants.  One was for $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts to develop a reality video series spotlighting urban art.  Yeah, well you can pretty much figure out how much the NEA wanted to fund that plan.  $0 money received.

The second grant application was to the National Endowment for the Humanities in the amount of $400,000 to upgrade the HVAC system at Ellarslie Mansion in order to better preserve the collection at the City Museum.   Ms. Lentz fumbled that one, got a do over and still ended up with the city receiving $0.

Between them, McBride and Lentz earn $105,000 PLUS benefits!  And what do we get in return?

Now, if that isn’t bad enough what about that whip smart Management Assistant, Colin Cherry?  Mr. Cherry, for those of you keeping score, is the son of Merkle Cherry.  You may remember Mr. Cherry from when he was employed in the Palmer administration and his, um, departure, from that position.

Anyway, young Mr. Cherry has been assisting Business Administrator Berry with special initiatives.  For instance, Mr. Cherry was working on the long promised, yet to be delivered city vehicle fleet inventory etc.  That was, until Mr. Cherry was dispatched out to Ellarslie mansion (yes, the same Ellarslie Mansion that didn’t get the money for the improved HVAC system) for who knows what reason. 

What we do know is that Mr. Cherry earns his $56,000+ salary sitting all day playing on Facebook.

Add that salary to McBride’s and Lentz’s and we are over $160,000.  Before benefits.

Do you see where we're going with this?

I’ve found over $160,000 in salaries we might better spend elsewhere.

Want more?

Shortly after taking office, Mayor Mack hired two old buddies of his to work as laborers in the Water Utility: Rodney Washington and Terrance Bailey.  These guys are each earning over $20 per hour/$40,000 per year before benefits and whatever overtime they might catch.  They have yet to be threatened with layoffs, nor are they being disciplined for their various behaviors, lack of driver’s license, etc. 

Add another $80,000 to the salaries above and we’re at $240,000 before benefits and such. 

Then we have Charles Hall, son of Harold Hall.  Hall the younger got tapped for a meter reader job last August pulling in $46,356 in annual salary.  He seems to be safe from layoffs too.

Well, here’s my radical idea.  Let’s get rid of these six people before we even utter one word about laying off cops.

Hello! Is there anyone in there?

Less than two months before a recall effort can be initiated about our sitting city council members or mayor, and all is quiet?

No rumblings of a committee or committees being formed to rid City Hall of the incompetence, ignorance and arrogance that has prevented us from making any progress towards solving the fiscal problems facing us.

No outrage at the repeated failings of the administration to follow the laws of the land, let alone use common sense in managing the city day to day.

No outrage at the repeated failings of members of the governing body (city council) to grasp the most basic concepts of proper process and procedure even when it is pointed out to them in plain English.  Repeatedly.

Nearly nine months into this administration and we don't have a budget; we are on the last few months of an IT consulting contract and no IT Director; taxes are up, services are down.

Nod if you can hear me.