We have all been here before

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

---George Santayana 

This week, Trenton's city council is scheduled to vote on the approval of a proposed contract with Long Marmero and Associates of Woodbury, NJ. Resolution 14-490 would award a contract "not to exceed $20,000" to the firm for work on "general municipal and defense litigation matters."

This is the same contract that was pulled from the August 7 docket after questions were raised about whether or not the Long Marmero firm violated the city's pay-to-play ordinance.

(For background on this matter, we refer you to Kevin Moriarty's blog entries for August 4, August 5 and August 7.  You can also read stories in the Times and the Trentonian.) 

Here's a synopsis of the facts of the matter:

• The Initiate Civic Empowerment Political Action Committee was formed by members/employees of the Long Marmero firm. 
• The ICE PAC shares its business address with that that of the Long Marmero firm
• The ICE PAC had somehow neglected to file the required reports with the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission from 2012 until June of this year. Those reports were filed exactly one day AFTER Kevin Moriarty blogged about the failure to file.
• The ICE PAC recently changed its designated treasurer from Albert Marmero, one of the partners of the Long Marmero firm, to a "scheduling secretary" who is an employee of the firm.  
• The ICE PAC has contributed money to and paid consulting fees to the Mayor of Delran, who in turn chose the Long Marmero firm to serve as the township's solicitor. 
• Doug Long, a partner in the Long Marmero firm, is a Cumberland County Freeholder who has received contributions and reimbursements from the ICE PAC that Long alleges his law firm does not control. 

The resolution is back on the docket after the DCA declared that the Long Marmero firm was "qualified to perform the services and their price is reasonable." 

The DCA has NOT ruled on whether or not the firm violated the city's pay to play ordinance.

So, it is up to Trenton's governing body to decide if they want to approve this contract or not.

We remind everyone of a similar situation that arose in late 2010 and early 2011. The administration of the now incarcerated Tony Mack lobbied extensively to have the city council...essentially the same city council minus newcomer Councilman At Large Duncan Harrison...to go with a new provider of IT consulting services.

Ignoring the obvious shortcomings of Lynx Technology Partner's low bid in response to the city's RFP for IT services, the governing body voted in favor of the newcomer.  In explaining his January 2011 vote in favor of the Lynx contract, Councilman Zachary Chester cited a "letter" from the DCA approving this choice. That "letter" was in fact merely a form from DCA signifying that indeed Lynx had submitted the lowest bid. It stated nothing about the firms qualifications.

The choice of Lynx Technology Partners was later challenged in court and tossed out in favor of the city's long time IT services provider, ADPC, Inc. 

The governing body was advised by many to NOT approve the contract with Lynx Technology Partners. Yet they did and the city ended up fighting and losing a court battle over it.

Many are now urging essentially that same body to NOT approve the contract with the firm of Long Marmero and Associates. Whether or not the firm has found an actual loophole in the city's pay-to-play ordinance, the appearance of a violation is enough to taint any contract with Long Marmero.

We hope they do not repeat the past. 

Bass ackwards

When you hire an employee, you usually try to hire someone with the most qualifications and/or experience pertinent to the job he or she will be doing.

At least that is the theory.

In the city of Trenton, it appears that the inverse is more the rule than the exception. The hiring policy in city hall seems to follow the old adage "it is not what you know, but who you know."

Marc McKithen, city law director, is a case in point. 

Marc is bright, well educated, and with a strong ethical bent.  He is not an expert in municipal law...especially the byzantine version followed here in NJ.  McKithen admitted as much while being questioned by city council woman Marge Caldwell-Wilson during his confirmation (advice and consent) appearance before the governing body.

Apparently, above and beyond his actual qualifications for the position, McKithen comes from a large, well-known local family.  One of his uncles gave a substantial contribution to the Tony Mack campaign.  Marc made a contribution as well.

During his brief tenure as the city attorney, Marc made some bad calls and a couple of good ones.

One notable example of the latter was McKithen's lack of understanding of the New Jersey's public purchasing laws that lead to the ADPC/Lynx IT consulting contract debacle.  It resulted in the case going before Judge Linda Feinberg, who not only decided against the city's position but gave Mr. McKithen quite the tongue lashing.  The judge was none too pleased with the city's complete abandonment of the proscribed purchasing process.

To the good, Marc McKithen famously and correctly declared the legal services contract between the city and the Cooper Levenson law firm void due to campaign contribution law (pay-to-play).  The Cooper Levenson firm is headed by Lloyd Levenson. The firm contributed significantly to the Partners for Progress political action committee that in turn gave money to Mayor Mack's campaign.  The contribution was allegedly withdrawn by the firm and repaid by the campaign although there was never any hard proof of that. 

What didn't come out at the time or in the aftermath, was that Cooper Levenson also made a $2,500 contribution to another political action committee, Trenton Thrives that in turn spent money on behalf on Keith Hamilton's campaign to become mayor of Trenton.  This also violates the city's pay-to-play law and would have disqualified the firm from doing business with the city.

Levenson himself served as a chair of the Mayor's inaugural ball. His name was featured prominently on the invitation to the event.  In most circles, that constitutes solicitation on behalf of the Mayor and thus would violate the pay-to-play law as well.

All that didn't seem to matter and the administration saw to it that council approved the contract to Cooper Levenson in the fall of 2010.  Only later, when things started getting heated in the press, did Mr. McKithen (who, it must be pointed out, was on staff but not yet the actual law director when the contract was approved) determine the contract to be null and void.

The Mayor quickly issued a follow up message stating that Mr. McKithen was wrong and that the contract was legal and in force.  As the public turned up the heat on the deal, Cooper Levenson oh so gallantly "withdrew" from the contract.

Then came the onslaught of Open Public Records Act requests.  Reportedly, the Mayor didn't like the fact that McKithen was complying with the law and releasing information to the public.  Information that demonstrated just how inept, corrupt and sloppy the Mack administration was.

Rather than clean up his act, the Mayor decided to clean house and put pressure on McKithen to resign.

McKithen has apparently given up trying to bring some semblance of law and order to the Mack administration and has tendered his resignation effective June 30.

So the guy who was trying to do the right thing is being forced out of an administration that needs all of the competency it can get.

Bass ackwards.

State of the City

We’ve been tempted to draft a lengthy dissection of Mayor Mack’s State of the City Address but hesitated. Fortunately, Dan Dodson was on it immediately and posted a thoughtful response on his blog.


Sometimes, procrastination pays off.

At tonight’s city council meeting, that pay off came. Sort of.

Resolution 11-157 was the extension of the information technology (IT) consulting contract with ADPC. This is the contract that an RFP was issued for last fall and that resulted in the controversial and faulty hiring of an unqualified vendor, Lynx Technology Partners.

ADPC, who has provided this service to the city for over 20 years, took the matter to court and prevailed.

In an order issued on March 11, Judge Feinberg determined that the RFP process would need to be rebid and that ADPC would continue under the terms of the current contract until June 30, 2011.

Tonight’s resolution was presented on the docket this way:

11-157 RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE CONTRACT WITH ASSOCIATED DATA PROCESS CONSULTANTS, INC. (ADPC), 116 VILLAGE BLVD, SUITE 200, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES FOR THE CITY OF TRENTON, DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION, DIVISION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (not to exceed $319,2000 term March 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011)

According to a report posted by Bob Chilson on his blog, when the resolution came up for a vote, it failed to pass.

Councilwoman Holly-Ward asked the City Attorney, Marc McKithen, if there was any paperwork to back up the resolution. McKithen reportedly stated he didn’t have anything.

Council voted 5-2 against the resolution. The two members who voted in favor of the resolution, Council President Muschal and Councilwoman Caldwell-Wilson, were the only two to vote against awarding the IT contract to Lynx technologies in the first place. It is pretty obvious that they are paying attention.

It is hard to say what is more disappointing in this matter…the complete lack of understanding on the part of five city council members as to what the judge ordered or McKithen’s apparent refusal to offer a proper and thorough explanation of the matter so they could vote intelligently.

At best, we have a situation where the ignorance and incompetence of a majority on our governing body is compounded by the willful contempt demonstrated by the city attorney and the rest of the Mack administration.

That, friends, is the real state of the city. It is not "well."

The price of ignorance

Merriam-Webster’s definition of IGNORANCE

The state or fact of being ignorant: lack of knowledge, education, or awareness

If there was any doubt about the complete inability of our Mayor to comprehend the depths of his inept management of the city, they have long been buried under the blizzard of catastrophes that have befallen Trenton.

From day one, the choices Mayor Tony F. Mack have made as the city’s chief executive officer have lead from blunder to blunder. Starting with the hiring of friends and supporters at a time when the city was facing a critical fund shortage and pending layoffs of experienced and skilled employees; moving through appointments of legally tainted individuals to his cabinet; the indictment of his half-brother on charges of using city resources to profit from a side business of doing plumbing repairs; and now the pending legal action against the Mack administration for failing to follow state public contracting laws (let alone common sense). The Mack administration has demonstrated conclusively that it is overflowing with ignorance. And arrogance.

When advised by Council President Muschal and Councilwoman Caldwell-Wilson of reported problems with employees in the Trenton Water Utility, the Mayor reportedly shrugged it off. The subsequent arrest and indictment of water works employees demonstrated that Mayor Mack doesn’t get it.

The City’s Housing and Economic Development Department prepared an error-filled and faulty ordinance for Council that would have sold city-owned properties to a developer for $1 each. The developer, it turns out, had given generously to the Mack campaign; so generously, in fact, as to have exceeded the limits for campaign contributions. An error like this is supposed to be discovered and corrected WITHIN 48 HOURS of the receipt of the contribution. Some seven and one half months after the contribution was received, the overage had not been returned. Only after the matter became public knowledge did Mayor Mack offer to refund part of the contribution and split the balance between the contributor and his wife in an attempt to comply with the law. (NOTE: as of this writing, there is no public record that any money has been returned to the contributor).

The fact that the Housing and Economic Development staff was decimated by layoffs and retirements played heavily into this matter. By the admission of Acting Director Henrietta Owusu, no one on her truncated staff was able to catch the fact that the majority of the properties being offered to the developer were NOT in a redevelopment area and therefore could not be sold without benefit of some sort of pubic auction. Further, the remaining properties that were in a redevelopment area were not in the redevelopment area stated in the ordinance. While she took full responsibility for the errors and omissions as acting department director, Owusu indicated it was the fact that the department was left critically short-handed by the staff reductions that created the mess.

The Mack administration apparently doesn’t grasp the value of having knowledgeable and experienced employees on hand to perform vital tasks. In fact, the administration seems to favor incompetent and inexperienced friends as witnessed by the hiring practices of the last seven months or so.

Why else would he hire unqualified individuals as Park Rangers and put them “in charge” of city hall security? Or make his campaign committee treasurer his personal secretary? Now the Mayor is reportedly thinking of making this man, the same man who cannot properly complete and file the required campaign reports with the state, the Assistant Business Administrator?

Ignorance.

Perhaps the greatest example of the Mack administration’s lack of awareness and/or knowledge is the matter of the Information Technology (IT) consulting contract. The entire process for competitive contracting as defined in the state statutes was tossed aside by Mayor Mack and his minions so that a favored but flawed vendor could get the contract.

The newly minted city attorney, whose experience with municipal law was questioned at the time of his nomination, was apparently ignorant of the process and gave little in the way of sound advice to the city council as they deliberated the matter.

The city’s long time purchasing agent had left during the RFP process and was not there to shepherd it along.

Similarly, the IT Director for the city was let go in the November layoffs. His exit left no one with a sound understanding of the city’s IT needs to effectively evaluate the proposals of the three bidders.

Just think, Trenton could have kept the IT director on instead of the two worthless, inexperienced and unqualified “grant writers” hired by the Mayor and who have yet to land any grant of any significance to the core functions of the city.

More ignorance.

Now the city is facing legal action via a complaint filed by the long-time IT consulting company who was thrown over for the new guy. It remains to see what this will cost the taxpayers in additional monies unnecessarily paid out due to the administration’s fumbles and foibles.

But let’s not turn a blind eye to the governing body’s role in the IT fiasco. City Council, or at least the five members who voted to award the contract to the vendor with the faulty proposal, must share the mantle of ignorance with the Mayor. Various members of the public tried to explain the problems with the process but the council wouldn’t listen.

Turning a deaf ear to the voices of reason is most likely going to be a costly experience.

The price of ignorance.