Now what?

Is the defense team for Tony and Ralphiel Mack trying to stifle coverage of their trial on corruption charges?

{edited at 9 pm, 1/10/14 to include notes about and from the Times article on the matter}

On the same day that jurors and the public heard a recording of JoJo Giorgianni complain about Trentonian columnist LA Parker constantly writing stories picking on Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, the defense team appears to have subpoenaed another Trenton reporter.

On Friday evening, the Times of Trenton published a story online noting that Thursday morning, January 9, Times of Trenton reporter Alex Zdan was served with a subpoeana asking for "all notes pertaining to coverage of the Mack et al matter."

According to the article by Jenna Pizzi,
“Attorneys for The Times have notified the judge and the defense attorney of our intent to fight the subpoena," said Matt Dowling, editor of The Times. "Courts have long-recognized a privilege deeply rooted in the First Amendment that protects reporters from being compelled to provide evidence in judicial proceedings.”

Just after Judge Michael Shipp called a one hour recess for lunch on Thursday, Times reporter Alex Zdan was approached by Robert Haney, attorney for Ralphiel Mack.

Haney, accompanied by private investigator Buddy Wright, walked over to where Zdan was speaking with colleague Jenna Pizzi.

Haney and Wright stood slightly apart for a moment and were largely ignored by the reporters. After politely waiting for a pause in the conversation, Haney asked Zdan if he had been “served.”

There was a very tense pause while Zdan just stared at Haney. Finally, Zdan told Haney that he would not and probably should not speak with him, at least not without a lawyer present. The reporter’s tone was calm and measured but there was unmistakable tension in the words.

Haney nodded and stated that was why he had approached Zdan. He asked that any legal representative of the reporter’s please contact him.

This happened the same day that a lengthy article based upon an interview Zdan did with Giorgianni appeared in the Times. Whether that article was the catalyst for the legal action against Zdan is not known.

Zdan’s reporting on the entire investigation from the time of the FBI raids of the homes of the Mack brothers and Giorgianni has been intensive. He has uncovered the reasons why search warrants were issued for certain individuals.

We hope the defense is not unfairly trying to silence the press or discourage further investigative reporting as part of its trial strategy.

And we hope the defense team is a zealous in pursuing  and preventing possible witnesses from sitting in the courtroom during proceedings, such as Rodney Washington did on Thursday.

Don't drink the water

In the September round of layoffs, the city of Trenton was to release three technicians from the water department for reasons of “economy and efficiency.”  These are individuals who are licensed Water System Distribution Technicians…professionals who through the application of their experience and knowledge help maintain and safeguard the delivery of potable water to thousands of paying customers in Trenton and the surrounding suburbs.  (Need I remind the reader of the water distribution fiasco of October 2010 apparently caused by inexperienced individuals failing to follow proper procedure in opening and closing valves in the water system?)

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 budget.  The water utility revenue comes from the rate payers who buy and consume the water it produces. They may or may not be city of Trenton taxpayers. It doesn’t matter.  The money that flows into the waterworks comes from the distribution and sale of the water it produces. Period. 

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 owns and operates the water utility it is allowed by law to take a portion of the operating surplus (profit, if you will) and move it over to the city’s general budget.  That portion is equal to a percentage of the utility’s operating expense.  The more money the utility spends on operating costs…like paying licensed Water System Distribution Technicians, the more money can be moved over to the city’s budget. 

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 if your clients are moved to other positions,” Pereksta ruled. 

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 and its surrounding communities.”

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.

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.

Class Act, Trenton-style

It's been three weeks since the ugly incident on Parkside Avenue where supporters of Mayor Tony Mack verbally assaulted and tried to intimidate people collecting signatures on recall petitions.  The details of the incident have been reported first hand by Kevin Moriarty, the target of most of the vitriol spouted by city employees Rodney Washington and Terrance Bailey.
Well, for those who are embarrassed or upset that these men ever put on the uniform of a City of Trenton employee, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Seems our friend Mr. Washington has a little problem. Or two.  Maybe three.

You see, Rodney Washington was arrested in Ewing Township back on April 10, 2011.  According to the report, Mr. Washington was unable to pass any one of the three field sobriety tests administered by the arresting officer. At the Ewing Township Police headquarters an inventory of Mr.Washington's personal property what appeared to be a half smoked marijuana cigarette was also found.

Mr. Washington was issued a second summons for refusing to submit to the breathalyzer test. 

The arrest report also shows that it was discovered that Mr. Washington was the subject of a warrant.

So there you have it, folks.  A personal friend of the mayor, hired for a city job days after Mayor Mack took office. Outstanding warrant, DUI, possession. 

Oh yeah, and he's a "video star" too.  Remember this little piece of thug art? 


Makes you proud to be a Trentonian, doesn't it?

Sign the petition already.