Pessimistically Optimistic

Yesterday, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced they had issued an Administrative Consent Order regarding the Trenton Water Works. The ACO outlines definitive steps and deadlines for improvements, operations, and staffing of the water utility. Failure to meet the deadlines will leave the city open to fines.

The troubles at TWW have been well documented by Kevin Moriarty and the local press. In the past week the governing bodies of both Trenton and Hamilton have had special presentations/discussions about the ongoing issues. Yet there still seems to be a lot of misinformation out there. (Some of which is due to the city of Trenton's inability and/or unwillingness to communicate clearly with the TWW customer base as well as public officials in the towns served by the utility).

We heard more than one public official say that would like transparency with regards to the budget of the Trenton Water Works. Well, the water budget is available on line as part of the City of Trenton budget. Unfortunately, some of the numbers are not readable because, for space reasons the cells are not large enough to contain the entire sum. However, the key information is there, especially the amount of the anticipated and realized surpluses each year.

With a realized surplus of $12 million for fiscal year 2017, it is obvious that there is money available for staffing, maintenance and improvements.

There is confusion about the city's residency requirement for employees. Let's be real clear right and here and now, the residency ordinance was amended in October of 2014 to allow a "waiver for exceptional persons". 

Chapter 2. AdministrationArticle XVI. Officers and Employees ...
§ 2-95. Residence requirements; exception; waiver. D. Waiver for exceptional persons. Whenever the hiring authority of the City of Trenton shall determine that there are certain specific positions and employments requiring special talents or skills which are necessary for the operations of the City of Trenton and which are not likely to be found among the residents of the City, such positions or employments so determined shall be filled without reference to residency. This provision shall be used for positions or employments for (1) officers that are subject to the advice and consent of the City Council and (2) positions requiring persons with scientific or technical licenses or certifications required by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Division of Community Affairs or any other state governing agency.
[Amended 10-2-2014 by Ord. No. 14-33]

It is obvious that the intent of the amendment was to allow the city to hire form outside of the city the licensed individuals necessary for the proper operation of the TWW. And, it was done in the first few months of the failed Jackson administration.

If the residency waiver was in effect, why have so many technical positions been left unfilled?

One answer, based upon the testimony heard at last week's Trenton city council meeting, was that the city was bad about responding to/following up with applicants. One individual stated she never heard back from the city; not even a "thank you, no" letter. Nothing!

The administration offered the excuse that the salaries being offered "were not competitive". Well, if you are operating the utility with a surplus but your salaries are not competitive, maybe you should increase those salaries. Is it that hard?

A third issue is that, until recently, the advertising of the vacancies seemed to be sparse and sporadic at best. We heard that open positions were not currently posted on the city website and a suggestion to hang a "Now Hiring" banner on the filtration plant ignored. You aren't going to get many applicants if they don't know there are openings.

Taken altogether, it appears less that the city was unable to hire people and more like it didn't put any real effort into hiring people.

The ACO has set benchmarks for hiring critical personnel and recent contracts issued to Wade Trim for contract employees to fill some of the vacancies are a start. With increased staffing of professionals, we would expect to see a return to normal, proper operations.

Timely notification of customers about events potentially affecting have been another complaint heard over and over. The DEP has recognized that TWW's Emergency Action Plan is deficient and is demanding it be updated to eliminate those deficiencies. In a February 7 article in the Trentonian, Hamilton mayor, Kelly Yaede, complained that TWW still has up to 24 hours to notify customers.

“The neighboring municipalities should receive the notification within 60 minutes,” the Hamilton mayor said. “When you’re dealing a public health crisis, particularly dealing with quality drinking water, notification is key. In this day and age of social media, getting information out quickly, timliness is imperative.”

As we pointed out in a previous entry, that is the maximum time that Federal regulations for a Tier 1 (Immediate Notice) event to be communicated to the customers. We have to assume that the new policies and procedures to be adopted by TWW aren't going to tell employees to wait the full day before notification. We'd expect something along the lines of "should be notified as soon as possible but not more than 24 hours after an event occurred."

While many are still dubious about the ability of Trenton to professionally manage the utility, the ACO lays out a pretty straightforward road map of what needs to be done and by one. To help keep things on course, TWW must file monthly progress reports with DEP until all items have been completed. The reports are due to be submitted on the last day of each month, unless said date falls on a weekend. In that case, the reports are due on the first business day of the new month. There are fines for each day the reports are late. A prior ACO required "quarterly progress reports" be we are not sure if any were filed.

To help restore confidence in TWW, we believe it would be best if the city made those reports public at the time of submission to DEP. In this way, the customers and all of the public officials can track progress along with the DEP. If things get off track, public pressure can be brought to bear and the situation corrected sooner rather than later.

We feel this new ACO is both a positive first step and a last chance warning for TWW, Trenton's governing body and mayor now and going forward.


We're pessimistically optimistic

Water this, water that.

“Water this, water that,” City of Trenton spokesman Michael Walker said in response to an email query about Trenton Water Works from the Post.

So reports Rob Anthes in a very good article in the February edition of the Hamilton Post. Anthes highlights the recent issues at Trenton's water utility that serves some quarter of a million people in Mercer County.

This past Thursday night Trenton's Public Works Director, Merkle Cherry, and key members of the TWW staff presented an update for the city council. The hope was that the city's governing body and the public alike would come out of that meeting with a fuller understanding of what the situation actually is at the water utility.

Unfortunately, that presentation came up woefully short. Kevin Moriarty blogged about the meeting on Friday. Basically, it consisted of a brief power point presentation, a Q & A between members of the council and the water works team, and then public comment.

It lasted 3.5 hours (council then had to go on to their regular business afterwards) and what was learned was that Mr. Cherry has a less than firm grasp on the operations of TWW. We also learned that some of the long time staff who work day to day in the utility don't have a much better grasp of how things work there than Cherry does. That was a huge disappointment. 

The lack of investment in the utility and the lack of staff definitely contributes to the marked increase in citations of non-compliance issued by DEP. That's certain. The lack of communication... effective, timely communication... between the city/TWW and its customers is the one thing that came up time and time again during the discourse.

One of the big complaints has been the length of time between when an "event" occurs and the public is notified. City representatives have continually sworn that they were delayed in issuing notices because they were waiting for DEP to approve the language in the advisories before sending them out.

Strangely, in the same breath, there is always mention of  "templates" that exist for the notices.

It's hard to fathom how, if there is an existing template for, say, a boil water advisory, there has to be approval from a state agency before the notice can be sent out. That sort of defeats the whole purpose of having a template, doesn't it?

Curious about this, we spent some time wading around in the DEP website. There is a lot of information available to the public there. Granted, you might have to be a bit of a nerd or wonk to delve into this stuff, but it is there for the curious. 

The following is based upon a couple of hours of browsing, following links, reading and, yes, THINKING about how one handles events that adversely effect the quality of water service. We are not licensed plant operators; we have not taken any classes in water supply operations or management. We're just reasonably intelligent parties interested in what the process is; how it is supposed to work; and trying to figure why it seems to continually break down when it comes to TWW. 

If we miss something or make faulty statements and anyone can point us to accurate information countering our incorrect assumptions, we welcome the correction. We're trying to educate ourselves and our readers as to what is the right way to handle these things. 

Water quality regulation and enforcement in New Jersey falls under the Department of Environmental Protection, division of Water Supply and Geoscience.  From the division's page, there are various links under "Drinking Water Systems; Emergencies & Security. There's a lot of information available to anyone who wants to poke around awhile. 

As stated right on the page, a water utility has to report an emergency to DEP within six (6) hours. There is a 24 hour hotline just for such purposes. There are also required follow ups with the engineering office during normal work hours and a form that must be completed an emailed to DEP.

The incident form includes a section about notifications on the second page.   

The first question asked is "Has the appropriate water use advisory been issued?"  Now, if this form is what is used to record and track an incident with DEP and DEP must be notified within six hours of the event, doesn't it seem likely that there is an expectation that notifications to the public, et al were made sooner rather than later?

There are links on the page to templates for various advisories pertaining to water main breaks. The templates are right there in a very user friendly form (Microsoft Word). The utility just has to fill in the event specific information and distribute.

But what about non-water main break related events?

Further down on the page are links to "Water Use Advisory Information".

Within that grouping is a link to a 166 page document that is a clearly written and organized EPA Drinking Water Advisory Comprehensive Toolbox. It is filled with very good, common sense ideas about how to prepare for, execute and follow up on the issuing of an event advisory. The document includes fill-in-the-blank templates, in English and Spanish. The document is so comprehensive that after reading it we feel confident that we could effectively execute the issuing of an advisory. Certainly, if anyone from TWW and/or the City of Trenton had there would not be the continual issues with fumbled notifications.

There are other resources on that section of the page. The three main types of advisories are described:

• Advisories:
• Boil Water Advisory: Advises customers to boil the water before drinking, cooking, and other potable water uses due to the potential for the water supply to be contaminated with disease-causing microorganisms.
• Do Not Drink Advisory: Advises customers not to use the water supply for potable purposes and only advocates its use for sanitary and fire-fighting needs.
• Do Not Use Advisory: Advises customers not to use the water supply for any purpose, including sanitary and fire-fighting needs.

There are also more links to templates and handbooks:

• Guidance & Templates
• EPA Public Notification Handbooks:
• Community & Non-Transient Non-Community Water Systems
• Transient Water Systems
• Public Notification Templates
• EPA Drinking Water Advisory Communication Toolbox - provides information on how to plan for, develop, implement, and evaluate drinking water advisories.

Obviously, there is a wealth of material available to help a water supply system effectively communicate about any event that adversely affects the potability of the water.

Earlier on we established that NJ DEP must be notified within six (6) hours of an event. Diving deeper into the subject we discovered EPA guidelines (linked to from the DEP site, so we assume these are the operative standards in New Jersey) for three levels of notifications.

You'll note that in Tier 1 (Immediate Notice) events water suppliers have 24 hours to notify {our emphasis} people who may drink the water.  TWENTY FOUR HOURS!

That seems like a long time. We assume because the guidelines are applicable to systems of all sizes in densely populated areas as well as sparsely populated ones, the federal standards are somewhat generous.  We also assume that common sense dictates system operators would get the notice out as soon as possible, well within the 24 hour deadline.

We feel it is important to note here that at no time has TWW made the argument that their delayed notifications have fallen within the allowable 24 hour time period. Rather, they keep falling back on the excuse of having to wait for DEP approval of the text and/or translation into Spanish...EVEN THOUGH TEMPLATES FOR BOTH EXIST AND ARE AVAILABLE!  In addition, for all of our fishing in the rules and regulations we have yet to land any evidence that DEP requires approval of the verbiage of advisories prior to them being released.

We have also found, repeated, reference to the 10 items that must be included in an advisory:

Notices must contain:

• A description of the violation that occurred, including the contaminant(s) of concern, and  the contaminant level(s);
• When the violation or situation occurred;
• The potential health effects (including standard required language);
• The population at risk, including subpopulations vulnerable if exposed to the contaminant in their drinking water;
• Whether alternate water supplies need to be used;
• What the water system is doing to correct the problem;
• Actions consumers can take;
• When the system expects a resolution to the problem;
• How to contact the water system for more information; and
• Language encouraging broader distribution of the notice.

Anyone with basic English composition skills and the required information at hand should be able to craft an acceptable advisory notice in less than hour without a template. With a template, the notice should be ready for distribution within minutes. Not hours. No external approvals required!

From what we have found, it is readily apparent that the failures of TWW to notify customers in a timely manner originate internally. Whether it is due to the acknowledged shortage of qualified staff, management indifference or both doesn't really matter.

What does matter is that they are failing to execute critical responsibilities. Instead of pointing fingers to outside agencies, they need to look at their own processes and procedures and fix them. Immediately.

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.

Alice doesn’t (have to) live here anymore.

Shortly after taking the oath of office on Tuesday, July 1, Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson announced four appointments to his cabinet. Three of the four appointees are NOT city residents and are therefore, technically, not able to hold the positions on a permanent basis.

Now we have learned that the state, through the Division of Local Government Services oversight of the Transitional Aid, has made changing the city’s residency law a requirement in the recently signed MOU for the current fiscal year.

This is not new. The state has suggested these changes before but the governing body has been reluctant to go along.

Instead of following the law we get out of town people who, at best, rent apartments or homes in the city in an effort to feign compliance, while escaping home to Maryland or North Jersey or wherever on weekends and holidays.

Since 1972, the City of Trenton has had an ordinance requiring all cityemployees except police, fire and teachers to be bona fide residents. After 15 years of continuous service, employees could move out of the city without losing their jobs. The idea, of course, was to help retain a middle class by making residence in the city mandatory for anyone seeking employment with the city. The rule applies from directors down to the maintenance people.

In 1987, the ordinance was amended to allow for a waiver to be granted to give individuals who were not residents at the time of hire a defined window in which to become bona fide residents of the capital city.

The ordinance was increasingly applied in a haphazard manner. There were numerous examples of people who maintained a Trenton address merely to appear to comply with the law while the administration “turned its head” to look the other way.

The ordinance was also at times used to punish those who had fallen out of favor with the administration. There are various individuals who were railroaded out of their city job for “non-residency” that actually were residents. Some fought and retained their positions; others took the hint and walked away.

We cannot continue to ignore the law when it is convenient to do so and apply it selectively when it suits the whim of the administration. We either have to live with it, and the consequences, or we must change the law.

We’ve been here before.

As recently as April of this year an ordinance was brought forth for council approval that would have allowed the Trenton Water Works to recruit and hire non-Trenton residents to fill key vacancies at the utility. 

The state Department of Environmental Protection has ordered TWW to bolster its staff of licensed technicians. The fact is that there just aren’t that many in the state, let alone Trenton proper.

While it is a great idea to train current employees and residents for the positions, the process is a long one and, per TWW Superintendent Joe McIntyre, there have been few if any people willing to take the required courses.

Hence, the request to amend the residency requirement to allow TWW to recruit from beyond the city borders.

The ordinance passed its first reading but was tabled before the second because members of council were concerned about shutting Trentonians out of good paying jobs at TWW. Even then candidate, now councilman Duncan Harrison was against revising the ordinance.

Residency or rather the lack thereof was what finally caused controversial police director Joe Santiago to leave the city of Trenton’s employ.

It really isn’t much of a surprise that any attempt to find the “best and brightest” candidates to stock any administration’s cabinet or fill vacancies in various departments must reach beyond Trenton’s 7.5 square miles.

In April 2011, the city wanted to amend the residency ordinance so that former State Treasurer David Rousseau could be appointed Trenton’s chief financial officer. Council balked and a year later Mayor Mack decided not to renew Rousseau’s consulting contract. This came on the heels of Rousseau showing the governing body the path by which it was able to cut the funding for and eliminate the Mayoral Aides. Had the ordinance been changed a year earlier and Rousseau actually appointed to the Mayor’s cabinet, the council could have (and we guess probably would have) overruled his dismissal by the petty tyrant Tony Mack.  

The sad fact is that as Trenton’s fortunes have flagged, the supply of residents with the requisite “world class” abilities and qualifications has decreased. Additionally and to be brutally honest, the city’s long decline makes it unattractive for individuals with the desired skill set to relocate here to take a job that could vanish with the next round of layoffs or at the whim of some elected official.

So what is the water works superintendent or new mayor supposed to do when they are looking for capable and qualified candidates to fill positions?

The Times editorial board has gone on record suggesting a rethinking of the residency requirement. Civic activist Dan Dodson and others have raised their voices in concert with this line of thought.

Certainly the Division of Local Government Services in its role as recruiter for cabinet level appointees has sought candidates from beyond the city. Recently departed Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson and Police Director Ralph Rivera are but two examples.

If we truly want to turn Trenton around and need to go outside the boundaries to get the kind of personnel needed to do so, then fine.

We just caution the new mayor and the new (old) council to do it legally. If we are going to hire from outside the city, than lets craft and adopt a proper ordinance that allows us to do so.

Objection!

In a recent article by Times reporter Alex Zdan, readers were treated to tidbits from the transcripts of the Grand Jury proceedings that resulted in the indictment of Stanley “Muscles” Davis and others.

Davis, you will recall, pleaded guilty in a scheme where the Trenton Water Works employee would do private plumbing work while on the city clock, using city equipment and materials.

The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office conducted an investigation and sting operation that resulted in an undercover officer paying Davis for doing work on a Home Avenue residence.  Davis and two others were arrested in December of 2010. The Grand Jury heard testimony later that month and into January 2011.

Zdan reports that the transcripts of the Grand Jury proceedings reveal the jurors asking questions about the possibility of indicting Mayor Tony Mack, Davis’s half-brother, as part of the case.

Shortly after taking office in July of 2010, Mack made changes to the overtime rules at the water utility that would allow Davis to work more hours and raise his income. This change also provided Davis with the opportunity to access more of these potential installations done on city time with city resources while receiving direct payment from the homeowners.

While rumors of this scheme began circulating in the summer of 2010, the Mayor chose to do nothing about it.

At one point, Councilman George Muschal recounted in testimony before the Grand Jury that he approached the Mayor about the allegations against Davis. The Mayor’s reported response was,

“George, my brother is a career criminal. If he gets caught, it’s on him. It’s not on me. You got to remember, I’m the mayor of Trenton. I’m Teflon. I can’t be touched.”

With all of this, Assistant Prosecutor Jim Scott warned the jury off of indicting the Mayor.

Zdan’s article includes the following quotes from Scott:

“If there are two plausible explanations that could exist, you should give the target of your investigation the benefit of the doubt and not return an indictment” Scott said, according to the transcript from the Jan. 14, 2011 hearing.

“But I would submit to you at this point that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute the mayor at this point,” Scott told the grand jurors.

Scott told the jurors that Mack’s lack of action on those complaints was “the closest call” that could lead to an indictment, but that inaction could be attributed to the “amount of issues that were facing the mayor” shortly after he took office.

“In this particular case, I would submit to you that Mayor Mack has a tremendous amount on his plate,” Scott said, according to the transcript. “He inherited an administration where there was complete turnover. And the budget issues that the city of Trenton faces are enormous.”

INHERITED AN ADMINISTRATION WHERE THERE WAS COMPLETE TURNOVER?!?!?

Objection!

Upon taking office on July 1, 2010, Mayor Tony F. Mack knowingly and deliberately dismissed key personnel who had experience in running the city. Even IF, and it is a huge IF, the Mayor was intent on remaking the administration, common sense would call for a gradual transition in order to guarantee the continued smooth operation of city functions.

The mayor did not INHERIT a vacant administration. He caused it.

Further, the mayor had at his side a seasoned and knowledgeable acting Business Administrator in the person of William Guhl. Guhl, who was volunteering to help get the Mack administration off on the right foot, left one month into the term. Why? Because the mayor would not heed the sage advice being given to him.

For Assistant Prosecutor Scott to suggest that the problem of turnover in the city administration was “inherited” is just plain wrong.

 

TWW redux

The Times this morning ran an article about the many vacancies at the Trenton Water Works. The jobs run the gamut from laborer to licensed technicians.

Part of the article discusses the difficulty in filling the technical positions with qualified city residents.

Unfortunately, the story didn’t mention that some of the vacancies were created by the demotion and then subsequent dismissal of qualified technicians in apparent retribution for their testimony against Stanley “Muscles” Davis, the half-brother of Tony Mack.

Davis, you will recall, is now serving time for his role in a scam where he did “side jobs” for TWW customers using TWW materials and equipment on TWW time while pocketing the cash payments for the work.

TWW, a money making city asset that many of us fought hard to keep intact, has been abused and ignored under the current and past administrations. It has been used as a source of patronage jobs.  One just has to look at the hires made after July 1, 2010 to see that.

Names like Terrance Bailey, Dave Briegle, Charles Hall, Henry Page (now out on disability we understand), Rodney Washington and, later, Paul Harris and Linda Gundy were all added to the payroll under the current CO. Briegle and Hall were recently laid off in a corrective action because they should have gone in the September 2011 layoffs but were passed over so the administration could target the technicians mentioned above. Hall, as we now know, did precious little work for TWW. Instead he was “loaned” to the city to oversee multi-million dollar projects in the parks and is alleged to have been involved in the federal case against Mack et al.

Paul Harris, at first an “intern” with the city was moved to TWW earlier this year although he still seems to spend most of his time in and around city hall and not the utility supply shed where he is supposedly assigned.

This is the kind of inept and inappropriate management that needs to stop. While we understand that patronage is a time honored political tradition, it is costly and it serves no one well…except those getting the jobs.

As quoted in the article, Councilman Muschal certainly supports an increased effort to fill the jobs with residents.

“There’s a lot of job opportunities we can put out there. I would certainly like to see priority put toward the vacancies in the water utility.”

There are some simple, straightforward steps that can be taken to attract, develop and retain and qualified workforce for TWW.

1. Promote and execute a job fair specifically for the utility. Tap into the local trade associations, chambers of commerce, tech schools and such to seek out candidates for the vacancies.
2. Institute a training and development program for TWW employees to help them become more proficient at their jobs.
3. Encourage those with interest and aptitude to get appropriate certifications so they can advance. Consider holding training and coaching sessions to help them prepare for the required tests. Reimburse those who successfully obtain certification for the fees involved in return for a commitment to remain with the utility for a set number of years.
4. Consider settling the pending lawsuit by rehiring the employees who claim they were wrongfully dismissed because of their testimony in the Davis case.

And we cannot ignore the fact that we need to reorganize the city departments to put water and sewer in their own department. Councilman Chester reportedly brought this up again at the recent budget meeting.

We wrote about this previously and how easy it would be to achieve.

It only takes five votes, council. Five votes.

 

 

What does the Trenton Water Works have to do with the Mayor’s Learning Center Libraries?

That’s what we wondered after noticing Paul Harris at Monday’s ribbon cutting at the former Skelton Branch Library building.

Mr. Harris, if you recall, was hired as an “intern” by the Mack administration on August 9, 2010. His rate of pay was $15 an hour. On October 15, 2010, Mr. Harris received a 33% pay raise to $20 an hour, just a few weeks before the city’s first wave of layoffs and demotions of regular employees was put into effect.

Ostensibly assigned to the city’s department of Health and Human Services, no one was ever really sure Harris’ described job duties were. It was pretty evident that Mr. Harris was to serve basically as yet another assistant to the mayor. He seemed to spend all of his time taking photographs and videos of the mayor in action (or would that be “the mayor’s inaction?”); working on the city website; trolling Facebook and other online sites for any negative comments about the Mack administration.

In a memo dated February 14, 2011, Joseph Rubino, then the director of HHS, informs Harris that three days a week he is to report to Gwen Carter to assist with the Health Clinic.  The other two days a week Harris would be assigned to “ancillary projects” working with other units under HHS.

In an accompanying description of his duties, Mr. Harris appears to be assigned to marketing and other activities relating to the city’s senior centers. It is interesting to note that this “intern” is also charged with helping to “supervise” certain employees stationed at the centers.
(NOTE: we really hope to delve further into the Mack administration’s use and abuse of the term “intern” in a future post)

But all of the above almost seems sensible when compared to what has recently transpired.

Sometime this year, Mr. Harris was “transferred” to the Trenton Water Works. His payroll information from March 1 forward clearly shows him being paid out of the TWW administration account.

Yet there he was at 3 pm on a Monday afternoon, recording the mayor's ribbon cutting for posterity but being paid on the water customer's dime. 

Hence our question: what does the TWW have to do with the Mayor’s Learning Center Libraries?

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.

Technical foul.

Does anyone really know what is going on?

 

A few weeks back, the city announced it was going to institute temporary layoffs (furloughs) for all departments except police and fire. The furloughs would take place every week for 13 weeks starting in April.

 

This announcement bothered those seemingly few people who were paying attention because it meant the virtual shutdown of the Trenton Water Works (TWW) for one day each week. Considering the facts that

 

1. the water utility operates on its own budget; employees are paid from rates charged for water usage, not tax dollars so any cost savings from the furloughs would NOT save the city money
2. the majority of the customers of the water utility are located outside of the city and thus would be penalized by the weekly furloughs
3. all customers would be put at risk because the furloughs would mean no one was minding the water treatment plant, pumping stations, etc. on those days

The problem comes from civil service rules that state furloughs must apply to entire departments. Since TWW operates under the umbrella of the Public Works Department, any layoffs affecting Public Works must apply to TWW.

 

Fortunately, the state of NJ through the DEP recognized the potential problems and squelched the furlough idea.

 

Before that occurred, a plan was drawn up to make TWW along with the Sewer Authority their own department, thus isolating (like Police and Fire) from the furloughs. It was a good idea…for a lot of reasons.

 

However, the city is only allowed to have 10 departments and our current structure has us maxed out. In order to create a Water and Sewer department, room has to be made in the organization chart. Part and parcel to creating the new department was the idea of making the current department of Inspections a division of the department of Housing and Economic Development. This would actually be a return to the way things once were.

 

This all needs to be accomplished by an ordinance introduced and passed by the governing body (city council). Predictably, with this administration and council, the plan has stalled.

 

Some object to moving Inspections back under Housing and Economic Development. Some don’t understand or object to creating a Water and Sewer department.

 

A workable solution languishes because the governing body seems unable to get its act together to do anything positive and the administration can’t think its way out of a paper bag.

 

Now here’s an interesting twist…

 

In November, the Mayor rearranged the former department of Recreation, Natural Resources and Culture (RNRC). Recreation and Culture were brought under the Mayor’s office directly and Natural Resources were moved to the Public Property Division of the Department of Public Works. In some respects the consolidation of departments is a good thing. Eliminating a director’s salary and merging functions are ways to economize.

 

And doing away with the department of RNRC frees up a space on the organization chart that could be filled by a newly created Water and Sewer department. Right?

 

Well, it would IF the city’s administrative organization chart was properly amended by ordinance. The Mayor cannot arbitrarily do away with a department. That must be done by ordinance approved by the city council.

 

Guess the Mayor didn’t think about that.

 

Neither did the city law department…obviously because of their inexperience with municipal law.

 

And the City Clerk didn’t catch it, so the city council didn’t realize it either.

 

Technical foul charged to the whole lot of them for simple failure to operate according to the rules.

It just doesn't seem to faze him

Well there has been no slow down of missteps and misdeeds by the Tony Mack administration, as we’ve entered the holiday season.


The capital city’s feckless leader has not managed to stay out of headlines or escape notice of the bloggers since the Thanksgiving break.

Over that long holiday weekend, an article appeared in the Times reporting of citizen annoyance at the overuse of the city’s ability to place robo-calls on a near daily basis for no good reason.

Blogger Kevin Moriarty posted about the lack of information on how the city was going to deal with the $12,000,000 gap in funding between the $39 million requested and the $27 million pledged by the state. Remember, earlier in the month the Mayor said he’d found a way to eliminate many of the planned layoffs with or without state aid? Show us the math.

It was announced that an informational meeting on how the process for recalling an elected official works in New Jersey. Some assumed this would be a blueprint for a Mayoral recall.

Then came reports of personnel and organizational shuffles at city hall. The mayor has yet to name his “permanent” department directors and city council hasn’t pushed him on it, even though the interim directors have been serving for longer than the statutory 90 days.

Along with this was the rumored appointment of campaign svengali Dan Toto to replace the hastily departed Andrew McCrosson as Business Administrator. No sooner was that squelched, then we hear that Toto has been appointed “on an interim” basis but will be “paid immediately” to work part-time as the coordinator of the city YouthStat program.

This raised eyebrows and questions about the legality and propriety of the appointment. Looks like another challenge to Council’s powers by the loose cannon mayor.

Following close on the heels of that announcement was the disclosure that the Administration was now going to the various unions and asking for salary givebacks of 10% plus furlough days. This is the same Administration that had avoided some layoffs by demoting and cutting the pay of employees earlier in the month.

However, perhaps the biggest story to hit to date is the arrest of the Mayor’s half-brother, Stanley “Muscles” Davis for a scheme involving use of city time and materials to do plumbing jobs and pocketing the cash. Reports of the raid on the Trenton Water Works offices on Cortland Street were all over the Times, the Trentonian and TV stations starting Monday afternoon. The latest being today’s story of how Stanley “Muscles” Davis perpetually threatened and intimidated his co-workers at the TWW.

Through it all, Mayor Mack remains quiet, happy and wishing everyone a Happy Pearl Harbor Day!”

Do you think he knows how bad things have gotten?

Now read this

This advertisement appeared in the Times (of Trenton), page A5, Saturday, October 16, 2010.

We here at the Front Stoop found it interesting.  The ad is a public notice from New Jersey American Water (NJAW) that they exceeded a drinking water standard.

According to the ad, during routine cleaning of a settlement basin, sediment was stirred up and entered the water system and overburdened the filters of the system.  This caused turbid water in excess of the 1 NTU standard to enter the distribution system of water that Aqua New Jersey purchases from NJAW or it's Lawrenceville customers.  The incident occurred on Thursday, September 23, 2010.

The ad goes on as follows:

What does this mean?
This is not an emergency.  I it had been you would have been notified within 24 hours.  Turbidity is not harmful in itself.  High turbidity increases the chance that water might contain disease-causing organisms.

What should I do?
You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions.

So what we want to know is this:

If the incident above is being treated as a non-emergency and notification wasn't required within 24 hours and boiling water wasn't required, what really happened at the Trenton Water Works (TWW) between October 2 and October 8 that made the City of Trenton and the DEP issue "boil water advisories" repeatedly from the 4th through the 7th?  

Doesn't it seem likely that the situation with the TWW was somewhat more serious than the NJAW event of September 24?  But the city has repeatedly told us there was no risk and that there was no evidence of contamination. At the same time, we were continually advised to boil water and, if our water temperature was lower than 113 degrees Fahrenheit to drain, flush and refill our hot water tanks.  And why haven't the results of the water tests conducted between October 3 and October 7 been made public?

We don't consider ourselves prone to conspiracy theories but there certainly seems to be more to the story than the Mack administration AND New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection have so far let on.

Our water is running clear now, how about our government officials come clean.

Water under the bridge

Here's a look back at the water crisis of June 2006 as reported in the Times:

WATER WORKS FACED A SPIRAL OF TROUBLE


DARRYL R. ISHERWOOD STAFF WRITER

Published: July 9, 2006

Joe McIntyre's stomach was churning.

He was on his cell phone, getting a progress report on the Trenton Water Works' reservoir, and the news was disturbing.

Water in the city's reservoir had begun to whirlpool around the main pipe that feeds the system, much as water emptying from a tub will swirl around a drain.

It was less than 48 hours after Water Works employees shut down the filtration plant to keep the roiling Delaware, engorged by rains and cresting its banks, from fouling the system. What the vortexing water meant to McIntyre, the Water Works chief, was that the reservoir that supplies water to some 210,000 people in five towns was dangerously close to empty.

The inspection on the morning of June 30 was the culmination of two days of frantic maneuvering by the city's water department to keep Trenton's taps from running dry.

While residents fled the Island and Glen Afton neighborhoods to avoid the rising river and floodwaters poured into river towns in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, causing nearly $8 million in damage in Mercer County alone, city employees were locked in the Water Works plant, hoping to squeeze every last drop from the beleaguered system.

And while the crisis that could have left the Water Works' customers without drinking water for weeks was averted, officials say there is little that can be done to fortify the system against future shutdowns.

An upgrade to the system, planned to begin later this year, will help, officials say, but ultimately, the river is the boss.

The crisis began at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, June 28.

McIntyre, the Water Works chief, reported to the filtration plant to find the Delaware agitated into a tempest by stormwater that began pouring into the river the day before.

Testing showed that the water, which is sucked from the river each day to supply the city and surrounding areas, was dangerously muddy. McIntyre had two choices.

He could shut down the system, ceasing all filtration until the river returned to normal and force the city to rely on the 2-day supply stored in the reservoir. Or he could wait and continue filtering the silt-filled water and risk fouling the system, forcing a prolonged shutdown and a hardship for tens of thousands of customers.

Neither option sounded good, but McIntyre chose the riskier route.

"We decided to shut the plant down," the water department chief said in an interview last week about the near catastrophe. "It was nerve-wracking, and it required us to live at the plant for a couple of days to monitor the water, but the alternative was to be more conservative and risk losing the system longer term." 'THE CLOCK BEGAN TO TICK'The system's demand for water runs about 30 million gallons per day. The reservoir is continually replenished by water, sucked from the Delaware and chemically filtered to create what's known in water-supply circles as a floc - a clump of particles that settles to the bottom and is removed from the liquid.

At full capacity, the plant can filter as much as 40 million gallons per day, easily keeping up with the demand.

But when McIntyre threw the switch to shut down the plant, "the clock began to tick."

"From that point we began monitoring how long we were off-line and how that correlated to the amount of water left in the reservoir," he said.

Alerts went out to residents to begin conserving water, and Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer put in a call to Gov. Jon Corzine, beseeching the state's top executive to close down the dozens of state offices located in the city and send thousands of workers home. The governor's action saved more than 3 million gallons for each of the two days the offices were closed.

"Had the governor not closed the state, we would have been in trouble," Palmer said. "He understood the seriousness of the situation, but if he didn't, I think we might have run out of water." HOPEFUL SIGNSMcIntyre's gamble began to look like it might pay off, when at 10 p.m. on June 29 testing showed the water was calming and the amount of silt - or turbidity - began to decrease. The employees, many of whom had not left the plant since the shutdown the morning of June 28, began to feel optimistic that the crisis might be over.

But it was not to be.

"Right after that, we had a spike again," McIntyre said. "It was frustrating because we had begun to get in the mind-set that we would get it running again earlier in the day, but we couldn't."

After the Friday morning inspection of the reservoir, McIntyre knew time had run out. If the water could not be properly filtered and the reservoir ran dry, officials would have no choice but to pump dirty water into the system.

Once that decision is made, McIntyre said, there is no turning back.

"Once you pump in substandard water, the plant will need to be cleaned and that could take several days," he said. "It creates a real hardship for customers for a number of weeks while the system is cleaned."

Finally, with no time left, McIntyre made the decision to fire up the plant. The turbidity was decreasing - though not as fast as he would have liked - and the reservoir was nearly dry.

By 3:40 p.m. June 30, the system was up and running, and employees were running dozens of tests to see if the water could be purified enough for drinking without first boiling it to kill any residual bacteria.

By 10 p.m., the crisis was over as the system began to meet the demands of its customers. Only Ewing was adversely affected when pressure dropped in three areas. A boil-water advisory went out for parts of the township but has since been lifted. PLANNING FOR THE FUTURECity officials say they have learned from the near calamity and are using the knowledge to try to ensure there is no future disaster. The plant is in line for some $50 million in renovations later this year, which Palmer said will modernize the system and make it more efficient as well as increase the amount of water that can be filtered each day.

The city is also negotiating with other providers to increase the amount of water that can be supplied in the event of a crisis.

But to some extent, the city is at the mercy of the river's moods.

"We deal with whatever the river hands us," McIntyre said. "We don't have the power to change the characteristic of the river, so we have to adapt and deal with whatever it throws at us. Sometimes you can do that with effectiveness and sometimes you can't."

For McIntyre, it was too close for comfort. The water dropped to a level not seen since 1975, when a malfunction caused the filtration plant to flood and damaged the pumps.

"We stretched the line as far as we can go," he said. "It was very close. The reservoir level was down to spots where no one that I have dealt with here has ever seen."

What the future holds is anyone's guess, experts say. Upriver development has destroyed wetlands and forests and left nowhere for runoff to go, said Bob Molzahn, president of the Water Resources Association of the Delaware Basin. Several bad storms have highlighted the problems as well, he said.

"What's the solution?" he asked. "I don't know, but you wonder if it might not get worse."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright, 2006, The Times, Trenton N.J. All Rights Reserved.

It’s all over now

But we've only just begun
Trenton has a new mayor-elect.

The seven council seats have been filled for the next four years.

Congratulations to Tony Mack, Kathy McBride, Phyllis Holly Ward, Alex Bethea, Marge Caldwell-Wilson, Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, George Muschal (who won the May 11 election), and Zachary Chester.

And congratulations to Algernon Ward and Michael McGrath for leading the successful charge against the sell off of the suburban portion of the Trenton Water Works to NJ American Water.

The fight to get the approval of the water deal on the ballot and the campaign to inform and inspire residents to vote on it was an un-qualified success.

Trenton was saved from what the majority obviously believe was a short-sighted deal. While the sale would have unarguably provided some immediate, much needed cash it would have mortgaged the city’s future fiscal soundness.

The group that coalesced around the opposition to the sale crossed demographic, party, and ward boundaries. And that is probably the biggest “win” for the city of Trenton.

After years of “divide and conquer” leadership, we have again found a way to work together for the common good. This is a lesson we do best not to forget.

As the new Mayor and Council take their seats on July 1 they would do well to keep yesterday’s lesson in mind too.

Trenton has suffered from an administration that worked in the shadows and through intimidation to get its way. It ran roughshod over any independence demonstrated by city council. And the voice of the people was treated as a mere annoyance that was more often barely tolerated than heeded.

Our city is still in difficulty. Stopping the water sale has not fixed the underlying budget issues. But we have a template for cooperation and engagement that was not present during the Palmer years.

The potent combination of new council and mayor plus an active and enlightened community can bring about much needed change in Trenton.

We at the stoop raise a toast (a glass of Trenton water, thank you very much) to a new day for the city and the citizens.

Good luck, Trenton

The day is here. 

June 15, the date for the Trenton municipal runoff election and the day the public gets to decide on the proposed split and sell off of part of the Trenton Water Works.

Trentonians are about to make some of the toughest, most important choices in the past 20 years.

They have to choose between two former Palmer insiders/confidants for Mayor.  Tony Mack has some questionable money problems and the endorsement of the outgoing Mayor; Manny Segura is collecting full disability but thinks he can adequately fulfill the duties of a full-time (plus) Mayor.

The electorate must choose three At-Large Council reps from among six individuals.  Some are known to the populace; others not.  Juan Martinez is the purported head of a mythical community group and currently holds a patronage position with the failing city school system. Missy Balmir is a professional political hack with connections but precious little practical experience and questionable contributions from far afield from Trenton.  Darren Green is a member of the Balmir's "slate" of candidates who has raised no visible funds of his own.  Obviously not the first choices of candidates to fill the slots.

Of the three left, Phyllis Holly-Ward has some real city hall experience along with some community credentials.  Kathy McBride is outspoken and a real street campaigner who may not have a lot of depth when it comes to policy and process but she doesn't lack spirit.  Alex Bethea is a school principal who has lead the local NAACP chapter.

In the North Ward the choice comes down to New Black Panther Party member Divine Allah, aka Brian Bethea or career Democratic party person Marge Caldwell-Wilson.

The East Ward contest is between brash anti-Palmer crusader Joe Harrison and Verlina Reynolds-Jackson.  Jackson is part of the Balmir triad, a state employee and, by most accounts, a usually MIA member of the city's zoning board.

Quiet man Zac Chester is facing former school board President Joyce Kersey in the West Ward runoff. 

And then the big ticket item on the ballot:  the proposal to split off the suburban portion of Trenton's water utility to corporate giant NJ American Water.  A vote yes approves the administration's plan to cash in the money making part of the system for a one time fix of $80 million. 

A no vote leaves the system intact with all of the costs and proceeds accruing to the city and it's water customers.

The choices made on Tuesday will impact the city for decades to come, regardless of the tenure of those elected to office.

Choose wisely, Trentonians.  Not just for tomorrow, but for the future of our city.

Common questions/direct answers

Are the entire Trenton Water Works being sold?


NO. The only thing being sold would be water pipes in Ewing, Hamilton, Hopewell and Lawrence Townships along with some water towers and pumping stations.

Is the buyer a foreign company?

NO. New Jersey American Water Company (NJAWC), a subsidiary of American Water Works Company is the proposed buyer. American Water Works Company is the largest public water utility in America. It was at one time a subsidiary of RWE, a German Company, but was spun off in 2008.

Is it true that, as part of the sale, NJAWC will pay 60% of cost for water facility improvements in Trenton that benefit the outside system?

NO. According to the sales agreement between NJAWC and the City of Trenton Exhibit C includes the terms for a Capital Improvements Surcharge calculation.

The section establishes two factors that would be applied to the cost of capital improvements that benefit the townships.

The first factor would be based upon an agreed percentage assigned to the City and to the townships. This could be a 40% allocation for the City and a corresponding 60% allocation for the townships (NJAWC).

The second factor is based upon the amount of water the City customers use and the amount of water that township customers use (Demand Share Factor or DSF). Those percentages could also be 40% for the City and 60% for the townships.

To determine the amount that NJAWC would pay the City, the cost of the project, say $70 million dollars (the cost of the Filtration Plant project), would be multiplied by each factor. Applying the first factor of say 60% would give $42 million. Then applying the second factor would give $25.2 million. The $25.2 million would then be divided into annual payments that would also include the interest that the City is paying on the money it borrowed to finance the project. The annual payment would then be converted to a per thousand gallon surcharge to add to the base water rate. The figures would be recalculated every three years.

What this means is that NJAWC would pay $25.2 million for a benefit that is worth at least $42 million dollars. What that also means is that the City, actually its water customers, would have to make up the difference of $16.8 million over the life of the loan. (The actual amounts would be more over the life of the loan due to the interest charges.)

Applying the provisions of Exhibit C of the pending contract reveals that NJAWC will not pay 60% of the cost but only about 36% of the cost or less depending upon the factors.

VOTE NO on June 15th!