Misleading Trenton Together

Misrepresentation and misstatement seem to be a family affair for Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson and his sister, Pamela Brooks. Their handling of Jackson’s Moving Trenton Together private foundation provides ongoing evidence that they have no idea about how to properly manage their affairs and have no problem trying to cover up by giving misinformation.

The foundation lost its tax-exempt status with the IRS for failing to file the required tax returns for three consecutive years. It has lost its New Jersey state business entity status for not filing the required annual reports for two consecutive years. MTT never registered with the state charitable organization directory. On top of all that, it appears as though MTT used Jackson’s title as mayor to get the “government” rate for renting the War Memorial for holiday concerts when they should have paid a higher, non-profit rate.  And then there is the possibility that individuals on the city of Trenton payroll may have been taking care of some MTT business while on the city’s clock.

Politicians often set up some sort of non-profit as a means to circumvent election campaign finance rules on who can give money, how much can be given (plus offering a tax deduction to donors) and what the money can be spent on. MTT was Formed in December of 2014 by Jackson, his wife, Denice, and his sister, Pam Brooks. In an article published that month, Times reporter Jenna Pizzi wrote, “The mayor said he wanted to form the group, rather than partner with the many nonprofits already registered in Trenton, because there are efforts he would like to move on that will compliment the activities of existing groups.”


While there is nothing overtly illegal or improper about setting up a non-profit like MTT, care should be taken to keep it separate from any official city business. No work should be performed for the corporation by city employees while on city time; no city resources expended in the execution of MTT work, etc.  (Just look at the recent scandal involving the Friends of Mercer County Parks non-profit and the Bannon brothers as an example of what can happen).

Corporations in New Jersey must file an annual report. At its most basic, it is a five-minute on-line exercise followed by a payment to the state. It keeps the business status active for a year. The state sends out notices of renewal to the registered agent of record three months prior to the due date. The website provides all current information and not only allows you to file the current report, but you can resolve any deficiencies in prior filing years. Failure to file for two consecutive years results in the state revoking the business’s status.


Moving Trenton Together never filed any annual reports and had its business registration revoked in July of 2016.

The registered agent for MTT is David Minchello. His name also appears on the application for IRS tax exempt status.  At the time of formation, Minchello was employed by the city of Trenton as it Law Director.  Did he prepare and submit the paperwork on city time or his own?  We really can’t say.

We do know this; Minchello used the address of his firm, Antonelli Minchello PC, in Union when registering MTT in December of 2014. In the spring of 2015, the partners closed their firm and joined the DeCotiis Fitzpatrick & Cole firm. Questions arose surrounding the fact that Minchello was the city law director and his new firm had a contract to work for the city as well. He left the city’s employ in the summer of 2015. 

When Minchello resigned as law director for the city, nobody thought to change the registered agent.  Renewal notices were likely sent to Minchello’s former address and not forwarded.  Had Jackson/MTT been an actual client of Minchello, would he not have taken care to see that the records were updated and/or a new agent listed? Or did Minchello feel this “duty” was no longer his responsibility because he was no longer a Jackson appointee/city employee?

Certainly, neither Jackson, his wife, nor his sister could be bothered to pay attention to the legal necessities of paperwork regarding their private foundation. It’s easily done, again, on line. But they couldn’t be bothered.  So the business registration has lapsed for failure to file.

Charities in New Jersey are supposed to register with the Division of ConsumerAffairs. There are exemptions for charities which receive less than $10,000 in annual gross receipts.  It is possible that MTT falls into the category, but we don’t know because they haven’t filed any tax returns (more on that in a minute). We do know that a search of the NJ Charitable Organization database turns up no filing for Moving Trenton Together. Doug Palmer’s Trenton First Initiative is there. So is the now defunct Tony Mack Cares Foundation. Even presumed Mayoral candidate Paul Perez’s “Partnerships for Trenton” non-profit has filed the required reports{Edited for clarity}. There is nothing from or about Jackson’s MTT.

The Trentonian reported in December of 2016 that MTT had yet to file any tax returns.  Indeed, in August, the IRS published the revocation of MTT’s   tax-exempt status for failing to file tax returns for three consecutive years. As a private foundation, MTT was required to file the 990-PF form. Yet they failed to do so for any of their first three years in existence…2014, 2015, or 2016.

Even after the published reports of December 2016, MTT failed to file their returns. As of May of this year the IRS deemed them delinquent and revoked the non-profits tax exempt status. Public notice was posted to the IRS website in August of this year.

The Trentonian reported the following from Jackson: “With the filing, you get an initial couple years to file it,” the first-term mayor said. “We had attempted to do it internally. There were some errors with it. It came back rejected and we didn’t get it back timely. Now, I have a certified public accountant (CPA) group that’s working on it as we speak to get it done so I can get my reinstatement. We’re curing that now.”Unfortunately, Jackson’s statement is incorrect. Organizations must file a tax return with the IRS each and every year. In fact, it says so very clearly in the IRS determination letter sent to Jackson’s home address advising him of MTT receiving tax exempt status:

“You’re required to file Form 990-PF, Return of Private Foundation or Section 4947 (a) (1) Trust Treated as Private Foundation, annually, whether or not you have income or activity during the year. If you don’t file a required return or notice for three consecutive years, your exempt status will be automatically revoked. “

There is nothing ambiguous about that statement. MTT was required to file. Period. There is no pass given for “an initial couple of years.” 

As for the statement that the returns were filed but had errors and came back rejected, we wanted to see if that was true. We submitted an FOIA request to the IRS for copies of any returns filed by MTT, erroneous or not. The response came back stating the 990s were "either unavailable, aren't open to public inspection under Section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code, or destroyed (if it has been six years since the end of the processing year)".

We know that it hasn’t been six years since the end of the processing year because MTT was only founded in 2014 and thus ruled out that reason for no documents being available.

We checked Section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code and determined that it wasn’t applicable to any returns filed by MTT.

That left open the possibility that there aren’t any records available because none were ever filed. To check on that, we called the IRS and spoke with a very nice fellow who answered a few questions with the adviso that he could only give general responses but that I could “read between the lines” to understand what he was saying.

First, we inquired if a tax-exempt organization is a Private Foundation but files the incorrect tax form three years running, would they have their status revoked. He answered in the affirmative.

Then we asked if, as in the case above, the wrong 990s had been filed would there still be records available. He answered in the affirmative.

Anticipating my next question regarding MTT specifically, he answered "At this time, there are no records available."

We take this to mean that there are no records of any 990s filed by MTT because none were filed.

This directly contradicts Jackson’s statement that they filed but the form had errors and was returned to him. That simply does not appear to be the case at all. (As of the date of publication, MTT's tax exempt status is still listed as revoked for failure to file on the IRS website).

In the off chance we are drawing an incorrect conclusion, all Mayor Jackson must do is produce copies of the forms that he says were filed in error and returned. And if they have really engaged a CPA who is “working on curing that now”, show proof.  It’s that simple.  

With no tax returns available that report income and expenditures for the non-profit, we decided to look more closely into the shows MTT put on at the Patriots Theater in December 2014, 2015, and 2016. We submitted an Open Public Records Act request for the contracts and correspondence related to the three events.

We found out that MTT paid the “government” rate of $1500 for renting the theater, a 50% savings over the published rate of $3000 for not-for-profit groups. Interestingly, on the War Memorial’s own website there is no“government” rate but rather a “State Agency” rate available “only to state agency clients conducting government business.” We find it hard to see how MTT meets the definition that would qualify them for the discounted rental rate.

First, MTT by design is supposed to be an entity separate and distinct from the city of Trenton. It is therefore NOT an agency of municipal, county or state government. Secondly, per its incorporation documents, MTT was created for the business purpose of [presenting] “cultural events”. Hardly government business.

We raised the question of the rental rates to individuals at the state and were told,

“As previously communicated, the City of Trenton was represented as the Lessee for these events, so in keeping with past practice, the government rate was charged accordingly.”“The payment arrangements that are made between the Lessee, a sponsor, or a 3^rd party does not impact the rental rate.”“Also, the identification of a concert for the Citizens of Trenton at no charge was deemed a municipal event.”

Indeed, on the three rental applications for the Patriots Theater, the listed organization/Presenter/Renter is listed as “Mayor Eric Jackson.” Was this done to subtly suggest that it was the City of Trenton renting the hall and thus qualify for the lower rental rate?

On the application for 2014, the check box for the renter’s non-profit status was not checked. On the 2015 and 2016 applications, the “Non-profit” box is checked, but not the government one. The War Memorial staff didn’t seem to pick up on the fact that it was not a government agency holding a government business event at the theater.

All the contact information regarding the rentals was directed to Ms. Brooks…we presume at either her or Jackson's home address and personal email (she’s not on the city payroll so there shouldn’t be a city email address for her). From the initial email correspondence in September of 2014 (before the non-profit was officially formed) Ms. Brooks identifies herself as working “on behalf of Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson” and often refers to the Mayor’s concert giving the impression it was a city event.

The security deposit for the December 2014 concert was a “starter” check such as one gets when one first opens a checking account. It was handwritten with the Payer Name and address listed as “Eric E. Jackson, Mayor” and the mayor’s home address and signed by Gilbert K. Bell. Mr. Bell is (or was at the time – we don’t know if there’s been any changes since Jackson hasn’t filed any campaign reports in three years) the treasurer of the Mr. Jackson’s Election Campaign. A second check bore the handwritten Payer name and address of Moving Trenton Together, and was signed by Jackson himself. In either event, this was NOT a city event and we maintain it should not have qualified for the lower rental rate.

And there’s another question here…the security deposit check signed by Mr. Bell in October 22 of 2014 bears the handwritten number “008”.  The second check, signed by Jackson, was dated December 18, 2014 and hand numbered 0002. It is possible that Jackson was originally going to pay for this from his campaign treasury and then decided to form the non-profit to cover the expenses. Probably because of the fewer restrictions on the donations to and expenditures from a non-profit compared to an election campaign account.

The 2015 and 2016 concerts saw checks written on fully printed checks with the Payer name and address of Moving Trenton Together at the Melrose Ave address. The 2015 checks were drawn on an account at Wells Fargo (same as the 2014 checks) but signed by Jackson himself. The 2016 checks were drawn on an account at Investors Bank and signed by Ms. Brooks.

Despite lots of evidence to the contrary, the state seemed to accept that Mayor Eric Jackson’s name on the contracts somehow made this a city (government) activity. Ms. Brooks never appears to offer up the information that this was not an official city sponsored event. Was it deliberate? You decide.

In another email thread received via the same OPRA request we find that at the beginning of 2017, MTT still owed the state money for the 2014 and 2015 rentals. Starting on February 10 of this year, the CFO of the Department of State reported to Ms. Brooks that MTT still owed the state a little over $3200 dollars. It took nearly a month to resolve the problem. The balances were paid by credit card. The outstanding $1000 balance from the 2014 show stemmed from Brooks claiming she thought the security deposit check had been cashed to cover the balance and only found out it had been returned after going through the mayor’s records.

Ms. Brooks should have paid closer attention. On the second page of the standard lease agreement with the War Memorial, it is explained in paragraph 3 (Payment of Fees) that:

A security damage/cleaning deposit of $1000.00 shall also be paid no less than 14 days prior to the event. (Please make this a separate check). The building security deposit of $1000 will be held by the Lessor until after the Event and consequent inspection of the facility. After a satisfactory inspection of the facility, and the after the Lessee has satisfied any and all financial and other obligations under the contract, the building security deposit will be returned to the Lessee.

Yet again, neither Jackson or Brooks seem capable of reading, comprehending and/or following simple directions. The check was returned and not applied to the balance due, just as is spelled out in the rental documents.

Jackson and Brooks and company repeatedly fail to do the right thing in a timely manner. The explanations offered when questioned about their ineptitude are always weak and don’t appear to stand up to scrutiny. Jackson’s method of operating is sloppy at best and may border on the unethical. 

Trentonians, think about this if he decides to seek a second term.

A "snowmad's" observation

A note to our readers: We've relocated our base of operations east of the capital city into Hamilton Township, hence the title change suggested by one waggish friend several weeks back. (We'll work on an improved header in the weeks to come. Hopefully one that will work for the mobile version of the blog as well).

While some might think this move has placed Trenton squarely in our rear view mirror, we prefer to see it as offering a wider, possibly higher definition perspective. Since we are still property tax paying residents of a neighboring township, we feel we can still add to the discussion by, for and about Trenton and its role in Mercer County. As Father used to say, "As goes Trenton, so goes the townships around it."

****

Last weekend's major snowfall has provided the opportunity to observe and compare how various adjacent municipalities handled the issue of clearing the streets of abnormally high amounts of snow. It also allows for a comparison of the public's response to same.

Social media has been on fire with commentary about the various towns' efforts to deal with the snow. The local papers have picked up on it as well. The Times ran this story comparing Ewing and Trenton's approach to clearing one stretch of road that runs through both. They also ran a story about Trenton residents frustrated with the city's snow removal efforts.

Trenton is a centuries old town that was laid out and developed before the advent and dominance of the automobile. Her horse and buggy era neighborhoods have difficulty accommodating enough parking for the multitudes of personal vehicles under the best of conditions. Dump a couple of feet of snow on the streets and it quickly makes a mess of things.

The City has to clear the snow, obviously starting with the main thoroughfares and working down through the secondary and tertiary roads and onto the alleys and such. A big problem, as any urban homeowner will tell you, is where to put the snow removed from the streets and sidewalks.

Self-centered idiots who clear the walks in front of their homes and/or dig out their parked cars, trucks and SUVs by throwing the snow INTO THE STREET should be cited and punished. They are not helping themselves let alone anyone else by adding to the snow clogged streets. They are just making it harder for the city to plow everyone out.

On the other side of the coin, the city must have a better, more effective plan in place for snow removal. You would think that a Mayor who had previously served as the Public Works Director would be better able to direct and manage the city's clean up efforts. How could it be that no one thought about clearing the City Hall parking lot until it was time for the workers to show up on Monday?

Open communication with the residents about the progress in clearing the streets might help to cut down on some of the complaints. Perhaps the snow removal plan should have some benchmarks that can be used for all to measure the municipality's effectiveness in getting the streets cleared of snow.
(All snow emergency routes completely cleared within 8 hours of the cessation of snowfall; all secondary roads cleared 12 hours later; etc.)

Hamilton runs an application called "Snow Plow Sal" that is supposed to show where plows are operating at any given time as well as tell users when they can expect their street to be plowed. We saw several complaints posted about untouched streets where the app indicated plowing had been done. We didn't investigate the claims (we stayed off of the roads as much as possible during and immediately after the storm so the plows could do their thing.)  It seems as though there were some "errors" in the data provided. Or maybe it was the interpretation of the data. If a plow had made a pass on the street but the snow wasn't removed all the way down to the pavement, was the street considered "done"?

Again, it was a lot of snow. Even with Hamilton's generally larger, less congested streets, it is hard to make that volume of frozen precipitation disappear overnight. Were the public's expectations met? It doesn't seems so. Were those expectations realistic? That's a good question.

And what about the citizens? How well did they cope with this?

Our past experience in Trenton was that only about half of the residents and property owners (including the City itself) adequately cleared their sidewalks as per city ordinance. This made walking tricky at best. As mentioned above, those that did often threw the snow into the streets adding to the burden the plows had to clear away.

In Hamilton there are still some properties where the sidewalks haven't been cleared but not as many proportionately as we used to see in the city. Interesting to us were the homes where the driveways and walks to the front door were snow and ice free within hours of the end of the storm while the sidewalks along the frontage were left untouched. So, it wasn't a matter of someone too old or ill to get the shoveling done.

City or township, the unusual circumstances of the storm did bring out the good in a lot of people. Stories of neighbors helping neighbors dig out cars, get walks cleared, etc. were also posted online and published in the papers. The Trentonian's Jeff Edelstein even did a column on his personal experience with "a helper".

We, too, were the beneficiaries of good neighbors who brought their snow blower over to clear the driveway and knock down the "plow wall" that had been kicked across the driveway curb cut.

Sound familiar?

The trials and tribulations Trenton has been through for the past several years often make us feel like we are the only city to experience so many severe problems. 

Although extreme, many of the city’s financial problems and the actions of Trenton officials fit two patterns seen in many small and very poor local governments. First, events in Trenton demonstrate a perfect storm of structural insolvency, low internal capacity, poor political leadership, and bad financial choices that often occur in such governments. The city’s structural insolvency, which is extreme by any standards, developed over many years of decline in its economic base. This trend is difficult for any city government to change as its causes and solutions are often beyond the direct control of its officials, and maintaining financial condition in this situation through fiscal policies and practices implemented by that government alone can be close to impossible. However, the story of Trenton clearly demonstrates how officials’ policies and practices can exacerbate current structural deficits and lead to more serious financial trouble.

To some extent, the city’s bad financial choices and poor leadership can be attributed to their

governance system, which is more inherently political than many other types of systems found in

suburban governments. Its history of machine-style politics based on an aldermanic structure with separate wards promotes a very political approach to policy making that is most often associated with older and larger central cities.

Sometimes, though, we can take comfort in knowing "we are not alone." Yesterday, we wrote about the HBO series "The Wire" and its relevance to not only Baltimore, Maryland, where the show was set and filmed, but to Trenton and other post-industrial cities.

Another, not flattering, comparison that comes to mind is with the hard-luck city of East St. Louis, Illinois. East St. Louis has been experiencing severe financial distress and drastic population loss for decades. It is just now about to emerge from under a quarter of a century of oversight from the State of Illinois. But, truth be told, East St. Louis' fiscal issues can be traced back over more than a century.

In 2008, Rebecca Hendrick wrote a five page paper on "The Story of the City of East St. Louis." She quickly and succinctly sums up the fiscal follies and failures of the city.

She ends the piece this way:

“Although extreme, many of the city’s financial problems and the actions of East St. Louis officials fit two patterns seen in many small and very poor local governments. First, events in East St. Louis demonstrate a perfect storm of structural insolvency, low internal capacity, poor political leadership, and bad financial choices that often occur in such governments. The city’s structural insolvency, which is extreme by any standards, developed over many years of decline in its economic base. This trend is difficult for any city government to change as its causes and solutions are often beyond the direct control of its officials, and maintaining financial condition in this situation through fiscal policies and practices implemented by that government alone can be close to impossible. However, the story of East St. Louis clearly demonstrates how officials’ policies and practices can exacerbate current structural deficits and lead to more serious financial trouble.”

 

“To some extent, the city’s bad financial choices and poor leadership can be attributed to their

governance system, which is more inherently political than many other types of systems found in

suburban governments. Although the city has a council-manager form statutorily, its history of machine-style politics based on an aldermanic structure with separate wards promotes a very political approach to policy making that most often associated with older and larger central cities (Theising, 2003).”

Sound familiar?

It should.

The italicized paragraphs above are the same passage with "Trenton" substituted for "East St. Louis." In addition, the opening clause "Although the city has a council-manager form statutorily" was removed from the "Trenton" version because it was not correct.

Everything else that Ms. Hendrick wrote about East St. Louis could just as accurately describe Trenton.

We're not the only city that is in trouble. Let's look around and see what we can learn from our mistakes as well as those of other towns and cities.

What we have been doing has not been working too well, maybe we need to start thinking about making some changes.

A reading by Pastor Coston

David Simon’s “The Wire” is regarded as one of the best TV dramas ever produced. The series, which ran for five seasons on HBO from 2002 through 2008, realistically depicted urban life in Baltimore.  Its examination of government, the drug trade, broken education systems and the media had universal application to post-industrial cities along the eastern seaboard and beyond.

During and since its run, many people have drawn comparisons between Simon’s Baltimore and contemporary Trenton.  This matchup was brought to mind again in a recent note received from former City Councilman and Baptist Minister Jim Coston.

Coston had dropped a quick line to inform us of a recently published book: Corners in the City of God: Theology, Philosophy and the Wire. This collection of essays edited by Jonathan Tran and Myles Wentz compares and contrasts real life experiences of the various writers with the storylines and settings depicted in the TV series. Coston contributed the opening chapter of the book. {And per the good Reverend, he is not receiving anything more than a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for his submission} 

In “The Church in the Wire”, the writer reveals that he was a late convert to the show who became hooked after repeated urgings from friends to watch it.  His essay talks about the absence of the Church in Simon’s Baltimore and by extension, the absence of the Church as a positive force in America’s cities. Coston’s own experiences as an activist and pastor of a local church contrast sharply with the norm in Trenton and the norm as depicted in the show.

Coston references the political presence of the urban churches and their spiritual absence. In a footnote he explains the Leewood Village debacle that would have displaced hundreds of South Ward families for the benefit of a private developer and the politically connected pastors and their economic development corporation.

It’s a good piece. Good enough to have us reading more essays in the collection. And good enough to give us more to think about as the city faces its next silly season as the municipal election cycle comes around next spring.

Too bad Jim Coston isn't in Trenton anymore. This would have been a great book for his Urban Studies group to work through.

Sounds familiar

"My heart aches today knowing that my beloved home town of Detroit now has the notoriety of being the largest American city to officially file for bankruptcy. But the filing was really just a formality. Detroit has really been broke, broken and in decay now for decades — a shell of a city, with a small downtown and some scattered neighborhoods dissected by miles of abandoned storefronts and vacant lots ."

"Detroit's demise was decades in the making" is the title of a piece published on July 19 in the Washington Post  and written by Detroit native, Keith B. Richburg. The above is the opening paragraph of that article.

Richburg lays out, honestly, openly and sadly what has happened to his hometown over the last 50+ years. He rightly deduces that the city did not reach the point of having to file for bankruptcy overnight. It is a sobering read for anyone interested in urban studies.

There are some very strong parallels to Trenton's own history in the same period. The similarities are so strong, that Richburg could easily have been writing about our capital city rather than the motor city.

Take the last sentence in that opening paragraph and change one word: Detroit Trenton  has really been broke, broken and in decay now for decades —a shell of a city, with a small downtown and some scattered neighborhoods dissected by miles of abandoned storefronts and vacant lots.

OK. That was easy and a no-brainer. Read the article in full while mentally swapping Trenton in for Detroit. Substitue other local references where appropriate and see what you get.

For example:

The Detroit Trenton I remember ceased to exist a long time ago. But it was kept alive by a pride, a nostalgia for its former glory, and an illusion that revival was just around the next corner. We who love Detroit Trenton — even people like me who abandoned it long ago — were all complicit.

This paragraph stands on its own, unchanged from Richrburg's original and readily applicable to Trenton:

"Most of the old-time residents say they never plan to move, even though city services are virtually nonexistent in the old neighborhoods and most of the neighbors are gone. It’s a pride, a stubbornness and an attitude of “I bought this home 40 years ago, and no crack addicts or gangbangers are going to drive me out of it!” "

In a paragraph discussing Detroits past mayors, Richburg closes with a statement about convicted and imprisoned Kwame Kilpatrcik and how people still defend him. Change just a couple of words and it suddenly is Trenton that we are talking about:

But Detroiters Trentonians are prideful and protective of their own; even when Kilpatrick Mack and his associates were shown to be corrupt, many Detroiters Trentonians came out to support him, blaming the prosecutors for unfairly targeting a black elected official.

Perhaps the most telling passage comes near the end, under the subtitle "Racial politics."

The white population’s abandonment of the city left Detroit Trenton with a shrinking tax base and deteriorating, segregated public schools — a system locked in place by a Supreme Court order that halted busing across school district lines. But blacks still in Detroit Trenton had one thing left — political power. And they would guard it jealously against any encroachment, real or imagined.

Thus, the city’s black political class sees conspiracy theories everywhere. The investigation of the last mayor by the Detroit Free Press local press, and his indictment by a prosecutor, are seen as a white conspiracy to undermine black “home rule” of Detroit Trenton. The governor’s appointment of an emergency financial manager, once it became clear that Detroit Trenton cannot manage its own fiscal affairs, is again seen as a hostile, racist takeover by the state over the city’s elected black leadership.

Racial politics, and that racial prism, long ago ruined Detroit Trenton , and now they hamper any chance the city has at a modest recovery. As a longtime friend, one who has stayed in Detroit and worked to help the city, once put it to me succinctly: "Some people would rather be the king of nothing than a part of something.”

Mayor Mack, what happened to your "plan" for the arts and culture reviving the city?

The Trenton Museum Society
PO Box 1034
Trenton, NJ 08606

Contact:  Robert Cunningham, 609-462-8721

Carolyn Stetson, 609-915-6451

September 1, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Fate of Ellarslie Uncertain

The Trenton Museum Society announced today that the Mack administration had cancelled a third attempt at a meeting between Robert Cunningham, board president, and the city’s Business Administrator Eric Berry.

According to Cunningham, “We have received no information from the city since we read about the layoff of the Trenton City Museum’s director in the paper.  We have attempted a number of times to meet with the business administrator to no avail.

“One of our trustees has applied twice to meet with the mayor,” he continued,  “but she has not received a reply.  Without any communication, we have no way of knowing what the city plans to do with Ellarslie.”

The board of trustees of the Trenton Museum Society met Tuesday night to determine what could be salvaged from the 2011 – 2012 season of art and history exhibits at Ellarslie.

Without a qualified director, the museum will be forced to cancel all the planned contemporary art exhibits including the Trenton Public Schools exhibit, a popular biennial collaboration at the Trenton City Museum showcasing the work of the city’s public and charter school students.  Unfortunately, once the exhibit is canceled, there will be no way to move forward with the planned monetary prizes associated with this year’s show.

Another popular exhibit and collaboration that cannot continue without a qualified director is the extremely popular Ellarslie Open, a juried show that draws the finest art from the tri-state area and beyond.  The 2012 Ellarslie Open would have marked the thirtieth anniversary of the exhibit.  Over the years, the show has grown so large that Artworks, the downtown visual arts center, collaborates with the museum by hosting part of the show that brings hundreds of artists and thousands of patrons to Trenton each spring.   

“It’s such a shame to cancel these exhibits.  We have worked so hard to make the museum a vibrant cultural center with great success.  Society members volunteer over 5000 hours a year to present the best image of the city to the public.  All of the activity at the museum has made Cadwalader Park a safer and more pleasant place to visit and we have garnered a tremendous amount of positive press that benefits not only the museum and the park, but the entire city of Trenton as well, ” said long-time museum supporter Carolyn Stetson.  “Even though Eric Berry has scheduled a meeting for September 7, it will be difficult to salvage our schedule.  Exhibits of the caliber shown at Ellarslie take months to plan and prepare and we are way behind because we have been waiting to hear what the city’s plan is.  Our first exhibit of the season was supposed to open on September 17.”

The greatest disappointment is the cancellation of the Four Vases exhibit.  This would have been an exhibit of national significance showcasing the highest achievement of the US ceramics industry by bringing together again for the first time in over one hundred years four monumental vases produced in Trenton.  Three of the vases were to be loaned by the Brooklyn Museum, the Newark Museum and the New Jersey State Museum.  The Museum Society recently purchased the fourth vase, the Woodland Vase, which had been lost for over one hundred years.  The vases, called by some experts “the most important pieces of porcelain produced in the United States, ” were manufactured by Trenton Potteries Co for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Exposition.

The Trenton Museum Society is the 501c3 organization that owns the collection of historical objects, fine and decorative arts displayed at Ellarslie.  They also provide workshops, classes and the musical programming at the museum.  Until he received his layoff notice, in addition to his other responsibilities, the director Brian Hill provided the communications link with the city.  City Hall has not informed Hill of their plans and have not made any arrangements for a transition.

 “This year, the Trenton Museum Society was poised to do major fundraising through writing grants and appealing directly to individual supporters of the arts and of Trenton’s illustrious history,” Cunningham said.  “We can’t do any of that now, because until the city administration sits down with us, we don’t know what the future holds.” 

State of dissent

In his State of the City address given before Council on Thursday evening, Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer continued to rant against those who can’t or won’t view the city through his rose-colored glasses. After taking a dramatic pause to scan around Council Chambers at those gathered to hear his warmed-over rhetoric, the Mayor launched into a mini-sermon about how dissenters hurt the city.

But tonight, I do question whether we remember what has brought us this far. Some of us appear to have either lost our way, or, are having difficulty finding the way … the way to work together to get things done.

Certainly, criticism can be good … constructive, fact-based criticism. But not one person is hurt when we talk about our city with minor league truths and major league lies…Trenton is hurt.

This is not an all together incorrect statement. But who is lying and who is telling the truth?

Not one person is hurt when the media report on gang members like they’re celebrities, but treat honor students like they don’t exist. Not one person is hurt. Because the honor student likely goes on to college, and if the honor student happens to be our newest Assistant City Attorney – and graduate of Trenton Central High School – Nakia White – that honor student makes her way to Harvard Law School and then comes BACK to her hometown in Trenton to work for the City where she was a summer intern. So, again, the honor student isn’t hurt when that story is never told … Trenton is hurt … because families that might otherwise consider calling Trenton home, pass us up and go elsewhere, because they think their child can’t make it to “a Harvard” by way of Trenton Central High…But these families don’t hear enough from us about the many students who do.

Certainly there are good things in Trenton that don’t make the “news” and it is a shame, but it is a fact. Young people are supposed to avoid gang involvement, do well in school and succeed in life. It is what we all want and hope for Trenton’s children. Meeting that expectation is only newsworthy if it is abnormal or extraordinary. To say otherwise indicates that failure is the norm, thus making success newsworthy.

Factual and timely reporting of gang activity and crime doesn’t hurt any one person or the city as whole.

Trenton is only “hurt” when we don’t face up to the real facts and work together to change things. The first step in correcting a problem is admitting there is a problem.

Similarly, factual reporting of failing school systems, questionable police management, or public officials who threaten lawsuits when questioned by the public doesn’t hurt the city as much as it highlights how much work needs to be done.

If there has been one consistency in Mayor Palmer’s tenure it has been his reluctance, if not outright refusal, to admit that his critics might be right and he might be wrong. His tendency to treat criticism as high treason instead of an opportunity to make a positive change is what is hurting the city.

A continuous hum of negative vibes in the most personal way hurts the value of your property….Why would anyone want to buy a home in your neighborhood if all they ever hear is how bad you say it is?

What hurts the value of our property is the lack of enforcement of codes and laws; the litter in the streets; and the dysfunctional school system.

So what do we actually get at the end of a day of Trenton-bashing? Well, I’ll tell you what I think we get: We get a community that’s polarized because lines have been drawn and people feel compelled to pick a side … and worst of all … We get a city that’s marginalized … because Trenton will never reach its true potential if Her citizens don’t find common ground, commit to a common agenda and work together to achieve it.

Funny, but it seems to me it is the Mayor and his minions who like to polarize and marginalize those who dissent or disagree with the party line.

So if you love Trenton, lift Her up, don’t tear Her down…if you love Trenton, don’t look to find blame, work to find solutions…if you love Trenton, focus on Her beauty, not Her faults. I intend to work with citizens who will help us lift Trenton up.

We – ALL of us – from the Battle Monument to Centre Street, from Chambersburg and Villa Park to Hiltonia – we are all Trenton.

While there are those who paint the city with a broad brush of negativity, most people of our acquaintance love this city and appreciate all it has to offer. These are the people who volunteer their time and energy to work for the improvement of their neighborhoods; those who lead civic associations and other community groups; people who are committed to supporting local businesses and cultural organizations.

There are a lot of people who are doing what they can to improve the city. In the course of their activism and advocacy they are bound to disagree with the Mayor.

Does that make them any less loyal to Trenton than Douglas H. Palmer?

As we move forward with our comprehensive agenda steadied on the future, I remind us all: In one way, we are very much the same city that we have been for decades. We still can’t afford to get complacent … We still can’t afford to become distracted … and we still can’t afford to believe that the strategy of divide-and conquer will deliver us our victory. I will spend all of my efforts working on the problems – and working with citizens on a positive, constructive course of action.

We are all Trenton. And as part of Trenton we have the right to criticize and question how and why things are done. A true leader would recognize that and use it to his or her advantage to move the city forward.

Instead it seems that our Mayor is the one who is set on divide and conquer. He should heed his own words.

And we're all the poorer for it.

Rutgers Economists James Hughes and Joseph Seneca have reported that people are leaving New Jersey faster than ever before. Studying the Census and IRS data from 2002 through 2006, Hughes and Seneca determined that the gap between the number of people leaving the state and the number of people moving in has more than tripled.

New Jersey could actually see an overall decrease in population as early as 2008.

William Dressel, Executive Director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, is concerned of the overall impact this can have on our cash-strapped state. Not only does fewer people translate into less taxes collected, a significant population drop could cost us a Congressional seat and reduce the population-based Federal Aid received.

But there are other losses to be considered as the population flees the high property-taxes, poor infrastructure, over-developed suburbs and decaying urban centers.

The people who are leaving are those who can. Those who have the ways and means to pack up and move...whether it is across the river or across the country. Certainly, our economy will miss their spending.

But these are also most likely to be people who are involved in making their communities better. They are the activists, board members, volunteers, patrons, etc. that breath life and vitality into our arts, education, and civic non-profits. These are the people who, to the best of their ability, give back to keep our towns and cities livable.

As they flee, our efforts to move forward, especially in places like Trenton, are impaired...if not hamstrung.

This last week marked a significant loss for the Greater Trenton Community as two very committed and involved people completed the transition of divesting from Trenton and setting up shop in the middle of the country.

For the last decade or so, if you looked at any one's list of "movers and shakers" in Trenton, you would have seen the names of Beth and Garry Feltus. Business people, civic leaders, former school board member, patrons of the arts, they were in many ways ideal citizens.

In time honored fashion, they have packed up and headed west in search of a better life. No doubt they will miss Trenton and the people they've shared so much with.

And to be sure, Trenton will miss them.

How many more Beth and Garry's will pull up stakes and leave this week? This month? This year?

How will the State of New Jersey fare when all that's left are those who aren't able to go anywhere else?

Fabulous Matching Luggage

In the beginning, there was Joe Santiago: A former Police Director in Newark where he'd risen through the ranks while currying favor with longtime Mayor, State Senator and erstwhile political heavyweight Sharpe James. Despite steady rumblings of questionable associates and less than exemplary behavior, Mr. Santiago was placed in charge of the NJ State Police. Alas, his tenure at the helm of that respected body was marked with accusations of rule bending and more inappropriate behaviors that eventually lead to his dismissal. Like a multi-lived feline, Mr. Santiago resurfaced in February 2003 as the Police Director in Trenton. None less than the esteemed (and since indicted) Mayor James came to the City Council advice and consent hearing to speak on behalf of Mr. Santiago.

A couple of years later, Retired Newark Police Captain Barry Colicelli was given a contract as a special consultant to Trenton Mayor Palmer. The contract appears to be very lucrative: a city police car at Mr. Colicelli's disposal; an office in City Hall with his name on the door; equipment and staff. Mr. Colicelli reportedly does other consulting work as well and may or may not use the City of Trenton supplied and paid for vehicle and gas to get to and from those jobs as well. Mr. Colicelli's credentials as an expert on Gangs have been questioned by skeptics and his financial difficulties have been documented.

Neither Mr. Santiago nor Mr. Colicelli, by the way, live in the City of Trenton. Certainly, the Police Director is supposed to, but all pretense at having a Trenton residence has been dropped by Mr. Santiago. Regardless of where they live, they seem to have been able to relieve themselves of the burden and drop their baggage at the door to City Hall

Now, in the latest round of accepting Newark Police Department cast-offs, the City of Trenton has announced that the new director of the Communications Division (aka "the radio room") will be one Irving Bradley. Mr. Bradley was the Newark Police Chief for two years after being appointed to the position by former Mayor Sharpe James. Bradley retired last year just before current Mayor, Cory Booker, took office.

As with Mr. Santiago and Mr. Colicelli, it seems as though Mr. Bradley comes well equipped with his own load of baggage. Seems as though Mr. Bradley had a little trouble back in 1998 when Rahway Police found him behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated. Mr. Bradley tried to elude capture by the Police and assaulted an officer when ultimately caught and subdued.

Oh, and it should be mentioned that Mr. Bradley worked in the Newark Police Professional Standards office at the time of this incident. Move over Capt. Messina, you've got competition.

One has to wonder just how the City of Trenton seeks and screens candidates for these leadership positions. Are court records and allegations a requirement? Does a police record help?

Are there no other candidates out there other than retired Newark Police Officers?

Or maybe the Mayor is just trying to collect a complete set of matching luggage from all the baggage his appointees bring with them. I guess he needs it for all his clothes and his out sized ego.

Now isn't that interesting.

The Times had the following story on their webiste tonight (Thursday) and promised a print version in Friday's paper.

City condo development awaits council nod
Posted by The Times of Trenton August 23, 2007 9:57PM
Categories: Development, News
TRENTON -- Builder K. Hovnanian is just a vote away from receiving a tax exemption that would enable it to pay the city a fixed amount of taxes on the former Champale brewery site and other properties, where a condo development is planned, rather than full taxes for 10 years.
The city council recently introduced an ordinance that would grant Hovnanian a 10-year PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) for the Villages at Delaware Run, an 84-unit project bordered by Lamberton, Cliff, Lalor and Centre streets.
Under the PILOT, Hovnanian would pay the city 2 percent of the total project cost annually for 10 years instead of full property taxes. That translates into 2 percent of the sale price of an individual unit and 2 percent of the value of the development's common area. The payments would start when a certificate of occupancy is issued.
The project is expected to cost a little more than $20 million.
Dennis Gonzalez, city assistant business administrator, said he expects the city to received an estimated $400,000 a year in payment in lieu of taxes. That is 20 times the amount the city now receives in taxes for the properties acquired by the city through eminent domain, and the properties acquired privately by Hovnanian, Gonzalez said.
See Friday's Times for more on this story.
Contributed by Eva Loayza

Now a couple of things come to mind:

First, is Dennis Gonzalez being the spokesman for the city on this? As reported in the article, Dennis' current title is Assistant Business Administrator. My question is, why is an "assistant" speaking on behalf of the administration regarding this tax abatement? Why not the Business Administrator or the Director of Housing and Economic Development?

Second, why is the tax abatement or Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) being proposed.

It is understood that these PILOT's are offered to developers to sweeten the deal and make it attractive to do their work in the city. Similarly, homeowners who make substantial improvements to their properties are entitled (and encouraged) to apply for a five year tax abatement.

What is interesting about the K. Hovnanian proposal is the sentence in the article that reads:
"The payments would start when a certificate of occupancy is issued."

So if a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) is not issued, does that mean that no taxes or PILOTS are due? And if that is the case, what about the Nexus Development in Mill Hill where we live? My understanding is that, after two years, the City has not issued CO's to at least some of the owners of the property. So is Nexus or the Sussman family that controls the company making the appropriate tax or PILOT payments?

I'd like a direct and swift response to that question.

Who'll Stop the Rain

Well we need it. We've been a little shy on rainfall this summer (but not for the year to date) and the extreme heat of the past couple of weeks didn't help. So we really can't complain about a couple of days of grey, wet weather. It's good for the ducks and the mushrooms.

Speaking of mushrooms...you know the old joking way of referring to people left out of the loop on decision making as mushrooms because they are "kept in the dark and fed a diet of manure." Well, sometimes I feel like Trenton is being run like a big mushroom farm.

The leadership of this city is deeply mired in the habit of tightly controlling what it wants people to know and when. And this might not be all bad in theory, but in practice, so far, it pretty much sucks.

Councilman Coston has reported on his blog that directives have been sent out stating that City Council people are not to address concerns with City Department Heads directly and, conversely, Department Heads are not to respond to City Council people directly. All communication, we're told, is to go through the Mayor's Office of Citizen Concerns.

Does that seem odd to you? If City Council people have to take Citizen Concerns through the Mayor's Office, doesn't it sort of defeat the point of electing City Council people? Readers of Mr. Coston's blog know how he feels about this, but we haven't heard anything from the rest of Council. They should be outraged at being neutralized by the Administration, yet we hear nary a peep (except from the representative of the South Ward).

And then there is the most recent round of transfers and reassignments in the Trenton Police Department. Now its always a slippery slope if management decisions are made by public consensus, but some decisions are just plain wrong and should be reconsidered. What possible reason can warrant informing someone while on vacation that he has been reassigned from a job that he thought (and a majority of people seem to agree) he was performing well, if not excelling at?

Further, if the whole operational premise is one of "community oriented policing" where the various officers are assigned to specific areas and meet with the people from those areas regularly, then shouldn't the people be informed of the changes directly and at the same time as the officers are?

Doesn't it make sense to inform the community that they are going to have new "partners" and provide their names and contact information so there is no lapse in communication?

Apparently not in Trenton under the current police leadership. No, the Police Director appears to practice "management at will" (or is it "management by whim?") and he seems to believe there is little to no reason to inform the public of his decisions.

And then there is the situation where Zac Chester was threatened with legal action for doing nothing more than asking for some information about development and redevelopment projects in Trenton. In what is assumed to be an attempt to silence anyone who dares question members of the City Administration, a high ranking official is suggesting he'd rather sue than answer to a city resident and taxpayer.

The underlying theme in all of this is a very strong desire to not let the public know, for fear they might scrutinize and then criticize, what the Administration is doing. The leadership is apparently fearful that the public might not react well to how it's going about the City's business.

"What they don't know can't hurt us," seems to be the mantra emanating from City Hall.

Keep them in the dark and feed them manure.

Well, its' time that the citizens of Trenton stop acting like mushrooms. We need to stand together and demand the accountability of our appointed and elected officials alike.

We need to stop this deluge of indifference to the public's right to know and shed some light on just what is really going on in Trenton.

We need to demand proper, complete and timely answers to our questions.

Let My Fingers Do The Talking

Let's just recap all the events of the past week in Trenton that have left my hands exhausted from typing:

The week started with the discovery of a video produced in the manner of a movie trailer for an action film that touted the accomplishments and credentials of our own Mayor Douglas H. Palmer. The video was made by the US Conference of Mayors, a lobby group that Mayor Palmer currently presides over. It was filled with in-jokes and padded with TV and film clips. A DVD with the video plus a longer, more serious one was sent to select individuals in the area.

From this viewer's perspective, the video was in poor taste considering the state of our city. We'll comment on that at a later date.

Following on the heels of the release of the video, the September issue of Esquire hit newsstands. Inside was a pictorial shot at the Conference of Mayors Convention in LA in June. And there was "Dapper Doug" with a full page photo modeling a very expensive suit, shirt and tie.

More inflated that the cost of the clothes were the self-serving quotes that accompanied the image.

In a newspaper article reporting on the Mayor's Publicity Blitz, Mr. Palmer feigned humility and embarrassment at all the attention. A few days later the editors of the same publication called him on it by suggesting he could simply say "No" to these TV appearances, magazine layouts, etc.

On Thursday came the revelation that Dennis Gonzalez, a self-described "loyal employee of Mayor Palmer" sent a letter to a private citizen threatening to sue for libel and slander unless that citizen offered up a spoken apology at that night's City Council meeting followed by publishing newspaper ads with the same apology. And all the Citizen had done was ask for an status update on the various and sundry development projects that had been proposed since Mr. Gonzalez had become a city employee.

Imagine being sued for asking questions of your local government!

And to cap off the week, a dedicated and effective Police Detective was notified (while on vacation no less) that he was being reassigned to patrol in a seemingly deliberate attempt to weaken the Police/Community relationship in the City's South Police District.

Yup, folks. There is plenty of fodder for conversation in the events of last week.

Meet me out on the stoop and we'll talk about 'em.

And the hits just keep on coming

http://www.captsleepy.com/ is a website that contains facts and commentary on some of the more questionable aspects of the leadership in Trenton's Police Department.



For some, it is a rallying point that illustrates the double standards and apparent hypocrisy of the department's leadership under Director Joseph Santiago. By extension, since the Director is a Mayoral appointee, the website also illuminates similar issues with Doug Palmer's leadership of Trenton.



To others, the website is inflammatory and does nothing to help overcome the very problems it highlights. This was especially true in the case of the site's namesake, Captain Sleepy, aka Capt. Paul Messina who received the sobriquet for being digitally captured sleeping on duty. The Captain was being, according to some, unfairly singled out just because he's stepped on the toes of some of his fellow officers.



This writer has weighed in on the "sleeping policeman" policeman issue previously.



What brings this website back to mind is the recent posting of information regarding

a) the apparently excessive use of Police vehicles for personal business by certain officers (and the preferential treatment of those officers that is implicit in such an arrangement)

b) the fact that such use directly conflicts with statements made on the record by Director Santiago about ending the abuse of city resources (cars) for personal use.



Once again "Accountability," the favorite watch word of Mayor Palmer and his followers, is being ignored.



There are those who may claim this is all just another example of the poor Administration/Police relationship and shouldn't be given too much credence.



But if the obvious favoritism and lack of accountability are rampant in the Police Department, can it be that much different in other areas of City Government.



Maybe if we had a few more websites like http://www.captsleepy.com/ the public would wake up to the realities of the situation at hand. More people making the effort and taking the time to learn about what is really going on behind the "Crime is down," "Trenton is moving forward" mantras, could stop this nonsense and get the City back on track.



Or maybe everyone is just "sleeping on duty."