The little man with the outsized ego

Mayor Tony Mack was arrested Monday on federal charges of conspiracy. He was arrested along with his brother, Ralphiel, and JoJo Giorgianni.

That is old news.

While Trentonians breath a little sigh of relief that something, finally, is being done about the inept and allegedly corrupt Mack administration, the saga has not ended.

We say that because the arrest was just the first step in the process of bringing Tony and Ralphiel and
JoJo to justice. Next comes the grand jury and (expected, but not guaranteed) indictments. Then, months later, a trial.

In the mean time, Tony Mack is still the sitting Mayor. He still has the authority and power granted him under state law.

And that brings us to the point of this post.

Tony Mack, as reported in today's Times, has no intention of stepping aside and letting someone else run the city while he deals with his legal issues.

Tony Mack, no matter how much we want to think otherwise, is still "in charge."

We cannot forget or overlook that. We must continue to scrutinize everything that is done; every penny that is spent; and whether or not proper process and procedure is being followed.
T
here are still thousands of dollars of expenditures out of the Recreation budget that were not properly explained, contracted for or approved by council.

We still don't know whether radio station WIMG ever aired a single commercial for the $12,000 the city paid them last June.

We still don't know what Herb Ames and the Capital Region Minority Chamber of Commerce did with the $12,000 the city contributed to it in two installments over the past year.

What we do know is that Mayor Tony Mack is not any more likely to change his way of doing business than confidant and aide Anthony Roberts is likely to change his taste for garish, striped suits.

Take for just one, small example city Purchase Order #12-00211.

This purchase order in the amount of $170.00 is made out to Trenton Photographers and Video. It is for 4, 8x10 Color Portraits of the Mayor, in a step-up mat and frame.  The bill was paid out of account number 01- 10 -1000 -299 which is the budget line for the Mayor's Office, Other expenses.

Again, the amount, $170.00, is not terribly significant. The purchase is, however, indicative of how our Mayor's tiny little brain and out sized ego works.

While the documents don't state it specifically the fact that there are four of these portraits suggests that they might be destined to hang, one each, in the Mayor's Learning Centers.

The timing of the purchase is interesting. The invoice was placed May 31, 2012, the requisition and PO are dated July 16, 2012.

The order was apparently placed late in FY2012 at the same time that the first three Learning Centers were being opened and the fourth was being worked on and while questions were being raised about the Mayor's free spending ways.

The purchase was completed and paid for out of FY2013, a new budget year. Coincidentally, the requisition and PO were dated just two days prior to the FBI providing a surprise wake-up call to the Mack residence in the early morning hours of July 18.

There is another interesting bit about the requisition and PO.  Both are signed by Anthony Roberts.

Normally, wouldn't one party complete the requisition and another sign off on the PO? You know, just to provide a little bit of control over spending?
And under what power, what position, what title is Mayoral Aide Anthony Roberts authorized to sign city purchase orders? He hasn't been the "acting" BA since Mr. Hutchinson came on board in mid-April.

Certainly the dollar cost of this purchase is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. It remains symbolic of the Mayor's belief that he is above the law and that the meager resources of our beleaguered city are there to serve him, not the other way around.

How many other purchases have been requisitioned and/or approved by Anthony Roberts with no proper authorization beyond "the Mayor wants it?"

How much in tax dollars and state aid has been wasted merely to stroke the overreaching ego of our inept and ineffective Mayor?

Things will not improve until Tony Mack is no longer Mayor of the City of Trenton. And the sooner that happens, the better.

On the air

See if you can follow this one:

On May 20, 2011 Maggie Morris Guzzardo, the CEO of radio station WIMG, drafted a letter outlining three advertising packages. (all the documents referenced in this piece can be found here)

The letter has a fax stamp of 6/1/2011 and reads in part:

“Please keep in mind that this proposal is flexible and that we can adjust any aspect mentioned. Advertising may include any project or event the City of Trenton wishes to promote. This may include housing projects, camps, pool schedules, city recycling and/or trash collection revisions due to holidays, special recreation events, city updates or a special address to the public.”

The three packages described are for 125, 175 or 200 sixty-second commercials run over a three month period, July 1, 2011 – September 30, 2011.  The prices quoted are for $7,500, $10,500, and $12,000 respectively. 

Per the letter:

“Each package includes Mayor Mack’s monthly appearance on Trenton Talks segment ‘In The Public Interest’ every first Tuesday of the month at 6:00pm. This is an added value {emphasis added} of $1,000 per show.”

The city apparently contracted for the $12,000 package because they paid that amount to WIMG with check number 182074 dated 6/15/12 and signed by the mayor.

The questions are many.

First, as a public official, why was Mayor Mack’s “monthly appearance” on the radio considered an “added value” to the contract?

Would Mayor Mack not have had a regular monthly appearance on the station without buying the advertising?  Plenty of people have made regular, semi-regular or solo appearances on public service programs and they don’t pay for the privilege. Why would anyone put a dollar value on the Mayor’s appearances?

Did Mayor Mack actually make all three appearances that were “included” with advertising package?

What of these 200 radio commercials, just what were they used for? What did they promote or inform the public of? Nobody seems to know.

An OPRA request for documents pertaining to the content of these 200 radio commercials got the following response:

“…your request was sent to all departments who might be able to provide you this information. All departments have responded that they do not have the documents that you are requesting. We will now consider this OPRA completed/closed.”

Nowhere in city hall was there a copy of the script or scripts for 12,000 seconds of radio advertising that the city paid $1 per second for.  Nowhere in city hall was there a audio recording of any of the finished commercials that were broadcast (if, indeed they were broadcast).

Twelve thousand dollars of tax payer money committed and nobody in city hall can tell us, show us, let us hear what we spent it on.

But, wait! There’s more!

An expenditure such as this should have come before the City Council for approval. Like so many purchases that this administration has made, it didn’t.

There was no approval to spend this money from the governing body. Is that why it took almost nine months for payment to find its way to the vendor? Funny thing, unless you or your business is a heavy advertiser with a good payment history, payment is usually due up front; before any of the commercials would air. If not payment in full, than some percentage of the fee may be required before the commercials are produced and aired.

Perhaps the City of Trenton has such a solid financial standing that the business community is willing to act on verbal promises and handshakes.

Is it normal, then, that a requisition to pay for the radio spots would be submitted eight months after the commercial(s) last aired?

And who requisitioned this payment for services? Why none other than Mayoral Aide/Acting Director of Housing and Economic Development Carmen Melendez.

Requisition R2-06810, dated 5/31/12 is signed by Ms. Melendez.

Interesting that a query of the Edmunds accounting software shows only two approvals: Ms. Melendez’s name appears in the 2^nd approval field and Acting Purchasing Agent Marchell Marshall’s name appears in the 3^rd approval field. There is no 1^st approval.

Why? Aren’t the series of approvals required so that people don’t play games with the taxpayers’ dollars?

And why was the check paid from the account line for Economic Development, Professional Services 60-6040-290 rather than the Economic Development, Advertising line 60-6040-201?  If we are buying advertising, shouldn’t we pay for it from the advertising budget?

So we have yet another glaring example of the complete lack of control over the spending of the Mack administration. Twelve thousand dollars out the door, paid from the wrong account and with no clue whatsoever as to what the money was actually spent on.

Why does this continue to happen?