Does the mayor have any clue what he is doing?

Recent newspaper articles have sketched a picture of just how poorly the Tony Mack administration manages the city.  

On Sunday, we were treated to a story about how the city failed to comply with certain stipulations that came with federal stimulus funds. That failure to comply and the subsequent inability to properly manage the construction projects funded through the grant resulted in the loss of the money.  Now, the jobs are incomplete and/or poorly done and the contractors have not been paid.

Today we read that Passage Theatre Company, the city’s only professional theater group, may very well have lost a $25,000 grant because the city wouldn’t come to terms on a long term lease for the Mill Hill Playhouse.

How insane is all of this?

The street projects written about on Sunday involved repaving a portion of S. Broad Street and the creation of wheelchair accessible curb cuts at intersections throughout the city.  The lack of proper oversight of the contractors due at least in part to the staff shortage created by last September’s layoffs led to the poor workmanship and loss of funding.

This situation could have easily been managed by thinking things through and having a plan.  Both notions, however, are foreign to the administration.

In the case of Passage Theatre, the grant was received through its own work. It is not city money, government money or even government administered money (read: No Tax Dollars).  The money was to be leveraged into a capital campaign to replace the aged and decrepit HVAC system at the city owned Mill Hill Playhouse. 

That’s right…a non-tax dollar funded improvement to a city owned building.

The grant required a long-term lease from the city to Passage Theatre. In return for the long-term lease, Passage would step up what they were paying for utilities (power, heat and light) to use the building. Something that wasn’t brought out in this morning’s article was the fact that should Passage Theatre be forced to vacate the Mill Hill Playhouse for another location, they take with them the lighting and sound equipment that make it a viable performance space leaving the city with a stage and some chairs. That the Mack administration can’t see it’s way clear to agree to a long-term lease shows an appalling inability to think things through.

When you couple these stories with the fumbling of the directorship of the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, you have to question whether the mayor sees any value in the cultural life of the city.

There are other stories floating about regarding the city turning its back on other groups and non-profits utilizing city buildings. Some are cultural organizations, some are providing social services.

And let’s not forget that the city has stalled the proposal by the CYO to utilize the former Skelton Branch Library building…allowing it instead to sit fallow. The building has been broken into; the missing panes of glass replaced with wood and the shrubbery in front cut down.  The CYO proposal would take the upkeep of the building off of the city’s shoulders and keep it in use.

Similarly, the mayor out right refused to entertain the proposal of the East Trenton Collaborative to occupy and renovate the historic East Trenton Library branch building. That plan would put the building back into use and available to the community at no cost to the city. 

In both of these cases as well as the situation with the Mill Hill Playhouse, the city retains ownership of the buildings; receives a minimal ($1 per year) stipend from the entities; but in return is relieved of the bulk of the carrying costs for maintaining otherwise vacant buildings.

Another aspect of this overall situation is that by messing around and losing funds, the city’s “rating” in the eyes of other granting entities (government or otherwise) is lowered. That makes it more difficult to receive the funding the city government is so dependent upon.

Imagine what will happen if Trenton loses another round of COPS grants or other Justice Department funds that supplement our public safety budgets.

For a mayor who just delivered a state of the city address sprinkled with a few million dollars worth of grants, taking such a cavalier attitude about managing and leveraging the resources available does not bode well for the fiscal health of Trenton.

Check please!

A little history of the salary mess in Trenton

In August of 2003, the Palmer administration put ordinances on the city council docket increasing the salary ranges for the Mayor and department heads, the city clerk and increasing the city council pay.  It was a sneaky, distasteful move on a couple of counts.

First, earlier that year, the same administration had asked department heads to cut budgets by 10% or so because of the city’s financial condition. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to cut budgets and then turnaround and grant the king’s court raises, does it?

Second, the ordinances were late additions to the docket of the single council meeting held in August.  This meant the second reading/approval would come at the first meeting in September. Coming at the end of summer when people are away on vacation and right after the Labor Day holiday when so many families are readjusting to a more regulated fall schedule, the timing of the introduction of these ordinances was obviously designed to circumvent public scrutiny and outcry.

Didn’t work. Various watchdogs, activists, etc. got wind of the ordinance’s first reading and spoke against it.  At the second reading in September of that year, a decent crowd turned out and spoke against the raises during the public hearing that proceeded the vote on the ordinances.

It was testy. Then Council President Paul Pintella was about to have one citizen removed from chambers but the speaker left of his own volition.  Another resident brought a tube of KY Jelly to the podium and asked that council at least use a lubricant before “putting it to the citizens”.  

The ordinances passed.

Another interesting development was that the ordinances for the Mayor, department heads and city clerk denoted salary ranges with annual increases over a several year period.  While not specifically prohibited, state statue does not mention salary ranges. It simply states “salaries, wages or compensation”.

§ 40A:9-165. Salaries, wages or compensation of mayor or other chief executive; officers and employees; exceptions; referendum

The governing body of a municipality, by ordinance, unless otherwise provided by law, shall fix and determine the salaries, wages or compensation to be paid to the officers and employees of the municipality, including the members of the governing body and the mayor or other chief executive, who by law are entitled to salaries, wages, or compensation.

Salaries, wages or compensation fixed and determined by ordinance may, from time to time, be increased, decreased or altered by ordinance. No such ordinance shall reduce the salary of, or deny without good cause an increase in salary given to all other municipal officers and employees to, any tax assessor, chief financial officer, tax collector or municipal clerk during the term for which he shall have been appointed. Except with respect to an ordinance or a portion thereof fixing salaries, wages or compensation of elective officials or any managerial, executive or confidential employee as defined in section 3 of the "New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act" P.L.1941, c.100 (C.34:13A-3), as amended, the ordinance shall take effect as provided therein. In municipalities wherein the provisions of Title 11 (Civil Service) of the Revised Statutes are in operation, this section shall be subject thereto.

Where any such ordinance shall provide for increases in salaries, wages or compensation of elective officials or any managerial, executive or confidential employee, the ordinance or that portion thereof which provides an increase for such elective or appointive officials shall become operative in 20 days after the publication thereof, after final passage, unless within said 20 days, a petition signed by voters of such municipality, equal in number to at least 5% of the registered voters of the municipality, protesting against the passage of such ordinance, be presented to the governing body, in which case such ordinance shall remain inoperative unless and until a proposition for the ratification thereof shall be adopted at an election by a majority of the voters voting on said proposition. The question shall be submitted at the next general election, occurring not less than 40 days from the date of the certification of the petition. The submission of the question to the voters shall be governed by the provisions of Title 19 (Elections) of the Revised Statutes, as in the case of public questions to be voted upon in a single municipality.

Not only were salary ranges and automatic, annual increases built in, Mayor Palmer chose to pay himself and his staff at the top of those ranges. Consistently.  The argument was made that when you have ranges, the average, qualified, competent employee should be paid at the midpoint of the range.  Someone with less than spectacular performance or a lack of experience would be paid in the lower part of the range; someone who excels at the job might expect to be paid at the higher end.  That’s common sense and good business.

The Palmer administration had no part of that. They argued that the cabinet members were all doing excellent work and must be paid as much as possible because many of the unionized employees they managed were making the same or more money.  Apparently there is some unwritten law that states the boss must make more than the employee.  And that argument was extended all the way up to the mayor.  If you inflate the department head salaries, then of course you have to raise the mayor’s. 

 To say the public was unhappy…or at least those who were paying attention…would be an understatement.

Flash forward to 2008. Not wanting to go through the hassle of having to explain the raises again, the Palmer administration illegally snuck them through via some vague language tacked onto the ratification of union contracts by city council.  It took a citizen to file a legal complaint against the city and a judge’s order to throw out those raises.  Of course, no one had to pay back the money they gained through the illegal raises.

That brings us to July 2010. Mayor Mack is sworn in and starts paying himself and his cabinet at the same rate, the top of the 2008 ranges that Palmer and company got.  Mack did this knowing the city was on the precipice of financial failure.  Mack did this while facing layoffs yet simultaneously going on a hiring spree, bringing in cronies and aides and interns and such.  Only because the ruling came down in August and was applied to the current administration did the pay scale get rolled back to the 2005 levels; the last legally passed pay raises.

A sympathetic, sentient Mayor would realize that a city with major financial issues, a city that must layoff hundreds of employees including 1/3 of the police department, can not afford to raise his salary or that of his cabinet.  Unfortunately for Trenton, Mayor Mack is neither sympathetic nor sentient.

Mayor Mack is a failed city leader. Eighteen months into his term, he has demonstrated no plan for improving public safety or economic development. He has demonstrated, repeatedly, an incredible lack of ability or will to do anything except hire and reward his friends while the city falls further and further into despair and disrepair.

Last night a very clear and strong message was sent to the mayor via the public comments at the city council meeting.  The people will not reward the continued incompetence of this administration with even the mere consideration of raising the mayor’s salary.

Snow storm or snow job

It’s been all over the news for the past couple of days: Monster storm set to descend upon us! Prepare for the worst.

Every year, the same thing: big storm coming!

Truth is, this winter has been an exceptionally “harsh” one with multiple, large storms. But in the end, its winter and we live in Trenton, NJ not some tropical paradise.

Most people recognize that the weather is colder, there is a chance of snow (and snow storms) and we adjust our activities and plans accordingly.

We don’t plan picnics or a lot of outdoor activities for the winter months. We dress warmly; wear gloves and hats to prevent the dire consequences of frostbite. In short, we take the steps necessary to not freeze to death.

We manage.

What we don’t do is stand out in the street or park or ball field in Bermuda shorts and t-shirts yelling up at the sky to stop the snow and begging for higher temperatures.

That would not be normal, right?

Then is it normal for Doug Palmer to spend money the city doesn’t have a hope of getting from State coffers and then complain loudly when it doesn’t come?

He does this every opportunity he gets, year in and year out. He knows there is a structural deficit in the city’s budget…a blizzard of red ink if you will, yet he consistently acts as if there isn’t. He complains when the state won’t. Palmer budgets for a lavish banquet knowing that he’s only going to be dining at the soup kitchen.

And then he stands in the middle of State Street yelling for more money.

Insane.