Class Act, Trenton-style

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Sign the petition already.

Mack short on wisdom

City Hall a zombie land of hacks and paybacks.

The recent moves in and out of 319 East State Street seem to point out the new mayor’s shortcomings.

Respected and experienced municipal finance guru Bill Guhl suddenly departed last week after less than a month volunteering as the Acting Business Administrator. Indications are that Guhl’s suggestions on how to pull Trenton out of the economic swamp were not only falling on deaf ears, but that there was open resistance from the Mayor’s cronies. While some see Guhl’s departure as a diva-like act, others give him credit for trying but walking away rather than to continue to bang his head on the wall of mayoral indifference.

Next came the announcement that Carleton Badger was named the acting Director of Housing and Economic Development. Mr. Badger, it seems, has had some legal issues in the past that, amongst other things, cost him his real estate license for a time.

Quoted in an article in the Times, Mayor Mack brushes the lapses aside and suggests that Mr. Badger has “paid his debt to society.”

The problem is Mr. Badger didn’t have one ethical misstep. According to the Times, Badger “…has been twice indicted for forgery, pleaded guilty to a theft charge that was brought in 2001, and has a history of bankruptcies and other financial difficulties.”

Further on in the article, LeRoi Banks, a former business partner of Mr. Badgers, indicates that there is more to be learned.

"He took money from me a lot of different ways," Banks said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."

This doesn’t generate a lot of confidence in the statements that Badger has reformed and has readjusted his ethics.

At the tail end of the same article in the Times comes notice of three new appointments. Preacher and former West Ward Council Candidate John Vaughan has been tapped as an aide to Mayor Mack.

Why are we hiring more aides when we are looking at laying off city employees? Another irrational decision.

And what about the two ladies hired as grant writers? One is Councilwoman Kathy McBride’s daughter. The other is reportedly a bartender at the Mill Hill Saloon.

Obviously, these two individuals are highly qualified for the position. Right.

Another move that has heads shaking and tongues wagging is the lunch-time pink-slipping of former Councilwoman Cordelia Staton from her Deputy Clerk’s position.

We do believe that the 11th hour appointment of Ms. Staton by her former colleagues during the waning days of the previous administration was wrong.

We also believe that the Mack administration could have demonstrated a little more class in the handling of the situation.

Almost makes one wish for the good old days of the Palmer dynasty.

Almost.

What a revolting development!

Library board disses founder in favor of failed former leader.

Wednesday’s Trentonian reported that the Board of Trustees was going to consider naming a branch of the Trenton Free Public Library system after Adrienne Hayling. Hayling resigned this past summer as President of the Library Board after serving on that body for 30 plus years.

Thursday’s edition of the publication confirms that the Board has agreed to honor Mrs. Hayling for her long years of service by renaming the Cadwalader Branch of the library system after her.


As the long time chair of the board charged with overseeing the operation of the library system, Hayling is responsible…along with the various members of the body who couldn’t or wouldn’t override her iron-clad rule…for a fiscal mess that has yet to be unraveled.

In the final decade of her reign, Hayling drove away at least a half dozen different library directors; stifled the once vibrant “Friends of the Library” group; and presided over staff reductions and severe cutbacks in operation hours in order to keep the main library and four branches open at all. Additionally, the Hayling lead board failed to obtain proper financial audits for several years running…a situation that is still in the process of being rectified.

Hayling offered nothing but indifference and interference to a group that came together to form a non-profit foundation with the sole intention of raising money to help the library system develop a long term funding plan above and beyond the annual appropriation from the city. Only after stringing the fledgling foundation along for over half a year was it announced that Hayling would step down from the board.

It is a shame that the very branch named in honor of the gentleman who funded and founded the Trenton Library Company in 1750 will soon be named after the woman who presided over the decline and near collapse of the venerable institution.

The actions of the board in recognizing Mrs. Hayling's questionable contribution to the library system would better be directed at the East Trenton Branch of the Library. It is the only one of the four branches not named after someone.

As noted the Cadwalader branch recognizes Dr. Cadwalader who organized and funded the first public library in New Jersey. The Briggs Branch recognizes the leadership of Mayor Frank Briggs, during whose term in office the modern library system was established. The Skelton branch is named for local educator and philanthropist Dr. Skelton who left an endowment for the library system as part of his estate.

All of these individuals made significant contributions to the development of Trenton’s historic library system. It is criminal to even consider swapping any one of their names for Mrs. Hayling’s.

This leaves only the “unnamed” East Trenton Branch as a possibility for bearing the Hayling moniker. And, if one thinks about it just a little bit harder, it may be an appropriate choice.

Recalling the flap created a year ago about the lack of restroom facilities readily accessible to the public at this branch, what could be more fitting than to rename the North Clinton Avenue facility after the woman who left the library without the proverbial “pot to piss in?”

Still waiting

Maybe the Trentonian got it wrong last week when it reported that Doug Palmer was going to hold a press conference to offer his embellishments to Gov. Corzine's plan to save the state's economy. Maybe.

Or did Doug realize he had nothing of substance to suggest and cancelled the event?

We'll never know.

So maybe in place of his suggestions to revive the state's fortunes, Doug can issue a press release to explain something else to us.

Perhaps he'd like to clarify why he has again applied a double standard in managing personnel matters in the city.

Seems as though the auditors from the Mercadien Group who just reported their findings on the city's fiscal 2006-2007 budget discovered some Public Works employees submitted and were paid from unsigned time sheets. According to the article in this morning's Times, the city has adjusted the process to eliminate that error.

But were the employees or those who directly supervise them punished? Was anyone investigated and arrested and charged with a criminal offense for this?

Nothing of that sort was mentioned in the article.

But isn't this similar to the circumstances that got long-time City Finance Director Chris Stankewicz removed from her job? Because she "unlawfully" allowed a worker to get comp time off with pay?

The Palmer administration went after Chris with a vengeance...turning the investigation over to the County Prosecutor's office and locking employees out of their offices for a day or two.

The same administration apparently just adjusted procedures in the matter of the Public Works employees.

Why the difference, Doug? Why so severe and heavy handed in one case yet so calm and rational in the other?

Please explain to us. If you can't or won't, at least send a message out through Renee or Jane as to just why these cases were handled so differently.

Tell us why you sullied the reputation of one good employee who was nearing retirement for something that could have been handled much more professionally.

Yet you and your administration look the other way when members of your cabinet threaten citizens; you appoint non-residents to sensitive law enforcement positions, even though they have prior criminal records; your administration regularly paid a "consultant" from documents that were not properly signed off on by city officials.

C'mon, Doug. Tell us the real story here.