Do as I say, not as I do

On Thursday, June 9, the city business administrator announced a new policy regarding who could take home city vehicles and why.

From: Colin Cherry [mailto:ccherry@trentonnj.org]


Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2011 4:47 PM

To: Seigle, John; McKithen, Marc; Rubino, Joseph; Burzachiello, Ralph; 'jjuniack@trentonpolice.net'; 'qbashir@aol.com'; Thompson, Cleveland; Rousseau, David; Denson, Walter; Jones, Nathaniel; Roberts, Anthony

Cc: 'jgnandt@trentonpolice.net'; 'eberry@trentonnj.org'

Subject: Take Home Vehicle Policy

Importance: High

Good afternoon,

Per the direction of the Business Administrator, the following is to be in effect this coming Monday, June 13, 2011 until further notice.

No passenger vehicle (including those assigned to Department Directors) is to be operated outside of business hours. This means that no vehicle should be “taken home”.

The only exceptions to this policy are those employees who work non-standard schedules and require a vehicle to be “on call”. In such cases, the vehicle must be specialized and necessary for the conduct of City business (for example, a water utility van with equipment inside).

All other vehicles are to be parked in their respective lots – that is a Department lot if applicable, the City Hall lot otherwise – at the close of the business day. After the close of business on Monday any vehicle for which the employee has not received special dispensation from the Business Administrator which is found to not be parked as directed will be considered to be in misuse. The Office of the Business Administrator will be forced to assume that the employee has the intention of depriving the City of Trenton of the proper use of that vehicle and all appropriate action will be taken to ensure that it is returned.

Thank you and please ensure that you communicate this directive clearly to your employees.

__________________

Colin Cherry

City of Trenton

Management Assistant

319 East State Street

Trenton, NJ 08608

(609) 989-3532

ccherry@trentonnj.org

All well and good.  After all, it merely conforms (somewhat) to the intent of ordinance 10-007 passed in January of 2010 and limiting the "take home" use of city passenger vehicles.

One little problem, on Monday evening, June 13, 2011 guess who had a city vehicle parked across the street from his Trenton apartment.  Why, none other than Mr. Eric Berry, Business Administrator for the city of Trenton.

I guess his job puts him above and beyond the reach of his own new policy.

Nice one, Mr. Berry.  Way to go.  You obviously care more about what you can get out of the taxpayers' pockets than what you can do to clean up the cess pool that is city hall.

Stuck at Broad and Hamilton with the Memphis blues again

Elkington/Performa sued over Beale Street money; two years behind in Jackson MS

Summer is here and things have been quiet over at the “Foundry” site opposite the Sovereign Bank Arena.

There is no residential/entertainment development to attract that hip, partying crowd of young folks with expendable incomes.

There is not even a construction trailer on the site. The old American Wire Rope plant Building 4 still sits alone, a brick island in a sea of asphalt.

Where is the highly anticipated Performa development that was going to turn that corner of Trenton into the region’s premier entertainment complex?

Nowhere.

And why is that?

Ask Mr. Elkington or one of his partners and they would undoubtedly tell us that it has to do with the economy and the mortgage crisis. And they are not unreasonable excuses.

The thinking here on the stoop is a little different. Based upon Mr. Elkington and Company’s track record in Jackson, Mississippi (read the Clarion Ledger’s article from last week), we think they are spread too thin and can’t get any financing to move any of their projects forward.

Of course, Mr. Elkington thinks it is the Mayor of Jackson's fault for all the negative comments that have been made about Performa's lack of performance!

Couple with that, the fact that the Beale Street Development Corporation went to court earlier this week to sue Elkington for $10,000,000 and you have the makings of the collapse of the Performa house of cards.

Performa has managed Memphis' Beale Street district since 1982, but somehow the Development Corporation and ultimately, the city of Memphis, have not seen one penny in revenues. Elkington has been trying to get copy-cat developments off the ground in cities like Jackson, Trenton and most recently Birmingham, Alabama. More and more questions about Elkington's ability to bring any of these projects to fruition are being asked.

It has been six years that the Mercer County Improvement Authority (MCIA), with the approval of the City of Trenton, has been dancing with this project. It is time to put it to rest.

Some say it is the only thing out there; Elkington is the only one to come forward with a plan, so we must continue on. The location is too valuable to let sit fallow.

We say it was an ill-conceived, faulty plan from the start that has only gotten worse as time goes on. It is obvious that Mr. Elkington is in no position to proceed with this (and may not be for quite some time). He should be relieved of his claims on the property immediately so that, when the economy does turn, we can find a developer with a common sense, workable and self-funded plan for the parcel.

We have said it before and we will say it again, Trenton does not need and obviously cannot support this kind of concentration of chain and franchise bars, clubs and restaurants. Even if it was built and opened tomorrow, can you imagine trying to keep the patrons under control at peak times with the limited police resources the city currently has. This entertainment complex is doomed fail.

Let’s grow up and get over our frat boy dreams of living in New Orleans North and seek out more rationale and fitting developments for our capital city.

Let’s bid adieu to Mr. Elkington and company. Now.