Now you see it, now you don't. Now you see it, again.

As you know, the budget committee of Trenton’s City Council has been meeting with department directors to go over the proposed numbers for this fiscal year (which btw is half over).

Did you know that there is still a line item for a Director of Recreation, Natural Resources and Culture?

There is.

Why can’t the administration figure out what it wants to do with regards to this department?

Mayor Jackson’s transition team took the position that the city might be best served by reorganizing city government and doing away with the department altogether. This would be accomplished by dividing up the work of that department amongst the remaining departments. It is an idea that has beenfloated here and elsewhere for the past few years.

Last month, the preliminary budget included money for hiring a director of DRNRC and three staff people in seeming conflict with the transition report. Then, in a November 21, 2014 article by Times reporter Jenna Pizzi, city spokesman Michael Walker stated the idea was scrapped.

"The mayor is not moving ahead with the department of recreation," Walker said. "He is rethinking the way the city is moving forward with recreation." 

Or so we thought.

Turns out, page three of the budget reviewed at the Monday, December 22 hearing included the line items for salaries of a recreation director's and staff. (See image above). This completely contradicts Walker's statement made last month. 

Sources say the administration doesn't know yet how it wishes to proceed with the recreation department but wants the money in place just the same. 

Sounds indefinite and undecided. Kind of like the guy who was running things a year ago this month. 

Check, please

Two items from the June 18, 2013 City Council Docket:

13-379 RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING APPLICATION FOR AND ACCEPTANCE OF A GRANT FROM THE NEW JERSEY STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE FY 2014 SUMMER FOOD SERVICE PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF RECREATION NATURAL RESOURCES AND CULTURE IN THE AMOUNT OF $433,208.25

13-382 RESOLUTION AWARDING A CONTRACT TO KARSON FOOD SERVICES, INC., 3409 ROSE AVENUE, OCEAN, NEW JERSEY 07721 TO PROVIDE PREPACKAGED MEALS PER STATE REQUIREMENTS TO CHILDREN PARTICIPATING IN THE CITY OF TRENTON SUMMER FOOD PROGRAM FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF RECREATION, NATURAL RESOURCES AND CULTURE FOR THE PERIOD BEGINNING JUNE 24, 2013 THROUGH AUGUST 20, 2013 AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED: $220,000.00 – CC2013-02

To explain:

Every year for a very long time, the city of Trenton has applied for and received a grantfrom the NJ Department of Agriculture to provide free meals to children in the city. The grant covers both the cost of the food contract and money for temporary summer help to run the feeding program locations in city parks.

Reading from the two resolutions reveals the total grant is for $433,208.25 and the catering contract with Karson Food Services is not to exceed $220,000.

There must be some attendance/participation issues with the program this year. We frequently find ourselves passing by the Clay Street Park/Ike Williams Center during the noon hour on weekdays. There has been no evidence of children getting meals or participating in activities there.

A Mill Hill resident found this flier “shoved into {his} mailbox” on July 29. Leaving aside the fact

that it is technically illegal to stuff anything but mail in a mailbox, this “invitation” suggests participation in the program is somewhat below what was expected. The lack of activity in the park seems to support that fact.

This has us pondering what kind of monitoring goes on for this program. Is the participation at each site and citywide documented? Are we tracking the number of meals purchased versus the number of children served? Does the state ever audit the program to see if it is being run effectively and efficiently?

These musing were brought back to the fore again today when we discovered this.

 

We spied this box with a couple of apparently untouched “lunches” sitting atop a trash can at the corner of S. Warren Street and Assunpink Drive in downtown Trenton. Low on the side of the box was the imprint Karson Food Service Inc. Higher up on the same side was the word “Trenton” scratched through with a dark marker of some sort.

 

How and why did this carton and these uneaten meals end up here…blocks from the nearest lunch site?

 

Is this typical of how this program is being run?

In light of the state comptroller's recent report on the statewide abuse (including Trenton) of the school lunch program, can someone check. Please.

 

OOPS! They did it again!

The indicted mayor of Trenton takes great pride in the creation of his "Mayor's Learning Centers." So much pride, he outfitted each of the former library branch buildings with 50", flat screen TV's.

Why the so-called "Learning Centers" require large screen TV's is beyond us. They are barely open. When they are open, they are staffed by untrained, possibly un-vetted, volunteers.

We can only figure it is another example of the IO's penchant for appearance over substance. The bells and whistles are what counts, not their appropriateness, functionality or suitability.

During Hurricane Sandy, someone broke into the East Trenton Learning Center at 701 N. Clinton Ave. and liberated the two large screen TV's that had been installed there. There was no alarm...presumably due to the wide spread power outages caused by the storm.

Of course, no serial numbers were on file for the stolen items so further investigation would go nowhere, even IF we had the manpower on our severely depleted police force to conduct one.

In most instances, crime victims will try to gain some insight from the unpleasant experience and take steps to make themselves less likely to become targets again. They may increase security around their premises. They may do a better job of keeping records of their possessions.

Apparently, that is not the way things work here in Trenton.

The Mayor's Learning Center on Greenwood Avenue recently had its large, flat screen TV stolen.

According to the police report, a Ms. Tanisha Dyton was "doing a walk through at 1115 Greenwood Ave" on Thursday, January 10, when she noticed the TV was missing. The police report mentions that there was no sign of forced entry.

Granted, the report was taken over the phone by a police aide so no onsite investigation was carried out by a trained officer but forced entry would be fairly obvious to anyone discovering the crime.

The report also notes that the TV serial number is unknown.

The report does not state is whether or not the building is alarmed and, if so, did the alarm go off.

We have to wonder why, after the theft of the TV's from the East Trenton Learning Center, building alarms were not checked to make sure they were operable. We also wonder why the serial numbers of the remaining TV's were not recorded and kept somewhere, just in case of another theft. Moreover, after the previous incident, were the remaining TV’s secured with cable locks or other devices to help prevent their easy removal?

Apparently, the Mayor's Learning Centers are not teaching us anything useful.

Stop playing games

Trenton Mayor Tony Mack is insistent upon staffing up the department of Recreation, Natural Resources, and Culture that has been a quagmire for the past two years. Soon after taking office in July 2010, Mayor Mack cut staff and demoted some of the remaining employees, ultimately gutting the department in the 2011 layoffs.

In the meantime, the “department” has run through its budget and then some with little to no accountability. There have been inquiries and investigations into use of facilities, splintered contracts that avoid the bidding process, time sheets and more. Festivals and parades have been produced with no real oversight as to what was being spent, who was getting paid and what the real benefit was.  Favoritism has been shown in funding certain sports leagues over others.

Now, the mayor and business administrator Sam Hutchinson have proposed to city council that the city hire a department director and staff to run the various programs and events that the mayor wants.

Here’s a simple counter proposal, and it is not a new idea.

The department of Recreation, Natural Resources and Culture should be done away with. The maintenance functions should be moved into the division of public property (part of the department of public works) and the rest of the functions rolled into the department of health and human services.  

It is not unheard of for municipalities to have a department of health, recreation and human (or senior) services. Indeed, Trenton used to have the department of health, recreation and welfare.  The last term probably fell out of favor because the county took over the administration of the assistance programs and because the word “welfare” started to have negative connotations.

The point is we have a competent director and staff in the health and human services department. It would be simple to add a couple of staff people to that department who would interface with the outside organizations to provide programming and services at the various city owned facilities.  From Artworks and Passage Theatre to the Trenton Museum Society at Ellarslie and the Trent House Association; from the Boys and Girls Clubs, CYO, PAL, YM and YWCA’s; from Babe Ruth League, the various Little Leagues, the NJTL, soccer leagues the health and human services staff would coordinate the use of facilities and help find money (but not totally fund) the programs. The city would lease or enter into MOU’s with these various organizations to do what they by design do. This takes the cost off of the cash strapped city for providing “recreation” programs.

An added bonus is that elimination of the department of RNRC frees up space for the splitting off of the water and sewer utilities from public works, an idea that has also been brought up before.

The creation of a separate department housing only the utilities makes sense. They have their own separate budget anyway. It will be easier to focus on improving the infrastructure and service provided. One would think it will make our suburban neighbors/customers happier to see the water utility operate more transparently and effectively. And it could isolate the utility staff from layoff or furlough actions affecting other departments.

This can all be accomplished with or without the mayor’s approval. Restructuring the city’s administration is done by ordinance.  As we have all learned recently, it only takes a solid five votes on council to make this common sense move be veto proof.

There is no reason this shouldn’t be taken on immediately. It would be an effective way to streamline the city administration while refocusing on the core functions of municipal government.