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The news spread quickly yesterday. Representative Rush Holt will not seek reelection this year.

Representative Holt has been a rarity in any elected office. He is incredibly intelligent, soft spoken, and more than competent. And there has never been a whiff of any scandal about him or the way he conducts his business.

Regardless of your partisan beliefs or opinions of his positions, Rep. Holt has been a model politician. His term of service is the kind that you almost wish would continue forever.

While part of us wishes he would stay on, we applaud his decision to not become one of those elected office holders who chooses to hold onto their seat forever simply because they can.

Contrast that with the man who holds the title of mayor of the city of Trenton even though he was convicted in a federal corruption trial over a week and a half ago.

Here’s an individual who is not bright, is not competent and whose every move carried the heavy stench of abuse of power and worse. He should have been removed from office long before the FBI came knocking on his door in the middle of a July night in 2012.

Incompetent. Convicted. Yet still holds the title of mayor.  He’s the one who should be announcing that he is leaving office. Immediately.

There are no clearer examples of the two extremes of American politics.

If only we had more Rush Holts.

Must be something in the water

By this time, it is no secret that Trenton’s indicted mayor is no fiscal wizard. His personal financial problems have been discussed and dissected ad nauseum over the past few years.  His mismanagement of the city’s funds has incited outrage from the city council (at times) and the public (repeatedly).

In recent weeks we have been treated to reports about the hundreds of thousands of dollars owed contractors for work done for the city. 

The now out of business Jonico firm is suing for $600,000 for work done on South Broad Street, interest and attorney fees.

Diamond Contractors is owed $122,000 for the installation of handicap access ramps in sidewalks around town.

Kevin Moriarty addressed this in a recent blog post.  

Another contractor, Marshall Technologies, tried for years to collect a $19,000 bill for work done at the city’s main library. The city administration claimed it should be paid by the library out of the annual stipend received from the city. The library board felt differently and wouldn’t pay. While the two entities argued, the vendor didn’t get paid. After going through mediation, the $19,000 bill nearly doubled to $31,000.  The inflated amount could have been avoided if the administration had just paid the bill when due and worked it out with the library board.

Speaking of the Trenton Free Public Library, we noted this item in the correspondence section of the January 2, 2014 city council docket:
1n Letter for Katz & Dougherty, LLC copy of letter to Mayor Tony Mack, dated December 13, 2013, re: Todd Geter, R.A., Unpaid Invoices for Learning Center Improvements.

Mr. Geter was, ironically, a listed member of themayor’s committee that determined it would be best to reopen the four former branch libraries and keep them under city (as opposed to TFPL) control. Mr. Geter, as a licensed architect, apparently provided the necessary plans, drawings, etc. required to get the permits to allow vendors to do the work required to get the buildings up to code and reopened. But he hasn’t been paid.

A side point, Marshall Technologies did a lot of the work on the mechanical systems in the four buildings. They were paid on time…even though the city council questioned where the money was coming from to pay those bills.

These are just a few examples of the city’s (not just the mayor’s) fiscal failings.

Also on the docket for January 2 is this:

1g Tort Claim Notice filed against the City of Trenton for Damages by Frey Engineering, LLC, 1117 State Route 31, Suite 4, Lebanon, NJ 08833

According to prior newspaper reports, Frey did work for the city that was authorized by Charles Hall, III. Hall never got the proper city council approval for the contract with Frey. Frey did the work and expects to be paid over $43,000.  The city council has not approved the payment because they did not authorize the contract. Further, since the authorization came from Hall and he is a cooperating witness in the federal case against Mayor Mack, some members of council are reluctant to touch the matter.

The list goes on. Former recreation department “contract” employee Lisa Whittaker was essentially paid off in 2012. She performed work and submitted bills that had never been approved by the governing body, but the decision was made to pay her rather than go to court.

Michael Morris, the former lead park ranger, was laid off to make way for Mack confidant Chico Mendez. After a long, drawn out (and costly) fight through the civil service commission, Morris was reinstated, Mendez “removed” and back pay ordered.

And yet the city seems to have no problem paying expenses such as:
1) Former mayoral aide, Billie Hayes, received $250 for his work providing secretarial assistance to Councilwoman Kathy McBride
(Note: All council members are granted a stipend to pay for a clerical assistant. We just find it curious that Ms. McBride has retained the services of one of the mayor's former aides).
2) Flashing Blinky Lights.com was paid $524.39 for what we presume to have been table decorations and favors for the "City of Trenton Senior Gala" held on December 9.
Who, one might rightfully ask, is minding the store? Who in the administration is it that continually makes these bad, too often expensive, decisions and why?

 

Sound familiar?

The trials and tribulations Trenton has been through for the past several years often make us feel like we are the only city to experience so many severe problems. 

Although extreme, many of the city’s financial problems and the actions of Trenton officials fit two patterns seen in many small and very poor local governments. First, events in Trenton demonstrate a perfect storm of structural insolvency, low internal capacity, poor political leadership, and bad financial choices that often occur in such governments. The city’s structural insolvency, which is extreme by any standards, developed over many years of decline in its economic base. This trend is difficult for any city government to change as its causes and solutions are often beyond the direct control of its officials, and maintaining financial condition in this situation through fiscal policies and practices implemented by that government alone can be close to impossible. However, the story of Trenton clearly demonstrates how officials’ policies and practices can exacerbate current structural deficits and lead to more serious financial trouble.

To some extent, the city’s bad financial choices and poor leadership can be attributed to their

governance system, which is more inherently political than many other types of systems found in

suburban governments. Its history of machine-style politics based on an aldermanic structure with separate wards promotes a very political approach to policy making that is most often associated with older and larger central cities.

Sometimes, though, we can take comfort in knowing "we are not alone." Yesterday, we wrote about the HBO series "The Wire" and its relevance to not only Baltimore, Maryland, where the show was set and filmed, but to Trenton and other post-industrial cities.

Another, not flattering, comparison that comes to mind is with the hard-luck city of East St. Louis, Illinois. East St. Louis has been experiencing severe financial distress and drastic population loss for decades. It is just now about to emerge from under a quarter of a century of oversight from the State of Illinois. But, truth be told, East St. Louis' fiscal issues can be traced back over more than a century.

In 2008, Rebecca Hendrick wrote a five page paper on "The Story of the City of East St. Louis." She quickly and succinctly sums up the fiscal follies and failures of the city.

She ends the piece this way:

“Although extreme, many of the city’s financial problems and the actions of East St. Louis officials fit two patterns seen in many small and very poor local governments. First, events in East St. Louis demonstrate a perfect storm of structural insolvency, low internal capacity, poor political leadership, and bad financial choices that often occur in such governments. The city’s structural insolvency, which is extreme by any standards, developed over many years of decline in its economic base. This trend is difficult for any city government to change as its causes and solutions are often beyond the direct control of its officials, and maintaining financial condition in this situation through fiscal policies and practices implemented by that government alone can be close to impossible. However, the story of East St. Louis clearly demonstrates how officials’ policies and practices can exacerbate current structural deficits and lead to more serious financial trouble.”

 

“To some extent, the city’s bad financial choices and poor leadership can be attributed to their

governance system, which is more inherently political than many other types of systems found in

suburban governments. Although the city has a council-manager form statutorily, its history of machine-style politics based on an aldermanic structure with separate wards promotes a very political approach to policy making that most often associated with older and larger central cities (Theising, 2003).”

Sound familiar?

It should.

The italicized paragraphs above are the same passage with "Trenton" substituted for "East St. Louis." In addition, the opening clause "Although the city has a council-manager form statutorily" was removed from the "Trenton" version because it was not correct.

Everything else that Ms. Hendrick wrote about East St. Louis could just as accurately describe Trenton.

We're not the only city that is in trouble. Let's look around and see what we can learn from our mistakes as well as those of other towns and cities.

What we have been doing has not been working too well, maybe we need to start thinking about making some changes.

Another Mack administration fail

What the heck is going on?

The Mack administration has once again demonstrated its world-class incompetence with the way it is handling the whole Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene thing.

First, the consistently misused telephone notification system sent out a call Friday assuring the city’s residents that the city’s emergency management team was on top of all developments and had a plan in place. City spokesperson Lauren Ira went so far as to state there were no planned evacuations and that the Delaware River would not flood.

That’s right. About 24 hours before the storm even hit, the city was declaring there would be no emergency. WOW! I wish I had that kind of ability to see into the future. NOT!

A day later, the storm hits. Anyone with internet access is checking the web for flood predictions and such. What do we hear from the city? Zilch.

Then the rumors start. The water filtration plant is going to be shutdown. Is there any word from the city?

No.

While emails, Face book posts and texts flash around town, the city website, the city Face book page, and the Cty-connect system are silent. In fact, all the website has is an announcement of a press conference scheduled for 1pm on Sunday to discuss the state of the weather emergency. Oh, and the fact that the Island neighborhood must evacuate.

Finally, West Ward Councilman Zac Chester distributes a notice declaring the rumor of a TWW shutdown as false. Only after that does the city manage to put a mention on the website, the Face book page and the Mayor calls into the Channel 6 news to set the record straight.

On Sunday, amidst rumors of a boil water order, the city quietly admits that the filtration plant had been shut down and the system switched over to draw down from an estimated 2.5-day supply in the reservoir. In and of itself, not an unusual or scary situation, but the city also softly asks people to observe water conservation measures to help stretch the supply. Again, they fail to utilize the social media, website or robo call system to alert and inform the public.

Then, with the Island evacuation nearly complete, the city determines that the neighboring Glen Afton neighborhood also needs to be evacuated ahead of the anticipated flooding by the Delaware River.

Not surprisingly, the city’s plan has some problems. First, the predictions for the river’s quest are lowered to a point not expected to impact the Glen Afton neighborhood.

Second, the installation of back flow check valves on the storm drains and some other engineering fixes have pretty much eliminated the flood risk from Glen Afton’s lowest areas. The higher properties were seldom threatened by floodwaters at all.

As absurd as this “recommended” evacuation is, the city followed up with an incredibly stupid and unlawful threat as a means to enforce the removal of citizens from their properties. The city said they would tow all vehicles not removed from the streets of Glen Afton as well as any left in driveways (private property). To further show it meant business, the administration told residents that power would be cut to the homes as well.

Outraged by this apparently unlawful and senseless abuse of power, residents of Glen Afton started to push back. In trying to determine who made such a ridiculous set of decisions, leaders of the local civic group representing the neighborhood were led to believe that the Mayor was only carrying out the orders of the County government.

Fortunately, a check with acting County Sheriff Jack Kemler confirmed this idiocy did not originate with the County government.

Armed with that information, and threatened with a potentially massive law suit against the city, Policy Director and Spokesperson Lauren Ira was questioned about who made the decision that these actions would be taken, that these actions would be legal. Her response was relatively swift and quickly shifted blame from the county to Fire Director Quareeb Bashir. Ms. Ira indicated it was she was only “following orders” from the Office of Emergency Management.

From:

Lauren Ira [lira@trentonnj.org]

Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 10:17 PM

To: 

Subject: Re: Regarding Glen Afton Residents and leaving there homes.

 

My information came from the Trenton Police Department and you should direct your concerns to them, I was following their orders, and those of Director Bashir, Office of Emergency Management Coordinator.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

So, yet again, the city has shown itself incapable of handling the most basic of weather/flood emergencies and completely ignoring the threat to other areas of the city (notably the South Ward) while muddling the process in the Island and Glen Afton neighborhoods.

This is not good government.

It is not even good farce.