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.

 

No surprise here!

In the current (July 2012) issue of the Trenton Downtowner, there is an article about how the Mack administration decided NOT to utilize some grant management software that was costing the city $70,000 per year for a three year contract.

In the article, it is explained that the contract was pretty much airtight and the city was on the hook for the annual subscription fee whether or not anyone used the service.

Well, guess what?

That's right. eCivis has filed a complaint against the City of Trenton asking for the $70,000 owed for year two of the contract (June 2011-June 2012) and the $70,000 for the third year (June 2012-June 2013) that was due earlier this month.

There's another $140,000 plus interest plus attorney fees that was well spent.

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.