Tell the truth, Mayor Mack

Mayor prevaricates at opening of second learning center.

According to Carlos Avila's report in this morning's Trentonian, Mayor Tony Mack continues to blame the board of trustees of the Trenton Free Public Library for the branch closings two years ago.

“I have been working diligently to reopen all four of these buildings since the Trenton Free Public Library Board decided to close them in August of 2010,” he said.

That is his side of the story. And it is just plain wrong.

In a letter dated September 13, 2010, TFPL Trustee Virginia Dietrich writes:

"The over $1M reduction to this year's budget has had a devastating effect on our ability to provide neighborhood services. Your generous offer of an additional $350,000 funding would be a welcome addition to the $2.1M allocation the City has already committed for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Unfortunately, it is not enough to cover the cost of your proposed plan for a 3-7 pm 5 day per week schedule at all four Branch locations. As we detailed in the budget sent to your office on August 20, 2010, the Library would need an additional $845,952 for a total allocation of $2,945,962 to implement your plan."

There it is, ladies and gentlemen, in plain English.

"Unfortunately, it is not enough to cover the cost of your proposed plan for a 3-7 pm 5 day per week schedule at all four Branch locations."

The question that needs to be asked by citizens, taxpayers, the governing body and the mayor's own administration is simply this:

If you cannot afford to fund the TFPL to provide the hours and services you want, how can you find the money (according to this report in the Times, now up to $75,000 per "learning center" per year from the $30,000 stated on April 30) to operate this parallel system of ersatz libraries?

Tell the truth, Mayor Mack.

A refresher

What follows is the text of Mayor Mack's State of the City Address from last March with comments bringing the reader "up-to-date."

The State of the City Address

As Delivered by:

Mayor Tony F. Mack

Monday, March 21, 2011

Good Evening and Welcome to the State of the City Address. Good Evening Council President, City Council members, elected officials, and distinguished guests.

I stand before you with one mission: a better Trenton. A better Trenton cannot be realized without looking first at our past, then toward our future. Tonight is when we do both, together. 

Looking to the past, we see that when I took office, a lot of things were wrong, a lot of things had to be cleaned up, and I’m going to tell you what we did to clean up that mess. But, much more important, I’m here to talk to you about the future, about my vision for the City of Trenton. It’s a vision of a greener city, with world-class parks for our children. It’s a vision of a safer city, with police officers walking the beat, focusing on preventing crimes before they happen. It’s a vision of a more beautiful City with freshly paved, litter-free streets, and community gardens in every ward. And, most of all,

it’s a vision of a vibrant city, with an active street life, new private sector jobs and a strong growing economy. 

First the past, when I took office on July 1, the administration faced a monumental $55,000,000 million budget deficit. No single administration in our City’s great history wrestled with a larger financial obstacle. I am proud to announce that last week we eliminated that budget deficit completely, and we were able to do this without cutting one service to residents of Trenton. When we entered office, the prior administration was kind enough to leave us with a layoff plan. If we had implemented the layoff plan designed by the prior administration, it would have reduced the City’s workforce by 328 employees, 328 people would have lost their jobs including 111 police officers and 61 firefighters. This plan also included closing public pools, all libraries, and senior centers; the reduction of garbage collection to one day a week and the complete elimination of the entire Department of Recreation, Natural Resources, & Culture. The layoff plan also called for the downsizing of our Sanitation division by 25 employees and the loss of two street sweeper employees.  

The branch libraries were closed have not reopened; there were layoffs and demotions last November, a corrective action in May because some of the November layoffs were done improperly, and there will be another round of layoffs in a months time...including over 100 police.

Had this layoff plan been executed I assure you we would be looking at a completely different Trenton. At the time, our administration determined maintaining the vital services to residents were our top priority. Reducing police, fire, and sanitation services was immediately taken off the table.  

Instead, we encouraged the City’s bargaining units to offer givebacks. We directed department directors to scrutinize every line item in their budgets for possible savings. We focused more on ascertaining funding, grant writing and on encouraging departments to put extra effort into researching and applying for these grants.

Yes, we well remember that the Mayor hired two aides specifically to write grants.  How has that worked out for the city so far?  Not well.  Not well at all.

In short, our administration operated on the budget with a scalpel to address our deficit, instead of wildly swinging an ax with little thought to the consequences. The road to this point has not been an easy one, nor should it have been. It is not an easy task to reduce the number of employees or eliminate vacancies in a department while the public expectation of services goes unchanged. It is not an easy task to increase the workload of existing employees, while unable to offer increased wages or benefits. Some employees are performing the work equivalent of two to three employees. These employees, including those who were laid off, remain dedicated to public service. Our administration

owes gratitude to all employees and the team of dedicated acting and recently appointed permanent department directors who went above and beyond the call of duty. Please join me in applauding them now for their continued service to the City of Trenton.

The operative ideal essential to our success during this economic climate is the ideal of partnership. Partnership requires everyone to be willing to give something up for the greater good. Partnership requires us to recognize that alone we cannot solve the issues our City faces. Common sense dictates we unite and combine resources. Again, the ideal of partnership will remain a pillar of my decision-making process.

The problem’s we continue to face are multi-directional. Discussions that should have occurred around conference tables were waged on the pages of newspapers and blogs. Let’s move away from these battles, and agree tonight that we can do better, and we will. We hosted town hall meetings throughout the summer, fall, and winter, and we will continue to do so to ensure open communication, transparency, and access to information. We also host a monthly radio program on WIMG 1300AM, so that we can speak with one voice to the City.  

Getting back to partnership, we partnered with community organizations and stakeholders to host a Youth Development Summit, an Art, Culture and Heritage Summit, and we will host an Economic Development Summit at the end of this month.

Oh yes. Let's talk about Art, Culture and Heritage.  Like how you plan to keep the City Museum at Ellarslie and the Trent House open without qualified people on staff.  What's that going to do for the Arts, Culture and Heritage of the city?

As a result of these summits I signed two executive orders into law, creating a youth development task force and a domestic violence task force. We partnered with Rutgers University and borrowed one of the City of Newark’s highly successful programs: the Youth Education Employment and Success Center at the Daylight/Twilight High School on Hanover Street.

In order to honor the achievements of our students, right now the atrium is transformed into a display room, showcasing works authored and illustrated by students from Washington Elementary School, Stokes Elementary School and Hedgepeth Williams Elementary School. City Hall will become its own Orchestra Hall on Friday evening where students from Foundation Academy Charter School Orchestra & Choir will perform “An Evening of Student Achievement.” We also reopened our South Broad Street senior center. Soon we will have a state of the art tennis facility which already made national news. I am very proud of these major accomplishments for the City of Trenton. 

That then is it for the past. Now I want to move forward on to my vision for Trenton.

First, a few concrete goals we plan to implement over the next year.

• We are considering special legislation, for the Capital City, requiring all non-civilian new hires to live and reside within the City of Trenton. We will partner with County, State, and Federal entities, to encourage their employees to live where they work. Through the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, it is our hope people will take advantage of the live where you work low interest mortgage to rebuild and infuse our City with new residents. Yet his BA still only rents an apartment here and goes home on weekends; the Director of the Municipal Court returns home to Maryland each weekend; the expected nominees for Public Works and Police Director neither one reside in the city. And then there are the park rangers the Mayor hired who aren't residents as well as the Director of Public Property. Good examples, don't you think.
• I will sign an Executive Order establishing the Capital City Educational Trust Commission. Institutions of higher learning in Camden, Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, and New Brunswick have transformed portions of these cities. We believe a similar transformation can happen in Trenton. This Commission will begin serious discussions with public and private colleges/university to consider our proposals. Anybody heard anything about this?
• Our administration will work with our educational partners to secure funding and reopen Trenton Central High School’s Vocational Program. There are many successful men and women throughout the region who learned a trade at our Vocational Technical Program. This program will once again be a resource for our children. We should be opening doors for our children’s success not shutting them, and when opened, VoTech will be regarded again as a transformative gateway. Anybody heard anything about this, either?
• We will seek revenue sharing agreements with the County as it relates to the Sun Bank Center and Waterfront Park. Following in the footsteps of many other prosperous cities across the nation, we will pursue ways in which to receive a portion of proceeds from sales of tickets and parking for entertainment and sporting events. In the same line of reasoning, we will also work aggressively with the state to establish an equitable ‘Host Benefit Fee Program’ so we can recoup the costs of wear and tear on our infrastructure directly resulting from use by government workers.
• Currently, our unemployment rate is twice that of the national average. The City of Trenton should be a place for second and third chances for those who want the opportunity to gainfully contribute to our community. We must be willing to open our hearts and minds and look beyond the past. I encourage leaders in our religious, business, civic, educational, and non-profit communities to continue to use your organizations as places that welcome statewide re-entry initiatives. 

As I stand before you today, my heart is beating with excitement- excitement at the vision of a Trenton reborn. A greener, safer, more beautiful, vibrant and growing Trenton- Here’s how I plan to make that vision a reality.  

The Department of Recreation, Natural Resources, & Culture was slated to be eliminated, as mentioned earlier. Instead, we retained key staff and maintain department functions in order to preserve recreation programs, parks, and our cultural venues. Because of our decision, we are proud to say that four of our recreation centers remain open and a resource to our residents. We have signed off on park and cultural site renovations that exceed $12,000,000 million which demonstrates our commitment to a greener and more active community.  But that key staff is slated to be laid off in mid-September so where does that leave us?

On a very cold bitter December morning we broke ground on our new Tennis Center at Cadwalader Park. Once completed this facility will be the nation’s largest junior tennis facility and we will have a full ceremony with individual and corporate donors and sponsors. We are grateful for our partners the National Junior Tennis & Learning of Trenton; the United States Tennis Association; Friends of Cadwalader Park Tennis; D&R Greenway; and private individuals. I will not stray from my commitment to these projects because these projects are Trenton’s future. You cannot have a community without community space. 

Some of those locations to be renovated include: Calhoun Street Field, George Page Park, Mill Hill Park, Greg Grant Park, Mill Hill Playhouse, The William Trent House, The Ike Williams Center, and Cadwalader Park. Let me share a little more detail:

Hold it!  Most, if not all, of the following projects were in process long before Mayor Mack's administration came along.  Frankly, they had to undertake these or lose the funding that had been left sitting idle for too long.  Half-credit or less will be given for moving these projects off of the starting block but that is all.

Calhoun Street Park renovates the existing multi-purpose field into two separate fields designed for use as a soccer field and football field. Site improvements will also include the addition of turf irrigation, stadium style bleachers and field lighting. In addition, a small playground will be added near the existing pool and the parking area will be reconfigured and renovated. Landscaping improvements will be installed throughout the facility. Future improvements for the next phase will focus on the renovation of the pool house facility.

Greg Grant Park construction will create a new park on a former industrial site and will include the construction of a brand-new basketball court, large playground, amphitheatre/spray-pool, picnic grove and gazebo, as well as an extensive pathway system with decorative lighting. The completed park will also provide extensive lawn areas and landscaping.

Cadwalader Park includes 3 dynamic projects.

1. Picnic pavilion, playground, and pedestrian bridge: this project will include the removal of the existing 1983 pavilion and installation of a beautiful new structure which closely replicates the original 1903 pavilion, destroyed by fire. The pavilion will include secured access to utilities provided to make the structure serve a broader range of functions. A ‘state of the art’ playground will be constructed nearby. The existing canal bridge is scheduled to be removed and a new structure, more closely resembling the original bridge, will be constructed at the original location.
2. As described above, the tennis courts project is structured into two phases, phase one will include the restoration of the existing asphalt courts including a new asphalt surface and color coating, new nets and post and new fencing. Phase two will include a new asphalt surface on the clay courts, with new nets, posts and fencing and will provide for ‘short courts’ used to teach the sport to children.
3. Ellarslie, the City of Trenton Museum will finally be lighted at night, showing off this historic jewel.

Mill Hill Park improvements: includes three projects

1. Renovations to the existing park include: new park entry plazas along the Broad and Front Street perimeters as well as the reconfiguration of the entry at Broad/Front Sts., a new pathway system within the park, interpretive signage, a renovated and stable historic iron bridge, a new bathroom within the basement of the Douglass House, replacement of the park lighting and extensive landscape improvements.
2. The Ike Williams Center (Clay St.) will receive extensive exterior and interior renovations including: the replacement of the existing garage door façade with a series of glass paneled doors and entry canopy, new exterior lighting, accessible entry and renovations to the adjacent courtyard. Interior renovations will include new flooring, lighting, mechanical systems, a kitchenette, bathroom renovations and new courtyard entry doors. Work completed, building re-dedicated with great fanfare only to remain closed due to lack of staff required to operate it. Brilliant!
3. Mill Hill Playhouse will receive a new roof and exterior lighting.

George Page Park: phase one includes restoring the historic entry plaza on Clinton Ave.and expanding the existing playground. Subsequent phases include: the addition of landscape improvements, decorative lighting and a pathway system to tie into the adjacent Clinton Commerce and Crescent Wire sites. Future plans are also being developed for Hetzel Field that will include renovations to the ball-fields and pool-house and redesign of the pool complex to include a new pool and spray-ground. Parking, accessible pathways, pedestrian lighting and landscape improvements will be completed

as well. Let us not forget the nearly decade old plan of a linear greenway following the course of the Assunpink Park and the many improvements promised for the existing facilities that greenway would connect.

Trent House: We will clean and paint the Trent House, and light it at night, to show off yet another of Trenton’s many historical sites. Interesting because the coming layoffs will leave the Trent House without any qualified, full-time staff to run things there.

Artworks: renovations to this facility include putting on a new insulated roof system, renovating to the exterior brick walls, new rain scuppers and downspouts and upgrades to the existing HVAC system to increase efficiency.

Cook Y Field : renovations to the existing turf field and provision of bleacher, goal posts and a portable irrigation system to maintain the field turf.

Roberto Clemente Park: renovations to the existing park include expanding the existing pool compound, building a new color-coated basketball court, ornamental fencing and brick plazas at the two entrances, ornamental lighting and extensive landscaping as well as a new playground and a gazebo within the renovated children’s garden to accommodate environmental classes and garden crafts.

In addition to all of that, I am happy to share; we will re-start the Parks Commission. The Parks Commission is a citizen’s advisory committee that works with the City to ensure our parks are among the best in the world. It was deactivated during the previous administration. This administration is bringing it back to life, to allow our most important consumer; the park users, to have a say in how their parks are run. As you can see from all that I’ve mentioned, we are well on the way to my vision of a greener, more active Trenton. Right. The Parks Commission.  A call for interested parties went out but what has happened since?

You all know public safety is near and dear to my heart. Starting with the Trenton Police Department – it is constantly improving its police management model to meet the changing needs of our community. I have long thought that community policing, a strategy that has worked so well in other large cities, was the right strategy for Trenton.

Community policing involves getting police officers out of their cars and into our neighborhoods, getting feet on the street. Tonight I am enthusiastic to share the start of community policing in Trenton. Starting this week, our police force will put in place the Neighborhood Enforcement and Stabilization Task Force (NEST) initiative.

The NEST program was created to merge police enforcement and community policing practices, to open the lines of communication and adopt a neighborhood team approach to crime and safety issues. In addition to NEST, we are putting in place an Intelligence-Led Policing initiative (ILP). ILP makes sure that all the information the officers on the beat collect from their neighborhoods filters up the command structure. That way our commanders can make decisions based on the best kind of intelligence, intelligence learned on the street, from the community. This year we will thus make a dramatic change, a change from solving crime, which is important, to joining together with the community to prevent crime. We saw how effective this was, city-wide, during this summer’s, Take it to the Streets program, and we heard you loud and clear at our Public Safety Summit.

We have already implemented the Comstat Model, which provides police with the computer data they need to track crime in real time. Comstat is based on four basic principles: accurate and daily intelligence, rapid deployment of resources, effectiveness of tactics, and relentless follow-ups and assessments. The aforementioned principles allowed the department to reduce the number of crimes committed in the City by tracking “hot spots,” high-crime areas, and assigning police officers based on real data. Further, as the year progresses, the department will pursue an expanded model for intelligence gathering, while continuing to expand its Criminal Intelligence Unit. Refining this data-led model will allow for the best possible deployment of resources.

Um, Mayor?  Community policing and the beginning of Trenton's adoption of Comstat occurred 10 years ago under Director Golden.  The NEST initiative came during the Santiago era.  You can not claim credit for them, sir.

Additionally, in a new collaborative effort between the Trenton Police Department and the Trenton Municipal Court, an initiative is being created to institute a Safe Surrender, Amnesty program that will assist residents and those with outstanding matters in the Trenton Municipal Court. Through this program the Trenton Municipal Court will assist these individuals in disposing of their matters by paying their fines, setting up payment plans, complying with court orders, scheduling new court hearings, and other types of relief.

Yeah. How's that working out so far?  As noted earlier, the Court Director doesn't really live in Trenton.  His job performance has been less than stellar.  And nothing has been done about this at all.

With all these changes, with the introduction of community policing, feet on the street, with police decisions informed by real-time computer data, we are well on the way to fulfilling my vision of a safer Trenton....with 1/3rd fewer cops. Right.

I also want to see a more beautiful Trenton; we have received 10 grants funded by the New Jersey Department of Transportation totaling $6 Million dollars. We’re using these grants to fund immediate improvements to Hanover Street and Cadwalader School. Additional projects include repairs to Stockton Street, Perry and Bank streets, North Warren Street, Montgomery Street, South Clinton Avenue, installing ADA Ramps in various locations, Bellevue Avenue, and Broad Street. Last summer roads were aggressively paved, this summer we will pave a record number of roads by doubling our roads crews. In fact, most of last summer’s roads were recommended by residents at our town hall meetings, and we were excited to make noticeable improvements to the City. Let me take a moment to thank our unsung heroes who keep our streets clean and healthy. There is something to be said about every road, sanitation, waste and recycling worker. Please join me in applauding their dedicated service to our City.  And come mid-September, the very capable sanitation supervisor will be downgraded to a sanitary inspector status. The streets crew will lose three supervisors and analyst and engineer from the traffic office will be gone as well.

Along with freshly-paved streets, we are also continuing a project dear to my heart: the Annual Clean Communities Litter March. This year’s theme is, “Its Simple Go Green…Keep Your City Clean.” The City of Trenton will celebrate our clean communities and our natural resources. This year, local schools, community groups, civic associations, churches, private businesses, city residents, and public employees will participate in our Litter March on Monday, April 18 from 8:30am to 3:00pm in Mill Hill Park. I served as past chairman of the Litter March Committee for over 14 years. I am so excited to march with you to Keep Trenton Clean.

To further beautify our neighborhoods, we are happy to announce a new, comprehensive community gardens program. This program will utilize city-owned property to ensure we have community gardens throughout the City. We will put gardens first in every ward, and eventually in every neighborhood in the Trenton community. Community gardens not only beautify our neighborhoods, they serve as a place for neighbors to socialize and provide the people of Trenton with freshly-grown, locally produced food. I am proud to be the Mayor that introduced this long-overdue program.

With freshly-paved, litter-free streets, with community gardens brightening our neighborhoods, we are well on our way to achieving my vision of a more beautiful Trenton.

The engine that powers these improvements, of course, is economic growth. That’s why it’s so important for us to make the last part of my vision a reality. To make Trenton a vibrant, growing City.

We have a myriad of ways we are going to achieve that goal. The first is encouraging the use of the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Program. Trenton is only one a few cities allowed to use this program, which encourages development around our newly-renovated

Train station and our light-rail stations. I am pleased that we already have a project underway, a $250 million office tower next to the train station that will be built as part of this tax-credit program.

But development cannot happen unless people have decent places to live, unless we can revitalize our housing stock. One way we are doing this is through the $100 million HOPE VI redevelopment project. As a result of our continued partnership with the Trenton Housing Authority 600 Trenton residents attended the HOPE VI job fair. Projects like this will continue to serve and attract commuters to the sixth busiest train station along the Northeast corridor.

On the housing front in 2010, the City has been working diligently to renovate abandoned homes and make Trenton’s housing what it should be. For example, in the last few months we have rehabilitated 14 homes on Dunham Street, started construction on 18 homes for working families on Carteret Avenue, finished construction on 34 homes on Lamberton and Lalor Streets and continued the rehabilitation of 78 homes in the East

Ward. Additionally, we commenced construction of 20 units on East State Street during the early part of the year and new working families are expected to move in by April 2011. 

We are also increasing revenue generation and helping revitalize the City by selling abandoned homes. We sold a total of 58 properties in our last auction. The total proceeds from this auction netted $383,400. Other sales include: the sale of 657-659 Calhoun Street to Cleantex for their business expansion, netting $50,000 and potentially creating 150 jobs; the sale of two acres of the Kramer Site to Faigle Realty, netting $150,000 and creating an industrial facility for Standard and Roofing, a Trenton business which is projected to create additional jobs once the new facility is up.

On the economic development front in 2010, City staff continued to expand outreach to local businesses to join the Urban Enterprise Zone Program (UEZ), using the 'door-to-door' campaign to explain the cost savings and grant benefits of membership. Additionally, the City continues to support redevelopment and revitalization through its Award-winning Brownfields Program. The Brownfields Program utilizes State and Federal resources to conduct environmental cleanup for important revitalization projects such as the Assunpink Greenway, the rehabilitation of the former Magic Marker site and East Trenton Homes, to name only a few.

In October, the 17th Annual Trenton Small Business Week was very successful. We have also re-established important links to the Trenton Downtown Association, and are committed to the integrated approach espoused by the Downtown Capital District Master Plan. On March 31st we will hold an Economic Development Summit, which will focus on implementing the Downtown Master Plan. Additionally, an RFP has been issued to develop the Glen Cairn Site. In spite of the challenging economy, other economic development highlights include: Delicatessen on South Warren Street and a new restaurant, 'Eleven' on Front Street.

That’s not all, projects in the pipeline include: NJBIA's new headquarters on Lafayette Street; the proposed redevelopment of Building 101(Roebling Complex); a new housing development by the Rescue Mission; new housing development by HomeFront; Phase II of the Delaware run project by K. Hovnanian Homes; the creation of a loan pool with funding partners to facilitate residential development in the city; the redevelopment of the Polizzi meat market site; and the redevelopment of the former Mill Hill Hotel. Finally, we expect that the Economic Development and Historic Tourism Summit will facilitate reinvestment in important landmarks in our downtown including the Bell, Aleda, Trenton Savings Bank, Tremont, and the Commonwealth Buildings.

One other exciting development I’d like to highlight is the planned expansion of the James Kerney Campus of Mercer County Community College in Trenton. In response to the growing need for academic and career opportunities for Trenton and other residents of Mercer County the college is launching a major expansion of its Trenton Campus. Future initiatives include a Center for Art and Design, Modeling and Simulation, and room for an expansion of the Health Science, Business and Entrepreneurial Studies curriculum.

All of these projects will help lead Trenton’s strong economic growth. However, you cannot have growth without efficiency. Anecdotal evidence suggests that developers add a surcharge of approximately 10% when analyzing whether to do a project in Trenton, to account for the inefficiency of the City’s Inspection and permitting process. That’s why I am proud to announce a new, dual-track inspections process. Based on Philadelphia’s program, developers will be able, for a fee, to receive guaranteed dates for such things as plan approvals and construction permits. Using this system we will be able to cut time and provide certainty to developers, while forcefully administering, and enforcing the City's code requirements. To add additional efficiency, we recently rolled out an online payment system to accept payments via the City’s website for land license renewals. Since January 1, 2011, $250,000 in landlord licensing fees has been collected through the City’s website. This simple change freed-up front office staff to process payments submitted over the counter and attend to other issues. The department also identified 67 unsafe and dangerous properties throughout the City that are in various stages of demolition.

 Right! And the coming layoffs will see the loss of one sub-code official and four housing inspectors. Very efficient.

On this point let me go one step further. I’ve already talked about how we are renovating and selling city-owned abandoned properties. But we must go beyond that to ensure economic growth. We must and we will tackle the city-wide problem of vacant and blighted properties. Arguably, the City owns 1200 unused properties. We are exploring market-based mechanisms designed to take these properties off the City’s hands and get them back on the tax rolls. The City should not be in the real-estate business, and so we are looking at ways to use the markets to get these properties in the hands of private owners. That way they can be developed, adding to the City’s economic growth. I am already looking forward to updating you on our progress on this crucial initiative.

Other crucial areas I am proud to highlight tonight are initiatives of our Trenton Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services who responded to a total of 9,745 and 5,233 calls respectively. The awarding of the $13.7 million federally funded SAFER grant with the aide of our congressional delegation, allowed us to save 61 jobs, and to keep all of our firehouses open, at NO additional cost to the City of Trenton. We also received a 2011 Kenworth Command Vehicle. This vehicle will allow the Fire Department, to have a mobile Incident Command Post with Satellite live feed and state of

the art interoperable communications.

The Trenton Fire Department, FMBA Local 206, FMBA Local 6, and the Family Network will launch: the Readers are Leaders program. The department will collect new and gently used books to create Neighborhood Book Stops. Children are invited to visit their local fire house to borrow a book, and when they bring it back, they may select another. Through the Readers are Leaders, firefighters will visit schools to read with students. Again, tonight you’ve heard how the pillar of shared partnership is the thread that binds the ideals of my vision.

The commitment to partnership is embedded in every City Department. For example, the Health & Human Services Department now shares an agreement with Princeton Borough to provide Spanish translation services to our growing and thriving Latino community. This agreement provides a unique approach for two government entities to work together to better serve our residents. We forged a new partnership with the Pennsylvania Veterinary School to enable students to obtain hands-on veterinary training at the Trenton Animal Shelter. The Trenton Animal Shelter’s website is upgraded to create a fast-paced online pet adoption process. We co-sponsored a Blood Drive with the American Red Cross at Trenton’s very own NJN studios. Tomorrow, we are partnering with the American Diabetes Association to host the Association’s 23rd Annual “Alert Day” a one-day, wake-up call encouraging Trentonians to find out if they are at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes. Finally, the Environmental Services Division successfully obtained a $20,000 grant from the State of New Jersey; from which it purchased a state-of-the-art Lead Paint Analyzer to test homes for lead paint.

Tonight you heard the accomplishments of our City’s departments and my vision for transforming Trenton into a vibrant, greener city, with world-class safe parks and safe clean streets for our children. A growing City, with a strong economy that creates new private-sector jobs. The vision outlined is clear, with measurable tangible goals. Beloved, I will continue to put Trenton first. I know you will stand with me - as we revitalize Trenton together as partners. I am energized, optimistic, and enthusiastic. Trenton has undergone many transformative changes over the past 200 years.

Yet here we are, STILL STANDING. Here we are together. Let’s continue to work together. Believe in each other. And, most importantly, create a place where our children, can be proud - to one day - raise their children in a thriving revitalized Capital City.

Believe in Trenton! I assure you the State-of-OUR-City is well, and we are on our way.

God Bless you, and God Bless the GREAT Capital City of Trenton!

#####

If documents could talk

Metaphor for the Mack Administration

“Looking to the past, we see that when I took office, a lot of things were wrong, a lot of things had to be cleaned up, and I’m going to tell you what we did to clean up that mess. But, much more important, I’m here to talk to you about the future, about my vision for the City of Trenton. It’s a vision of a greener city, with world-class parks for our children. It’s a vision of a safer city, with police officers walking the beat, focusing on preventing crimes before they happen. It’s a vision of a more beautiful City with freshly paved, litter-free streets, and community gardens in every ward. And, most of all, it’s a vision of a vibrant city, with an active street life, new private sector jobs and a strong growing economy.”  Tony Mack, State of the City address, March 21, 2011

“…we are also continuing a project dear to my heart: the Annual Clean Communities Litter March.”  Tony Mack, State of the City address, March 21, 2011

“A greener, safer, more beautiful and vibrant Trenton begins with the quality of our city parks. In order to preserve recreation programs, parks, and cultural venues; we need seasonal park rangers right away who are able to help put these plans into action,” emphasized Mayor Mack. -- City of Trenton press release,March 23, 2011

“I’m so excited about the fact that we kept garbage collection two days a week when it was slated for one day a week,” he added. “We are making monumental accomplishments with less.”  Tony Mack, Times of Trenton, June 7, 2011

"For his first year, Mack said he would give himself an A grade — 'maybe a B plus' " — Times of Trenton, June 16, 2011

“We hope you will enjoy other improvements such as:…invested approximately $2 million total into the Mill Hill Community.”  -- Tony Mack, letter to the Mill Hill neighborhood, June 23, 2011.

Cash, lies and videotape

Show me the money, part II

So we have a Political Action Committee (PAC) known as Partners For Progress (PFP) whose stated mission is:

Partners for Progress PAC’s mission is to not only raise money – but also to raise awareness about the political process, educating potential candidates, candidates, and organizations on how to successfully participate in the political process.

Well, PFP seems to have gotten the raising money part right…too bad they are a little shaky on how to successfully participate in the political process.

As was pointed out in the previous post, there are some interesting “problems” with PFP’s required reporting to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. The $7200 contribution from the Cooper Levenson law firm that was apparently wheeled to Tony Mack’s mayoral campaign was covered in the prior post.

We will track some other interesting contributions later. This time out let’s look at some of the expenditures that PFP reported.

The first thing that comes up on the expense pages is a listing of payments made to individuals for “community outreach.” This is another term for “street money,” money paid to individuals to get out the vote. By law, these payments must be made by check and reported with each person’s name, address, and the number of the check used to pay them.

PFP reported 79 such payments of $25 each to individuals. That would be a total of $1975 paid for community outreach. Would be…except seven of the reported payments are duplicate entries. So it was really 72 individuals receiving a total of $1800. Guess PFP is somewhat sloppy with their record keeping.

Of the 72 individuals who received payments from PFP, 30 don’t have check numbers listed. That is a violation of state election law. Twelve of the 72 don’t have an address listed. That is also a violation of state election law.

Pretty sloppy record keeping, don’t you think?

Or was this report just hurriedly put together because of the investigation that Politicker NJ reported in December of last year?

Interesting, too, is that PFP paid a Jeff Meyers a $2500 “consulting” fee. One might wonder what kind of consulting Mr. Meyers provided to PFP. The report doesn’t give the required full address for Mr. Meyers, just the fact that his is from Burlington, NJ.

Is it safe to assume, then, that this Mr. Jeff Meyers is the very same Jeff Meyers who stepped down as the Treasurer of the Burlington County Democratic Committee because of questions surrounding some money “wheeling” and pay to play schemes (sound familiar?)

If we are talking about the same Jeff Meyers, is it not reasonable to expect that a former county political committee treasurer would know the rules for proper ELEC reporting? Wouldn’t it have been prudent to seek his advice and counsel in preparing and filing the required reports in a timely manner?

Three other expenditures jump off the page as one peruses this report.

Under the heading of “Itemized Contributions Made to Candidates and Committees” are entries for the $7200 contribution made to Mr. Mack’s campaign, a $250 contribution to Councilwoman At Large Kathy McBride’s campaign, and a $5000 contribution to Juan Martinez’s campaign.

The Mack contribution seems directly related to the now disputed Cooper Levenson contribution to PFP.

The contribution received by Ms. McBride’s campaign falls beneath the $300 threshold for required reporting and so she apparently didn’t. There are additional expenditures listed as “in-kind” on her behalf that would, when paired with the $250 contribution, put her over that limit and require her to report the aggregate contributions. It looks as though PFP may have failed to notify these candidates of these “in-kind” contributions as required by law and the blame, again, lies with them.

Now the $5000 contribution given to Mr. Martinez presents an interesting situation. The date of the contribution is for June 15, the date of the runoff election. Mr. Martinez, who is one of the candidates woefully lacking in compliance with NJ ELEC reporting requirements, had apparently not filed any reports for the runoff part of the election cycle. So we don’t know if he actually received this money or not.

Interestingly, in a videotaped conversation posted on Robert Chilson’s Trenton United Blog, Mr. Martinez states that he never received any money from PFP. He claims that he received a phone call from someone connected with PFP asking if they could put him down as the recipient of a contribution. Martinez admits that he probably shouldn’t have given the go ahead, even with the attached caveat that if the contribution was questioned it would deflect back on PFP.

Is this another indication that PFP hurriedly put together a report in response to the ELEC investigation and “faked” the contribution?

Or did Mr. Martinez actually take a $5000 contribution and not report it?

Again, all it would take is the production of a copy of the cancelled check to show who is telling the truth.

But that seems to be too much to expect from either PFP or Martinez.

No matter how you slice it

In this case, Justice wears a blindfold out of shame.

Superior Court Judge Feinberg has cleared Trenton Municipal Judge Renee Lamarre Sumners to return to the bench after a one week suspension.

City Council has voted, six to one, in favor having Judge Sumners resign.

Mayor Tony Mack seems to be taking the approach of wiping his hands clean of the mess his appointment turned into.

Trenton suffers another hit on its image.

When you analyze the situation, here's what you have:

Sumners is an attorney with a history of twice having her license suspended (2004 and 2006) for non-payment into a state fund.

Either she doesn't have the money, is a poor money manager, or feels she is above the law.

If she doesn't have the money, we have to wonder why.  She's an attorney.  If she's not making money at her chosen profession is it because she is taking work that doesn't pay or is she not working enough?  Just how good of an attorney is she?

If she is working hard, and a lot, but still doesn't have any money to pay the required fee ($258 was the amount I believe) than maybe she is a poor money manager. 

We'll concede that keeping a balanced check book is not every one's favorite pastime.  But the woman holds herself out to be a professional; someone with advanced and specialized training in a line of work that requires her to be able to analyze and reason through problems.  Like keeping track of her finances and meeting her responsibilities. 

If she can't manage her finances and doesn't realize she needs to find someone who can than we have to question her ability to analyze and reason her way through the problem.  If she can't comprehend that this is a problem after twice having her license to practice suspended, then we might infer her skill set is not up to the standards of her chosen profession.

Now we look at the fact that Sumners bounced two checks paying the dues this year.  If she knowingly wrote bad checks, it's criminal.  If it was due to an inability to keep a checkbook, she's incompetent.  If she just doesn't care, she's arrogant.  None of the three are good traits in any line of work...especially so in the practice of law.

And then there is the issue of unpaid income taxes. Reports indicate that Sumners and her husband owe $15,808 from 2003 and 2006.  Why?  Was they money there but they didn't feel they needed to pay?  Did they screw up their tax returns?  Or was there no money?  Didn't they both have jobs?  They must have had income if they owed taxes?

This brings into question Judge Sumners' approach to meeting her legal responsibilities.  Did she think she didn't have to pay?  Did she place herself above the law?

Then there is the matter of the unpaid credit card bill.  Seems Judge Sumners owed $2214.22 on a credit card from 2008.  The creditor filed and received a judgement against Sumners in December of 2009 and Sumners received the notice to pay in January of this year.  She failed to return the paperwork, the creditor filed a civil action complaint and a bench warrant for Sumners arrest was issued on September 29.

Um, she's an attorney by trade. Right?  She should know better.  Right? 

Judge Sumners is the cause of her problems.  Through ignorance and arrogance, she has demonstrated quite plainly that she is incapable of serving as a judge. 

The New Jersey Supreme Court decides ethics cases.  This, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing as it can somewhat mitigate politics from influencing the tenure of a judge.  Only the Supreme Court can remove a judge from the bench.

Unfortunately the State of New Jersey seems to have a fairly liberal interpretation of what constitutes ethical behavior by attorneys. Sanctions in ethics cases more often result in suspensions than removals or disbarment's.

In layman terms: Judge Sumners would need to be found with a smoking gun in her hand, standing over the still warm body of her victim before she is likely to be sanctioned for breach of ethics. Even then she'd probably only get what amounts to a slap on the wrist.

The fact that once a judge takes the oath only the state supreme court can remove her might explain another little piece of this puzzle. 

On the night that Mayor Mack convinced six members of council to approve the appointment by lying about Sumners having completed a background check the would be judge and family were present.  Upon being confirmed by city council, Sumners immediately sought out Superior Court Judge Paulette Sapp-Peterson to be sworn in.

Hmm.  If it's so difficult to remove a judge once he or she has taken the oath and a newly appointed judges has some questionable baggage, why not hurry up and get sworn in. Maybe she's not so incompetent after all.

Sumners needs to resign.  Period. 

Spin control?

The following was sent out from City Hall shortly after 12 noon today:



Honorable Mayor Tony F. Mack

319 East State Street

Trenton, NJ 08608

609-989-3030

For Immediate Release:                                                                                            Contact: Lauren J. Ira
October 29, 2010                                                                                                    Office: 609-989-3052
                                                                                                                                Mobile: 609-741-7322

City of Trenton Requires Criminal History Checks for all Non-Uniform Employees

TRENTON—Mayor Tony Mack issued the following statement regarding the requirement of criminal history checks for all non-uniform employees. Mayor Mack stated the following:

“Compliance with City of Trenton criminal history checks is vital to protect our residents and the public. Our stringent requirements mandate all non-uniform City of Trenton employees adhere to a criminal history check regardless of their status or role within the administration.

Judge Renee Lamarre Sumners understands the importance of complying with all of the necessary procedures and mandates. Judge Sumners assured me that all recent matters were resolved expeditiously.

The administration remains confident in Judge Sumners’ ability to preside based on her expertise, discipline, and training as a public officer authorized in the court of law by the State of New Jersey,” concluded Mayor Mack.

Common questions/direct answers

Are the entire Trenton Water Works being sold?


NO. The only thing being sold would be water pipes in Ewing, Hamilton, Hopewell and Lawrence Townships along with some water towers and pumping stations.

Is the buyer a foreign company?

NO. New Jersey American Water Company (NJAWC), a subsidiary of American Water Works Company is the proposed buyer. American Water Works Company is the largest public water utility in America. It was at one time a subsidiary of RWE, a German Company, but was spun off in 2008.

Is it true that, as part of the sale, NJAWC will pay 60% of cost for water facility improvements in Trenton that benefit the outside system?

NO. According to the sales agreement between NJAWC and the City of Trenton Exhibit C includes the terms for a Capital Improvements Surcharge calculation.

The section establishes two factors that would be applied to the cost of capital improvements that benefit the townships.

The first factor would be based upon an agreed percentage assigned to the City and to the townships. This could be a 40% allocation for the City and a corresponding 60% allocation for the townships (NJAWC).

The second factor is based upon the amount of water the City customers use and the amount of water that township customers use (Demand Share Factor or DSF). Those percentages could also be 40% for the City and 60% for the townships.

To determine the amount that NJAWC would pay the City, the cost of the project, say $70 million dollars (the cost of the Filtration Plant project), would be multiplied by each factor. Applying the first factor of say 60% would give $42 million. Then applying the second factor would give $25.2 million. The $25.2 million would then be divided into annual payments that would also include the interest that the City is paying on the money it borrowed to finance the project. The annual payment would then be converted to a per thousand gallon surcharge to add to the base water rate. The figures would be recalculated every three years.

What this means is that NJAWC would pay $25.2 million for a benefit that is worth at least $42 million dollars. What that also means is that the City, actually its water customers, would have to make up the difference of $16.8 million over the life of the loan. (The actual amounts would be more over the life of the loan due to the interest charges.)

Applying the provisions of Exhibit C of the pending contract reveals that NJAWC will not pay 60% of the cost but only about 36% of the cost or less depending upon the factors.

VOTE NO on June 15th!

Old Doug, no new tricks

Happy New Year! His Lame-Duckness, Doug Palmer, has released the annual report for the City of Trenton (fiscal year 2009). For the second year in a row, there was no big show in City Council Chambers where Palmer delivers his State of the City speech.

Instead, the annual report has been posted on the city website (www.trentonnj.org) where only those too few members of the public who read the Times of Trenton might discover its existence.

An article headlined “Palmer sees Trenton making progress” treats readers to a rose-colored fairy tale about Trenton’s successes despite our nation’s tough economic times.

Palmer must not have reviewed the statistics or at least interpreted them as we have. Nor has he taken a real good look around town. If he had, how could he possibly say that he is “…proud of the record…” he’s accomplished.

The half-hearted attempt at image preservation (myth building?) might just be an indication that even Douglas H. Palmer has a hard time swallowing the empty calories of the artificially sweetened annual report. No wonder he’s opting out of another run.

Happy New Year, indeed!

Back to school

Some random thoughts on the TCHS mess

The state has announced (yet again) a plan for building a new Trenton Central High School (TCHS) on the site of the current structure on Chambers Street.

The new plan has a price tag of about $150 million and would save the existing clock tower, façade and entranceway while demolishing the rest of the building. Schools Development Authority (SDA) head Kris Kolluri says that renovating the current building would take $30 million more and two years longer to get the oft-delayed project done.

Of course, if the SDA and its failed predecessor the Schools Construction Corporation (SCC) hadn’t played games with the equally ineffectual Trenton School Board for the past nine years, the project could have been done by now. Instead, the fate of the iconic and once highly regarded TCHS has been a frequently fumbled political football.

Here’s an admittedly heretical thought, let’s forget about doling out federal stimulus money to the Trenton Club and the yet-to-be-realized new Trenton YMCA and other non-infrastructure projects and put it towards restoring/renovating TCHS. And yes, we know, the projects have to be “shovel ready” and all that. If only the SCC/SDA and the School Board had dealt with this problem realistically from the outset, it might have been.

And, for the record, there is no offense or affront meant to the venerable Trenton Club or the Y. The former is one of the oldest social institutions in the city. The latter does good work in its existing facility and the new building has been the dream of many good people. Unfortunately they are both “private” organizations…as in non-government…and as such shouldn’t benefit from the stimulus funding over something as necessary as a public high school.

Further, in the case of the YMCA we have to say that if the public truly felt the need for this oft-relocated, re-imagined facility, they would have found ways to fund it without government assistance.

Sorry. It’s just the way we feel.

And then there was this letter to the editor in the Times, Friday August 14, 2009:

Producing the high school Trenton’s students need

The debate over the future of Trenton Central high School has produced a great deal of emotion and much nostalgia – and I understand that. I went to Trenton High for a time and also have countless colleagues and friends who are alumni. Even today, I bring visitors by to show them this imposing structure.

The main point to consider at this time, I believe, is that our students (and their parents) deserve to have a first class high school as soon as practicable. As distinct as it is, the building now is in obvious disrepair. The new plan that the Schools Development Authority and the Board of Education have come up with retains the classic clock tower and front entrance while offering the compelling benefits of state-of-the –art learning environments, energy efficiency, security, and a timetable two years short and $30 million less expensive than total renovation. The SDA-Board plan warrants approval.

The benefits of a modern school facility can be seen the city at the new Columbus, Daylight-Twilight, Kilmer and Parker Schools (and are taking shape at the new Jefferson School as well). Our high school students deserve nothing less. We need to move forward with this plan now.
–DOUGLAS H. PALMER, Trenton
The writer is mayor of Trenton.

Upon first reading the letter this one sentence practically leapt off of the page:
As distinct as it is, the building now is in obvious disrepair.

Huh?!?!? And whose administration and whose appointed school board oversaw the lack of maintenance that lead to this “obvious disrepair?”

And notices, too, that he brings "visitors BY" but not into the school to show it off.

That got us to thinking…what if we rewrote that letter just slightly:

Producing the Trenton we need

The debate over the future of Trenton has produced a great deal of emotion and much nostalgia – and I understand that. I lived in Trenton for a time and also have countless colleagues and friends who are residents. Even today, I bring visitors by to show them this historic city.

The main point to consider at this time, I believe, is that our residents deserve to have a first city as soon as practicable. As distinct as it is, the city now is in obvious disrepair. The new plan that the state has funded and my administration have come up with retains the classic elements while offering the compelling benefits of state-of-the –art learning environments, energy efficiency, security, and a timetable two years shorter and $30 million less expensive than total renovation. The State-City plan warrants approval.

The benefits of a modern Trenton can be seen the city at the new Hotel, Maxine’s/Phoenix, Foundry and Trent Town Center developments (and are taking shape at the new Hovnanian development in South Trenton as well). Our citizens deserve nothing less. We need to move forward with this plan now.
–DOUGLAS H. PALMER, Trenton
The writer is mayor of Trenton.

Same old BS, same old “spin and spend my way out of trouble” Doug.

Trentonians, at this stage the best course of action to follow is probably just the opposite of whatever Mr. Palmer proposes.

Where ya been?

Yes, we’re still here. And we apologize for our absence/silence this past month. The denizens of the front stoop have been near catatonic as a result of the flood of arrogance and ignorance that has washed over the city of Trenton recently.

The proposed sell off of the part of the Trenton Water Works that distributes water to customers outside of the city is still in limbo. Those opposing the sale, including many who frequent the stoop, are hoping Judge Feinberg will reconsider her ruling in light of an engineers testimony that there is only one current system that would have to be separated into two, before any part could be sold off; and that in doing so, more than 5% of the customers on the city side of the system would be affected. In fact, a study commissioned by the City of Trenton itself spells out very clearly there is but one system that would have to be separated and outlines various improvements/additions that would have to be made to the “inside” system to maintain the current level of service to city customers. Documents pertaining to all of this can be found at www.trentonwater.com

The city’s budget mess has gone nowhere. There has been rhetoric and revised numbers from the administration and some members of city council, but little action. The sad truth is whether the outside water system sell off goes through or not, the current fiscal year (which ends June 30) is a train wreck of major proportions. The Palmer administration has engineered this mess with delays and misdirection in an effort to force council’s hand to pass the budget so late in the year that little can be done to curb expenses. Council is not completely off the hook, because as a body it should have demanded more information and more accountability from the Administration.

Veteran city watchers (some would say “gadflies”) have been pointing to a growing fiscal mess for years, yet no one: not the public, not the press and certainly not council ever challenged Palmer, Feigenbaum or Gonzalez on their statements to the contrary. Well there is no denying it now…Trenton is flat broke and drastic measures must be taken.

At the same time, the administration gave it self raises…sneakily, quietly and most likely illegally. Thanks to Frank Weeden and a group of concerned citizens, this is beginning to come to light.

Of course, Acting Business Administrator Gonzalez denies any wrong doing. Special Counsel, Joe Alacqua, has offered no opinion on this. We’ll get back to both of them in a minute.

A subheading under the budget woes category is the sad financial affairs of the city library system. Six months ago there was a great outcry about the layoffs and proposed branch closings. The long dormant “Friends” group showed some signs of revival in an effort to help out. A new group came together to form a foundation/fund to help bridge the gap between the city’s generous contribution to the library system and the real costs of keeping a main library and four branches fully functioning.

True a special deal was reached and all library branches have remained open, albeit with reduced hours. And there were layoffs.

But the “Friends” group has seemingly disappeared; volunteers willing to help out in the branches have reportedly been rebuffed; and the library board has yet to sign a memo of understanding with the foundation that would a) allow for the use of the $17,000 already raised and b) launch the search for more funding through grants etc.

Back to Mssrs. Alacqua and Gonzalez...the taxpayers are owed truthful and honest answers to the following questions:

Why does the city repeatedly enter into contracts with Mr. Alacqua for services that should be provided by the city attorney, Denise Lyles, and her staff? If we are in a belt tightening mode, why is it the Mr. Alacqua is being retained (along with numerous outside law firms) to do the city’s legal work? Some have suggested that Ms. Lyles is actually not capable of effectively carrying out the duties of city attorney, and that Mr. Alacqua and the other outside law firms are hired to do the work for her.

If that is the case, then why is Ms. Lyles in the position?

In the case of Mr. Gonzalez, just how long can he hold the title of “Acting” Business Administrator? We have always been under the impression that “Acting” directorships must be acted upon by council within 90 days of their designation. By our calculations, the clock ran out on Mr. Gonzalez’s status about a month ago.

Similarly, Fire Director Laird has an “acting” prefix to his title. This part-time city resident (he rents former Business Administrator Jane Feigenbaum’s Mercer Street home) commutes to/from his “weekend” home at the shore in an unmarked city owned and fueled SUV. A home, by the way, where he wife and daughter reside, vote, attend school, etc. Laird’s 90 days were also up sometime in March by our calculations. Yet his appointment hasn’t come back up before Council. Could it be his “shaky” residency status?

And then there is Police Director Bradley. By all accounts a welcome and refreshing change for the administration of Trenton’s beleaguered and understaffed police department, there is still the question of whether the Director is a bona fide city resident or not.

More legal fees to pay as Mr. Palmer defends his arrogant, self-serving interpretation of “the law.”

Is it any wonder we’ve been speechless these past few weeks? There is so much to comment on it is hard to know where to begin.

Come to think of it, that is probably the reason Mr. Palmer didn’t give his annual “State of the City Address” for this fiscal year. Even Doug couldn’t bring himself to stand in the usually packed Council Chambers and tell the gathering that “Trenton is on the move” without throwing up in his mouth at least a little bit.

Now we see you

The water fight that has been playing out in Trenton the past several weeks has been good in one respect. It has brought home to many the fact that we need a serious overhaul of the city's budgeting process.

In the coming months, there will be a lot of painful decisions to make about how the city spends our tax dollars. Cuts will be severe and they had better reach across the board (meaning Mr. Palmer needs to cut some of his expenses as well).

Already, people from South Ward Councilman Jim Coston to Paul Harris are submitting ideas for budget cuts.

And a group calling itself Citizens United for Fiscal Transparency in Trenton has sprung up to fight the petition to stop the water system sell off and to "develop long-term solutions that provide for greater transparency in the city budget process."

Or so they say.

This group who admittedly wants to stave off the property tax increases required if the water deal is scuttled is not so transparent in it's own dealings.

A check of their "Who Is" listing for the registration of their domain names shows some required information missing and some falsified.

For instance, they list a street address of Cadwalader Avenue (no number given). Find Cadwalader Avenue in Trenton...there is a Cadwalader Drive, but not an avenue.

And the contact phone number is listed at 555-1212. Last time I checked that was Verizon's nationwide 411 (Directory Assistance) number.

Recent articles in the newspapers have identified Chris Bashier and Brian Viehland as members of the group. Indeed, the domain's registration identifies the namesservers as "veihland.org" so it's not too hard to figure out who registered the websites.

It's just hard to figure out why a group touting transparency deliberately entered bogus information (street and phone number) in the registration form.

Doesn't do much for their credibility and it certainly doesn't instill confidence in their ability to work fairly and openly for the benefit of all.

Read all about it

Just not on the city's website.

Demonstrating once again how the Palmer administration has totally run amok in Trenton's City Hall, acting business administrator Dennis "I'll Sue You" Gonzalez has declared that certain public documents will not be made available on the city's website.
In an article in this morning's Times Gonzalez suggests that anyone wishing to read the documents come to the city clerk's office and purchase hard copies. Times writer Ryan Tracy closed the article with the following:

Trenton has no plans to post the documents on its website, the city's acting business administrator Dennis Gonzalez said Monday. They are available at the city clerk's office and copies may be purchased there, he said.

This is an interesting statement coming from Mr. Gonzalez since he was in the council conference session when it was suggested these documents be made public and none other than his royal irksomeness Doug Palmer himself said they would be made available on the web.

Do you think Dennis will ask for a retraction from his boss and threaten to sue if he doesn't get it?

Just how screwed up are the priorities at 319 E. State Street?

The city website was ready and able to post a picture and press release of Palmer getting an honorary degree from Hampton University. It was up as early at 6 a.m. Monday, January 26 with the press release dated January 25. At the same time, we have the acting business administrator refusing to publish on the web public documents pertaining to the proposed water utility infrastructure sale.

Blogger Greg Forester commented on this spiraling news blackout in an entry last week. Ironically this post was written on the same day that Palmer made his pledge to those present at the council meeting that the documents would be posted on line.

Was Doug's uncharacteristic promise to publish the documents an effort to mimic President Obama's promise of an open government?

At least South Ward Councilman Coston, working in conjunction with the Trenton Council of Civic Associations, has obtained, scanned and posted the water sale documents on his website. Those interested in reading them can find them here.

Why the secrecy? Why make it difficult for the public to obtain the information on the water deal (or anything of importance)?

If the website is just for polishing Doug's image why are we, the taxpayers, paying for it?

Oh no he didn't!

In yet another demonstration of his refusal to take any blame for the state of the city, Doug Palmer called a press conference today to “set the record straight.”

Let’s leave aside for the moment that just last week Palmer used the same approach to counter criticism of the proposal to sell off the Trenton Water Utility’s outlying distribution infrastructure. The man who claims to believe in “accountability” once again is blaming anyone and everyone, including his hand picked Library Board, for the problems in Trenton.

It was also interesting to note that the press conference was scheduled for the Mayor’s conference room, a smallish room barely able to contain the Mayor, his staff, City Council and representatives of the media. There was no room for the public. In fact, one well known citizen was actually turned away at the door with the explanation that the press conference was only for the media, council and department heads.

Interesting, since the opening paragraph of the prepared speech includes the line:

"I have asked you here today because I want the public to have benefit of additional information regarding the Trenton Library Board’s decision to close its four branches due to the City’s budget crisis."

As an aside, Kent Ashworth and Council President Paul Pintella offered apologies later on at the council conference session. But that doesn’t really make up for the obvious intent to exclude the public from the outset. Just like the insistence on holding the Tuesday conference sessions only in the conference room even when, as was the case today, the assembled public wishing to attend couldn’t be accommodated and so were held outside of an allegedly public meeting.

So much for an open and transparent government!

Then there is the content of the speech itself.

Palmer offered pleas of ignorance of the actions and decisions of the Board of Trustees of the Trenton Public Library even as he admitted that he appoints the members.

Hard to believe that long-time Palmer family friend, “second mother” and Board President, Adrienne Hayling, never confided in Doug about that status of the library or the plans to close branches. Just as it is hard to believe that his own sister, also a library board member, never mentioned any of this to Mr. Palmer.

Mr. Palmer is only fooling himself if he truly thinks the general public believes any of this.

It almost makes one wish he was off galavanting around the country again. When he's hear, his bogus sincerity and constant spinning of the truth are nauseating.