Indicative

It's the little things that matter

On Thursday, March 8, Mayoral Candidate and current At Large Councilman Alex Bethea opened his Campaign Headquarters at 201 Mulberry Street.

This seemed like an odd decision.

Mulberry Street is in the far northeast corner of the city. It's busy but not what we would consider a main artery and certainly not centrally located. In our long experience with Trenton municipal elections, Mayoral Campaign Headquarters were normally situated somewhere in or very nearby downtown, not some two miles away.

If the location isn't odd enough, here's another tidbit. Mr. Bethea chose a building where the landlord has been cited for various code violations.  As recently as March 6, the property owner was issued summonses for violating the city housing code.

From documents obtained via OPRA request from the city, it appears as though an inspection was conducted by the city on March 5, 2018. At that time, the 2nd floor apartment was found to be occupied but there were no certificates of occupancy on file. The property also had a new electrical service that no permits had been issued for; and there were a variety of other violations.

And this isn't the only time the property owner has been cited. Back in July of 2017...just last summer...the city sent a letter instructing the property owner to remove the high vegetation and junk from the property.

One other thing we noticed when reviewing the documents...the non-occupant owner registration form shows the owner as an individual, Ms. Peggy Bellamy. However, public records indicate that the property is actually owned by her LLC, B & S Properties. Ms. Bellamy either failed to register the property correctly OR to record the transfer of title to from her LLC to her name. (And we won't comment on the couple of tax liens that have been issued on the property...one of which may still be active)

Good choice for a campaign headquarters, councilman.

Indicative of your thought processes.

GRANT WRITER \ CONTRACTS

Now this is what one might expect of an organization seeking grant writers to bring in funding to support and sustain programs.


GRANT WRITER \ CONTRACTS

While we understand that by using the technical title of "aide to the mayor" the jobs don't have to be posted and aren't subject to the normal civil service process, it would have been more transparent to go public with the search.

Unfortunately, it may have resulted in finding more qualified and experienced talent than Ms. McBride-Garnier or Ms. Lentz. Instead, we have to rely upon the Mayor's {questionable} judgment.

We at the stoop don't believe either would have made the cut if they were answering the advertisement above.  Check out their resumes here.

Why do we think they are the best choice for the city of Trenton?

And what of the potential conflict of interest between a member of the Mayor's staff and a relative that sits on City Council?

Trentonians should expect more bang for their buck and appointees earning $50K plus per year should have some demonstrable experience in bring money in via grant writing.