The Ruins of Trenton

Last week saw the Web site Missing Mayor ? pop onto the Trenton scene with a bang, eliciting news conference responses from Mayor Douglas H. Palmer and frantic city road crew action during attempts to remove signs advertising the site from some of the city's more busy thoroughfares.

And while the site really questioned what Mayor Palmer was doing for Trenton City while he has ran all over the nation and the world doing work for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, some residents said the site also highlighted a more simpler problem with Mayor Palmer.

It seems Mayor Palmer is frequently missing from the city that he governs, because he doesn't actually live there.

Trenton City Code has required city employees to reside within city limits, in a bona fide domicile where the employee actually lives, or else risk ineligibility for the position.

Yet residents at Friday's protest at the Trenton Marriott said the thing they didn't get about Mayor Palmer was how did Trenton's executive get away with breaking city code by not having a true home within Trenton city limits.

The resident - from Hiltonia - is technically a neighbor of Mayor Palmer's, since the mayor owns a residence in the West Ward neighborhood.

But the resident said he has never seen the mayor at his Hiltonia home, and has only heard of one Hiltonia citizen ever actually seeing Trenton's 17-year mayor.

It is widely reported that the Hiltonia home is just an alibi.

Mayor Palmer actually lives in a palatial home with his wealthy wife in Hunterdon County, rather than living in his posh Hiltonia home back in T-Town.

The police director appointed by Mayor Palmer doesn't have a real home in Trenton either, preferring to drive back to his Stirling home each evening.

So while Mayor Palmer may be missing while he is off tackling national problems other than Trenton's, in reality most of his time "missing" is actually spent a few miles north, in Hunterdon County, and in clear violation of city code.

But who really follows city code anyway...