The Ruins of Trenton

McCarthian threats over the airwaves aimed at an unknown City Council member could have been made to influence a vote on any residency actions undertaken by the body in the Police Director Joseph Santiago case, sources said Monday night.

Trentonian columnist L.A. Parker made the threats during his radio show Thursday, saying he had dirt on future mayoral candidates on the City Council involving domestic abuse and restraining orders that could ruin a future run at the top elected position in the city.

Apparently the director and others had knowledge of the problems but kept them hush-hush, the source said, and now those dirty little secrets are being dangled over the council person's head like an executioner's axe threatening to lop off the head of a continued political career.

Besides an attempt to induce a vote through revelation threats, sources this week said there has been a lot of pushing, pulling, and tugging with Mayor Palmer and Mr. Santiago meeting with council persons and others to try and reach a settlement in the dispute.

The mayor's preferred remedy: an ordinance amendment allowing the council to waive residency requirements with a majority vote, effectively providing some employees with an avenue out of residency-induced problems.

City Council meets Tuesday at 5 p.m., when the next chapter in the Santiago saga could be written.