The Ruins of Trenton

Irving Bradley was not qualified to take the Civil Service exam for his city position and it thus not qualified to be filling the position of Communications Director, according to state Department of Personnel officials who spoke to the Times of Trenton yesterday.

The Times’ Kevin Shea, working on a story about how Mr. Bradley will likely be targeted for his apparent non-residency following yesterday’s Appellate Division ruling on former Police Director Joseph Santiago’s non-residency, unearthed the fact from state DOP officials late Wednesday.

They said an exam for the Communications Director position had been scheduled for late June, but the department found that Mr. Bradley was “unqualified” to take the exam.

Interestingly enough, instead of holding the examination for the other candidates applying for the position, the DOP took the fairly uncommon move in canceling the exam entirely.

As some have pointed out, this cancellation looks a little fishy. It appears that politics made their way into the Civil Service process when it looked like Mr. Bradley could not take the exam to maintain his employment.

Instead of allowing the other qualified candidates to take the test – and presumably, the job – the test was cancelled outright, perhaps until Mr. Bradley could rectify whatever inconsistencies resulted in his inability to take the test.

What is truly unnerving about this whole affair is that now it has been proven that an unqualified candidate – being paid at the top of the pay scale for his position – has now been receiving Trenton city dollars, city vehicles, city gas, maybe a city phone, and whatever other benefits for nearly a full year in a position that he is unqualified to fill, according to the state’s highest employment authority.

Even worse, it appears that city administration officials like Chief of Staff Renee Haynes have been openly lying to City Council members when they said that Mr. Bradley was “highly qualified” for his position. He is not qualified at all, and couldn’t even take the examination to allow him a shot at the Communications Director job.

This is a big mess for the city, and council members and residents need to question the administration over how Mr. Bradley has been allowed to continue on in this position while appearing to be a non-resident, legally speaking, while being “unqualified” for his employment with the city.