The Ruins of Trenton

The City of Trenton will again be listed as a defendant in a civil action this week, when a group of white dispatchers working at the city communications center sue the city, Communications Director Irving Bradley, and a communications supervisor named Talea Woods.

According to The Trentonian’s Joe D’Aquila, the dispatchers allege that they have become the target of the discriminatory practices of Mr. Bradley and Ms. Woods. A lawyer representing the group of dispatchers told The Trentonian that Mr. Bradley and Ms. Woods have been engaging in racist activities for some time now in an attempt to push the dispatchers out of the communications department.

The facts of the case have not yet been vetted, and only when an official ruling comes down at the end of the case will anyone really be able to cast blame on Mr. Bradley, Ms. Woods, or anyone else. But regardless of innocence or the truth, it’s important to remember that this latest affair could have totally been avoided, with great fiscal benefit to city taxpayers.

The filing of this lawsuit comes many weeks after Mr. Bradley was found to be unqualified for his position by state Department of Personnel officials, yet nothing was done.

It will come many months after photographs, which showed Mr. Bradley with a city vehicle 50 miles outside of Trenton at his old family home in Rahway, demonstrated quite clearly that the communication director was probably living in violation of city residency law. Again, nothing was done.

But now, presumably, the city will be forced to waste thousands of dollars in a legal battle to defend an employee who should have been ousted from his position long ago. Had the city taken the action necessary to remove this unqualified crony of outgoing Police Director Joseph Santiago, perhaps this legal action would have never been filed.

Then maybe the taxpayers of Trenton would not have to face the prospect of needlessly spending thousands of dollars on lawyers for the second time this year to defend a city employee of truly dubious quality.