The Ruins of Trenton

The winds are changing for the S.S. Trenton, and many of the bilge rats are getting ready to jump ship and flee their positions in the city government.

Assistant Business Administrator Dennis Gonzalez, one of the more despised members of the Palmer administration, is apparently shopping his curriculum vitae at his old stomping grounds in Perth Amboy, according to The Trentonian’s L.A. Parker.

Mr. Parker wrote that many of the leading members of Mayor Palmer’s expansive and bloated cabinet are getting ready to high tail it out of Trenton. The longtime mayor is not expected to run for the mayor’s spot in the 2010 election, after five consecutive terms in office have resulted in a mayor that is increasingly disconnected and disliked in the city.

It is probably a good decision on the part of cabinet members and other high executives to get out now, because the looming closure of branch libraries and other cuts in municipal services have many civic activists looking directly at Mayor Palmer’s cadre of administration officials as the right place to slash the budget.

The Palmer administration, even with the temporary subtraction of Mr. Gonzalez’s sizeable compensation, is made of numerous, high-paid employment positions that exist solely to support a mayor who’s ego and image have become too large for Trenton to support.

Mayor Palmer insists upon traveling around the nation, and sometimes the world, attending ritzy political events and hanging out with rich and powerful, all while the shrinking of the City of Trenton’s population and economic activity mean a smaller, more effective, and less costly administration and associated mayor would better fit the city’s needs.

Trenton can no longer afford to have a group of high-paid administrative support positions that only exist because the mayor is simply not in the city enough to take care of business.

People in the community recognize that reality and are beginning to push for the slashing of unneeded positions to save budget dollars and get a more down-to-earth government, led by leaders who care about Trenton more than their larger political ambitions.

With that in mind, maybe the other high-paid cabinet members should follow the example of Mr. Gonzalez or even recently-resigned, but really ousted Police Director Joseph Santiago and get themselves out of employment in Trenton, before the people of the city do it for them.