The Ruins of Trenton

Barry is back

2008-11-26T10:11:00.002-05:00

Barry Colicelli is back as Trenton’s official gang consultant, after City Council voted Tuesday to award the former Newark police officer’s company a $71,000 contract to coordinate the city’s YOUTHSTAT program.

The vote comes nearly one year after the same City Council voted not to renew a similar contract for Mr. Colicelli, citing a lack of accountability and other issues. This time around Mr. Colicelli’s contract is being paid out of a $300,000 federal grant instead of the city’s coffers, and Trenton is not providing the consultant with a vehicle, cell phone, or office.

Mr. Colicelli will be required to make quarterly reports to City Council regarding progress in the various youth programs he will be coordinating, after his previous tenure with city included little or no appearance at council for extended periods of time.

Despite increased accountability in this new contract, its awarding is quite a disappointment. Many in Trenton feel that this gang consultant works here solely because of his relationship with ex-police director Joseph Santiago and current Police Director Irving Bradley, Jr., who also came from the Newark Police Department.

Also disappointing is the fact that a well-qualified city resident with experience that would have been very helpful in the gang consultant’s position applied for the job, and was passed over by city officials because of Mr. Colicelli’s police experience.

That rationale doesn't hold much water, considering the fact that this position is more about youth services and experience coordinating social service agencies - something the city applicant - than experience fighting criminal gangs. The request for proposal advertising the new contract didn’t even mention police experience, and even if it did, many officers say that Mr. Colicelli’s skills are average at best.

What is scary about Tuesday's vote is that administration officials have still not informed City Council about how Mr. Colicelli was paid for several months and retained the use of a city car and cell phone even though his contract expired, during late 2007 and early 2008.

Perhaps the injection of some additional accountability into the new contract is a good thing, but giving this contract to a Trenton resident would have been better.

City Council members should have demanded answers about the shenanigans that occurred at the end of Mr. Colicelli’s last contract and insisted on awarding the contract to a city resident. Doing so would have provided real accountability.

Santiago's new boss implicated in corruption probe

2008-11-25T11:15:00.003-05:00

It seems that Joseph Santiago, Trenton’s former police director and the current police director of Irvington, is in good company up in Essex County.

There a politically connected gentleman by the name of Keith O. Reid has implicated the man who brought Mr. Santiago into the Irvington fold, Mayor Wayne Smith, in a state corruption probe that netted numerous New Jersey public officials for bribery, according to published reports.

Mr. Reid said that he accepted $5,000 in bribes from undercover agents to be delivered to Mr. Santiago’s big supporter, Mayor Smith, in return for ensuring the awarding of a Irvington municipal contract to a fake government insurance firm set up by the feds.

A Star-Ledger piece today stated that tape recordings of the proceedings demonstrated that Mr. Reid organized a meeting between representatives from the fake firm and Mayor Smith in August of 2007. The representative, Bruce Begg, offered the Irvington mayor a $5,000 payment for the contract – calling it a “pre-commission” – but the mayor told Mr. Begg to give it to Mr. Reid, according to the report.

Back in Trenton, City Council is holding a marathon doubleheader meeting today where few city residents will be in attendance, since the meeting begins at 1 p.m. Sadly there are some very interesting items on the meeting docket.

Palmer administration officials have scheduled a city vehicle policy discussion, in response to Councilman Jim Coston, who has been calling for an examination of the policy and the institution of a vehicle ordinance to better regulate the municipal fleet.

Councilman Coston has also been brandishing a potential ordinance, although it is likely that administration officials and their allies on council will block the passage of the ordinance. Thankfully, citizens can take this matter into their own hands through an ordinance initiative.

Also, a contract for former gang consultant Barry Colicelli is up for discussion and possible passage. Council members ended his relationship with the city 11 months ago, but it appears that the majority on council that did so has weakened and what represented a positive step towards better government accountability could be reversed today.

Council members cited a lack of accountability and demonstrable work product in eliminating the contract last year, so one wonders what has changed to warrant reexamining this unnecessary expenditure.

More on this tomorrow.

Fix state pensions

2008-11-24T11:18:00.004-05:00

It is easy to see why lawmakers might be concerned over the fact that New Jersey’s pension fund has lost $23 billion this year, but they don’t appear to be doing anything really substantive about it.

The pension fund is now at $57.8 billion - less than half of what is owed to eligible public employees - after the markets went into a tailspin this year, but lawmakers don’t seem to understand that. They are convening talks on why the massive decrease occurred, instead of convening talks on how to begin weaning state employees off of this sucking wound of a pension system.

That’s what they really ought to be doing, because this system is killing off the rest of the state.

This problem goes beyond all the state tax revenue that goes into the pension sinkhole each year, instead of state services. In addition to those billions, this year alone New Jersey’s municipalities owe $1 billion in funds for the pension system. That figure will have to be levied through local taxes, in a place that already has some of the highest property taxes in the nation.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine may have proposed allowing towns to put off paying out half of that figure to a later date, but all that represents is a delay of the property tax hikes that will inevitably follow municipal payments into the pension fund.

This downturn and what it has done to the pension system is a wake up call to state officials. Instead of convening talks to discuss how the pension fund got here, which is quite obvious, they need to seriously consider reforming this system before it completely consumes New Jersey’s economic well being.

A good start would be looking into a more traditional 401(k) program for new hires. State worker unions will cry foul, so it will be up to the rest of the state’s residents to make it quite clear that a lack of reform will result in a lack of votes when it is election time in 2009.

It is time for lawmakers to begin putting the interests of all of the state’s residents ahead of the interests of state employees and their unions. That starts with actual reform of this maligned system, instead of holding discussions on how we got here.

Gang czar contract resurfaces

2008-11-22T09:06:00.009-05:00

With what appears to be a solid City Council majority of rubber stampers in hand, Palmer administration officials are poised to bring forward a resolution awarding former city gang consultant Barry Colicelli a contract to work at his old position once again.

The resolution, which is on City Council's Tuesday docket in the amount of $71,149, probably would not have been placed there were Mayor Douglas H. Palmer not totally assured of its passage, so its emergence likely means that one of the councilmen who voted against the contract earlier this year has flipped his position.

That man could be Councilman Gino Melone.

Mr. Melone demonstrated a new outlook on administration initiatives earlier this fall when he voted for the confirmation of Police Director Irving Bradley, Jr., despite lingering questions about Mr. Bradley's residency, Mr. Melone's own formerly strong position on residency, and other red flags about the appointment.

It should be interesting to hear Mr. Melone's comments, if there are any, during this vote, in light of what he said when he voted against the contract last February.

"I feel we have capable individuals" to fulfill Colicelli's role, said Mr. Melone, who also cited cost and accountability during his previous negative vote on the contract, according to The Times of Trenton.

A lot has changed since that article, when the contract last surfaced.

The city faces a potential $28 million budget deficit, and every municipal department has experienced 10 percent budget cuts and the threat of layoffs. Crime, according to Mayor Palmer, is continuing to drop, so there appears to be little need to take on another expense.

Yet this is the time Palmer administration officials have chosen to bring back a hefty contract that City Council strongly rejected only 10 months ago.

With a yes vote this time around, council members better be prepared to tell their constituents exactly what has changed since the last time this albatross of a contract came up in City Council chambers.

Without justification, approval simply means that Mayor Palmer has wheeled and dealed and once again co-opted a majority of City Council members out of being the proper check on administrative power that they are supposed to be.

That is certainly a sad state of affairs for Trenton.

Dollars and development

2008-11-21T16:12:00.002-05:00

Trenton’s future rests on using the power of the city government to pursue realistic redevelopment projects to increase ratables and city revenue.

But the current fiscal condition of the city presents a major roadblock to this, perhaps the city’s only salvation, and correcting these fiscal imbalances should be the first priority for any future administrations or aspiring politicians, not pie-in-the-sky laundry lists that are completely unrealistic.

Without pursuing this fiscal sobriety, nearly any other worthwhile initiatives or causes will be severely compromised, because Trenton simply has no money to properly fund them.

Trenton doesn’t even have enough money to cover its own service costs in a good year, and when things get bad, the problem grows to epic proportions. Just look at how annual, more modest shortfalls have morphed into a $28 million budget shortfall today.

Although the city government has to make ends meet and cover current service costs before it can even begin to consider pursuing any kind of redevelopment projects, such a path seems to mortgage the prospect of any future improvements.

The process is similar to the struggles of families in poverty, where persons have to pay off daily or monthly costs that leave them penniless to pay for the education, career advancement, or other pursuits that could lead the way out of poverty.

Similarly to how Mitt Romney described starving off automobile research and development to cover regular costs, this forced fiscal neglect to development because of a need to pay off operating costs is like a population relying on agriculture for future sustenance making a decision to eat the seed corn.

We need to start using our seed corn to plant future improvements, and that reality leads to the conclusion that Trenton’s government and its public officials’ way of life is too grandiose and too costly for the city’s own good.

The city can’t even pay for its own services and is forced to resort to begging for emergency funds from state and federal governments that are now experiencing their own fiscal problems. The spigot of emergency money might soon get shut off, and then the city will really be up a creek.

Fortunately, there are many things that can be done to free up capital for development purposes, although some may be painful for the cadre of entitled public officials that have prospered under Mayor Douglas H. Palmer’s leadership.

They may not like it, but all perks must end.

A good place to start would be the elimination of the provision of municipal vehicles to employees without any overall policy dictating their use. Those vehicles need to be taken away and sold off to the highest bidder, eliminating fuel, insurance, and maintenance costs and freeing up millions for other purposes.

All unnecessary staff working in support of city administrators must be put to work in more critical city departments or be taken off the payroll, and layoffs need to fall on support staff that are overpaid and provide little obvious service to the city instead of other low-ranking municipal workers.

The funding of unnecessary pet programs and junkets for municipal officials must stop as well. City gang czars and police officials that are perfectly well-educated must not be allowed to attend lengthy crime seminars and governmental meetings in faraway places on the city’s dime.

There are surely other areas of great savings to be found within the city’s municipal budget. If they’re found and eliminated, the city government might actually be able to pursue redevelopment projects and other revitalization that will actually increase ratables and work towards addressing the city’s underlying fiscal problems.

Mortgaging the city's future

2008-11-20T00:29:00.007-05:00

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but for a city like Trenton, laying off 69 low-ranking municipal workers is a poor way of dealing with a million-dollar budget deficit.

Yet that is exactly what the city administration under Mayor Douglas H. Palmer has proposed to deal with a budget deficit that could become as large as $28 million, should a proposal to sell outlying Trenton Water Works infrastructure fail to pass muster with the state Board of Public Utilities.

The layoff plan, like the water deal, is highly indicative of the type of the reckless problem-solving offered by those great minds in the Palmer administration. It would be much better to cut a much lower number of high-paid and unnecessary positions in the administration - perhaps 10 - than to cut this rather high number of low-ranking positions.

Trenton has a residency ordinance, so it is safe to say that a high proportion of those 69 employees who face being laid off probably live within the city limits. The higher ranks may make more money but they also likely have tenure in excess of 15 years of service, exempting them from required residency and joining the taxbase.

Despite being at a lower position in the municipal hierarchy, the layoff-prone employees' municipal work makes them relatively well-off given Trenton's income levels and cost of living. It probably means they are contributing to the tax base through the ownership of city homes and property.

But due to Trenton's overall economic and social conditions, it is also safe to say that many of those employees will seek work and shelter elsewhere once they are laid off and freed from residency.

In sum, the city is reducing future tax revenue to deal with a shortfall in present revenue, by allowing property owners and taxpayers to flee the city when there are better-paid and unnecessary positions available for cutting. These higher positions are just one of a host of other cost-saving measures that don't carry nearly the same economic penalty as layoffs. Culling the city's municipal vehicle herd is a good example.

This whole layoff plan is very similar to the strategy the city is employing in eliminating the future revenue generated by the outlying water infrastructure from future use to fulfill a need for present revenue, by selling off that same infrastructure.

Both plans illustrate a reckless disregard for the city's future financial stability, in that both are examples of dealing with long-term financial problems with short-term, one-time solutions.

It may be fine for Mayor Palmer and his cronies, who seem to have already begun departing to faraway places where they won't have to deal with Trenton's fiscal woes. But sadly, their solutions fail to take into account the welfare of the 80,000 people who will remain in Trenton. What about us?

Bryant goes down

2008-11-19T11:58:00.002-05:00

Former State Sen. Wayne Bryant, who was one of the state’s most powerful legislators at one point, was convicted Tuesday of using his clout to steer millions of dollars in extra aid and support to a state medical school in exchange for receiving a no-show, pension-padding position there.

R. Michael Gallagher, the former dean of the University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey's School of Osteopathic Medicine, was also convicted of numerous charges in connection with his hiring of the legislator for the no-show job after Mr. Bryant used his power to make Mr. Gallagher dean at the same school, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie announced Tuesday.

Under federal sentencing guidelines each defendant faces over 15 years in prison, although U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson has discretion to impose sentences outside of the range provided by those guidelines.

The investigation revealed that Mr. Bryant, who had past connections with some powerful Mercer County Democrats, took salaries from the medical school, the Gloucester County Board of Social Services, and Rutgers University Camden, despite doing little to no work for any of the institutions.

At the Gloucester County Board of Social Services Mr. Bryant worked a little over 14 hours from 2002 to 2006 yet received $200,000 in compensation, plus contributions to his state pension. Similarly, Mr. Bryant worked roughly one day a week at the medical school and successfully boosted his pension from $28,000 in 2002 to $81,000 in 2006 through this fraud, Mr. Christie said.

Mr. Bryant becomes the latest in a series of high-ranking public officials to go down on federal corruption charges brought by Mr. Christie.

The U.S. Attorney, who has secured a conviction or guilty plea from every person he has prosecuted, is resigning his office at the end of this month to make room for President Barack Obama’s eventual attorney appointee and perhaps pursue a run at the Republican gubernatorial nomination for 2009.

Then and now

2008-11-18T12:41:00.004-05:00

A rather interesting New York Times piece that was written just before Mayor Douglas H. Palmer's victory in the June 1990 runoff election has the man who remains the city's mayor telling the Times that he was running to make "Trenton what it used to be in the 50s and 60s, a city of safe streets and decent housing."

Such statements make it clear that few can honestly say that the mayor has had any real success in achieving that vision, and other content in the piece indicates that a chasm of discrepancies have developed between Mr. Palmer then and Mayor Palmer now.

What was promised then and what is happening now demonstrates an ever-lengthening record of reversals and failure.

The man who regularly lobbies the state government for handout dollars and assistance used to say that the city “was too reliant” on such assistance and that the city should turn away from that support through its own development, according to The New York Times.

But his pursuit of private development resulted in a record of dismal failure for the majority of development projects, whether they originated under the city’s direction or the direction of other entities.

Projects that experienced some success, like Waterfront Park and The Sovereign Bank Arena, were county-sponsored and orchestrated, and no similar successes are evident in the Palmer redevelopment portfolio.

The mayor has since turned back to the state and federal government. Besides the usual begging, he has frequently said the state does not delivers its fair share in payments in lieu of taxes for all the so-called “valuable” downtown property state buildings occupy, although one wonders what downtown - and Trenton for that matter - would be without the presence of the state.

More recently, the mayor told the feds that they have not done enough to support urban areas and should therefore pony up dollars to bail out city governments like his. So much for independence…

Also, since those early days, the mayor has become more and more a man that Trenton supports instead of a man who supports Trenton.

Perhaps out of recognition that fixing Trenton requires too much effort for his welfare and that national positions provide greater power, recognition, and less effort, the former county freeholder, school district purchasing agent, local guy, and Spring Street resident has taken to the national stage.

From there he pushes policies that have not benefited many in Trenton, while spending most of his time outside the city.

The domestic policies the man supported in his earliest days have failed, and he has since reversed both his identity and positions. He alternately clings to the city as a means of support, power, and fame and then abandons it for extended periods to bask in the exposure of the national stage, where his domestic failures are hidden.

While this has gone on, the city has continued suffering down the exact same road it was when he made grandiose promises about this “new vision for Trenton.” Perhaps it is time for both the city and the man to move on.

A so-so record

2008-11-17T00:05:00.007-05:00

Some Trenton City Council members planning on running for reelection or for election to other municipal seats in 2010 are probably going to have a tough time pointing out their legislative achievements when confronted by worthwhile opponents.

The body hasn't really passed much of anything in the form of its own legislation recently, as many of its members have effectively served as a rubber-stamping operation for most of the past three years, save for a few triumphant and memorable moments.

Those "good" moments include standing up to the administration on the issue of renewing former Gang Czar Barry Colicelli's unneeded service contract, questioning former Police Director Joseph Santiago's residency, and saying no to purchasing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of unnecessary police service weapons.

However, City Council has already begun to backtrack on many of these former triumphs.

In the case of residency, they recently went in reverse by affirming alleged residency breaker Irving Bradley as police director, and in Mr. Colicelli's case, word is that the administration is planning to once again bring the ex-Newark cop and Santiago crony back in the fold, perhaps with the approval of a majority of council members already guaranteed.

Even on issues that council members themselves have promised to take action, little has been done. Councilwoman Annette Lartigue publicly vowed to push for reforming the city's municipal vehicle usage, but she dragged her feet for so long that it was actually Councilman Jim Coston who finally began pushing legislation on the issue after weeks of stonewalling from the administration.

An even greater example of council inaction is the library funding debacle, in which Mayor Douglas H. Palmer nearly forced the closure of four of the city's beloved branch libraries through a 10 percent cut to the library budget.

While many council members have expressed their support and even undertaken activities aimed at keeping the libraries open, few have spoken openly of properly using their statutory powers to control budgetary practices in injecting funds into the library system's coffers.

Doing so would augment all of the wonderful private organizing and fundraising efforts that have emerged because of the closures, but apparently the current council members don't see things that way.

This tendency to be reluctant or timid about using the powers of an elected office and remaining rather inactive are not the best attributes for elected officials. Maybe Trenton should look for people who have a contrary record when it comes to the makeup of the next City Council.

Residency is about the law, and not the person

2008-11-15T13:44:00.005-05:00

Politicians of dubious value don’t usually last very long in the public arena without having a knack for implementing keenly developed strategies when it comes to pushing for a particular initiative, policy, or even a personal whim.

Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer is providing a perfect example of such skills right now, through the public relations campaign being orchestrated around the employment of Police Director Irving Bradley.

Mr. Bradley’s predecessor, Joseph Santiago, was ousted for blatantly violating the city’s residency ordinance with the strong support of Mayor Palmer. A lawsuit, filed by citizens including me, showed the weakness of such a position when two different courts ruled that Mayor Palmer did not have king-like abilities to waive employment requirements for employees, and that Mr. Santiago had to go.

Following that spectacular defeat, Mayor Palmer’s political skills are fully on display. First, a few weeks ago he convinced a majority of formerly combative City Council members to confirm Mr. Bradley, despite lingering questions over the director’s residency and that body’s formerly strong stance on residency.

After a majority of council members demonstrated that their previous position on residency was ephemeral in nature, a lawsuit that everyone knew was coming was immediately filed over the new director’s residency, which is questionable at best, given that his immediate family lives 40 miles outside the city.

With the lawsuit now hanging over Mr. Bradley and Mayor Palmer, the mayor is skillfully suppressing his hatred of city police officers and pushing Mr. Bradley to be everything that Mr. Santiago was not: a good, attentive, and responsive leader, a leader respectful of the police rank-and-file, and a leader not constantly out to put police officers in their place.

Mayor Palmer is trying to make Mr. Bradley look like one of the greatest police leaders the city has ever had, probably to make the people trying to oust the director look misguided and driven by interests other than the betterment of the city.

He is trying to turn the people who disliked Mr. Santiago, because of his leadership style and policing decisions, against the citizens seeking Mr. Bradley’s ouster. Those people should know, however, that the minute the lawsuit or any other kind of threat dissipates Mayor Palmer will likely begin making the lives of Trenton police officers difficult once again.

For people like me, solace comes from the fact that supporting residency has always been about the law and not personal attributes or relationships. Regardless of how poorly Mr. Santiago ran the department, and how well Mr. Bradley could now run the department, our position remains the same.

We don't particularly care about who is the director of police, as long as they're a resident. What we do want is a mayor who follows the laws, and enforces the laws equally, regardless of an employee’s stature or relationship with the mayor.

STATEHOUSE UPDATE - Economic assistance bill advances

2008-11-14T13:37:00.004-05:00

A General Assembly bill that would appropriate $22.5 million to fund food banks and soup kitchens, home heating assistance programs, and free legal services for low-income persons is advancing through the legislature, having been released by the Assembly Budget Committee this week.

The bill, if passed, would provide a tremendous boost to services that could be utilized by many of economically disadvantaged residents living in the City of Trenton and the rest of New Jersey.

The bill, No. 3374, provides approximately $3 million to the Department of Agriculture for what is known as the Hunger Initiative/Food Assistance Grant Program.

The program is one of the main avenues of support for many of the facilities that provide food for the state’s poor. The facilities have been increasingly stricken by falling donation levels and a surge in the number of families requiring help with food, as the economic crisis has worsened.

The second section of the bill provides $10 million to the Department of the Treasury to fund grants in the New Jersey Statewide Heating Assistance and Referral for Energy Services program, which helps fiscally-strained individuals with paying their utility bills.

The program, which is administered through approximately 150 community agencies, is the nation’s only statewide program that provides such grants to New Jersey residents, many of whom fall in an "in-between" income bracket that makes them ineligible for other types of utility assistance.

The final section of the bill provides $9.5 million in funds to the Department of the Treasury for the Legal Services of New Jersey, a non-profit group that provides low-income individuals and families with badly-needed legal services.

This non-profit agency has become especially helpful because of the mortgage crisis, which has resulted in thousands of foreclosures for many families that lack the financial resources to secure their own legal services while dealing with foreclosure proceedings.

The bill, which is part of a package of economic assistance requested by Gov. Jon S. Corzine, still needs to head to the full Assembly for an eventual vote for passage.

The proof is in the timing

2008-11-13T10:55:00.003-05:00

On the same night that the Trenton Library Board of Trustees voted to temporarily halt a plan to close four of the city’s branch libraries, West Ward councilwoman and potential 2010 mayoral candidate Annette Lartigue held a fundraiser to support those libraries.

The odd timing of the fundraiser, however coincidental, and what it symbolizes is somewhat reminiscent of how some Republican presidential candidates were forced into carefully dealing with a highly unpopular President George W. Bush, despite prior party affiliation and support.

Like the outgoing president, Mayor Palmer has become increasingly unpopular in the community, especially through budget cut proposals and the branch library closure plan. How unpopular the cuts and closures are is evidenced by how Mayor Palmer, after eyeing the public reaction, actually worked to reverse the closure plan brought on by his own cuts.

Such unpopularity, with a 2010 election looming for some potential mayoral and council candidates, is a good catalyst for shifting the perception of support and association. A peek at what such shifts could look like is the odd timing of Councilwoman Lartigue’s Trenton fundraiser, which was aimed at closing some of the $350,000 budget gap imposed on the libraries by Mayor Douglas H. Palmer’s budget cuts.

This rather awkward timing appears to demonstrate an acknowledgement by some in the community of their feelings about what this board of Palmer cronies has done to the management of the libraries’ finances. Even among board members Councilwoman Lartigue's timing raised some eyebrows, like the pair that belongs to longtime Palmer family friend Adrienne Hayling, who told The Trentonian that the timing was “embarrassing.”

Such a reaction from the trustees, who voted on a plan to reduce hours and staffing at some of the libraries to allow them to remain open, shows they were quite aware of how they have been placed out of the loop when it comes to fundraising efforts like, Councilwoman Lartigue’s event.

The unfortunate thing for Palmer supporters who may end up on the 2010 ballot is that spearheading these events to prevent physical association with the mayor and his policies will probably not be sufficient to sway many voters.

Like a national electorate fed up with years of Bush mismanagement, many citizens in this city are on the lookout for a significant political shift indicated by a turn away from the broken government and policy that has become the hallmark of the Palmer administration. That just has not happened yet.

Another city revenue source

2008-11-12T16:51:00.002-05:00

Trenton’s city officials ought to begin lobbying the city’s legislative delegation to get those representatives to push for amendments to state law that allows municipalities to enact payroll taxes.

A statute currently exists that allows municipalities in New Jersey to pass a 1 percent payroll tax on certain businesses and operations with a payroll of greater than $2,500, but unfortunately for the state capital, the 20,000 state workers employed in the city are exempt from that tax.

That could change with some diligent work by the city’s legislative representation, which includes some of the more powerful legislators in the state of New Jersey. They could use their standing to push for amending the statute to allow Trenton to tap the enormous wealth that goes into state worker paychecks and then flees the city's borders for the suburbs.

Yes, it may prove unpopular with state unions, but that opposition could be tempered with popular support, because of the fact that such a measure would allow Trenton to generate additional revenue and reduce its reliance on the state for millions of dollars in handouts every single year, which comes out directly from the pockets of all taxpayers.

Right now Trenton faces a multimillion dollar budget shortfall that will likely require, like last year, an emergency infusion of state tax dollars. Such an event could have been precluded if the city had access to what could amount to millions of dollars in payroll taxes.

Also, plenty of other cities outside of New Jersey have enacted similar measures, and in allowing Trenton to join those cities the state government would be working to address a perception in Trenton that the state, as a city stakeholder, does not share the load when it comes to city services.

Local opposition to such a plan could emerge because of such a tax’s perceived impact on the city’s smaller businesses, but perhaps the tax ordinance could be amended to have a greater payroll requirement, therefore saving many of the city’s smaller businesses, but not the state, from being subject to the tax.

Trenton residents not working in the city or at large businesses should also be comforted to know their city would have another revenue source besides the one coming directly out of their collective pockets, which has been increased for seven consecutive years.

It is time to creatively look for money in places elsewhere than the pockets of city taxpayers.

Doug wants a do-over

2008-11-11T12:00:00.003-05:00

Mounting public pressure has apparently caused Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer to cave in and hold off on his proposal to close four of the city’s branch libraries because of the city’s fiscal problems.

The mayor, during a press conference held Monday, said that the city’s library director and board of trustees had worked out a plan where the libraries would remain open, albeit with reduced hours and staffing.

Unfortunately for the city’s residents, who so valiantly came out against this proposal and began raising money to close the libraries’ $300,000 budget gap, there is nothing in yesterday’s public statements indicating that the city has moved to address the underlying cause of the library system’s problems.

The board of trustees, filled with Palmer-appointed cronies including the mayor’s sister and a longtime family friend, is apparently maintaining its current makeup, which resulted in the frittering away of millions of dollars and the institution of horrendous accounting and auditing practices.

While one accounting firm with longtime ties to the library system will be let go, another auditing firm will continue on to finish the most recent audit, operating under what city officials called “the more standardized and appropriate procedures generally utilized in the municipal area.”

That’s especially disturbing if it means the library will work like the city does, when it comes to finances, accounting and auditing.

In Trenton’s case, “standardized and appropriate” fiscal practices usually mean misappropriated money given to contractors without contracts.

These same practices, as implemented by the City of Trenton, have resulted in money being wasted on unnecessary perks, and the hiring of auditing firms that give “clean” audits, defined as audits that show Public Works employees are incorrectly filling out time sheets and that finance officials routinely misplace millions of dollars in grants that are never received.

Yesterday’s announcement may mean that the city’s branch libraries have received a temporary stay when it comes to potential closures, but what happened yesterday was nothing more than a political do-over, in the face of mounting public pressure.

And since Mayor Palmer and other city officials did not do anything to address to real underlying causes of the mismanagement at the libraries, these problems are sure to emerge again, in the not-so-distant future.

Thanks for your valuable help, Doug.

Fix the fire director issue

2008-11-10T10:21:00.000-05:00

The city government in Trenton needs to start following its own rules.

That's not being done right now, thanks to people like Mayor Douglas H. Palmer and Councilwoman Annette Lartigue, who either don't know or don't care about the some of the law that governs the way things are supposed to be done in Trenton.

A perfect example of this is the continuing saga of acting Fire Director Hank Gliottone. While occupying a civilian directorship that requires adherence to the city's residency ordinance, he also happens to be an actual firefighter, which exempts him from residency.

But also calling his continued employment as director into question is that City Council and Mayor Palmer have allowed Mr. Gliottone to continue in his position long after the statutory 90-day period for acting appointments expired.

At some point, a civilian director living in Trenton should have been found, but since the city declined to do this, Mr. Gliottone has continued in the position and has been commuting back and forth from his Jersey Shore home to Trenton in a city-owned and city-fueled vehicle, according to some officials.

Of course, Mayor Palmer and some council members chose to let this sleeping dog lie, until it became politically beneficial for Councilwoman Lartigue and others to use their administrative screw-up as a method of attacking residency supporters in the city, like me, for not calling Mr. Gliottone's employment into question when we have scrutinized others.

However, such a strategy ignores the fact that Mr. Gliottone's employment as both a firefighter and director exempts him from residency. It also ignores the fact that an arrangement that puts a non-civilian in a civilian's position, however silly, is the fault of no one but Trenton's elected officials.

Recognizing that, Councilwoman Lartigue, Mayor Palmer, and others who have questioned why residency supporters haven't gone after Mr. Gliotonne should be officially on notice that city residents expect them to immediately rectify any inconsistencies regarding the residency of the director and the apparent expiration of his 90-day appointment.

They should do this by either making Mr. Gliottone director and requiring him to move into the city, or by finding another city resident willing the lead the department and make a much shorter, less-costly taxpayer-funded commute.

When it comes to this problem, the only ones who should be sharing the blame are the city officials who created this situation, and not a group of vigilant residents who have no power whatsoever to rectify the specific issues raised by the fire director situation.

More spin at 319 E. State

2008-11-09T00:09:00.002-05:00

City Council has once again been receiving false information from administration officials regarding city business.

Last week, South Ward Councilman Jim Coston proposed an ordinance setting the number of positions of various ranks in the Trenton Fire Department, as a safeguard against further tampering with the already stretched-thin organization by administration officials seeking to cut positions as a cost-saving measure.

During deliberations prior to the ordinance's eventual tabling, City Attorney Denise Lyles told City Council members that while they had an ability to set the number of various ranks within the city's police department, they did not have similar powers when it came to the fire department.

Such a position is plainly false, and it calls into question the validity and soundness of nearly any vote taken by City Council following the delivery of advice from Trenton's Law Department.

Dozens of New Jersey's cities have organizational ordinances setting the number of various ranks within those cities' fire departments. Any fool with a computer and a Web browser can find those ordinances in city codes online.

That same fool, if they were to dig hard enough, would find state law that clearly explains that the governing body of any municipality does indeed have the power to regulate the fire department, through the adoption of ordinances that mandate numbers of certain ranks and positions.

This fire department misinformation bit is the latest in a long line of incidents where high-paid members of the city administration provide questionable information to council members, in what appears to be an attempt to influence the city's representatives into making certain decisions about certain pieces of legislation.

The only problem is that council members don't seem to care about this, and nearly never call out these law department officials to hold them accountable.

When that happens, all of Trenton loses.

City spins deer paddock elimination

2008-11-08T13:56:00.006-05:00

It is always interesting to see how the Palmer administration tries to spin faulty decision-making, when it comes to eliminating city amenities because of fiscal mismanagement.

The City of Trenton's chosen public relations strategy in closing down the deer paddock in Cadwalader Park relies on the notion that park designer Frederick Law Olmsted never wanted to have the deer there in the first place. That much is clear from a public relations questionnaire put out on the city's Web site, which also details that maintaining the paddock and the animals costs the city around $50,000 a year, or approximately 66 percent of the annual cost of one of Mayor Douglas H. Palmer's two police chauffeurs.

Expanding on Olmsted's apparent dislike of these four-legged park residents, the city goes on to state that many well-liked amenities have been removed from the park, because of the designer's desire for a park that was "more pastoral, and less programmed."

But the bottom line with the elimination of this amenity, and other budget-related decisions in Trenton, is that the city administration is simply not looking in the right places to make cuts, and is instead looking at eliminating important or well-liked services or amenities, like the city's branch libraries, and to a much lesser degree, the city's deer paddock.

Some people, including me, could care less about the deer paddock, and many have advocated for its removal, but it is also quite clear that there are many thousands of residents who enjoy having it and appreciate its existence here in this city.

For only $50,000, the city could easily keep the deer paddock in existence, just like the branch libraries, which face closure because of a $300,000 shortfall that represents an amazing service for many of the city's residents, for less than 2 percent of the city's entire annual budget.

It is obvious that there are plenty of sacred cows in the Palmer administration that should be feeling the budgetary axe before the libraries, and less so, the deer paddock.

But for this city government, a bloated administration flush with unnecessary perks and unneeded employment positions is more important than services and amenities that residents use and love.u

A fool's council

2008-11-07T09:34:00.004-05:00

Trenton's West Ward Councilwoman Annette Lartigue likes carrying water for Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, even when it means demonstrating to the world just how inadequate she and her colleagues are when it comes to doing their jobs.

That was especially evident today in reviewing a Times of Trenton account of Thursday night's City Council proceedings, in which Councilwoman Lartigue continued repeating the Palmer line on the city's residency law regarding Fire Director Hank Gliottone.

This constant line of attack is based on the idea that citizens who have held the line on the non-residency of recent police director appointees failed to do so when it came to this fire director and a recent interim police director, and are therefore somewhat hypocritical, according to Palmerites like the West Ward councilwoman.

Fools like these think they are gaining some sort of cheap political capital doing this, but the problem with this line of reasoning - which proves how inadequately prepared Councilwoman Lartigue is for her job - is that state law prohibits residency requirements for these directors, because these men are sworn police or fire personnel.

Every resident, including me, would love it if these men resided within the city and contributed to the tax base and community, but it would simply be unlawful to force them to do so through any kind of lawsuit.

Of course, City Council members could have used their powers to force the administration into appointing civilian residents for this fire position, but that wouldn't be appropriate for this Trenton City Council.

They declined to do so, which is a failure on their part, until the Palmer administration and Councilwoman Lartigue and her obedient council buddies began to question the arrangement, as an attack on residency-supporting citizens.

But instead of producing political capital, all this really proves is that city officials and council members are woefully inadequate for their employment, and that people who call these officials out on one area of failure better call them out on all areas of failure.

If they don't, they risk being painted as hypocrites for not touching on every one of the thousands of instances where people like Councilwoman Lartigue have failed the city.

The honeymoon is over

2008-11-06T12:56:00.003-05:00

After a wonderful honeymoon away from the era of faulty governmental practices, it appears that Trenton City Council members are allowing the Palmer administration’s traditional, disrespectful relationship with their body to reemerge.

Councilman Jim Coston today reported that once again he is having trouble getting information from the Palmer administration regarding important city matters necessary for City Council to do its job, as city representatives and legislators.

But unfortunately for the city, it appears that when it comes to what administration officials or Mayor Douglas H. Palmer say or do, a majority of City Council members have reverted to a submissive and meek demeanor. This sea change seems to have occurred sometime in the days preceding the appointment of alleged residency breaker Irving Bradley to the police director’s position.

Prior to that date, councilmen Milford Bethea, Jim Coston, Gino Melone, and Manny Segura stood together as a united bulwark against the administration’s old abuses, as the four men were labeled “the gang of four” in local newspaper accounts.

They regularly challenged Palmer initiatives, and even ground a council meeting to a complete halt when administration officials failed to provide information necessary for proper deliberations on a specific piece of council business.

But now, Councilman Gino Melone appears to be back in tow with council president and Palmer lackey Paul Pintella, Councilwoman Cordelia Staton, and Councilwoman Annette Lartigue.

No one knows exactly what happened, but when it came to Mr. Bradley’s highly questionable appointment, the former residency supporter and “gang of four” member, Councilman Melone, flipped and voted for Mr. Bradley’s appointment without serious questioning or any of his previous skepticism of Palmer initiatives.

This was odd indeed, coming from a man who only months earlier was pushing and prodding residents to start an effort to recall Mayor Palmer and to begin organizing a return to a police chief-led police department.

But regardless of what happened to the Gino Melone that made those requests, the entire city is now worse off.

City Council members cannot get the information they want and they cannot do their jobs effectively. The members who would do so no longer have the ability to use their powers to cut funding, remove officials for cause, or stop meetings, because there simply aren't enough votes to do so.

The result is clear: this City Council, as it is currently constituted, is simply not doing its job, and the next batch of members elected in 2010 must be required to do so.

Mortgage fraud concerns emerge

2008-11-06T00:01:00.001-05:00

Talk of a bailout for homeowners facing foreclosure in the current sub prime mortgage crisis has sparked fears among New Jersey Realtors that some homeowners may abuse the bailout by intentionally defaulting on their mortgages.

State Senate President Dick Codey, D-Essex, met with around 200 Realtors last week, and after being informed of their concerns, issued a letter to the state Department of Banking and Insurance calling for some sort of intervention to prevent homeowners from purposefully defaulting, in order to take advantage of a mortgage restructuring or other financial assistance.

“A number of real estate representatives expressed concern that this threat is a very real possibility because many banks are telling their clients that they are unwilling to discuss restructuring unless they are already in default on their mortgage,” said Sen. Codey, in a statement. “This poses a serious concern for both homeowners and lending institutions. We need to investigate the severity of this threat and identify steps that can be taken both to prevent this practice and find a suitable compromise that will keep people in their homes and banks in business.”

In a related matter, state legislators have become concerned about a spike in the mortgage rates offered to first-time home buyers through the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency’s Smart Start program.

Rates for those first-time home buyers increased from 6.9 percent to 7.8 percent, sparking comment from state Realtors that the state program was becoming less lucrative for some buyers while pricing others out of purchasing a home.

Obama's election could become even more historic

2008-11-05T20:53:00.000-05:00

As the most historic election in recent memory was underway Tuesday there were many a gleeful face in Trenton, as residents gathered at a variety of polling places to get their chance to make history and cast a vote in support of the man who will now become the nation’s first African-American president

Many Trenton voters probably didn’t think about the other way this election could be historic, in a more localized manner, in that last night’s Obama victory may end up provide an opportunity for a down-to-earth executive ready to tackle the city’s issues, by relieving the city of the duty of having to put up with Mayor Douglas H. Palmer.

Apparently Sen. Barack Obama has the potential to tap Trenton’s maligned mayor for some sort of urban affairs position, thereby moving Trenton’s larger-than-life absentee mayor onto the national scene.

No one knows how likely such a proposition is, and it certainly appears to be a funny one, considering how Mayor Palmer was one of the few Trentonians - if you can describe him as such - who was actively pushing for the nomination of Sen. Hillary Clinton instead of Sen. Obama.

That was presumably because of his closer relationship with the Clinton clan and the greater probability that with Sen. Clinton’s election Mayor Palmer could ride her coattails out his hometown and into Washington, D.C. But the primary in Trenton didn’t go Sen. Clinton’s way, despite Mayor Palmer’s efforts, and neither did the rest of the national primaries.

Despite all that, and if the rumor and gossip is true, perhaps presidential hopefuls like Sen. Obama are willing to forget many of the stupid decisions made by other party faithful during the primary and offer up federal positions to those who supported others, like Mayor Palmer.

Maybe Mayor Palmer could do better work in some federal position, which would allow him to finally feel like he was in a position appropriately important for his own ego, without abusing the interests and tax dollars of 80,000 residents.

In that case, this election will be doubly historic – Sen. Obama becomes President Obama, and Mayor Palmer would be headed on out of Trenton. That may not be a good thing for the nation, but it would certainly be a welcome thing for this city.

Palmer shows true colors, again

2008-11-04T15:00:00.000-05:00

Mayor Douglas H. Palmer showed his true colors in a Trentonian article that came out Tuesday, regarding a city proposal to cut positions and demote some staff in the Trenton Fire Department to offset years of fiscal mismanagement by the city administration.

Many in the Trenton Fire Department brass have come out against the proposals, saying during a press conference Monday that with implementation the cuts will result in a public safety problem for both city residents and firefighters.

But the vindictive Mayor Palmer responded in usual fashion, ignoring the expertise of the firefighters and their knowledge of their own jobs.

Instead, he equated their position on the cuts with a similar position taken during a round of firehouse closings in 2002, and focused on some perceived paranoid perceived slight that happened six years ago, when firefighters protesting the earlier proposal picketed the mayor's wedding.

"These firefighters should be ashamed of themselves because they are attempting the same demagoguery and fear mongering that they used when we were forced to close several firehouses," said Mayor Palmer, to The Trentonian's L.A. Parker. "Residents know I would never do anything jeopardizes the safety of our citizens or firefighters."

Those are funny words from a man who is doing just - jeopardizing the safety of citizens and firefighters - by proposing significant staffing cuts to an already stretched-thin city fire department, in a city with old housing stock and a high frequency of house fires.

Those words are perhaps even funnier when one remembers how quick Mayor Palmer and his own supporters are to engage in their own fear mongering, like when the mayor and others invoked the specter of phantom racist cops and a "good ole' boys" network" when city residents like me went after his pet police directors for blatantly breaking the city's residency law.

Mayor Palmer, quite simply, is an opportunist and career politician willing to take any position on any issue for his personal benefit, whether it's residency, Barack Obama's candidacy, or even the public safety of his own city residents.

Articles like today's make that reality clear for all to see.

City responds to Bradley complaint, albeit weakly

2008-11-04T00:01:00.002-05:00

The City of Trenton's response to the lawsuit challenging Police Director Irving Bradley's residency status is rather weak, according to some legal minds who had a chance to review the response after the city filed it in court Monday.

Written by City Attorney Denise Lyles, this initial response first questions the legal validity of the complaint, sponsored by a group of citizens including me, by claiming that the complaint had no basis in fact and was instead based upon hearsay contained in inaccurate newspaper articles and little else.

That position is augmented by a rather simple certification in which Mr. Bradley states that he is a resident of the City of Trenton and that the complaint should be dismissed.

Such a position ignores the preponderance of evidence, which is now common knowledge within Trenton, that Mr. Bradley was not a resident of Trenton when he first attained employment and remains as such, and that his family continues to live outside of the city in a home in Rahway where Mr. Bradley has been seen both last year and more recently in September.

Next, the city tries to counter the argument that once again Mayor Douglas H. Palmer and his administration officials ignored residency rules when it came to the hiring of Mr. Bradley.

In that part of the response, the city counters the allegation that Mr. Bradley was not a resident when first hired by stating that the city's residency ordinance had a waiver provision at the time of Mr. Bradley's original hire.

It follows that the provision could have been used for Mr. Bradley, who did not attain an apartment in Trenton until several months after his hire, according to the flawed logic used by the city.

The filing ignores how city officials like Chief of Staff Renee Haynes and others constantly defended Mr. Bradley's illegal non-residency by saying he could do what he wants on the weekends, apparently forgetting about the dozens of employees who were fired for the exact same type of living arrangements.

The only solace Trenton residents should take out of this response by the city is that it was actually written by the city's own attorney.

Apparently the city decided against using the same highly-paid army of lawyers that defended former Police Director Joseph Santiago in the last residency court battle, in which the residents emerged victorious after Mr. Santiago was ousted and Mayor Palmer went down in a humiliating defeat.

The next step in this battle is for lawyers for the defendant and the plaintiffs to show up in court Nov. 21 for an initial hearing.

Bleak budget numbers for Trenton

2008-11-03T00:01:00.001-05:00

South Ward Councilman published some of Trenton’s latest budget numbers on his Web site this past weekend, and the numbers certainly weren’t pretty.

A maelstrom of shrinking state aid and sagging local revenues have left the City of Trenton - under the great mismanagement of Mayor Douglas H. Palmer - with an $18.6 million decrease in total city revenue, from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2009.

One of the more peculiar drop-offs illustrated on Councilman Coston’s Web site was a sudden $14.3 million drop in an item called “Local Revenues”, which comes in at just over $19 million after sitting at the $33.6 million range in last year’s budget.

Coming in second, as far as revenue declines are concerned, was a drop in “Additional State Aid”, from $21 million to $19,100,000. Another state aid line item for over $16 million remained the same, but that only means that Trenton falls further behind as rises in costs and inflation mean last year’s dollars go even less further this year.

Perhaps most disturbing was that another in a long succession of property tax increases, this time for 13 cents per $100 of assessed value, only netted the city an additional $2.8 million in property tax revenue, from $48.2 million to $51 million.

Not only did this increase amount to little more than a dent in the city’s overall budget gap, but the city’s overall lack of revenue growth means that city residents will probably be subjected to similar tax increases for years to come.

The only other options the current government seems to be pursuing are requests made to the the already financially distressed state and federal governments for more dollars and the selling off of valuable city assets, like outlying Trenton Water Works infrastructure, for one-time infusions of cash.

This government simply won’t take the most obvious step and go in and reduce the size of the city’s bloated administration, through the elimination of some of the high-ranking and high-ranking support staff of Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, and their salaries, benefits, and municipal vehicles.

Until that happens, the city will continually be forced into levying ever-growing tax burdens, driving away residents and businesses at a time when Trenton needs to be attracting them.

Doug goes to Congress

2008-11-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer had the city's shiny tin cup out again this week, as he spoke to members of Congress and advocated for a bailout package of billions of federal dollars for America's cities.

Mayor Palmer pulled out his usual talking points, like how Trenton suffers from having less taxable properties due to the presence of the state government and how the state takes up downtown properties for use as surface parking.

The mayor even pulled out the latest piece of hardware from the beggary arsenal of public officials: the mortgage and credit crisis. That problem, which has sparked the nation's recent economic downturn, had led to a 46 percent increase in foreclosure filing, according to the mayor.

These issues were then linked by the mayor to the city's current fiscal crisis, which comes in the form of a $26 million budget gap that has could lead to the slashing, through layoffs or the elimination of vacancies, of 10 percent of the city workforce.

Reading over the mayor's prepared comments, one nearly becomes frightened over the ability of public officials to make presentations, prepare reports, and lobby for important legislation based on positions that are partial misrepresentations of reality and deny all personal responsibility.

While the general statistics and other portions of the positions taken by the mayor are true, he of course did not go into the wasteful and haphazard manner in which his administration operates, which makes him partially responsible for the current fiscal crisis.

He didn't talk about how his administration, through its activities, constantly opens the city up to costly litigation, or how he allows taxpayer dollars to go towards the funding of lavish and unnecessary perks for favored employees.

Mayor Palmer said nothing about the abject failure his economic redevelopment pursuits have experienced, or how he has moved to sell numerous, long-term city assets to plug short-term budget gaps.

Of course, one cannot blame the mayor for trying in this manner.

A federal bailout would be much better news than a state-sponsored bailout, which would surely come with a demand for state oversight of city finances and an end to the salad, accountability-free days of this administration.

But should such a federal bailout be put into place based on the testimony of men like Mayor Palmer, then some attentive observers will lose some of the confidence that they may have in federal decision-making.

Someone needs to go tell the Feds a little bit about this slick-looking man from Trenton, before he ends up in D.C. himself.

Trenton Fire Department plans press conference

2008-10-31T15:23:00.004-04:00

Trenton's firemen will be on hand at Trenton Fire Headquarters on Perry Street at 1 p.m. Monday to address manpower cuts proposed by the city government, which will result in a serious safety problem that endangers all lives and property within the great City of Trenton, according to fire officials.

Earlier this month, outgoing Business Administrator Jane Feigenbaum announced a dramatic regimen of fire department cuts including the layoff of 13 fire captains, the elimination of 16 firefighter vacancies, and the occasional closing of some of the city's remaining fire companies.

Firefighters, in a statement, cited an infamous incident on Prospect Street in December of 2006 where three Trenton firefighters nearly lost their lives as evidence of the danger of additional cuts.

"Any reduction of captains or firefighters at this fire would have caused these firefighters to lose their lives," said one official, in the statement.

This year's proposal follows a round of cuts in 2002, after which the Trenton Fire Department maintained a consistent record of adhering to its budget while making do with dangerously reduced staffing levels, according to the statement.

Its final line reads, "Enough is enough. We ask council and the residents to protect their fire department."

Musical chairs, anyone?

2008-10-30T00:01:00.001-04:00

New Jersey public officials always seem to be engaging in a wild game of musical chairs, whether it's regarding actual positions of employment or moral or political positions on how the government should be run.

Tuesday’s announcement that Business Administrator Jane Feigenbaum was leaving Trenton to take up a similar position up in Perth Amboy, with Assistant Business Administrator Dennis Gonzalez taking her position, is a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Only months ago, many in the city breathed a sigh of relief after hearing reports that stated Mr. Gonzalez – the same guy who threatened city residents who questioned his work with lawsuits – was the one preparing to leave the city to take up a new position, also in Perth Amboy.

His longtime friend but eventual enemy, Mayor Joseph Vas, was defeated in the recent mayoral election, bringing a new administration into power and perhaps opening up a way for Mr. Gonzalez’s return.

Such a move seems to make a little more sense than the Feigenbaum announcement, considering Mr. Gonzalez’s long-time connections up there, after having grown up there, with Mr. Vas, who made Mr. Gonzalez law director after Mr. Vas was elected sometime in the early 1990s.

But, as many do in New Jersey, the relationship soured, after Mr. Vas fired Mr. Gonzalez’s wife and city aide Kim McReynolds in late 1995 for failing to substantiate the reason she had to take off an extended period of time from work, after she had a cancerous lump removed from her tongue.

Then, in 1997, Mr. Gonzalez got the axe, after Perth Amboy City Council voted to change his job to a part-time position. Some council members like Joseph Misiewicz told The Star-Ledger that the move was a personal attack designed to “get rid of Dennis.” With the salary cut in half, Mr. Gonzalez left the position, about a month later.

Things got worse in October, when Mr. Vas filed a complaint with the state Supreme Court Ethics Committee, charging Mr. Gonzalez had violated attorney-client privilege by talking about opinions he had given to the city at public meetings, and later commenting on his wife’s termination to a reporter. Although the committee found no evidence of wrongdoing, relations got even worse.

“I think the fact that he didn’t inform me is cowardly and dishonest,” said Mr. Gonzalez, to The Star-Ledger. “If he had any sense of decency, he would forwarded a copy of the complaint to me.”

Then, in 1998, Mr. Gonzalez went head-to-head with Mr. Vas’ own slate of City Council candidates in the election, running on a slate of anti-Vas candidates. Although he lost badly, his public comments from the time represent another type of musical chairs, in that they contradict the manner in which he and other administration officials in Trenton frequently treat City Council members.

“It’s wrong what’s going on in Perth Amboy,” said Mr. Gonzalez in a Star-Ledger piece about the election, saying Mr. Vas controlled City Council.

Mr. Gonzalez also said he wanted to use his legal prowess and sit on a strengthened City Council to maintain a balance of power in city government, according to The Star-Ledger.

But judging by how Mr. Gonzalez and Ms. Feigenbaum acted down here in Trenton, it looks likes the new acting business administrator had a change of heart in many ways, but especially regarding the importance of having a balance of power and a strong governing body.

That’s probably good for his conscience about his hometown, because people there are probably in for a rough time, with Ms. Feigenbaum’s entrance into the Perth Amboy scene along with reports that the Vas administration's activities are being probed by the FBI.

Welcome to New Jersey....

Another distressed cities bill advances

2008-10-29T00:01:00.000-04:00

The state Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee Legislation this week unanimously passed legislation that's aimed at reforming the state's Distressed Cities financial aid program by imposing additional oversight on potential recipients like the City of Trenton.

The Distressed Cities program, which doled out approximately $140 million in extra state aid last year, has received increased scrutiny recently due to the state's fiscal woes and a perception that the program lacks the accountability necessary with the appropriation of such large amounts of taxpayer dollars.

Sen. Phil Haines, R-Burlington, apparently sponsored legislation designed to reverse that perception, basically by requiring more from municipalities seeking extra state aid dollars through the program and empowering the state with additional oversight power.

"For far too long, this program has been used for partisan political purposes," said Sen. Haines, in a statement. "This common-sense reform measure that passed the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee will inject fairness and transparency into a state aid program that distributes over $140 million of the taxpayers' money every year."

The bill amends existing Distressed Cities law to require municipal officials receiving significant aid to create a financial plan aimed at addressing the underlying causes of their municipality's fiscal woes, to be laid out in a memorandum of understanding with the state.

Municipalities failing to live up to the expectations laid out in the memorandum face a suspension of aid. Also, the bill provides a limit of three consecutive years of extra aid, barring special circumstances, and empowers the state to convene municipal finance boards to oversee the decision-making of towns constantly experiencing fiscal problems.

Trenton certainly appears to fit the category of a distressed city. Last year the city's finances were saved by a late-minute infusion of $25 million from the state's so-called "Capital City appropriation", which came with stipulations including prohibitions on wage increases that were apparently ignored.

Fast forward to today.

The city now faces a larger $27 million gap, at a time when the state's finances are in even worse shape than they were last year.

Another multimillion dollar infusion of state dollars, perhaps under state oversight within the state's Distressed Cities program, seems to be Trenton's only hope.

More NJ gasoline abuses

2008-10-28T12:19:00.002-04:00

Another Republican in New Jersey is screaming bloody murder about alleged taxpayer-funded transportation abuses, down in Atlantic County.

Frank Balles, the GOP candidate for Atlantic County sheriff, attacked current county Sheriff Jim McGettigan today after the sheriff personally ran up thousands of dollars in bills on a county credit card purchasing gas at private gas stations in recent years.

The sheriff bought 1,400 gallons of gas at a station miles from his home between October of 2004 and August of 2006, according to reports published in The Press of Atlantic City.

Mr. McGettigan and other sheriff’s employees received the credit cards after the sheriff made the claim that his officers needed county-issued gasoline cards to assist with transportation associated with their official duties, but Mr. McGettigan was the one who really took advantage of the cards.

County records demonstrated that his officers used the cards 24 times for a total of $642 over the two-year period, compared with Mr. McGettigan’s use – 72 times for over $2,500.

“It is contemptible that McGettigan trued to use concern for the safety of his officers as a method to obtain personal benefit,” said Mr. Balles, in a statement.

Following the purchases, Atlantic County took action by prohibiting further use of the credit cards by Mr. McGettigan, who violated county policy by purchasing the gasoline at more expensive, privately-owned gas stations instead of county-owned stations, according to The Press of Atlantic City.

County-owned stations in Atlantic City, Hammonton, Mays Landing, and Northfield provide gasoline at cheaper prices, due to the county’s tax-exemptions, according to reports.

Scrap metal bill advances

2008-10-27T00:01:00.001-04:00

There is help on the way for the City of Trenton and the numerous persons, businesses, and other entities that have become crime victims during the dramatic surge in metal thievery.

Criminals in many areas of the state have begun plotting out methods for absconding with anything containing certain metals, like copper and aluminum, which have experienced significant price increases in recent years.

Assistance for those beleaguered by this crime wave comes in the form of legislation proposed by a trio of Republican legislators from South Jersey who have apparently taken notice of the trend and plan to legislate the problem away - Sen. Christopher Connors, Assemblyman Brian Rumpf and Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, all R-9.

Under their proposal scrap metal business owners would be required to engage in better record-keeping practices, since they are the usual recipient of the stolen metals.

“Unfortunately, honest operators of scrap metal yards unknowingly become entangled in these crimes by virtue of being the only venue where thieves can turn a profit from their stolen property,” said Assemblyman Brian Rumpf, R-Little Egg Harbor, in a statement.

The law requires such businesses to request identification from anyone making scrap metal sales. On that basis they would be required to maintain records for up to five years consisting of the name and address of metal sellers, which could be used by law enforcement officials to prosecute metal thieves.

Other portions of the law require businesses to disclose sale information to law enforcement officers and to promptly report suspicious sales. Scrap metal businesses found in violation of the disclosure and reporting stipulations would be subject to various penalties, according to the legislation.

City finances threaten revitalization, point to state takeover

2008-10-25T12:16:00.008-04:00

Economic revitalization should be priority number one for any city government in Trenton, but current city fiscal policies have resulted in a multi-million dollar budget shortfall that threatens the city with a massive tax rate increase that will create tax conditions that are adverse to redevelopment.

It also looks like such a tax increase won't even cover the budget gap, likely forcing the city into asking for a state-funded bailout sure to come with the institution of state oversight on the city's finances.

Right now the City of Trenton proposes a budget that assumes that the state Board of Public Utilities will approve a plan to sell outlying Trenton Water Works infrastructure to a private company for $100 million.

Despite that infusion of $100 million, the proposed budget carries a 13-cent tax rate increase, bringing the City of Trenton's property tax rate to $2.58 per $100 of assessed value. That rate hike, plus other measures including layoffs, will go towards closing a $7 to $8 million budget gap.

Already, lower property values in much of the city and a lack of up-to-date property assessments result in a city tax rate that is one of the highest in the county. A lack of growth in ratables and ineffective cost-saving measures in the government means constant, large-scale tax increases.

But now, regardless of those conditions, both city and state officials are saying the proposed water works sale may not receive approval, which would balloon the city's budget shortfall up to an astounding magnitude of $27 million.

No one is quite sure where such a shortfall will be made up, but adding significantly to the city's tax rate will result in a situation where anyone considering the purchase of property in the city is going to think twice, as soon as they see Trenton's large and growing municipal tax rate.

Perhaps the only good thing that could come out of such a large budget shortfall is that the city could be forced into begging for a state-funded bailout.

Given the financial footing of state officials, who recently identified falling state tax revenues and their own budget shortfall, such a bailout will likely come with a stipulation of state control over the city's finances.

Given what the Palmer administration has been doing with the city's money lately, this could certainly be a good thing.

Investigators probe Perth Amboy's former administration

2008-10-24T13:09:00.003-04:00

Federal and state investigators are probing the activities of former administration officials who worked under former Perth Amboy Mayor Joseph Vas, who was soundly defeated in the mayoral election earlier this year by new Mayor Wilda Diaz, The Asbury Park Press is reporting.

Mr. Vas, who also serves as a state assemblyman for the 19th legislative district, ran Perth Amboy for 18 years after being elected in 1990 as the city’s first Hispanic-American mayor.

Although what exactly is being probed remains unclear, Mayor Diaz has confirmed that her administration is indeed cooperating with the investigation, after rumors began swirling this week, alleging widespread visits from FBI agents and the issuing of subpoenas to both former and current city workers.

Some were even visited by investigators at their homes, according to published reports.

Reports published earlier this year, prior to Mr. Vas’ exit from the mayor’s office, stated that city workers were ordered to shred thousands of city documents and papers, following the former mayor’s defeat in the 2008 mayoral election, according to The Asbury Park Press.

But Mr. Vas denied that the papers were being shredded for any nefarious reason, and said that records and documents with electronic back-ups were not prohibited from being shredded.

Governmental mismanagement continues in Trenton

2008-10-23T14:15:00.007-04:00

It has become increasingly evident that officials in Trenton are hellbent on leaving residents on the hook for their boneheaded decision-making.

This most disturbing trend of mismanagement continues at a time when the city faces a potential $27 million budget shortfall that, if unfilled, promises a dramatic tax rate increase for all property owners in the city.

Most recently, an external audit firm official told City Council on Tuesday that the city received a clean audit, despite major discrepancies, in the form of a $16 million grant the city never received from the state and some questionable Public Works time sheet activity.

Solidifying the trend of mismanagement is the fact that over the last month the city and its officers have been named as defendants in no less than three separate and highly avoidable lawsuits. Two center on the former communications director and present police director, Irving Bradley, Jr.

The first was filed by dispatchers who used to work under Mr. Bradley. They allege that Mr. Bradley engaged in racially-charged employment practices and harassment in an effort to drive white employees out of the communications center.

The second suit was filed by a group of residents, including me, over Mr. Bradley's residency status, in renting an apartment in the city while maintaining a family home in Rahway that Mr. Bradley is known to frequent on the weekends.

The director's residency status was consistent with that of dozens of employees the city has fired over the years for non-residency, yet city officials did nothing about Mr. Bradley's apparent violations, which opened the door for another costly round of unnecessary legal battles over residency enforcement.

The sad thing about the lawsuits targeting Mr. Bradley is that the man should not have been employed by the city, in any capacity, due to his being unqualified for the communications directorship in addition to his highly questionable residency status.

If the city’s elected officials had done the right thing and cut him loose, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs would not be headed into the pockets of expensive, high-class lawyers.

Finally, the outlying townships that rely on water from the Trenton Water Works filed their own lawsuit against the city this week, seeking to put a stop to the recently instituted 40 percent water rate hike.

City Council members dutifully passed the rate ordinance at the behest of officials from the Douglas H. Palmer administration, despite overwhelming evidence of malfeasance regarding the city’s water works budget practices, very public threats of costly lawsuits from the townships, and numerous requests from outside officials for cooperative discussions on the matter.

And now, all these chickens are coming home to roost, and once again, Trenton’s residents will be left holding the bag because of the poor governance of their elected officials.

State vehicles subject to significant abuse

2008-10-22T12:04:00.004-04:00

Some state employees granted the use of vehicles from the state's Central Motor Pool abused the privilege numerous times between 2005 and 2007, according to a report from last year that has become political fodder for state Senate Republicans.

Of interest is that these apparent abuses occur despite the fact that the state uses an intricate policy system to govern the usage of such vehicles. The City of Trenton, which has somewhere around 100 taxpayer-funded vehicles, does not have a single vehicle policy in use at this time.

The state Central Motor Pool consists of approximately 7,600 total vehicles, which cost the state somewhere around $20 million annually, excluding administrative expenses. Some of the governmental entities using the largest amounts of state vehicles include Children and Families, Corrections, and Human Services, at 2,511, 1,092, and 1,016, respectively.

The report - put together by State Auditor's office in late 2007 - demonstrated that at times approximately 10 percent of the vehicles logged gasoline purchases in amounts that exceeded the total capacity of the vehicle's gas tanks, perhaps indicating employees were using their vehicle privileges to purchase items other than gasoline.

Also, nearly 160,000 gallons of expensive gasoline were consumed without appropriate documentation, without indication of what the gas was used for or even which vehicle it went into.

"To me, widespread abuse like this means we should eliminate the majority of state vehicles," said state Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth, in a statement. "The oversight of taxpayer funded motor vehicle usage is lax or non-existent."

Also of interest was the fact that the state auditor found that many of these vehicles were making same-day gasoline purchases, indicating the owners were driving the vehicles so frequently that they were draining entire tanks of gasoline in a single workday, requiring additional stops for gas.

If this state report is any indication of the trends in taxpayer-funded vehicle abuses, then it appears that reining in Trenton's motor vehicle pool could be a prime place to look for cost savings in the battle to plug the looming $27 million budget shortfall.

If the government can't take that step, the people sure can.

In 2009, decisions, decisions

2008-10-21T00:01:00.002-04:00

Gov. Jon S. Corzine's future gubernatorial aspirations could hinge on whether or not the legislature passes a slew of bills called for by the governor earlier this month in an effort to seriously restrict pay-to-play and wheeling, which continue to hamper public opinion of New Jersey government.

It could be a showdown - between the value of real ethics reforms versus control of the governorship - that would certainly be interesting and quite telling for New Jersey residents, who have revealed in recent polls that the corrupt perception of their government weighs heavily on their minds.

Of course, the only real reason that the party in power, the Democrats, might actually face such a conundrum is because of the man Gov. Corzine will likely face off with in 2009.

Whether he means real reform or not, current U.S. attorney and likely Republican candidate for governor Chris Christie will have the support of many a New Jerseyan.

That's because many of us have become quite tired of the endless tales of corruption, whether it be actual cases of criminal activity or the disproportionate influence of money and political bosses on what is supposed to be a democratic process.

People see the corruption cases that Mr. Christie has so successfully prosecuted, and equate that record of success with some sort of unfounded judgment that the ugly practices and dirty government going on right now will somehow stop with Mr. Christie's ascension into Drumthwacket.

But in reality things will probably continue in much of the same way, as they did when Republicans were last in power.

That's why all these calls for blood over the recent government grant revelations made during the ongoing Wayne Bryant trial ring so hollow. As many have written recently, the Republicans have done and would have done exactly the same thing in the same or similar situations.

But regardless of the equally poor ethics records of both major New Jersey parties, when it comes to the 2009 governor's race, Mr. Christie surely has some sort of an advantage over Gov. Corzine, that is, unless the state legislature advances those ethics reform bills, despite whatever negative effect the laws may have on the ability of Democratic bosses to raise funds and solidify power.

Does controlling the governor's office matter enough to power-hungry politicians to sway them into voting to significantly dampen their own ability to hold onto the reins of power?

That is the question.

A lower house for Trenton

2008-10-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Trenton residents could take over many of the functions of their city government through what would be similar to the formation of a large, unofficial lower house of city legislature.

That's because the piece of state law governing how this city's government is run, the Faulkner Act, hands Trenton residents the power to initiate their own ordinances or suspend and send them on to City Council, and eventually the ballot, as long as residents successfully collect a certain number of signatures from the registered voters of the city.

This would require the participation of 800 or so registered voters, willing to meeting, communicate, and vote on various ordinances, either proposed by members or taken from the dockets of City Council. Binding votes would mean that all members would have to affix their signatures onto official petitions bearing the ordinances.

With the combined signatures of all members, such a group would assume the power to propose its own legislation and strike down anything proposed by official City Council members or the city administration, with everything going to referendum vote.

The 800 or so number comes from the statute, which dictates that the number of signatures necessary for certain actions. The number is either 10 or 15 percent of the total number of voters who voted in the last election in which state Assembly members were elected.

Due to the depressed economic and social conditions that have become the hallmark of the city under Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, few voters come out to vote for state legislators. The statutory 10 or 15 percent is traditionally a fairly low number.

Sure, it may sound like a rather cumbersome and ineffective way to run the city government, but it sounds a little bit better when compared with the current city government. The people in power now, especially Mayor Palmer, have been so cumbersome and ineffective that they allowed the city's finances to reach the point where Trenton now faces a $27 million budget shortfall.

City residents are looking at what could end up being one of the largest municipal tax rate increase in recent New Jersey history, especially if the sale of outlying Trenton Water Works infrastructure falls through.

Maybe it's time Trenton residents get together and put together a government of their own.

Tell us the truth, mayor

2008-10-19T00:01:00.001-04:00

By all accounts, Police Director Irving Bradley Jr. is a big hit with many in the City of Trenton.

He has attended civic gatherings, carried himself well at government meetings, and suggested what appear to be new, innovative ideas. He even seems to be gaining solid acceptance among the rank-and-file of the city’s police force, unlike his predecessor.

That’s why it is so disturbing that the City refuses to elaborate on the director’s living situation, which has been questioned so frequently since Mr. Bradley emerged on the scene last September, at nearly the same time as former director Joseph Santiago was questioned and then ousted over his own non-residency.

That legal battle, over Mr. Santiago, cost the City hundreds of thousands of dollars and painted Mayor Douglas H. Palmer as a mayor dedicated to establishing the power to decide which workers are subject to residency rather than spending time working on the city’s problems.

Now, another director is on the scene who also appears to be breaking the same residency law, and despite the presence of a similar lawsuit that threatens the city’s funds all over again, the only thing Mayor Palmer says is that Mr. Bradley is in compliance.

Such a position loses credibility because of the continued existence of Mr. Bradley’s well-known family residence in Rahway, where the director’s children attend school and where the director has taken City vehicles. He was even seen there, about a month ago.

The city’s established position on residency - based on decades of court rulings - is that employees are not in compliance when they rent an apartment inside the City while occasionally visiting immediate family members who live in a larger, owner-occupied home far away.

But that is exactly what Mr. Bradley appears to be doing, and that type of double-standard, evident in Mr. Santiago’s case and now in Mr. Bradley‘s, is exactly why people like me are suing the city.

It is abhorrent to supporters of democracy when laws apply to most but not to all, because such activity is reminiscent of the shackles of monarchy that Americans fought so hard to throw off in the Revolutionary War, communist Russia, or the segregationist laws that kept people of color down in the South earlier this century.

If this is not the case and Mr. Bradley has some sort of living arrangement or situation in play that makes him in compliance with the law, then it would behoove Mayor Palmer and Mr. Bradley to reveal that information, before the City wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars in an unnecessary court battle with its own residents.

If there is some sort of arrangement that only emerges in court, be it a legal separation or divorce, then it shall prove that the Palmer administration would rather fight a costly court battle with City residents to prove those residents wrong than save City dollars and allow Trenton to move on, under the capable leadership of Mr. Bradley.

Mayor Palmer will likely ignore this request for this cost-saving information, and that’s fine.

But should the court battle continue and facts emerge establishing that once again the mayor has ignored the city’s own, long-established law, then City residents ought to get working on ensuring that someone else takes over following the 2010 election.

Trenton administrators get pay raise, amid budget turmoil

2008-10-18T00:01:00.002-04:00

Top Trenton officials received pay raises earlier this year despite the city's disastrous fiscal situation, according to South Ward Councilman Jim Coston.

Rumors attesting to this fact were heard months ago, but when no resolutions or ordinances that specifically mentioned the raises appeared on City Council's dockets, many assumed that the raise rumor was just that, a rumor.

But apparently members of the Douglas H. Palmer administration - before warning the city about the closure of city libraries, the laying off of dozens of city workers, and the slashing of municipal services - thought that in handing the city a $27 million budget deficit they had done a good job, and they deserved more money.

Almost equally disturbing as the news of these pay raises was the response that Councilman Coston received when inquiring about how exactly the raises were instituted.

"You voted for them," said one administration official, according to Councilman Coston's Web site.

Let's get this straight. Administration officials received pay hikes while the city's budget is in tatters, and City Council members, the stewards of the city's budget, didn't even know about them?

With instances such as these, it is really no surprise that this city faces such a massive, debilitating budget shortfall. The people who are supposed to be looking out for the interests of the residents at City Hall are apparently asleep at the wheel.

But perhaps all is not lost.

City Council, despite its obvious shortcomings, needs to get its act together immediately, and use its power to investigate this situation and immediately repeal whatever pay raises were handed out to Palmer officials.

Perhaps some deserve these raises, but with the city dealing with such a large budget gap and residents facing a double-digit tax increase, it is hardly the time to be handing out more money.

The city simply cannot afford to do so.

Easy revitalization

2008-10-17T12:01:00.002-04:00

Some say that things are looking up in Camden.

Campbell’s Soup Company recently broke ground on a $90 million, brand-new Camden corporate headquarters, and the state, county, and city governments are sinking an additional $23 million into the area’s infrastructure.

The complex includes an 80,000 square-foot employee services building, as well as 200,000 square feet of office space, to be built on an adjacent parcel and redevelopment site. According to the office of Gov. Jon S. Corzine, the project will retain nearly 1,200 jobs and “anchor the redevelopment of the surrounding area.”

But projects such as these represent minimal, baby-sized steps towards the revitalization of cities, when compared with the single easiest step that the state could take to jump start economic revitalization: end the residency exemption given to firemen, policemen, and teachers.

If these groups were subject to the residency ordinances of New Jersey’s cities, all of these relatively well-compensated workers - numbering in the thousands in each city - would fill in city neighborhoods and help these urban areas take the first steps back towards economic vibrancy and tax revenue self-sufficiency.

Until state legislators take such a drastic step and face off with the powerful unions of teachers, firemen, and police, Camden will remain the same. The nice part of the city, the waterfront, Cooper Street and near City Hall, will remain a bombed-out wasteland of empty hotels, empty storefronts, and empty high-rises – just general emptiness, all because no one lives there.

Even the better-off cities of Newark and Trenton have similar traits. Both have downtowns that adopt the same emptiness once the buzz and din of worker activity stops at the end of the day, and thousands of vehicles flee the cities for the suburbs.

What’s missing is the kind of stable, middle-class population that brings economic activity, property ownership, and a good tax base. These things fled to the suburbs over the last five decades, and with them went the days of prosperity, at least for the vast majority of New Jersey’s cities.

The residency-exempt Civil Service positions could help bring prosperity back. Sure, the unions will kick and scream, but that can be reduced through the establishment of a grandfather clause for current residency-exempt firemen, police, and teachers.

Only new personnel, hired after a certain effective date, should become subject to residency.

To address the certain lack of candidates that may emerge when some downtrodden places like Camden start searching for employees, the state should up the ante, and provide extra salary or compensation to whomever is willing to take the job.

Cities can engage in similar activities, like offering vacant homes or other incentives to residency-required employees.

It may seem excessive to spend extra money to fund such incentives, but the current status of these cities means that nearly all of their municipal and school dollars come from the state, so revitalization through removing residency exemptions becomes a more lucrative tactic.

It is truly a good first step towards bringing cities back from the abyss.

Stop this deal!

2008-10-16T12:47:00.002-04:00

The reasons for supporting the proposed sale of outlying Trenton Water Works infrastructure to a private, foreign-owned company for $100 million just don’t add up, no matter what side you look at.

The folks reviewing the matter have apparently begun taking the same position lately, as evidenced by reports detailing vague feelings of doom on the part of city officials, who are apparently aware of what is going with the deal.

For the City of Trenton, this appears to be a cheap, one-time injection of revenue to shore up a $27 million budget gap caused by years of financial mismanagement. But regardless of the city’s budget problems, it bears remembering the words of wise financiers, who almost always say that selling off a long-term asset to fix a short-term problem is never a good idea.

Even worse than selling of a long-term asset to fix a short-term problem is selling that asset off for less than half of the original price.

That’s apparently what the city faces now, after independent experts told the state that the City of Trenton should only get a little over $50 million for the infrastructure instead of $100 million, because much of it was built by the townships and developers, rather than the city.

Constantly putting forth lame excuses for the deal is Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, who is always quick to point out that the city will continue to profit from the water infrastructure because the company, New Jersey American Water, has signed an agreement to continue buying water from the city for 20 years or so.

But after that, there is no guarantee that the city will receive any revenue from the outlying infrastructure, especially given the existence of numerous connections to other areas of New Jersey American Water infrastructure that could be used to pump in outside water in the future.

Apparently Mayor Palmer could care less about the city's long-term future.

For the suburban townships surrounding Trenton – which, with Trenton, make up “one family”, according to Mayor Palmer – this deal makes no sense whatsoever. They will be taken over by a company that has just made a $100 million expenditure, which, in addition to other costs, will eventually be recouped, right out of the pockets of ratepayers.

Also, the new company that will be providing them water under the deal has shareholders, pays dividends, and operates as a for-profit venture, unlike the Trenton Water Works.

City officials have said that suburban customers will get a better deal because New Jersey American Water will do a better job of maintaining the infrastructure and providing better service. But that's not so, according to people from other areas where American Water has taken over. They have said that the real trend is almost always a drop-off in service.

Arguments over better regulation are ridiculous as well.

While it is true that the City of Trenton’s rate hikes are not regulated by the state, such regulation is not really a safeguard against significant rate hikes, especially when the company requesting them can demonstrate that they recently spent more than $100 million.

Also, companies like American Water are known to repeatedly ask for exorbitant hikes, knowing the state will grant increases lower than what the company requests. But if a company makes enough of these requests, the end result is the same: higher water rates and poorer ratepayers.

Under the city’s control, rates are hiked by city ordinance. The state may seem like a better bulwarj against unnecessary rate increases, but in reality, if the city continually tried to hike water rates, there would be outcry, both immediately and probably later, at the city ballot boxes.

Also, Trenton citizens wary of exorbitant rate increases could take to the streets and defeat any ordinance effecting a rate increase through a petition drive, which would get the rate hike ordinance on the ballot. It is quite a stretch to imagine city residents voting to pass rate hikes on themselves.

In sum, this is a bad deal for Trenton, a really bad deal for the suburbs, and a good way of seriously damaging relations between the two. The only entity that benefits from such a deal is the Palmer administration, which will be able to plug budget holes for a year or two, until the mayor and his people are safely out of town.

Once again, Trenton will be left holding the bag.

Trenton needs an audit

2008-10-15T13:51:00.003-04:00

Palmer administration officials warned City Council Tuesday night that help may not be on the way regarding the city’s massive, $27 million budget deficit, because things aren’t looking good with the proposed sale of outlying Trenton Water Works infrastructure to private water company.

Business Administrator Jane Feigenbaum dropped the bombshell as she went over some of the cost cutting measures being instituted by the city. They include the layoff of 80 city workers, the demotions of numerous fire captains, and the canceling of the hiring of additional police officers that was so highly touted by Mayor Douglas H. Palmer during his 2007 State of the City address.

But despite these measures, which some fire and police officials have labeled as a threat to public safety, the city still faces an addition $19 to $20 million budget gap if the aforementioned sale of water infrastructure doesn’t go through.

Given the frequency of tax rate hikes, water rate hikes, and the growth in the cost of government in Trenton prior to this fiscal disaster, a gap of this magnitude seriously calls into question the budget practices utilized by Mayor Palmer, who has been in power for nearly 20 years.

Residents paying for this poorly managed operation, from both the city and outside in the rest of the state, should demand an independent state audit of the city government’s financial dealings. The vast majority of money spent in Trenton is state money anyway, so demanding such action should not require too much heavy lifting or lobbying with state officials.

When it comes to this city's fiscal practices, there is obviously something that is simply not working very well, and it needs to be taken seriously. Such fiscal mismanagement threatens any future renaissance the city could experience in the future, by threatening to bankrupt the city government and force more prohibitive tax hikes onto property owners.

There must be an immediate end to all official perks, including the use of vehicles and gasoline by employees who clearly do not require them. All expensive trips must end, and that should include special training for police officers and other officials and the purely political junkets frequently taken by Mayor Palmer.

Finally, the mayor’s protection detail must be disbanded and folded back into the Trenton Police Department to make up the growing manpower gap.

But, in the end, the best solution of all is brand-new leadership in 2010. The current government is obviously too stupid and too expensive for this city to bear, and it’s time to get a new one.

Water sale could be dead

2008-10-14T00:01:00.002-04:00

Trenton could be in even deeper fiscal trouble than it already is.

It appears the proposal to sell outyling Trenton Water Works infrastructure to New Jersey American Water for $100 million could fall through, or be seriously reduced in value, according to industry insiders.

Apparently the valuation process that resulted in the $100 million figure was seriously flawed, and because of that, state staffers could recommend that the state Board of Public Utilities kill the sale outright, or reduce it in value.

The city's valuation firm inappropriately chose to include in the $100 million portions of infrastructure financed by developers and residents in the suburbs surrounding Trenton that was handed over to the city at no charge, and that has proven problematic for the deal.

In most official valuations of this kind such infrastructure should not be included in the sales price, according to testimony given to BPU staff by independent authorities like Howard Woods.

Mr. Woods and others have said the infrastructure belongs to the ratepayers that have rented or purchased the properties serviced by the pipes, pumps, and other water infrastructure and is not Trenton's to sell.

It remains to be seen whether the city would accept a much lower sale price - said to be in the neighborhood of between $50 million and $70 million - but given the city's financial straits, such a firesale of a valuable asset will likely be construed as necessary by city officials like Mayor Douglas H. Palmer.

The city administration was relying on the deal to provide a $20 million infusion of cash into the city's coffers that would help close a massive budget shortfall, but if the deal falls through, the $7 million hole could increase to $27 million.

The city already plans on cutting 150 jobs from the municipal payroll to help deal with the $7 million deficit, but increasing that budget gap by another $20 million would likely result in a nearly catastrophic cut in municipal services.

Layoffs and lawsuits don't add up

2008-10-13T15:03:00.004-04:00

The City of Trenton will be eliminating around 150 municipal position from the city’s payroll in an attempt to address a $7 million budget shortfall, according to The Times of Trenton.

These layoffs will come at a time when Mayor Douglas H. Palmer apparently thinks it is appropriate to spend thousands of dollars in court defending a employee from a lawsuit that could have been avoided, and the utter hypocrisy of that is astounding.

Even worse, many in this city seem to accept the actions of a mayor who is constantly talking out of both sides of his mouth, especially when it comes to breaking the law, the budget, and unneeded lawsuits.

This particular avoidable lawsuit, like the one that ousted the previous police director, challenges the claim that Mr. Bradley has taken up permanent residency in Trenton, as required by law.

Despite comments from Mayor Palmer and misleading stories in the local media, the claim that Mr. Bradley established permanent residency in Trenton is something that nearly everyone in Trenton knows to be false.

Remember that Mr. Bradley was first caught with a city vehicle at his old family home in Rahway. Then he was involved in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, nearly 30 miles outside the city at a point on the most direct route from Rahway to Trenton. Finally, he was caught at the home again, fully a year after he and his family should have moved into the capital city as required by law.

In trying to help out his favorite mayor, Trentonian columnist L.A. Parker wrote a story detailing how Mr. Bradley produced a state driver’s license and a rental agreement, which was purported to somehow demonstrate that Mr. Bradley is a bona fide Trenton resident and that people challenging that claim are foolish and misguided.

Apparently Mr. Parker – and City Council for the matter – have forgotten that simply renting an apartment and changing personal documents to reflect that information is not enough when it comes to residency. That is clearly established by decades of law that everyone who supports Mr. Bradley’s appointment seems to have forgotten.

But the actions of Mayor Palmer and his officials demonstrates that at least they are aware of what residency means. They fired dozens of employees for residency, and many of them had similar or equivalent living situation to what Mr. Bradley is currently claiming.

These employees rented apartments, changed their driver’s licenses and voting records, and made other changes to make it look like they were following the law. The Palmer administration successfully prosecuted nearly all of them.

Until recently, the City of Trenton never supplied funding for an employee’s legal defense for such things as residency violations, and especially not for employees who face significantlegal problems like Mr. Bradley. He is already the subject of another lawsuit for allegedly pursuing a “racialist” agenda when he worked in the city Communications Division.

But now, when the budget is broken and the city cannot afford unnecessary expenditures, Mayor Palmer and City Council have thrust another man into the police director’s position who does not meet the requirements of bona fide residency, again opening the city up again to taxpayer-funded legal challenges.

What is says is quite clear.

Such an action means that Mayor Palmer would rather fight a costly and unnecessary battle in court against his own constituents than be forced to follow the city’s residency law and appoint a real city resident to the police director’s position.

That’s a pretty sad situation for Trenton to be in.

The truth about TRAC

2008-10-11T20:00:00.003-04:00

Members of the Trenton Residents Action Coalition stand for the rule of law and the betterment of Trenton, and do not conspire with anonymous and perhaps even nonexistent police who may or may not be racists.

Yet some in Trenton have been taking a ridiculous, contrary position and have been pushing it lately, on the pages of local newspapers, on the airwaves, and in the chambers of City Hall.

This happens because TRAC members and the plaintiffs who sued and successfully ousted former Police Director Joseph Santiago, a man of Hispanic heritage, have now sued his black successor, Irving Bradley Jr., over what the group believes is a similar residency infraction.

Because of the color of the skin of these two men, and not the motives of TRAC, the group is now being painted as some sort of "supremacy" group. Apparently the only defense left to supporters of Mayor Palmer is making vague reference to racial motivations.

The basis for these accusations is a worldview that holds that the Trenton Police Department, prior to the institution of a civilian director in 1999, was led by white chiefs and the infamous "good ol' boys network", which was apparently unsympathetic to the city's black residents, according to some in the city.

Now, because TRAC took a contradictory position on his views about residency, Mayor Palmer's supporters have made public statements that TRAC is somehow hellbent on ignoring the city's demographics and pursuing a "whites-first" agenda for the leadership of the police department based on the aforementioned "good ol' boys network".

The only basis for this, however faulty, is that some anonymous police officers have publicly supported TRAC and the ouster of the former director. TRAC is somehow associated with the views of these unnamed officers, according to Mayor Palmer's supporters, but such arguments gain little traction with reasonable persons.

Quite simply, TRAC's 15 or so members have no control over the opinions of the people who express support for the group's activities, just as the people advocating for the funding of the city's libraries remain unassociated with the self-described Bloods gang member who recently supported their cause at a City Council meeting.

Sen. Barack Obama has been publicly endorsed by despicable terrorist organizations, yet no reasonable person can construe that such an event is an indication of Sen. Obama's personal views on terrorism.

In fact, the truth is just the opposite when it comes to TRAC. Its members take the position that racism and bigotry have no place anywhere in America, and especially not in Trenton.

Despite TRAC's public positions, Mayor Palmer's supporters have continued to fan the flames of racial tensions for cheap political gain. But for good, reasonable people, it is quite easy to look right through such political smoke and see that TRAC's only goal, like many other city organizations, is a better government and a better Trenton.

Let it be known once and for all that TRAC condemns the views of racist individuals of any ethnicity. This author pledges strong support for having a person of color as the city's civilian director, as long as that person is a qualified, bona fide resident of the city.

The ultimate distraction

2008-10-10T00:01:00.012-04:00

L.A. Parker apparently doesn’t care about the plight of many Trentonians or good race relations, despite his public positions.

This man's sole reason for existence is as a big distraction, meant to lure away attention from the fact that Mayor Palmer is one of the biggest disasters that ever happened to Trenton.

Whatever his stated positions, this man is actually hurting all Trentonians through his constant playing of the race card for purely political purposes, as evidenced by yesterday’s Trentonian column attacking opponents of Mayor Douglas H. Palmer like the Trenton Residents Action Coalition.

In it, the fuming Mr. Parker attacks from many different angles, comparing unnamed bloggers like myself to members of the Ku Klux Klan and even going as far as to accuse a black member of TRAC, James Fouse, of being a “token” black man.

Mr. Parker has also taken the position that TRAC members are racists, which is absolutely ridiculous.

The fact is that TRAC has never done anything out of racial motivations and our members, who are all Trenton residents, are not racists. Although there are probably a few racists living in Trenton, it always seems highly unlikely that a racist would ever choose to live in Trenton, where whites represent less than 20 percent of the 83,000 people living in the city.

He also struggled to paint a picture of hyprocrisy yesterday, and his idiotic arguments demonstrated that he does not think very highly of the intellects of his readership.

Mr. Parker tried to say that a lack of outrage over the residency of the current fire director and police Capt. Fred Reister, who was briefly acting police director, was an indicator of hypocrisy. But all that lack of outrage showed was a superior knowledge of state law, which exempts both men from residency requirements.

Mr. Parker tried to paint Mayor Palmer's opponents as hypocrites for pointing out the man recently named police director is a convicted felon, while staying silent on a restraining order that was put on one TRAC member many years ago.

Sorry L.A., but you already outed that particular TRAC member, and he is not the police director. His past, non-criminal record has little to do with anything.

The disturbing thing about these tirades is that, besides bordering on libel, they are also truly reminiscent of the tactics used by bigots and hate mongers like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. They even harken back to the politics of fear used so successfully by such antichrists as Adolf Hitler.

Like these evil men, Mr. Parker uses the false pretenses of fear, in this case prejudice and racism, to obfuscate the reality that Mayor Palmer and the people in power are ruining the city and are dragging Trentonians of all races into an economic and social abyss.

No one really knows why Mr. Parker does this.

There are the unsubstantiated rumors that Mayor Palmer has “dirt” on Mr. Parker, perhaps from his younger days, or that maybe Mr. Parker is being compensated for the constant Palmer spin that is applied to nearly every newspaper article written by Mr. Parker.

Whatever the case is, the only thing Mr. Parker is succeeding in doing is impeding progress in Trenton, and that’s because his work helps keep Mayor Palmer in power by helping to keep the mayor’s enemies marginalized, and in a weakened state.

But the recent residency defeat of the mayor over his police director and other defeats of the past year sometimes point to a weakening of the mayor, and even a weakening of Mr. Parker.

Never was that more evident than at a civic meeting last week in the North Ward, where an overwhelmingly black group of residents expressed a strongly negative opinion of Mayor Palmer, The Trentonian, and especially Mr. Parker, calling the paper and the columnist racist, and damaging to the cause of black Americans.

There is hope in Trenton.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone

2008-10-09T13:10:00.004-04:00

Numerous people in Trenton have commented on how much the city has taken on the feeling of an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” following the appointment of Police Director Irving Bradley Jr. this week.

First, the usual hate mongers were playing to the fears of the people in the local media today. They were quickly branding any and all opponents of Mayor Douglas H. Palmer as racists, as those opponents - including me - pursue the ouster of Mr. Bradley, like his predecessor Joseph Santiago, for violating the city’s residency ordinance.

Part of the basis of this racially-charged response is the surveillance tactics used by some residents in observing Mr. Bradley at his family residence in Rahway two weeks ago, but such a response only demonstrates the hypocrisy of Mayor Palmer and those who support him.

These tactics were taken right out of his administration’s playbook. Mayor Palmer’s own officials have spied and investigated employees for maintaining similar living arrangements to those of Mr. Bradley.

The icing on the cake in the lawsuit filed this morning is that one plaintiff, Frederick Constanzo, did exactly what Mr. Bradley is doing and was fired by Mayor Palmer for doing so.

As Councilman Manny Segura told Mayor Palmer this week, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

The playing of the race card was expected, since it has become the only worthwhile tactic to the advocates of hypocrisy. But there was other, more unexpected rumors and innuendo flying around the city today.

One rumor holds that some council members were aware that in the event of a legal challenge being mounted against Mr. Bradley’s appointment, the man would move towards the pursuit of some sort of separation, legal or not, designed to foil the challenge and embarrass the residents.

Rumor number two holds that council members were bullied into accepting the man’s residency status, and accepted that the living arrangements of his wife and children were “personal” information and thus went unquestioned during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing.

If count one of the rumor is true, then Trenton’s government is completely broken, because it effectively means that elected officials have decided to keep important information, which has only become more important due to recent events, from the very people they are elected to represent in an effort to marginalize and embarrass said residents.

Count two, if true, means that some of the current city representatives sorely lack the credentials necessary to do their jobs, which include a willingness to uphold city law and enforce it.

Residency is a city law, and living arrangements, however personal, are subject to this law. Dozens of employees have been fired in the past based on these livings arrangements, which were probed, investigated, and spied upon with vigor by the Palmer administration at great cost to the taxpayers.

To suddenly declare such information off-limits is a ridiculous and hypocritical position to take. This is something that Trenton residents have come to expect from their mayor, but not City Council members.

Outcome of residency will be determined by the residents

2008-10-09T00:01:00.003-04:00

Men and women elected to represent their peers have a responsibility to the voters to keep the public interest in mind at all times, but when they become forgetful of those responsibilities or neglect them in favor of ulterior motives, it becomes the responsibility of the people to take action.

That's what needs to be done in the City of Trenton.

City Council voted to confirm a non-resident police director on Tuesday, under pressure from a selfish mayor and an artificially large crowd that appeared at council because of the distribution of flyers urging people to "show up and support" an unnamed director.

The same council members that fought a months-long, expensive legal battle over the last police director's non-residency somehow managed to shirk their duties Tuesday by not asking the tough questions about residency, which have become an important part of their legislative responsibilities.

No one really knows what went on behind the scenes prior to the vote, but following what happened, several things have become clear.

The imminent residency lawsuit against new Police Director Irving Bradley and the details that will emerge during its expensive course will demonstrate to all just how much the current council failed the city on Tuesday.

When what is contained in that suit comes into the public eye, the only people in this battle who will look like bigger fools than Mayor Douglas H. Palmer are some on council.

Relating to that situation is that City Council appears to have returned to its submissive form, with a majority of members unwilling to go against the mayor and ask the tough questions that are part of their responsibilities.

In fact, they will likely do whatever the mayor says, including amending the city's residency ordinance to allow Mayor Palmer to legally play favorites with residency, instead of in the unlawful manner he is forced to use because of the structure of the ordinance.

But the people can stop this.

A practice petition drive undertaken last year managed to gather 700 signatures in five days.

That effort can be repeated now, in a drive towards getting a residency amendment into the city code that would simultaneously allow for outside hires in emergencies while never allowing Mayor Palmer to play favorites with the law, ever again.

The bottom line is that throughout all of this, including the mayor's lying, grandstanding, reversals on established positions, the council's decisions, and the court battles, the people have been the decisive factor.

If they want to defeat the mayor and the officials who sold them out on Tuesday, then it can be done.

Trenton's government is broken

2008-10-08T00:44:00.003-04:00

City Council folded under pressure Tuesday night, when Mayor Douglas H. Palmer and a crowd of cronies marched into council chambers and bullied and dealed their way through the confirmation of new police director, convicted felon, and residency violator Irving Bradley Jr.

The council's "Gang of Four" broke into splinters, with former stalwart Gino Melone breaking for the bad guys in voting to confirm Mr. Bradley. Palmer cronies Annette Lartigue, Paul Pintella, and Cordelia Staton also voted to confirm the director.

The confirmation came despite a preponderance of evidence - nearly 12 months' worth - that demonstrated that from the beginning of his employment, Mr. Bradley was in violation of the city's residency ordinance. That city law requires employees to maintain a bona fide, primary residence within Trenton city limits.

First, Mr. Bradley openly admitted that he didn't even have a residence in Trenton, and even when he established a secondary residence in Trenton, he was caught on camera with a city vehicle 40 miles to the north, at his family residence in Rahway.

Again, just over three weeks ago, he was caught at the same residence by Trenton residents. Council members were fully aware of this, yet not a single member from either side of the pro-Palmer and anti-Palmer fault line decided to question the director over where his family lives.

The end result is that Trenton taxpayers will once again be on the hook, when a lawsuit similar to the one that ousted the previous police director is filed in the coming days. With that suit city taxpayers will again be left on the short side of things, because their government cannot follow the simplest of laws.

In retrospect, Tuesday's council meeting took on an almost circus-like atmosphere. Flyers were apparently put out in the West Ward of the city, urging residents to show up to support an unnamed director. They showed up in droves, and made their ignorance known as they cheered for a wasteful, arrogant, and vindictice mayor hellbent on screwing over the residents and the City Council that had recently defeated him.

He succeeded, in mysteriously convincing a formerly strong Councilman Melone to switch to a positive vote, and getting a majority of council to confirm a controversial, residency-breaking, convicted felon to Trenton's highest law enforcement position.

During the entire meeting, Mayor Palmer was his usual self, showing an amazing ability to talk out of both sides of his mouth.

He said he was appointing a director, after only minutes earlier complaining that the city's residency ordinance prevented him from doing so. He attacked residents that had conducted their own residency investigations of public officials, while excusing the same activities, when performed by contractors hired by his own administration.

When asked by Councilman Manny Segura about why the mayor allowed nearly $300,000 in taxpayer funds to be wasted on lawyers in an ultimately futile residency battle, Mayor Palmer blamed council for suing him to enforce the residency law, instead of accepting his own blame in violating the same law.

But while Mayor Palmer proved himself to be Tuesday's greatest actor, the entity that deserves the most blame for this debacle is City Council.

Not a single member asked the appointee about where his family resides, despite the insane and lengthy residency affair that occurred over the course of the prior 10 months, which demonstrated that such information is crucial to any residency determination.

And because of such legislative forgetfulness, Trenton will likely now face another lawsuit, at a time when the city can ill afford such an unnecessary expenditure.

Palmer appoints Bradley

2008-10-07T13:46:00.003-04:00

Mayor Douglas H. Palmer appointed Communications Director Irving Bradley Jr. as the city's new police director today, demonstrating a reckless disregard for the City of Trenton, its residents, its laws, and its finances.

Mr. Bradley replaces former Director Joseph Santiago, the man who resigned in disgrace weeks ago after two courts ousted him for violating the city's residency ordinance.

Like Mr. Santiago, Mr. Bradley is also in violation of the residency ordinance, living part-time in a Trenton apartment while maintaining a primary, family residence in Rahway, where he was seen less than three weeks ago. This fact disqualifies Mr. Bradley from holding the directorship, or any office in Trenton, and Mayor Palmer knows this.

Despite that knowledge, Mayor Palmer appointed Mr. Bradley today, knowing full well that such a foolhardy move will immediately open the city to another citizen's lawsuit aimed at ousting a convicted felon who cannot hold office here.

Also on Mr. Bradley's sordid resume is successfully eliciting a lawsuit from city dispatchers alleging racist practices, which also threatens the city's finances. Before that, the new director was found to be unqualified for his old communications position by the state Department of Personnel.

Such reckless disregard on for the city's finances by Mayor Palmer comes at a time when the city is preparing to lay off workers, slash services, and shutter city libraries because of a massive budget deficit.

City Council, which should have an opportunity to vote down such an appointment, must do so, lest the city follow the mayor's path and risk additional, precious city dollars fighting a losing battle to demonstrate the falsehood that the mayor has the ability to decide which employees must follow the law and which do not.

Error or not, the song remains the same

2008-10-07T00:01:00.001-04:00

Trenton residents were greeted in the newspapers Tuesday with stories featuring the brushing off of good fiscal arguments and childish taunting by some city officials, over what they saw as a botched attack on one of the Palmer administration's highest positions.

What really went on was that members of the Trenton Residents Action Coalition - including me - engaged in a governmental study last week. The group decided that the city's current municipal vehicle fleet and the chief of staff, among other executive positions, represented unnecessary burdens on the city's taxpayers.

With the city's fiscal woes and the looming library closures in mind, TRAC correctly concluded that these areas were the best places to make cuts in the budget to free up money and help plug holes in the city's budget.

But the group incorrectly determined that the chief of staff position used in the administration under Mayor Douglas H. Palmer was unauthorized by the state law governing Trenton's form of government, and issued a public statement calling on the city to examine the position, based both on its fiscal burden and apparent unlawfulness.

Sadly, it was determined after the statement's release that an obscure provision in state law did provide the option for such a position, however unnecessary it may be for the operation of Trenton's government. TRAC, represented by attorney and member George Dougherty, retracted the statement and apologized for the error.

But despite the group's mistakes and the taunts of the Palmer administration, the city's fiscal situation remains the same, and so does the resolve of TRAC.

Trenton must get its fiscal house in order, and that starts with the cutting of instances of administrative fat, like the municipal car fleet and the unnecessary, however legal chief of staff position.

Trenton can no longer afford these luxuries, especially when they come in the form of taxpayer-funded transportation or optional, generously compensated chiefs of staff. This city is not what it used to be, and the size of the city government needs to come back to realistic proportions.

*Let's not forget how many mistakes the Palmer administration has made, without so much as a peep or an apology to Trenton and the residents who so often find themselves on the hook: Manex, Performa, Champale, Full Spectrum, Santiago, Colicelli, Messina, Bradley, the libraries, the Trenton Water Works deal, the budget, supporting Clinton, residency...feel free to add more in the comments section.

Palmer is like Bush

2008-10-06T00:01:00.003-04:00

Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, using former Police Director Joseph Santiago as his arbiter, took a page right out of U.S. President George W. Bush's playbook when he brought in the former director to politicize, marginalize, and harass officers in the Trenton Police Department starting in 2003.

That evaluation rings true when comparing what Mayor Palmer did with Trenton's police department to what President Bush did, through attorney generals John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In a piece written by Andrew Gumbel in The Nation, Mr. Gumbel details how an angry President Bush turned his gaze towards the Justice Department, which had apparently earned the ire of many neoconservatives by working on such "liberal" causes as civil rights cases and protecting the voting rights of minority Americans.

Because of these perceived violations, the Bush administration, ever working towards multiplying the powers of the executive branch beyond the reach of the checks and balances of the other branches, began politicizing the department by installing ideologues and party loyalists in key positions.

From there, they controlled the hiring of attorneys for work in key positions at the department, ensuring that important posts and even the rank-and-file of the department became increasingly filled with conservatives of strong political views but dubious legal skills. Good employees were marginalized through placement in less-important positions.

Then came instances of misbehavior, with favored Department of Justice employees harassing, intimidating, and attacking other employees not of the same political persuasion, up to and including the now infamous firings of various U.S. attorneys by the then-attorney general, Mr. Gonzales.

The end result was that "They have destroyed the internal culture of the Justice Department...," said Bruce Fein, a prominent constitutional lawyer quoted in The Nation piece, entitled "Justice, Bush-Style".

To complete the comparison, hop on the northbound train to Trenton.

There, Mayor Palmer engaged in similar activities regarding the police department.

This came after various officers, during contract negotiations or political campaigns, expressed views contrary to the mayor either by directly attacking him or through their support of other mayoral candidates, like current Mercer County Freeholder Tony Mack.

With these transgressions in mind, the mayor pursued and successfully executed a drastic change in the department's leadership, in the 1999 citizen's referendum that resulted in a civilian, police director-led department rather than a police force led by a sworn, tenure-protected, and less-politically inclined police chief.

After a series of directors who did not sufficiently politicize the department, in came Mr. Santiago, and the mayor had his man. Immediately, officers who had crossed the mayor's path or director's path were relegated to meaningless late-night shifts and desk jobs, while less qualified, but loyal and like-minded officers were placed in positions of leadership.

Instances of official excess emerged, with harassment, intimidation, and unpunished misconduct becoming commonplace. The department lost dozens of valuable officers through retirement and attrition who might have stayed with more even-handed, less-politically motivated management decision making.

Like the Department of Justice, the end result was a politicized organization with limited effectiveness, after skilled employees left and others were relegated to meaningless positions while like-minded peons flourished and were put in positions of importance.

Mr. Santiago is now gone, having resigned after being found in violation of Trenton's residency ordinance, but already Mayor Palmer seeks to bring another politically-charged appointment to rein in the police department, while suppressing dissenters.

Sounds a little like the Justice Department, doesn't it?

Vehicle ordinance looms

2008-10-05T00:01:00.003-04:00

An ordinance aimed at reining in costs and eliminating the practice of giving city-owned vehicles to officials as some sort of twisted governmental privilege could receive attention in City Council as early as Tuesday.

Trenton really needs one of these, and nothing made that more evident than when Business Administrator Jane Feigenbaum said recently that the city had no single vehicle policy and that policies dictating the use of city-owned, taxpayer-funded cars was up to the individual directors of the city's 10 municipal departments.

And sometimes it appears that these policies aren't getting the job done.

Pointing to this conclusion are the occasional car crashes involving city vehicles far outside of city limits, the stories about civilian employees like former Police Director Joseph Santiago sending in municipal cars to get tricked out with unnecessary bells and whistles, and rumors about the lending of cars to employees attending sporting events in Philadelphia.

Even without this perception of abuse there is the mere fact that the gasoline going into the gas tanks of these vehicles, free of charge to the drivers, remains at a cost of around $3.25 a gallon, at a time when the city's finances are in tatters.

The municipal fleet, quite simply, represents a sucking wound that consumes hundreds of thousads, if not millions of city dollars at a time when Trenton talks of 10 percent budget cuts, layoffs, and the closure of public library branches.

Part of the ordinance that could end this would require Ms. Feigenbaum to go out and put together an inventory of Trenton's municipal fleet, complete with documentation justifying why certain employees need expensive, gasoline-consuming vehicles to do their jobs.

That part should be really interesting.

City Council and the residents its members represent will finally get a look at what the Douglas H. Palmer administration has been doing as far as assigning and using vehicles.

Also, people living in this city of 83,000 residents will be able to compare the size of its municipal fleet to other cities. Judging by Mayor Palmer's usual taxpayer-funded extravagances - a police officer protection squad, frequent trips around the nation and the world, and $500,000 light-up fire department signs - it probably won't be pretty.

But for comparison's sake, in absence of any hard numbers on Trenton's fleet, it seems that Yonkers, N.Y. has 144 take-home cars for civilian employees, in a city with 196,000 residents and more than twice the land area of Trenton.

Buffalo, N.Y. recently slashed its municipal fleet due to economic pressures and fuel costs and now has 50 total take-home vehicles for civilian employees in a government serving a city nearly four times as large as Trenton, with 292,000 residents.

Another part of the ordinance would require the city to implement some sort of Internal Revenue Service-compatible accounting system, so employees would actually have to pony up a buck or two for having a free commute to work. Apparently Trenton hasn't been doing this, despite the obvious negative implications of such a practice.

Anyway, here's to Tuesday, and to City Council moving forward with this ordinance and making the Palmer administration go the way of the City of Buffalo.

Amendment vs. appointment

2008-10-04T11:55:00.003-04:00

The usual rumor mongers have city Mayor Douglas H. Palmer naming a permanent, civilian police director as early as Tuesday, a little over two weeks after Joseph Santiago resigned the post after two different courts found him in violation of the city's residency law.

This rush to appoint a permanent director stems from Mayor Palmer's fear of letting the Trenton Police Department get back to police work without the political interference that was provided for so long by Mr. Santiago.

Mr. Santiago's activities usually meant good, effective officers being paid large salaries were relegated to midnight shifts, desk jobs, and other positions of relative irrelevance.

Almost immediately after Mr. Santiago's departure, acting director Capt. Fred Reister began making transfers and assignment changes that put some officers back in positions of significance, where their police skills could have actually made a difference on the streets of Trenton.

But Mayor Palmer is apparently fed up with such activities, preferring an appointee who will again rein in the various officers who may have crossed the mayor's path in the past while putting less worthy, but more pliable officers - like Capt. Paul "Sleepy" Messina and the like - in positions of power.

But Mayor Palmer and his administration should understand that such an appointment would publicly demonstrate that the mayor values the ability to politicize his own department higher than having the ability to appoint non-residents to employment positions.

That's because, without having a residency amendment in place at the time of the appointment, Mayor Palmer will surely have to name a city resident to the position. Anyone other than a bona fide city resident would be unlawful in a manner equivalent to Mr. Santiago, and everyone knows what happened with that situation.

But the appointment of a resident as director is also a weakening of the mayor's argument that the city's residency ordinance makes it impossible to appoint the right man for the directorship, and other high-ranking city cabinet positions, because the mayor will have done just that in appointing a city resident qualified for the position.

Sadly, he will also have demonstrated that getting political revenge on the Trenton Police Department is the most important piece of Mayor Palmer's city agenda, at a time when there are other, way more important things that a Trenton mayor should be worried about.

We are being robbed

2008-10-04T00:10:00.003-04:00

Citizens don't usually react kindly to the news that their government has been stealing from them.

Such news is met with anger, disgust, and a feeling of violation, or any other unwanted feeling that emerges as the result of gaining the knowledge that people trusted with making important decisions and appropriating money for others have broken that trust.

This is what happened Thursday, when it was revealed that state legislators siphoned off millions earmarked for property tax relief for their own pet projects, during testimony given in former state Sen. Wayne Bryant's federal corruption trial.

The same thing is going on in Trenton, in a more indirect and complicated manner. The city government has made it standard policy to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars to compensate people in positions that should not and cannot be in receipt of public money.

There was former Police Director Joseph Santiago. He was proven unqualified for the very job he filled for over five years because of the way he, with Mayor Douglas H. Palmer's blessing, openly broke the city's residency ordinance and was ousted by two separate courts for doing so.

Communications Director Irving Bradley, a Santiago associate, continues to be paid city dollars despite a multitude of issues that seem to indicate that the city should cease doing so. Mr. Bradley is not a bona fide resident and is thus subject to removal under the city's residency ordinance, like Mr. Santiago.

Mr. Bradley, a provisional appointment, has now exceeded a state Department of Personnel statutory 12-month limit on such appointments, months after the same department determined that Mr. Bradley was unqualified to take the state test for the position he currently occupies.

There are positions like special counsel and chief of staff, which command hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary from the city yet appear to exist in a manner that might be contrary to state law and Trenton's own municipal code.

This is happening at a time when residents are being told that the city is operating in the red, despite multiple tax rate and water rate hikes, and that the result will be reduced services, layoffs, and even the potential closure of valuable resources like the branch libraries open in each ward of Trenton.

The government, including City Council, must move to end these legal inconsistencies to not only restore confidence in municipal government but to save city dollars for use in funding important city services.

In failing to do so, the government risks more of the embarassing litigation that seems to have become the only recourse for residents, when it comes to getting their own municipal government to operate properly.

Green means nothing to Trenton's present economy

2008-10-03T12:04:00.004-04:00

Once again, Trenton found itself without a leader this week as Mayor Douglas H. Palmer spent his time campaigning in Florida for the man he tried so hard to defeat in the Democratic primary, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

While having no time to develop commonsense solutions for the problems of Trenton, Mayor Palmer did find time, however, to call in to the radio show of favored Trentonian reporter L.A. Parker. The mayor discussed his efforts in bringing green policies, green industry, green jobs, and other environmentally-friendly initiatives to Trenton with Mr. Parker and his listeners.

In doing so, the mayor once again proved just how far away he is from the people of Trenton, when it comes to sensible public policy that might actually make a difference in the economic opportunities afforded to city residents.

The mayor pointed to a recent report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, of which Mayor Palmer was the one-time president. The report looked at the current level of green industry in various metropolitan areas of the nation, and then made various projections and predictions on the size of the industry many years in the future.

Mayor Palmer was pleased to point out that the Trenton-Ewing metropolitan area already boasts nearly 9,000 so-called green jobs, and that projections 30 years into the future demonstrated a potential for nearly 70,000 jobs.

“We’re in the top 25 metropolitan areas for green jobs,” said Mayor Palmer, noting that the report found the Trenton-Ewing area was number 14 on the top 25 list of metropolitan areas with significant concentrations of green employment opportunities.

This report may indicate the existence of green jobs in the general area of Trenton, but despite Mayor Palmer's enthusiasm, it really means nothing to the people of Trenton. Most of Trenton’s residents lack the training for such positions, and they do not even have a real opportunity to gain such training, thanks to the economic conditions of parts the city.

It's evident that, despite the mayor’s constant traveling and faraway touting of so-called “green” initiatives, the reality in Trenton is that down-to-earth, realistic economic development that residents can actually take part it would better serve the city.

The presence of green jobs, probably outside of the city’s borders in Ewing or other neighboring towns (except for this), means nothing to the average resident and the next mayor better realize that and act accordingly.

Program gave legislators millions with no oversight

2008-10-02T16:29:00.002-04:00

State legislators like disgraced former Sen. Wayne Bryant had their way with millions in taxpayer-supported property relief money, according to testimony in Mr. Bryant’s trial in Trenton today, as reported by The Star-Ledger.

Known as the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development grant program, the fund was doled out with little oversight directly to several state legislators for use on projects they personally deemed important, a state budget officer said today.

Mr. Bryant, formerly one of the state’s most powerful legislators, was given $4 million in funds from the program, according to The Star-Ledger's report.

Mr. Bryant is now on trial for of bribery and mail fraud charges, alleging that he used his office and position as chair of the powerful Senate Budget Committee to steer millions in taxpayer dollars to various entities, in return for no-show jobs and other perks.

Today’s testimony reported by The Star-Ledger contradicts statements from state officials, who have said previously that where the program’s money went was based on applications and a formal process, rather than the will of powerful New Jersey politicos.

Mr. Bryant has connections to Trenton’s political establishment, having been a political ally of former local legislator John Watson, his son William Watson, and Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer.

The city, under Mayor Palmer, even admitted unlawfully steering hundreds of thousands of city dollars to Mr. Bryant’s firm in the early 1990s through a scheme that paid Mr. Bryant money for legal work on city bond activity with out a fee schedule or guidelines.

Cut the fat

2008-10-02T00:01:00.001-04:00

When good government officials are faced with budget deficits and shortfalls, they make thoughtful deliberations on what services need to be slashed and what positions need to be cut.

In this respect, the administration under Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer has proven itself particularly inept, in choosing to let the axe fall on such important institutions as the city’s library system and the ranks of low-ranking employees rather than itself, a bloated and fattened administration that weighs down the rest of the city‘s finances.

Now, in part because of the unneeded, and perhaps unlawful positions permeating the city administration, all city departments are faced with 10 percent or greater budget cuts and a promise of multiple layoffs of the very employees who populate Trenton with good middle-class wage earners.

City Council, having the power of the purse, needs to demand budget information from the Palmer administration and begin taking steps to prioritize city services and employment positions, preserving necessary services like the Trenton Free Public Library and as many of the helpful, low-ranking employment positions as possible.

Well-compensated and unneeded positions like the assistant business administrator, the chief of staff, and the multitude of executive aides and secretaries that have existed only since the advent of the Palmer administration are what needs to go.

The city has no use for these positions, except as a web of support for a mayor who is frequently outside of the city doing bigger and better things than taking care of his hometown.

The chief of staff is a true abomination, because it never even existed before Mayor Palmer, and for good reason. It appears to have no basis in law, and is certainly a perversion of the city’s municipal code that indicates just how large a sense of entitlement the city’s mayor has developed as the length of his tenure has increased.

But Trenton’s taxpayers can no longer bear the weight of Mayor Palmer’s ego or the extravagant system of support that has been allowed to develop, to the great detriment of the city’s finances.

Faced with this budget crisis, City Council must make the prudent decision to begin cutting away at this administrative fat, to preserve important city services like libraries while preventing the need for future, massive tax cuts that threaten to siphon off any prospects of good economic development.

Trenton can ill afford Mayor Palmer’s high cost, and it is time for residents to push their City Council to bring that cost down.

Support Corzine's ethics reforms

2008-10-01T12:23:00.000-04:00

State legislators better move quickly to pass the ethics reform legislation proposed last week by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

It appears that residents in New Jersey could soon become sufficiently fed up with the constant presence of corrupting campaign contributions and the endless parade of corruption convictions to organize and oust some complacent legislators in the 2009 elections.

Detractors say Gov. Corzine’s reform push, which came in the form of four executive orders and some legislative proposals, is nothing more than a last-minute political move to deliver on the governor's unfulfilled campaign promises while stealing the corruption-fighting spotlight away from his likely Republican opponent, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

But detractors such as these should probably understand that at this point the Garden State’s residents probably care less about the political motivations behind the governor’s initiatives and more about whether they actually get passed by the current state Assembly and Senate.

As the issue has come more and more into the public perception, there has been a constant call for an end or at least a significant reduction in the practices of pay-to-play and wheeling.

These shameful practices involve the delivery of lucrative government contracts to campaign contributors, and the practice of moving campaign cash back and forth between state political organizations in order to circumvent existing campaign finance law.

Evidence of how serious this issue has become can be seen in the constant parade of editorials and the emergence of grassroots campaigns and non-profit organizations, all aligned against these practices.

The issue's seriousness can also be gauged by the nearly constant passage of local pay-to-play restrictions in state municipalities and counties.

But despite the severity of the problem, neither party‘s officials have successfully delivered on any promises to get the corrupting influence of money out of New Jersey politics, whether in power or not.

Each party has instead moved to do little except make lofty, unfulfilled promises while undertaking a series of half-steps and half-measures that allow most of the corrupting influence of money to continue, and New Jersey residents are rightfully getting sick of it.

Legislators, however preoccupied with the current economic crisis, must ensure that real, bona fide ethics reforms are passed into as soon as possible, regardless of the potential political motivations of advocates like Gov. Corzine and others.

Voters are equally responsible for the current situation through their continued support for do-nothing officials of both parties, but they need to stand strong and vote for whichever candidates deliver on ethics reform regardless of party loyalty.

New Jersey is sinking under the weight of corruption, and even crafty politicians like Gov. Corzine are right when they that it’s time to do something about it.

An acceptable residency resolution

2008-10-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer continues to call for amendments to the city's residency ordinance, based on a superficial need to fill employment positions with candidates who do not or will not live in the city.

But he better be careful with such calls, because there are certainly legal, and supportable ways to give him what he is publicly calling for without giving him what he really wants, which is a blank check to exempt favored employees from laws requiring a bona fide residence within Trenton.

Mayor Palmer recently lost his handpicked, non-resident amigo, Police Director Joseph Santiago. The director decision to live outside the city and the mayor's approval of that illegal arrangement resulted in a citizen's lawsuit filed by a group including me.

The lawsuit was concluded when a judge officially declared that Mayor Palmer does not have the power to decide which employees are subject to residency and other city laws and which are not. Also, Mr. Santiago was ousted.

Now, Mayor Palmer is forced to exist as a mayor who can no longer pick and choose which employees follow the residency law based on favoritism and a warped sense of entitlement, and he wants his old powers back very badly.

He wants them so badly that he is feigning that the city cannot find suitable resident candidates for the police directorship, and is now demanding that City Council amend the law to allow him to look outside the city.

That position is obviously false because the city never actually looked for any resident candidates. It and remains a leap of faith to say the city needs residency exemptions.

In fact, petitions and outcry have shown that most city residents firmly believe that the city does not need residency exemptions at all, and that talent needed to fill any position can be found within the city, or at least outside the city in people willing to move in.

But it could be possible to create a law-based exemption system that would satisfy Mayor Palmer's false calls - but not his real desires - while keeping politics out of decisions over which employees must abide by residency and which do not, which is what precipitated the recent crisis of leadership over residency.

That could be accomplished through the city's adoption of provisions of state residency law that lay out a lengthy, politics-free process through which positions are exempted.

City Council could adopt an ordinance amendment that requires a diligent, months-long search for candidates living or willing to live in Trenton.

If that process is completed without finding any suitable candidates, it would be followed by a weighting of outside candidates, based upon concentric proximity to Trenton. Candidates given the highest priority would be those living in adjacent towns, then those in the rest of Mercer County, then those living in counties contiguous with Mercer, and finally candidates living in New Jersey.

In all likelihood, such a thorough and documented search would reveal the opposite of what the Palmer administration has been telling us about a lack of qualified candidates living in Trenton.

And even there were no qualified candidates inside Trenton, the candidates closest to Trenton would be the first to get the job, rather than a preferred candidate like Mr. Santiago, who resides in faraway Morris County.

Providing for such an ordinance amendment would immediately quiet Mayor Palmer and any others clamoring for a residency exemption, while making decisions on which positions get exempted free of the political interference that often characterizes the public policy of the Palmer administration.

In essence, Mayor Palmer would get what he is publicly asking for without getting what he really wants: the ability to decide which employees must abide by residency. That would be reserved for the process laid out by the state and adopted by City Council, which has lately proven itself to be a more worthy instrument of the public interest.

The city would be left with a good residency safety valve in the unlikely event that homegrown talent cannot be found to fill an employment position, with little likelihood of handpicked Palmer appointees of dubious value ever entering into the picture.

Again, the city wins, and political panderers like Mayor Palmer lose.

Bailout fails, Republicans blame a speech

2008-09-30T00:01:00.002-04:00

Ridiculous logic sometimes emerges at ridiculous moments.

Such was the case today in Washington, D.C. after a massive, controversial piece of legislation that would given the Bush administration up to $700 billion for a bailout of the nation’s beleaguered finance industry failed by a narrow margin in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The result on Wall Street was historic, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average absorbing a 777-point drop that comes in as the greatest daily drop in points in a single day in the history of trading in New York.

Coupled with that collapse was an immediate search for blame among U.S. officials, who immediately sought to interpret what the bill’s failure meant and who was really at fault.

But the most curious blame handed out on this historic Monday came from House Republicans, who chose to fault the defections of some of their party officials from the contingent supporting the bill on a speech given by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., prior to the vote.

In her speech, Speaker Pelosi blamed the nation’s current fiscal crisis on the Bush administration and years of “right-wing” leadership that resulted in little regulation, as greedy investors and bankers lent out billions in bad, high-risk mortgages that precipitated the current crisis.

Because of that, say House Republicans, some GOP legislators that would have voted in the affirmative and perhaps ensured the passage of the bill defected and ended up voting no, contributing to failure of the bill by the narrow, 228 to 205 margin.

But let’s really consider what this means.

For Speaker Pelosi’s speech to have caused the defections of perhaps dozens of Republican representatives from voting for this bill, it would mean that these legislators allowed themselves to be convinced by their own childish anger to vote against legislation for which they were ready to vote.

People who allow their emotions to get in the way of how they ought to legislate for the good of the country and the good of their constituents have no right to be working in Congress.

Given how ridiculous such reasoning is, it is way more likely that the Republican Party simply could not garner the necessary support for legislation that was originally sponsored by the sitting, Republican U.S. President.

Maybe they are fed up with President Bush, and despise his policies as much as everyone else does.

But even if most Republicans simply did not support the bill to begin with and only a handful of Republican legislators defected due to simple political speech, it remains very telling about the way that handful of legislators work and what the American people are really dealing with in terms of some current U.S. legislators.

Tying into this is speculation that many of the officials who were on the fence about the bill and eventually voted against it were legislators facing tough challenges in the November election.

They probably feared that a vote affirming the delivery of $700 billion taxpayer dollars to the very Wall Street tycoons who have taken the U.S. down this road could potentially sway their local elections in the wrong direction, regardless of the presence of significant oversight and stipulations protecting taxpayers in the revised bill.

Considering the general disdain for the bailout, they are probably right.

But wouldn't it be great if the names of some of the Republican legislators who voted no simply because of ill will stemming from Speaker Pelosi’s political speech become public?

Taking such action on a very important piece of legislation is also deserving of electoral retribution from the voters, as legislators should vote based on careful thought and deliberation, and not on personal or partisan anger directed at their opponents across the aisle.

The Times gets it wrong again

2008-09-29T13:39:00.003-04:00

It's unfortunate that the valiant work done by many on The Times of Trenton’s talented reporting staff is frequently undermined, overshadowed, and ignored by the fools in charge of writing the paper’s editorials.

The reporters and the paper’s readership deserve well-written, educated opinion pieces that actually heed the paper’s reporting, rather than the drivel that occasionally indicates some sort of perverted allegiance to Trenton’s misguided mayor, Douglas H. Palmer.

This kind of garbage emerged over the weekend, with Sunday’s editorial that called upon City Council members to either scrap the city’s longstanding residency ordinance or do the impossible, and circumvent state law that exempts police, fire, and teaching personnel from residency requirements.

This editorial spin comes as the reins of the Trenton Police Department have been handed over to Capt. Fred Reister, who is now leading the department in an acting capacity after former Police Director Joseph Santiago was ousted for living outside of Trenton.

The first indication of spin was that Sunday’s editorial, in questioning Mr. Reister’s appointment as a residency-exempt sworn police officer, ignored the fact that City Council is powerless against relieving the exemptions of fireman, policeman, and teachers from residency.

It is common knowledge that those exemptions are grounded in superseding state law that would require legislation to undo, which is totally out of the realm of Trenton City Council’s power and duties.

Again using the temporary appointment of Capt. Reister, a non-resident, The Times took the position that the city has conducted some sort of search for appropriate police leadership, but came up empty, meaning the residency must be relaxed or eliminated to find suitable leaders.

The Times and Mayor Palmer act as if Trenton has deteriorated so badly that there is no one in the city with the qualifications to lead the police department. But the reality is that a lack of candidates is due to politics, and the blame for that lies squarely on the shoulders of Mayor Palmer.

With all due respect to Trenton’s mayor and The Times’ editorial writers, Trenton is actually holding on, and a thorough search would have surely located plenty of qualified candidates. There must be dozens of men and women looking to lead a large department and earn a six-figure salary, even if it meant moving into the city and becoming part of our community.

But no one in the administration made an effort to seek out such candidates.

Mayor Palmer readily admitted that as a court-ordered 75-day period prior to Mr. Santiago’s ouster dwindled and expired last week, the administration made no effort to find a successor with the qualifications to lead the department and a willingness to live in Trenton.

What’s actually occurring, is that a situation brought on wholly by the arrogance and indifference of Mayor Palmer and his minions is being used a political sticking point as to why the residency law should be changed.

In fact, these calls for the amendment or elimination of residency are nothing more than a push to legitimize the double standards and unfair policies that the Palmer administration uses when dealing with employees.

Prior to Mr. Santiago’s ouster, the residency law was used as an uneven tool that, when broken, meant termination for some employees, and nothing for others enjoying the favor of Mayor Palmer. That embarrassing situation, more appropriate for fascist countries, was resolved when the courts did what Mayor Palmer and others refused to do and ousted Mr. Santiago.

Now Mayor Palmer wants to get back to the status quo – a reinstatement of Mr. Santiago or someone like him – and a return to the days when he could appoint anyone to lead the department, regardless of the existence of a residency law

Mayor Palmer, with the support of some loyal faction at The Times, obviously wants City Council’s help in the affair, despite the fact that amending or eliminating the residency law will weaken the city’s economic base and allow for politically-based exemptions and more uneven justice.

It's better to ignore those calls, and remember that such a situation was, and remains, unacceptable to the people of Trenton.

Bailout nears completion

2008-09-28T14:03:00.004-04:00

A Wall Street bailout package that could potentially see $700 billion in taxpayer dollars go to the beleaguered banking and finance industry is creeping towards completion.

But it appears that U.S. lawmakers have recognized the flaws in the original proposal and have added significant oversight, taxpayer protection, and some assistance for people other than the well-compensated Wall Street titans that got the nation into this mess.

Legislators in Congress could pass the bailout bill as early as tomorrow, after the weekend saw it grow significantly larger than the bill originally proposed by the George W. Bush administration.

That rendition requested unlimited and unchecked power to purchase the toxic, sub-prime mortgage-related assets that are hampering U.S. banking institutions.

Added to the legislation, according to reports, are stipulations that limit excessive compensation packages for finance executives and require that the government receives shares in any company selling assets to the U.S. Treasury.

That way, when the expected economic upswing occurs the government and the taxpayers will be able to recoup some or all of their investment.

An oversight structure, which was sorely lacking from the initial proposal, has been added into the bill currently being drafted in Washington, D.C., along with protections and assistance for homeowners facing foreclosure.

Also, if government-owned stakes do not create the kind of revenue expected, a "Wall Street" tax could come into play in five years, providing a safety valve to recoup money spent on the bailout plan.

At the very least Congress appears to have watered down the Bush administration's original proposal, reducing the inital appropriation to $350 billion, with an additional $350 billion available following intense oversight and review of the initial process.

It is now in a smaller, more regulated form that provides additional bailout oversight with a chance that taxpayers and the government may actually see a return on their investment.

The next step is increased banking regulations. The bankers and the nation's great financial minds, who greedily invested in these bad assets and risky subprime mortgages, have shown that greed triumphs over good judgment.

Until that situation reverses itself, the U.S. government's job is to make sure that judgment is bolstered by law.

Crime stats in Camden taking a "Trenton" turn

2008-09-28T00:06:00.001-04:00

Camden is apparently experiencing a miniature criminal renaissance as new police tactics appear to be resulting in reductions in certain crime categories, according to an Associated Press report.

But wedged way down in the bottom of the same report was a note that Camden has recently experienced homicide number 43, a number equal to all the homicides that occurred in New Jersey's worst city in all of 2007.

The murder rate in Camden will likely surpass that of the previous year when the new crime tactics were not in place. That definitely calls into question the effectiveness of those tactics, and for those familiar with recent trends in Trenton's crime statistics, it could raise some suspicion about the Camden Police Department's policies regarding the recording of those same statistics.

That much can be extrapolated from the experience of the City of Trenton, under recently ousted Police Director Joseph Santiago and his pal, current Mayor Douglas H. Palmer. Crime statistics took a similar dive after Mr. Santiago took over the helm of the department in 2003, that is, every statistic except murder.

Murders are unique, because the death of a person is an act that is quite hard to hide or distort. But thefts, assaults, and other crimes that are recorded in the official compilation of crime statistics are less impervious to the willful distortions of police directors whose job performance, and that of their bosses, is based upon the trends in the very same statistics they are supposed to compile.

Officers at a city event recently remarked how Mr. Santiago, who recently left Trenton after breaking the city's residence ordinance, bent and warped crime statistics as best he could, giving the appearance of a city where every single crime rate went down - except murders.

Last year Trenton had 25 murders, and in 2005 the city set an all-time record with 31, all in the middle of a drop in pretty much every other category of crime universally recorded for reporting to the FBI.

That downward trend, however much it was manipulated behind the scenes, was held up as evidence to all in Trenton and beyond that Mr. Santiago's contentious and often wasteful police leadership style was paying dividends for the city, even as every resident knew that the situation on the streets was steadily worsening.

The same is probably going on in Camden, where a tweaking of anti-crime tactics have allegedly resulted in a large drop in many categories except homicides, which promis to soon advance beyond the very level they attained last year prior to the new tactics.

Unfortunately for places like Trenton and Camden, warped statistical work and the actual level of crime within a city often become intertwined with politics, meaning that politicians, officials, and others can point to crime trends as meaning something when they really mean nothing.

That will likely happen in Trenton in the near future.

When normal statistical practices are again practiced following Mr. Santiago's departure, the level of murders will likely stay static, while the rates of other, less heinous crimes formerly manipulated under the old regime will naturally go up.

And when that happens, Mayor Palmer and his associates will likely point fingers, blaming the new department leadership and those who pressured and pushed for Mr. Santiago's ouster for causing a false spike in crime.

In Trenton, and possibly in Camden and elsewhere, crime statistics have fallen victim to politics, and no longer resemble reality.

Just ask the residents.

Get politics out of policing

2008-09-26T16:54:00.002-04:00

For a moment there it looked like the political interference undermining the Trenton Police Department was actually over, but Mayor Douglas H. Palmer wouldn't let that happen, proving again that he is the number on threat to the city's future.

Capt. Fred Reister, made the department’s acting director after court ousters forced out Joseph Santiago, was set to make some changes to the department in the wake of Mr. Santiago’s volatile reign.

Mr. Santiago frequently made the placement of police commanders in the various leadership positions throughout the department based on personal like or dislike rather than individual ability, and that resulted in a department with many of the most skilled officers relegated to positions of irrelevance.

Capt. Reister moved to reverse some of those decisions, by pushing for the transfer of Capt. Ernie Parrey from a meaningless midnight shift to his old position of importance, leading the patrol division.

But already Mayor Palmer has stepped in, saying he wants to take to Capt. Reister and enforce the old management decisions made by Trenton’s ex-director.

These actions show Mayor Palmer has little or no respect for the Trenton taxpayer.

High-paid cops like Capt. Parrey have skills best-suited for use in important police affairs, yet Mr. Santiago was allowed to place Capt. Parrey and dozens of others in positions of little value.

There, these officers’ $100,000 salaries and years of street experience are wasted, with less-qualified individuals occupying positions because of loyalty, rather than actually ability. The monetary cost is astounding, with officers at a city event yesterday estimating that Mr. Santiago’s idiotic personnel decisions “cost the taxpayers millions of dollars.”

There is also the other, less clear cost, in how many crimes have been committed, lives changed, or people killed, all because the Trenton Police Department’s best minds are placed behind desks because a mayor and his appointed stooge would rather rein in the department than let its officers do actual police work.

Unfortunately for Trenton, Mayor Palmer’s recent actions prove that while the departure of Mr. Santiago was of great benefit to the city, the real target for removal should be the mayor himself.

He no longer cares about this city and the people living within it, and that’s just an unacceptable trait in a mayor tasked with the important duty of putting this city on the right path.

Sound familiar?

2008-09-25T15:00:00.000-04:00

THE TEXT OF FDR's FIRST INAGUARAL SPEECH

President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:

This is a day of national consecration. And I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency, I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impels.

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure, as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunk to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; and the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

And yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered, because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.

Primarily, this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True, they have tried. But their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They only know the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

Yes, the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of that restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy, the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men.

Recognition of that falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, and on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation is asking for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing great -- greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources.

Hand in hand with that we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land.

Yes, the task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products, and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, the State, and the local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities that have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped by merely talking about it.

We must act. We must act quickly.

And finally, in our progress towards a resumption of work, we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order. There must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments. There must be an end to speculation with other people's money. And there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

These, my friends, are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the 48 States.

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time, and necessity, secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor, as a practical policy, the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment; but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not nationally -- narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in and parts of the United States of America -- a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that recovery will endure.

In the field of world policy, I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor: the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others; the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize, as we have never realized before, our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take, but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress can be made, no leadership becomes effective.

We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and our property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at the larger good. This, I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us, bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in times of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

Action in this image, action to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple, so practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has ever seen.

It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. And it is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly equal, wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But, in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis -- broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me, I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded, a permanent national life.

We do not distrust the -- the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication -- In this dedication of a Nation, we humbly ask the blessing of God.

May He protect each and every one of us.

May He guide me in the days to come.

A sea change, or a wind shift

2008-09-25T00:59:00.005-04:00

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, according to Bob Dylan.

The same is true in Trenton, where a distinctly different wind has been blowing during a week that saw the departure of one of Mayor Douglas H. Palmer's most favored and important cabinet members, former Police Director Joseph Santiago.

Mr. Santiago is the same guy that was allegedly given a special, extra-legal dispensation for following city residency law, according to Mayor Palmer.

But that fell through with the rulings of two separate courts against the two men and the last-minute announcement of resignation by the director, even though everyone in Trenton knew that what really happened was the ouster of the director and the utter and total defeat of Mayor Palmer and his position.

But as Wall Street crashes, and the federal government offers hundreds of billions of dollars to the very investment bankers who got our economy into this mess, the stock of civic activists in Trenton is up.

The Trenton Residents Action Coalition and the larger group of civics-minded citizens who have exerted overwhelming pressure on the formerly impervious Palmer administration have proven that a group of dedicated residents that recognize the malicious activities of their public officials and act accordingly are sure to win, when it comes down to power-based, urban political standoffs.

Yet, with this week's victory for Trenton's resident, it is important to recognize that the battle is not over. Trenton stands on the brink of forcing unstoppable change upon what has until now been a city government of the usual indifferent variety.

To continue that change, citizens should advocate for a unilateral push towards smaller city government, a reduction in the privileges and excesses afforded our current mayor, and a return to efficient, cheap, yet effective government.

That way, the city can move beyond the current status quo and head towards realistic, viable fiscal policies and legitimate economic development that has so far escaped the Palmer administration.

The Ruins of Trenton would like to announce the awarding of Citizen of the Year to its editor and only contributor, me, Greg Forester.

As the above article states, I don't necessarily agree with this choice in the award recipient, but I will accept it, as long as others within this great city take on the task of working towards a more open, transparent, and effective city government.

That is the only possible way that we can advance beyond the Palmer years.

Palmer cabinet exodus comes at the right time

2008-09-24T12:48:00.003-04:00

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.

Don't help Doug

2008-09-23T01:49:00.004-04:00

Trenton enjoyed a somewhat delirious day on Monday.

A city afflicted with a serious public safety problem was delivered from its mayor's deliberate politicization of the police force through the ouster of its dubious police director.

Capt. Fred Reister, a longtime officer and police administrator, was appointed acting police director following the sudden resignation of the previous holder of that office, better known as residency-law violator Joseph Santiago.

The Times of Trenton's recollection of events had a mayor beset by grief, forced into appointing a new police leader out of necessity without regard to the very residency law that ousted the very previous director.

Yet that recollection bears further consideration, in that Mayor Douglas H. Palmer is truly the maker of his own bed.

Despite the fact that he was given 75 days to find a suitable candidate to replace Mr. Santiago from the deep pool of city-based talent, Mayor Palmer chose instead to wait until the last minute, and appoint a non-resident, acting director.

His decision on the appropriate use of that 75-day period was to settle on feigning like the decision was forced upon him, due to what is an obviously false lack of administrative skill among residents dwelling within the city limits.

Residents of the City of Trenton, despite the current pleas of Mayor Palmer and the current news coverage, must recognize that the legal wranglings going on about the "acting" director who has now taken power are nothing more than a ploy to secure the power to circumvent the city's residency ordinance for the mayor of Trenton.

This strategy is designed to restore the power to exempt city employees from residency, which the mayor lost through his own legal defense during the residency battle over Mr. Santiago.

Mayor Palmer, in choosing to espouse a view that he can suspend and execute city laws at will, caused a Mercer County Superior Court judge to invalidate the waiver portions of the residency law.

But the mayor is now trying to get the very council he faced off with in court to restore those abilities, through an ordinance amendment, as if the long legal and political battle he waged with council members carried no meaning.

At this point, it would behoove council members to avoid supporting residency amendments and other changes, which appear to be nothing more than the questionable political inclinations of a mayor who has demonstrated a preference for fighting his own constituents in court, rather than addressing his own city's problems.

For now, residency amendments and the like should be put off until the point when the city's lengthy list of problems are addressed, including the possible closure of libraries.

Santiago out

2008-09-22T13:50:00.007-04:00

Police Director Joseph Santiago is officially out of office.

The Douglas H. Palmer administration oddly chose to announce that the director resigned from his position on Monday, but he was actually ordered to leave by two separate courts that ruled that Mr. Santiago, with the assistance of Mayor Palmer, had broken the city's residency law and should be ousted for his actions.

Mayor Palmer, a staunch defender of residency whose administration regularly used investigators in the residency prosecutions of other employees, first said he had the power to set aside city law for favored employees like Mr. Santiago, and then unsuccessfully argued that the residency law was invalid.

Neither position got any play in court, with the invalidity argument actually succeeding in getting a judge to throw out the portion of the law that allowed legitimate residency waivers for employees.

Today's announcement comes after weeks of rumor and innuendo that had the mayor using some sort of last-minute gimmick to allow Mr. Santiago to stay on, either through the use of an "acting" or "interim" title or through a feigned move to Trenton.

But Mr. Santiago had not moved into Trenton from his Morris County estate, which remains occupied, and instead chose to label his ouster a resignation, amid continuing criticism and scrutiny from his and Mayor Palmer's many opponents.

Capt. Fred Reister, a sworn officer exempt from residency, serving as acting director until a replacement is found, according to The Trentonian.

Anyone pleased with today's development is urged to attend Amici Milano in Chambersburg any time after 2:30 p.m. on Thursday for a celebration and civic gathering.

Bradley spotted in Rahway

2008-09-22T07:00:00.002-04:00

Observers positively identified Trenton Communications Director Irving Bradley in Rahway Saturday evening, reinforcing claims that he is maintaining a primary family residence outside of Trenton and is being employed in clear violation of the city's residency ordinance.

Mr. Bradley was seen twice at a Paterson Street residence, where county land records show the embattled director is holding a mortgage. He was initially seen at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, in the driveway of the home.

Noting the individual was a black adult male generally consistent with the appearance and build of Mr. Bradley, a city resident approached the residence and knocked on the door. No one answered despite the presence of two vehicles that indicated persons were home at the time.

Following a change in location, observers were able to positively identify Mr. Bradley, who emerged from the Paterson Street residence at 5:42 p.m., or approximately 25 minutes after the knocking on the door of the residence.

Mr. Bradley, after exiting the two-story residence, proceeded to the left, down Paterson Street, across East Grand Avenue, passing the small corner deli and making his way across Washington Street and down the remainder of Paterson Street, in the direction of U.S. Route 1.

This latest sighting raises a host of problems for Mr. Bradley, who has been scrutinized by civic groups and by City Council members like Jim Coston, for appearing to violate the city's residency ordinance with the apparent blessing of a Palmer adminstration that seems smitten with the idea of employing double standards.

The city's residency ordinance requires that employees like Mr. Bradley maintain what is known as a bona fide domicile in Trenton, defined as a primary residence where immediate family members live, mail is sent, and voting rights are registered, along with a host of other important personal information.

The law makes it so city tax dollars, paid out in salaries like the $90,000 given to Mr. Bradley, end up staying within Trenton. The law ensures that the city government workforce - numbering in the thousands - ends up being an important and stable bulwark against the negative economic forces at work in many cities like Trenton.

But Mr. Bradley appears to be circumventing the intent of the law, by using an apartment in Trenton while maintaining the old, primary family dwelling in Rahway.

It all started when a city-owned Ford Expedition assigned to Mr. Bradley was photographed, parked in front of the same Rahway home earlier in 2007. Making things worse, Mr. Bradley later called attention to himself when he crashed a city-owned Ford Crown Victoria miles outside of the city's borders.

Mr. Bradley's situation wasn't helped in the public eye doesn't by the dozens of city employees have been fired under the Palmer administration for similar gaffes, but with the blessing of Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, Mr. Bradley has been immune to any official sanctions thus far.

Despite the intentions of Palmer officials, Mr. Bradley's earlier, automobile-related debacles served to raise suspicions about the status of his compliance with the residency law, in that they effectively established the possibility of the continued existence of a primary residence in Rahway.

Those suspicions have been augmented by Mr. Bradley's infrequent presence at his downtown Trenton abode in the Broad Street Bank Building.

During a recent fire alarm evacuation at the downtown apartment building that brought hosts of residents outside due to the incessant, deafening interior fire alarms, Mr. Bradley emerged alone, without the family members who should be dwelling in Trenton under the residency law.

Compounding these issues is the state Department of Personnel, which ruled earlier this year that Mr. Bradley is unqualified for his position, so much so that he is not even qualified to take the test to determine how qualified he is for being a communications director.

Although he is appealing the ruling, it cast significant doubt on both his ability and the employment decisions of the Palmer administration which now threaten to cost the city thousands of dollars.

A group of dispatchers working under Mr. Bradley have sued him and the city for what has been alleged as discriminatory practices in the city communications center.

It has also emerged that Mr. Bradley, who has now worked for the city for over a full year, only recently changed his voter registration to fit his Trenton address, after officials and residents began looking into what is a very important component of legal residency after recently compiled county voter lists failed to include Mr. Bradley's information.

In fact, sources tonight said that Mr. Bradley's registration was not changed to Trenton until the second week of September, or a full year after he became a residency-required employee.

If those comments are accurate, any vote cast by Mr. Bradley during that time in Union County would be utterly fraudulent.

Perhaps most damaging is the fact that Mr. Bradley is known to have children. If the director is indeed maintaining bona fide residency in Trenton, then school-age children should be enrolled here, rather than Rahway, as New Jersey enrollment is based upon place of residence and the age of the child.

If Mr. Bradley were to have children attending public school in Rahway, as has been indicated by some, the scheme would be both unlawful and indicative of residency violations.

Thus far, limited activity at the Broad Street Bank Building and activity in Rahway indicate that school-age children are probably dwelling in Rahway, although such determinations remain uncertain. But children going to school in Rahway would certainly make that abode Mr. Bradley's primary residence, and his continued employment in Trenton would be rendered unlawful.

Bad leadership hurts

2008-09-21T12:58:00.002-04:00

President George W. Bush and his associates are generally despised by many Americans for the way they lied to the nation about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that county’s alleged association with Al Qaeda terrorists.

Years after victory was declared, thousands of American men and women have perished and billions of dollars have been wasted. Only lately has progress been made, but there is little doubt that going to war in the Persian Gulf region was one of the greatest foreign policy blunders in history and that having a lying, selfish president in office has cost the nation dearly.

This week, Trentonians speaking out against plans for the budget-induced closure of four of the city’s branch libraries told a packed City Council chamber that the strategic vision laid out by Mayor Douglas H. Palmer in the beginning of his tenure as mayor was no more.

Similarly to Iraq, in portions of the city the promises of Trenton’s executive have given way to years of despair, economic ruin, and the death of hundreds of young men and woman in an ever-growing maelstrom of violence and crime that has showed no sign of abating.

Like the nation‘s experience, death and unnecessary expenditure have come with an executive who is an advocate of double standards and saying or doing anything to support a position or policy.

Once upon a time, Mayor Palmer and people like Council President Paul Pintella supported the residency ordinance and a police director-led police department, with justification in that a director would be forced to live in Trenton.

But when the residency violations of the controversial and ineffective Police Director Joseph Santiago emerged, Palmer-led factions tried with all their might to shield the director from the force of the law, even going as far as trying to declare the ordinance invalid. This, of course, came after they used the same law to terminate dozens of employees guilty of the same infractions as Mr. Santiago.

In strongly applying this double standard, city leaders like Mayor Palmer wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in a losing court battle and devoted precious governmental policy-making time to supporting a ridiculous position that went against nearly everything they have done or said in the past.

Even worse, they have strengthened the public perception that some in the city’s administration are nothing but a gang of unaccountable officials who support the notion that being a favored member of the administration comes with privileges, including little or no scrutiny for law-breaking and an ability to waste taxpayer dollars in support of that position.

That idea will be strengthened this week, when on Monday Mayor Palmer will announce that Mr. Santiago - after having spent hundreds of thousands of city dollars in a losing court battle to establish that the director is above the law - has suddenly decided to move to Trenton, and will be appointed acting director.

The announcement will come in apparent ignorance of all of those wasted dollars, and Mr. Santiago’s public statements of being unwilling to live in Trenton with his family, as required by law.

But the cost was so great and the hypocrisy so evident that the city residents and the City Council that fought against Mayor Palmer and Mr. Santiago will not be apt to forget these events, and that will make Mr. Santiago’s reappointment a perilous and costly decision.

The residents - including me - will question the about-face of Mr. Santiago and the legality of his residency, and will almost certainly file papers in court demanding the enforcement of the court order that declared his position vacant.

City Council, which will have to confirm the appointment, will also have to weigh. Its members will probably be skeptical of reappointing of a man who forced a costly legal battle because he would not move into the city, only to change his mind at the appearance of defeat.

Even with another defeat, Mr. Santiago will probably go elsewhere and get another law enforcement position or simply live off of his hundred-thousand dollar pension from his years of policing in Newark.

But for Mayor Palmer, the political fallout of supporting such an action is clear.

City residents have been given a full glimpse of the stark reality of having a mayor who is more apt to fully reverse years of policy at great cost to city taxpayers than to use the same money to head off more important problems, like the potential closure of libraries and an overall reduction in city services.

Like the greater nation, Trenton knows the full costs associated of having unaccountable purveyors of half-truths and double standards in high executive office. It is not a pretty sight to behold, and this painful knowledge should have a profound effect on the future electoral prospects of Mayor Palmer and his minions.

Palmer to blame for budget woes

2008-09-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer likes to blame the city’s fiscal woes on the people at the Statehouse, for this year's freezing and reduction in the level of municipal aid dollars Trenton and other municipalities receive to augment municipal budgets and school budgets.

But this is an argument based upon fantasy. Mayor Palmer and his wasteful administrative habits are really what’s to blame when it comes to the city‘s $27 million budget deficit and looming 10-percent budget cut.

This budget deficit and ensuing reduction in valuable city services comes at a time when the City of Trenton, which gets most of its money from the pockets of state taxpayers, has seen consistent property tax hikes and increases in rates for municipal water in recent years.

Just last year the city received emergency aid money from the state to add to all of these increased revenue streams, yet the Palmer administration just cannot seem to get a handle on anything.

That leads to the conclusion that the current administration is unable to manage the city’s finances. It is time for the other branch of the government, City Council, to take a crack at the budget and make difficult, but necessary cuts.

This process needs to happen quickly, and that means circumventing the administration’s plans of submitting the budget as late as possible.

Allowing that to happen, like last year, will effectively tie the hands of council members behind their backs, as the money and services they decide to cut out of any budget will have already been spent and rendered.

Starting early this time, council could do what most responsible Trentonians would like to see done with the budget: cut the unnecessary and bloated city administration to shreds.

This does not mean the elimination of lower-level positions, which come with insignificant salary and benefit costs, but refers to the deletion of the totally unnecessary lineup of highly compensated administrative positions that solely exist to support one man, Mayor Palmer.

A chief of staff is a prime example.

This position - usually paired with the mayors of the nation's large cities and with national politicians - did not exist in previous administrations.

It only became necessary because Mayor Palmer, he of the frequent absences from Trenton, needs a high-level, high-paid executive to carry out the mayoral functions whenever the mayor is out gallivanting around the country or hamming it up in Africa, on the taxpayer’s tab.

Trenton already has a position that performs the functions of the chief of staff, and it's called the mayor. The city certainly doesn't need two mayors, with each being paid over $100,000 a year with generous benefits.

Another step in the right direction would be a comprehensive new vehicle policy. All municipal vehicles should be sold, except for a handful for those positions where having a city vehicle is actually necessary for the job.

The rest of the modern municipal fleet of hybrids and other cars should be given the heave-ho, with the cash put back into the city’s operating budget. Employees can keep track of mileage incurred while driving on city business and receive a reimbursement for their troubles, instead of having the free use of new vehicles in a system with little built-in accountability.

There are many other areas where Trenton can save money, but it all starts with reining in the administration and fashioning a smaller, less-bloated government bureaucracy appropriate for a city of Trenton’s size.

Trenton could outsource inspectors

2008-09-19T12:50:00.005-04:00

A proposal to outsource city inspection work to private firms had leaders of one of the city's local AFSCME unions convening an emergency meeting Friday, according to someone who was briefed on the situation.

The scheme, which would put numerous city residents out of work, was apparently made public by officials from the Douglas H. Palmer administration sometime this week, as they seek across-the-board, 10 percent budget cuts in all departments to address a $28 million budget deficit that promises to hamper government services.

Apparently the administration has decided that the recent layoff threats, a first for the 18-year-old Palmer administration, mean the fiscal axe will fall on city inspectors who could see their city jobs outsourced to some sort of private inspection firm.

The magnitude of cost savings associated with such a move remains to be seen, but given the fact that many inspectors live within the city's borders, eliminating the positions would further reduce the amount of people with decent-paying jobs and good benefits living in Trenton.

The Palmer administration frequently relies on outside, private help for many city services.

Legal contracts that frequently add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars are handed out quite freely by Mayor Palmer, despite the presence of a perfectly good, and very expensive in-house legal team.

Another budget casualty could be the city's valuable branch libraries, which library officials have decided to close due to the budget constraints being imposed by Mayor Palmer and his officials.

Administration, council hear it from Trenton residents

2008-09-19T00:01:00.001-04:00

The public comment period at Trenton City Council's Thursday meeting saw city residents making impassioned pleas to their council representatives to start standing up to the city administration, under Mayor Douglas H. Palmer.

The source of the concern was a plan to shut down the city's branch libraries due to budget problems, but residents used that issue to expand on the various ills they see with the misguided and faltering Palmer administration.

Resident Rafeal Valentin said the closure of the city's four branch libraries would be an abandonment of Trenton's children, which he declared the city's most important resource. Mr. Valentin mentioned that Mayor Palmer, during his first term in office in 1990, unveiled a grand vision for the city that had its basis in the city's youth.

"But that's a vision which is no longer a reality," Mr. Valentin said.

Others attacked the city's bloated administration, noting that a city that has seen decades of population decline and a shrinking of tax ratables continues to operate with excessive layers of bureaucracy, accented at the top with an unnecessary assistant business administrator, chief of staff, mayor's aide, and driver-protection detail for the city's missing mayor.

Regarding the libraries, residents told City Council to step up to the plate and begin demanding answers from the administration, regarding library finances and all of the other city operations. One told council members that they had failed to use their statutory abilities to investigate, interrogate, and hold administration officials accountable through the power of thorough questioning.

Council members were told that while foundations and other entities were being created to support the libraries, little money would be forthcoming until the current membership of the library Board of Trustees was turned over and filled with new faces.

Right now, the cronies and associates of Mayor Palmer filling the membership of the board have run the library system into the ground and frittered away millions of dollars in an endowment that has all but disappeared.

In other council news, members who were set to vote upon $180,000 in contracts to various outside law firms could not get the information they wanted regarding the appropriations from administration officials, and moved to table the measures until the proper information could be secured.

Council members announced that they would hold a special council hearing on the library system on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Trenton hands out cash as libraries close for lack of dollars

2008-09-18T13:08:00.002-04:00

The City of Trenton, as it prepares to close four branches of the Trenton Free Public Library due to a budget shortfall, will hand out $180,000 in contracts on Thursday to attorneys from outside law firms, including two that defended parties during the Joseph Santiago residency battle.

In total, six separate appropriations paying off lawyers to do work that the city’s own Law Department could handle sit on Thursday’s City Council docket. One calls for the attorney who defended Mr. Santiago during the recent residency court battle, Salvatore Alfano, to receive $20,000.

Another doles out $40,000 to Susan Singer, the attorney who somehow represented the municipal corporation that is the City of Trenton. She was given the illogical and seemingly impossible task of representing a single entity – the City of Trenton – that had one half, City Council, suing the other half, Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, and now she will be paid for her work out of the pockets of city taxpayers.

It is unknown whether these various expenditures are being used to pay for services rendered, or are anticipatory contracts. Perhaps they are being awarded in preparation for another looming residency court battle, or for private advice that has been given to Mayor Palmer and Mr. Santiago for that same purpose.

A battle is coming, as Mayor Palmer is reportedly going to try and skirt the city’s residency law one more time on Monday, by reappointing Mr. Santiago as police director after two courts threw him out of office for living outside of the city and outside of the residency law.

Regardless of what happens next week, the City of Trenton will most likely pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars on Thursday to a handful of lawyers. This appropriation will come at a time when the city has its own perfectly good Law Department, led by not one, but two high-paid lawyers that both fulfill the duties usually handled by a single municipal attorney.

Surely these two individuals – City Attorney Denise Lyles and Special Counsel Joe Alacqua – could handle this work load at a much lower expense than what it costs city residents when the Palmer administration liberally hands out legal contract after legal contract to all sorts of firms, for reasons unknown.

If the city’s own lawyers – as was the case in the previous administration – handled the city’s legal work then the dollars saved could be diverted for use in keeping open city libraries and reducing the number of layoffs currently planned to fix the city’s balance sheets.

Crisis in Trenton government

2008-09-18T00:01:00.001-04:00

Trenton is facing a crisis in leadership.

The greatest threat to this city's advancement and revitalization is the man sitting at the top, Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, who hopes to subvert city law and completely dominate the workings of Trenton, as evidenced by what is going on with the city's libraries, the Police Director Joseph Santiago situation, and beyond.

Of almost equal importance are City Council members who seem hell-bent on forgetting their statutory duties. Even as they have suddenly begun doing the right thing, many on the body allow themselves to be poisoned by the words of administration officials who are so obviously spinning the truth, bending information, or outright lying to advance the interests of Mayor Palmer.

Sometimes council members seem to be ignorant of their abilities and even more ignorant of their responsibilities in checking the power of the administration and investigating city practices.

Right now, there is a city communications director who has been found to not only be unqualified for his position, but also appears to be blatantly breaking the city's residency ordinance. Yet City Council has done nothing about this, with one member apparently having given the excuse that the state Department of Personnel handles such issues.

This group has still not pushed through a vehicle ordinance restricting the use of city vehicles in a government whose employees have frequently been caught with municipal cars, far outside of the city with no legitimate excuse.

And now, with their inability to handle even these major issues, they will be faced with the conclusion of an issue that will most likely determine how people think of them for years to come: Police Director Joseph Santiago's residency battle.

Council is fighting a mayor who fired dozens and dozens of city employees for breaking residency, yet allowed Mr. Santiago to openly flout the same law. When that arrangement was publicly questioned, Mayor Palmer said that he had the power to "waive" city law, and planned to use that mythical, sovereign ability to save Mr. Santiago.

When a lawsuit was filed by city residents, which City Council eventually joined, two separate courts weighed in and ruled contrary to Mayor Palmer's untenable position, and now, $136,000 later, Mr. Santiago has been ousted and is set to leave office Monday afternoon.

But instead of finding a successor and allowing the city to move beyond this sorted affair, Mayor Palmer has allegedly hatched a plot to allow Mr. Santiago to stay on.

This plot will no doubt be met with strong resistance from many in the city, including me, and will end up again in court to be argued by expensive lawyers and decided by a judge.

Mr. Santiago and Mayor Palmer will end up losing this battle, but the real losers will be the men and women of Trenton, who will be deprived of hundreds of thousands of dollars and the presence of a thoughtful, caring leader who would realize that fighting the Santiago fight is a wasteful and idiotic affair.

City Council must step in and stop the bleeding.

They need to head off any lingering Santiago residency action in an aggressive manner, blocking any abuses of city ordinances by Mayor Palmer and stopping the payment of precious city dollars for Mr. Santiago's legal defense.

Council must enact a vehicle ordinance now, because residency violators using city vehicles might think twice about making long commutes to their illegal residences if the trip is made in their own car, with their own gas, rather than gas bought with the money of Trenton residents.

The same council must immediately move on Communications Director Irving Bradley.

Some on council have said that they cannot fire him, but there are other avenues open to this body, the supreme legislative organ of the city government.

Council could opt to legislate.

They could revise city ordinances dealing with the communications director to eliminate the position - as Mayor Palmer has done with enemies in the past - or they could fire other administration officials for allowing the residency violator and unqualified employee to maintain employment and continue receiving a city salary.

They owe that to the taxpayers, who should be sick of paying unqualified people for work they should not be doing in the city government.

City Council needs to do all these things, because Mayor Palmer has proven - with Santiago, the libraries, and the water utility, to name a few - that he simply does not care about doing what's right for residents, or even following the most basic and logical of city laws.

The best tool to deal with such a mayor is an effective, intelligent City Council, and Trenton needs such a body immediately.

Battle over Santiago's law-breaking set to resume

2008-09-17T12:21:00.001-04:00

Mayor Douglas H. Palmer could announce as early as Monday that Police Director Joseph Santiago intends to move into Trenton and will therefore be appointed acting police director, after he emphatically stated that he would "never move to Trenton" and was ousted in court for breaking the city's residency ordinance.

A press conference similar to the one held this week at City Hall is set to be convened on Monday, according to a Times of Trenton report that had a confident Mayor Palmer alluding to Mr. Santiago staying on as director.

Monday represents the final day in office for Mr. Santiago, after an appeals court ousted him for breaking residency and gave him 75 days to transition the department's leadership and get out of Trenton.

Being an acting director, as per city ordinance, would mean Mr. Santiago would have a period of 90 days before the City Council, which also sued over his residency violations, would have an opportunity to officially vote to confirm or deny the director’s appointment.

But a majority of City Council members have said they will not confirm the director unless he establishes true residency, which would include moving his entire family down to Trenton as he has said he would never do.

Palmer administration officials may have told people at The Trentonian on Tuesday that "we have the four votes we need", but this administration has repeatedly proven that they are not the most trustworthy bunch. Also, recent history seems to point to a majority of council being aligned against a reappointment of Mr. Santiago, in any capacity.

Any claims made on Monday of Mr. Santiago having established residency are sure to be scrutinized carefully by both City Council and the group of residents – including me – who sued over Mr. Santiago’s blatant breaking of the residency ordinance.

Should Mayor Palmer try and appoint Mr. Santiago – acting or not – without fully vetting the director’s residency status with council members and the public, then he will only be risking precious tax dollars.

That money is sure to be wasted in court, where Mayor Palmer will be a fighting a losing battle to establish that he and his favored associates are above the law, at a time when those city dollars should instead be used to keep the city's branch libraries open, as the library system faces a budget-induced closure threat.

Simply adding the title of “acting” or “interim” does not exempt city employees from establishing true, bona fide domiciles within the city, and failing to do so means immediate termination.

That even goes for Mr. Santiago and any one else enjoying the favor of Mayor Palmer, and in this case, doing so is a court-ordered prerequisite for Mr. Santiago to continue employment past the Sept. 22 deadline.

In fact, it appears the only thing that has changed since Mr. Santiago said he would never move to Trenton is the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers to defend Mr. Santiago and Mayor Palmer in court.

After all this, it is a little hard to accept that both men have found religion and that Mr. Santiago has decided to move his family into Trenton to follow the law. It is more likely that the wayward director is not moving his family into Trenton, and will instead establish false residency similar to the way he lived in the beginning of his tenure in Trenton - in apartments, hotel rooms, and on the couches of his associates.

But without true residency being established another court battle is sure to ensue.

Council and the residents have come too far to simply give up the important fight to get the director and the mayor to follow the law, like all the other city employees, and that includes the dozens fired by Mayor Palmer for breaking the residency law.

This is a democracy, or at least a semblance of one, and not a monarchy where King Doug is the ultimate decider of who follows the law and who does not.

NJ paper woes continue

2008-09-17T00:01:00.002-04:00

The Star-Ledger, the largest newspaper in New Jersey and one the most important in the nation, along The Times of Trenton will be sold or closed by early January if the union representing drivers at the paper does not ratify a new agreement with management by Oct. 8, according to a letter sent to employees from publisher George Arwady that was released Tuesday.

"Although we are making progress toward meeting two of our three conditions, we still are far from an agreement with the Drivers' union," wrote Mr. Arwady. "Accordingly, since it is doubtful that the Drivers will ratify an agreement by October 8, 2008, we will be sending formal notices to all employees this week, as required by both federal and New Jersey law, advising you that the Company will be sold, or, failing that, that it will close operations on January 5, 2009."

Pressures affecting nearly all major newspapers forced the leaders of Advance Publications, which owns the paper, to seek buyouts from 200 of its 700-plus non-union employees, in an effort to cut costs and fix the newspaper finances, which are bleeding millions of dollars annually.

Negotiations with two other unions for agreements required by the ownership for the continued operation of the paper have been somewhat successful, but Tuesday's communication demonstrates that reaching an agreement with drivers' union could represent a major threat to the restructuring and the continued operation of the Newark newspaper icon.

A similar program of buyouts has been offered at The Star-Ledger's sister paper, The Times of Trenton, although the status of that effort is unknown at this point.

Someone familiar with the situation at The Times said that nearly all of the paper's full-time newsroom employees were prepared to take a buy-out, which is believed to consist of a full year's salary.

Law allows first-time violators to keep driving

2008-09-16T10:48:00.004-04:00

Judges have leeway in allowing first-time drug offenders to keep their driving privileges to maintain employment, after a bill that was sponsored by a pair of legislators representing portions of Hudson County was signed into law this week by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

The bill, S-1302, eliminates the mandatory suspension of driving privileges for a period of between six months and two years during court proceedings for first-time offenders, as was previously required by state statute.

Judges can now rule one way or the other on preserving an individual’s ability to drive, based on a finding that a lengthy suspension would result in extreme hardship and that alternative means of transportation are unavailable for the offender.

“This new law will help those who made minor mistakes keep their driving licenses so they get to work or look for jobs,” said Sen. Nick Sacco, D-Hudson, in a statement. “It gives discretion to judges so people who made minor mistakes can straighten out their lives.”

The bill revised what is known as the conditional discharge statute, under which court proceedings for first-time offenders can be halted if the offender agrees to be placed under a period of court supervision.

But part of the statute required courts to suspend driving privileges as part of the process, resulting in offenders without licenses and without an ability to get around in many parts of automobile-dependent New Jersey.

“These judicial exemptions will empower offenders to follow through on commitments to get to jobs and support their families,” said Sen. Brian Stack, D-Hudson.

No bail-out for bankrupt Palmer admin.

2008-09-16T00:01:00.002-04:00

A day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its greatest one-day dive since the Sept. 11 attacks, Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer will unveil his own doom-and-gloom fiscal plan as New Jersey’s capital deals with a suffocating budget crisis.

Mayor Palmer could also be facing what ends up being a watershed moment in his political career in Trenton on Tuesday.

He seems to understand that reality, as evidenced by the fact that he called a 1:30 p.m. press conference in City Hall in an effort to head off what has been billed as a looming civic revolution.

Many city residents have been seriously angered because the fiscal plan, which calls for 10 percent budget cuts to all city operations, could seriously hamper the continued operation of the city's free public libraries.

The plan directly led to a decision by the mayor’s hand-picked, crony-filled library board to close all of the outlying branches of the city libraries.

Mayor Palmer seems to have made these decisions while counting on the city populace to somehow forget that these fiscal decisions are coming from someone who consistently wastes money on unnecessary employee legal expenses, the gaudy provision of vehicles to employees who do not need them, and the maintenance of a massive, top-heavy, and unnecessary city administration that is a relic of a time when Trenton had tens of thousands more people in population.

But judging from their reaction it is clear that Trenton residents are not only aware of all these things but they also love using their libraries, and demand an administration willing to spend the money necessary to keep them open.

They also don’t seem to buy Mayor Palmer’s excuses that he didn’t know about the library closure plan and that the budget issues are not the fault of his wasteful administration, but are actually the responsibility of Gov. Jon S. Corzine due to cuts in state aid money.

Trenton residents should show up in force at City Hall from this point on to make it clear that they want their libraries open, and that they have had enough of the fiscal decision-making and outright lying of Palmer administration officials who continue to operate in a manner totally ignorant of the public interest.

Like the problematic sub-prime lending practices that precipitated the current crisis on Wall Street, the budget decisions and the library closures are all directly related to the fiscal practices, wasteful spending, and lack of financial accountability that permeates the Palmer administration.

Unlike Wall Street’s problems, the best way to deal with problems in Trenton is not a bailout of the Palmer administration, but rather its all-out rejection and eventual removal from power.

Library spin continues

2008-09-15T00:01:00.004-04:00

Public relations efforts undertaken by those in the local media who have become overly friendly with the Trenton establishment reported this week that a surprised Mayor Douglas H. Palmer was diligently working to stave off the looming closures of some of the city’s important, free branch libraries, due to fiscal pressures.

But with more reading and thinking it becomes clear - based on this and other policy gaffes and their handling - that Mayor Palmer and his cronies think the good people of Trenton are nothing more than a community of 83,000 idiots.

That’s evident because any rational person would see that it is rather difficult for a mayor to be surprised about a plan to close what is a valuable city asset when not only did the mayor push the plan into motion through his own budget decisions, but he also handpicked the group of individuals occupying seats on the library Board of Trustees that made the decision to close the libraries in the first place.

Additionally, it has been written that this group of individuals informed the mayor of the consequences of his budget decisions, in potentially forcing the library leadership to close branches, prior to the budget decisions being made.

So when newspapers have the mayor out and about, contacting corporate entities for donations and organizing fundraising efforts out of a sense of surprise and a serious desire to keep the branches open, it’s really just a bunch of malarkey.

Mayor Palmer is totally and utterly responsible for the potential closures, both directly through his questionable budgetary decisions and indirectly through his choices of people for the library Board of Trustees. These pieces of what is clearly questionable decision-making now threaten to suck more social and educational capital out of areas of the city that have suffered the worst under the mayor’s five consecutive terms.

Any reports of surprise or genuine efforts being made to stave off the closure of the libraries and the layoffs of dozens of employees and city residents on the part of the mayor are nothing more than public relations spin meant to throw opponents and those who would stop the closures off balance, and pave the way for the plan to become effective, this Nov. 1.

And remember Trenton, the arrogance of these efforts prove that Mayor Palmer thinks the city is nothing but 7.7 square-miles of densely-packed fools.

GOP continues to celebrate reported death of Clean Elections

2008-09-14T13:13:00.004-04:00

The vigor with which some New Jersey Republicans have danced upon the reported grave of the Clean Elections efforts could be taken as evidence of how they feel about the importance of the will of the voters, versus the importance of the will and financial support of special interests.

That's what publicly financed elections are really all about - limiting the actual or perceived corrupting influence of large campaign contributions in elections, because the voters should decide the race, and not the presence of large amounts of cash from special interests.

But Clean Elections and similar programs throughout the nation are now in jeapordy, because of a federal court decision to halt a similar publicly-financed election system in Arizona that has been hailed as the first of many instances where courts, relying on a recent Supreme Court opinion, will strike down publicly-financed elections.

The Supreme Court decision found the so-called "Millionaire's Amendment" in federal campaign law unconstitutional. The amendment reduces the restrictions on the size of contributions publicly-funded candidates can accept when they face a self-funded candidate who spends enough to reach a certain amount of money.

The court ruled that such a measure hampers the free speech right of a self-funded candidate to spend as much money on their own election as they please, because they know that doing so would give their opponent a possible advantage, in being able to accept larger contributions.

Now portions of state public-finance law that provide extra money to publicly-funded candidates, when facing abnormally large expenditures being made in support of a privately-funded opponent, have been similarly called into question, and New Jersey's Clean Elections system has such a feature.

Since then, a slew of New Jersey's Republican legislators have issued a long stream of public statements, press releases, and announcements calling on members of the Democratic majority to permanently shelve future Clean Elections legislation.

The new Clean Elections bill, A-100, would have expanded and enhanced the program following its success in District 14, where both Democratic and Republican candidates accepted public funds and won closely-watched elections.

The district 14 Clean Elections program succesfully provided public money to the candidates to run their campaigns, instead of relying on private contributions from individuals, firms, or other interests that usually come with an expectation of something in return at some point down the line.

But apparently what happened in that legislative district was not to the liking of Republican legislators like Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose, R-Sussex. They continue to celebrate what they hope is death of special interests-free elections and howl to their opponents across the aisle, calling for the Democratic supporters of Clean Elections to permanently shelve the system.

Perhaps the program can be revised to pass constitutional muster, or maybe additional court cases will determine that rescue money and the "Millionaire's Amendment" are not equivalent, saving the Clean Elections program.

Whatever the case, we hope the Assemblywoman McHose and the others don't get what they want. The Clean Elections program is a good idea, and without it, the voters of this state will be worse off during any future elections.

Palmer administration officials dance around Bradley's status

2008-09-13T15:52:00.005-04:00

The Palmer administration of Trenton has been known to push and prod city employees into providing assistance to Mayor Douglas H. Palmer’s electoral campaigns, in canvassing, working the polls, or at least sticking a Doug Palmer sign in the front lawn of their homes.

Part of those efforts, presumably, is an expectation that city employees are expected to register to vote so that when it comes down to Election Day, they will have the ability to vote to continue the existence of the administration that pays the bills and puts food on the table.

The existence of these efforts and other long-established policy is why the recent reaction of city officials to questions about why Communication Director Irving Bradley’s name does not appear on city voter lists was so peculiar.

Mr. Bradley is the embattled chief of the city’s communications center. He currently faces twin legal threats, in the form of a lawsuit brought by city dispatchers alleging discriminatory practices and continued questions about Mr. Bradley’s legitimate residency within in Trenton, as required by the city’s longstanding residency law.

The voter registration lists in question - secured by some of those working for the Obama presidential campaign - failed to list Mr. Bradley as a registered Trenton voter, despite the fact that the city’s residency requirements mean that the director has now been legally required to live here, along with his family, for over a full calendar year.

When that was brought up to Palmer administration officials this week, someone representing the city’s executive replied that the Board of Elections had been contacted, and it was determined that there are - surprise - several different kinds of voter lists.

The wrong voter list could have been acquired and that would explain the discrepancy, said the official, who instructed the inquisitive party to ensure their request was for the proper voter list from the Mercer County Board of Elections.

What is so telling about this sequence of events is how the administration, instead of taking the initiative and simply requesting the list containing information that would show Mr. Bradley is registered to vote in Trenton, chose to dance around the issue by providing a potential but uncertain explanation for the discrepancy.

This came from officials working for the same administration that has investigated and fired dozens of employees for violating the residency law. Part of the definition of residency is not only where the immediate family of the employee lives, but where that employee is actually registered to vote.

The voter registrations and other information have not only been important to administration officials for the continued election of Mayor Palmer, but they have also been used in residency investigations directed by Palmer officials as crucial, employment-ending pieces of evidence.

But for favored employees like Mr. Bradley and outgoing, residency-ousted Police Director Joseph Santiago, this type of information is simply not that important, judging from the recent reaction of administration officials.

They had an opportunity to dispel all of the innuendo and intrigue swirling around Mr. Bradley’s residency by producing accurate voter registration information on Mr. Bradley, like they have done with so many other city employees.

But instead, they chose to dodge the issue.

This exchange not only casts doubt on the possibility that Mr. Bradley is indeed legally residing in Trenton but it also serves to further add to the constantly growing evidence that Palmer administration policy is filled with double standards and the uneven application of the law.

Mercer's economic canyon

2008-09-13T02:48:00.002-04:00

Mercer County, like the rest of New Jersey, is suffering from severe economic and housing segregation and the problem is only going to get worse without some drastic action that provides work and housing evenly throughout the county, according to a study covered in The Times of Trenton Saturday.

The study, put out by the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, found that Mercer’s housing and wealth breakdown indicated that the future of the county was one of poverty for Trenton and the adjacent areas of communities like Lawrence, Ewing, and Hamilton.

But the outer-ring communities like Princeton, Hopewell, and other rich Mercer County municipalities are set to remain as places where little of the lower and middle class workforce occupying crucial service jobs will ever be able to live.

Like The Ruins of Trenton has detailed, Mercer County and the rest of New Jersey cannot continue on in this highly segregated existence, which inevitably results in reduced opportunities and little hope for the super-diverse pool of workers that makes up the backbone of the county’s economy.

Mercer County must embrace new, more stringent Council on Affordable Housing regulations and modified state housing law. Together, they impose greater workforce housing requirements on municipalities and eliminate the ability of wealthy suburbs to sell off their constitutionally mandated affordable housing obligations.

America is supposed to be a land dedicated to opportunity.

But sequestering affordable housing opportunities within the state capital and the surrounding areas results in the hoarding of economic and social resources in the richer, outlying towns of Mercer and the subjection of the neediest people in the inner, Trenton-dominated area to the most adverse and difficult of situations.

On top of this social wrongdoing, the economic and social chaos that ensues creates conditions that are strongly adverse to homeowners, businesses, and industry within Trenton and the rest of the urban core.

The resulting situation saps municipal tax revenue and requires ever-larger state-funded subsidies that only serve to worsen the fiscal burden on New Jersey's overtaxed residents.

It is nothing, if not a lose-lose situation for everyone in the Capital County.

Give the mayor his revolution

2008-09-12T13:29:00.006-04:00

Gov. Jon S. Corzine and his slashing of municipal aid dollars this year are to blame for the impending closure of four of the city’s branch libraries.

That was the opinion of Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, according the pages of today’s Trentonian, which had the mayor responding to civic outrage over the plan. The article was penned by Mayor Palmer's favorite mouthpiece, the objective and unbiased L.A. Parker.

The mayor's public response was part of an attempt to head off what Mr. Parker chose to describe as a possible civic “revolution” over the Nov. 1 closure of the libraries, which represent some of the city’s few remaining safe havens for the urban youth in the socially distressed City of Trenton.

Yesterday, at the time of the plan being made public, there was talk among residents about starting an all-out civic movement to keep the branches open. It would likely start with the undertaking of an official petition drive to demonstrate the overwhelming public support these facilities have, throughout the city and in all of Trenton’s social and economic strata.

On a positive note, Friday’s Trentonian piece had new libraries chief Kimberly Bray saying that the library system did have a contingency plan, requiring over $400,000, which would allow the branches to remain open on certain days throughout the week.

The Ruins of Trenton supports the plan and has a suggestion: City Council ought to demand budget information and use it to immediately make an emergency transfer of funds out of the city’s general fund and into the library budget, to head off this crisis.

Money can be found in the funds budgeted for Mayor Palmer’s personal chauffeuring and protection squad, by eliminating the unit entirely. It serves no purpose, since Mayor Palmer is not a highly regarded public official targeted for assassination, nor is he frequently in the city.

He doesn’t even really live here.

Perhaps eliminating the special counsel position occupied by attorney Joe Alacqua or firing City Attorney Denise Lyles is in order, since the two occupy positions that seem to essentially perform the same function.

Outgoing Police Director Joseph Santiago should be ordered to turn over $136,000 to the city to pay back all of the unnecessary and free taxpayer-funded legal support he received during his residency fight earlier this year.

No other city employee being brought up for violating the city's residency law has been afforded such an expensive perk, and the return of the money would go a long way towards putting the library system’s contingency plan into action.

There are many other areas of ridiculous fiscal waste where funds can be found to keep open the city’s library branches. Those areas need to be tapped immediately, so these important city institutions can remain open and continue to provide somewhat of a bulwark against this great city’s social ills.

If this does not occur, then residents rallying around the libraries need to realize that the city government is no longer serving their interests.

Perhaps a recall petition is in order, which would bring Mayor Palmer and the rest of the city exactly what The Trentonian said he is working to head off - a revolution.

Reflections on Santiago's final days

2008-09-12T00:19:00.002-04:00

In the waning days of the leadership of outgoing Police Director Joseph Santiago, the City of Trenton has been treated to a litany of incidents that show exactly why this man cannot be allowed to direct city law enforcement efforts any longer.

In 12 days or so Mr. Santiago will have to leave his office, after two different courts declared that his violation of the city residency ordinance meant his ouster, despite the pathetic attempts of Mayor Douglas H. Palmer and other administration officials to save Mr. Santiago's employment.

Since those rulings Trenton has been treated to business as usual under Mr. Santiago, regarding crime, management gaffes, and an overall lack of accountability that has many Trenton residents fuming.

There is the usual crime epidemic that has been the hallmark of Mr. Santiago's tenure here in Trenton. Despite Mr. Santiago's constant mantra of "crime is down, crime is down", the mounting reports of assaults, beatings, and robberies in many city neighborhoods put the lie to that slogan.

The manipulation of crime reporting with an eye to showing that Trenton is better off than in any period since the late 1960s doesn't hold water. Trentonians know what is happening on their streets, and it isn't pretty.

Besides the simple ineffective law enforcement, there are the more pronounced lapses of leadership. Of course, leadership is a hard thing to provide to a 300-man police department when the supposed leader doesn't show up for work half the time.

Regardless of Mr. Santiago's lax personal attendance, his leadership style and management decisions have resulted in the elevation of unqualified cronies to the upper echelons of the department. There they wreak havoc on their fellow officers and damage the effectiveness and public image of the city's first defense against criminals and gangsters.

Capt. Paul "Sleepy" Messina continues to provide local newspaperman with great material - repeatedly falling asleep while on duty, sexually harassing female officers, and becoming the target of Internal Affairs probes for verbally assaulting traffic officers in the streets for no apparent reason, in full view of the public.

There's Mr. Santiago's former Newark associate and current Communications Director Irving Bradley, who was brought in with the endorsement of Mr. Santiago.

In the year since he arrived, Mr. Bradley has severely disrupted operations within the city's Communications Division, become the target of a potentially costly lawsuit filed by angry subordinates, and been caught taking city vehicles 50 miles north to his old home in Rahway.

Additionally, state Department of Personnel officials said Mr. Bradley is unqualified for his position, and photographs widely distributed appear to prove that Mr. Bradley is breaking the city's residency law, just like his Newark pal Mr. Santiago.

There has been the skyrocketing of overtime costs, the abuse of city vehicles for personal use and transportation to places far away from Trenton, and the demotion of otherwise effective officers to positions and shifts undeserving of their superior talent.

Now, rumors running rampant in Trenton political circles have Mayor Palmer swooping in at the last moment on Mr. Santiago's last day in power on Sept. 22, and appointing the ousted associate to some sort of "acting" position to continue to lead the department.

Luckily for Trenton, Mr. Santiago must first establish bona fide residency in the city, meaning his wife and children must pack up, leave their current Morris County home, and become part of the city's community.

But this is something that Mr. Santiago swore he would never do, when sued by a group of city residents - including me - and the city's own City Council. All parties demanded his immediate relocation to Trenton, with his family, as called for in the city's longtime residency law.

The director refused, sparking a lengthy and costly court battle that drained the city of over $100,000.

Now, even with a move into Trenton and an attempt at reappointment, Mr. Santiago would still have to pass muster and receive a confirming majority of City Council votes from a body made up of people who have become enemies of Mr. Santiago's during the residency battle.

Add all of this to what Trenton has experienced during the ousted director's tenure, especially of late, and it looks like the deck is truly stacked against Mr. Santiago and Mayor Palmer on this one.

The death of knowledge in Trenton: city to close four libraries

2008-09-11T16:11:00.002-04:00

The City of Trenton is in a dire state indeed.

City officials have made the decision to each of the Trenton Public Library branches scattered throughout the city's four wards due to fiscal problems, with the exception of the main branch on Academy Street, according to The Times of Trenton.

In doing so the city will be cutting off one of the best resources Trenton’s people have in accessing knowledge and information that can show help both the young and the old to advance themselves and improve their lives.

The wealth of information these facilities provided, especially in many parts of the city that suffer from social and economic chaos, sometimes represented a font of invaluable assistance in pursuing a way out of a life of crime and poverty for many in the city.

These libraries provide a place where Trenton’s kids can escape from the peer pressures and the problems of the inner-city and read books and access computers that helped many to fashion a way out of a problematic, and ultimately deadly lifestyle.

Yet a city that wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars defending employees of little value in the courts and carting a mayor around in purchased vehicles with armed bodyguards like some ancient emperor, has now ruled that spending money to keep open what are frequently the last vestiges of knowledge and hope in some places is too great a fiscal burden to bear.

Additionally, it has been documented quite thoroughly by Councilman Jim Coston that the city’s library officials have frittered away millions of dollars in funds.

After hearing about these activities, Trenton’s residents are now told that many of these important institutions are going to close, and that the city residents employed at each branch will be informed of their impending unemployment, through e-mail, or all things.

These libraries are extremely important tools in fighting the poverty, lawlessness, and general lack of education that has taken root in some of the city’s neighborhood.

The fight against all of these scourges will be significantly more difficult without the branch libraries, which provide islands of hope in areas of the city that have sometimes become oceans of despair.

The branch libraries must not be allowed to close. If they do, the officials responsible for such a reprehensible act - announced on Sept. 11th no less – must be held accountable.

The best to do so is at the ballot box in 2010.

Another day, another indictment

2008-09-11T00:01:00.003-04:00

Another day, another powerful New Jersey politician goes down in flames, netted in a federal corruption probe that, when added to all the others, is probably resulting in the decline of the shock value of the words "eight-count indictment".

That powerful politician was Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, who was indicted on Wednesday along with business and political associate Dennis Oury in a federal corruption probe that most people could have seen coming from at least a mile away.

People in New Jersey should be growing sick of the repeated misbehavior of the political elite.

Their constant corruption and legal, yet questionable activities like pay-to-play, wheeling, and having constant, public conflicts of interest are costing New Jersey residents billions of dollars, yet few seem to be doing anything meaningful about it.

This statement does not refer to public watchdog groups like Citizen Action and Common Cause, which have experienced significant, if limited success in fighting for the public interest.

These statements refer to many of those holding political power, from the politicians currently in public office to those in any position of political power and influence, throughout the maligned, but great Garden State.

Implicated in all of this are the major political parties, both of which are guilty for the current situation.

The Democratic Party has promised real ethics reform for years but has yet to pass comprehensive bans on pay-to-play and wheeling. If enacted they would put a serious damper on the ability of politicians to sap municipal, county, an state coffers in an effort to hold onto power and influence, through deciding who gets government contracts and jobs in return for political contributions and support.

But the Republican Party hasn't to use this inaction to its advantage. The GOP has failed to effectively hammer the ethical flaws of its opponents home to secure additional political power and pass laws to change the system that has empowered those across the aisle.

If they did this with any type of success they would separate themselves from their opponents and probably even scare some Democratic politicians straight with the threat of losing office, power, or both.

The inaction of the parties down the way on West State Street makes it clear that any change in the status quo is going to have to come from the public.

New Jerseyans need to start making it clear that cleaning up the cesspool of corruption that has come to embody state politics is a priority, and that the current situation has long outlived its entertainment value.

Wanted are leaders who will make it their platform to stamp these activities out by making all of them illegal, through comprehensive ethics reform legislation.

Finding out that you're being robbed almost daily by those who are supposed to be looking after your money and your interests is no way to go through life.

City, Bradley face civil suit

2008-09-10T17:51:00.002-04:00

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.

Bergen political boss indicted

2008-09-09T15:34:00.004-04:00

It has been widely reported that Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero was indicted today on federal corruption charges following months of investigation, records seizures, and other activity by law enforcement officials.

Also indicted was Ferriero business associate and Bergen Democratic Party counsel Dennis Oury, who had a a joint business interest with Mr. Ferriero in a company called Government Grants Consulting LLC.

The indictment reportedly says that Mr. Ferriero and Mr. Oury conspired to hide Mr. Oury’s involvement in a company called Government Grants Consulting LLC from the officials employing Mr. Oury as borough attorney in Bergenfield.

Bergenfield's involvement in government contracts with Government Grants Consulting LLC while simultaneously employing Mr. Oury was an obvious conflict of interest and forms the basis of the indictment, according to officials quoted in The Newark Star-Ledger.

U.S. Attorney Chris Christie announced the indictments today at a press conference at the Peter Rodino Federal Building in Newark.

Mr. Ferriero and his associates were part of one of the more powerful political organizations in the state, which controlled dozens of government contracts, positions of power, and was blessed with the ability to raise millions of dollars in an instant.

As PolitickerNJ.com Associate Editor Juan Melli illustrated brilliantly, Mr. Ferriero’s power and the Bergen County Democratic organization effectively demonstrated why pay-to-play and the awarding of government contracts on the basis of politics and support versus ability and efficiency is damaging to New Jersey.

Mr. Ferriero controlled hundreds of contracts and governmental jobs that routinely went to political supporters and financial contributors rather than whichever person or firm would have done the best job for the least amount of taxpayer money.

Today’s indictment may shed more light on these activities, and could hopefully become a catalyst for the kind of real ethics reform necessary to keep individuals like Mr. Ferriero, who engage in such activities, out of power while simultaneously opening up the political process and providing better public services.

City politicians face new financial disclosure deadline

2008-09-09T00:45:00.004-04:00

Trenton's elected officials will no longer be able to hold off on filing financial disclosure forms for nearly a full year after being elected, after Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed bill S-103 into law this week.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, updates the state's Local Government Ethics Law to require all elected municipal officials to file financial disclosure forms within 30 days after being elected into office.

"Increased transparency in government is the key to gaining and maintaining public trust," said Senator Weinberg, D-Bergen, in a statement. "As elected officials, we have to be accountable to the people who put us in office, and that accountability needs to start immediately. Residents around the state work hard to earn an honest living, and they need to know their elected officials are doing the same. These taxpayers deserve nothing less from us."

Local government officers in New Jersey are required to file annual financial disclosure forms that list sources of income in excess of $2000, speaking or miscellaneous fees exceeding $250, gifts of more than $400, names of business interests, and pieces of real property.

Previously, an April 30 deadline was established for the filing of financial disclosure forms, but such a system failed to take into account the existence of municipalities like Trenton where municipal elections are held in May.

That situation made it so Trenton's elected officials could avoid filing their disclosure forms for nearly an entire year after taking office, but that situation has been eliminated with the passage of Sen. Weinber's bill.

For New Jersey, the new law is a good baby step towards increased accountability in New Jersey municipal government, but it was exactly that: a small step.

If Sen. Weinberg is serious about her commitment to increased transparency, she should stick to statements she made earlier this month calling on state legislators to work on comprehensive pay-to-play reform, which is something that has eluded the Democratically-controlled legislature.

Toll hikes emerge again

2008-09-08T17:28:00.002-04:00

The specter of massive toll increases on the state’s major highways has reemerged, following this year's untimely death of Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s plan to hike tolls, issue bonds, and pay for transportation needs and pay off debt.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has issued a letter requesting Gov. Corzine’s approval to begin jacking up tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway in coming years, to pay for infrastructure repairs, existing debt, and a new tunnel into Manhattan.

The letter, issued last Thursday, was signed by the entire membership of the authority, a group that includes Department of Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri and five other middle-aged men. Didn't they used to say don't trust anyone over 30?

Republican legislators immediately assailed the plan, as they did last year and in early 2008 as the governor pushed for the creation of an independent entity that would use toll revenue - strengthened by 800 percent toll hikes - to pay off a massive bond issue earmarked for paying down state debt and unfunded transportation needs.

"Governor Corzine’s original monetization plan, calling for an 800 percent increase in tolls on our state roadways, was a miserable failure,” said Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini, R-Monmouth. “Our residents have been down this road before and are too intelligent to buy this new scheme.”

Reports in New Jersey newspapers had Gov. Corzine scheduled to meet with key state legislators last week, as the governor prepares to publicly unveil his second attempt at solving the state’s serious transportation funding issues.

It appears that instead of creating a new independent entity to tackle both transportation funding and state debt, Gov. Corzine has decided on a smaller plan. That plan appears to entail signing off on the Turnpike Authority’s request to raise tolls, which would then assist in solving the transportation funding problem.

Maybe addressing the state’s ridiculous debt will be kept for another day, or perhaps another governor.

Christie should consider resigning

2008-09-07T17:41:00.004-04:00

As the City of Trenton's Joseph Santiago era has clearly demonstrated, it's best to leave politics out of the business of law enforcement.

Federal authorities recognized that back in 1939 with the passage of "An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities", better known as The Hatch Act. The law was created in order to prevent political interference from tainted or warping the activities of federal employees through a ban on their involvement in political activities.

The Hatch Act apply to some activities in N.J., where U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, a Republican, appears to be taking steps that could compromise his ability to perform his duties as the number one federal law enforcement official in the Garden State.

It has been reported that Mr. Christie - widely believed to be the number one Republican candidate for the 2009 gubernatorial election - has met with state legislators to discuss their possible candidacy as lieutenant governor on Mr. Christie's ticket.

Those legislators apparently have some big-mouth associates in their legislative offices who let New Jersey media outlets know about the discussions.

The leakers who have made the discussions public knowledg might enhance the image of the legislators being courted by Mr. Christie, but the fact that it appears those sort of discussions are going on does not bode very well for Mr. Christie or the functioning of his office.

First, it stands to reason that those who have met Mr. Christie have little to worry about in the realm of sudden federal investigations being opened up on their activities.

Conversely, the reliable, appropriate opening of investigations into the activities of high-ranking state Democrats also appears stunted. A Republican candidate for governor like Mr. Christie could be concerned about being painted as someone who pursues investigations with his office for political reasons, although that does not appear to bother Mr. Christie (See U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez).

For all the good work Mr. Christie has done with his office, it appears that the more he and his associates engage in political activities, the less likely it is that the feds will open up meaningful political corruption cases on politicians from either side of the aisle.

The people of New Jersey should not have to worry about mere political considerations as something that influences the decisions of law enforcement officials in investigations and prosecutions, especially those regarding official corruption. Yet that is exactly what Mr. Christie's activities are now causing within the collective mind of both New Jersey officialdom and the general public.

Perhaps Mr. Christie should consider resigning from his office.

That would allow him to pursue his gubernatorial political aspirations with all his efforts, instead of splitting time as a non-partisan federal employee and a partisan Republican candidate for governor trying to take back Drumthwacket.

Still no plan for the TPD

2008-09-06T15:21:00.003-04:00

Trenton is now a little more than two weeks away from the date when Police Director Joseph Santiago will have to vacate his office, because of a court decision regarding the director's violation of the city's residency ordinance.

With such a small amount of time remaining until Mr. Santiago's removal - and Trenton's record-high levels of violent crime - one would think that the city would have laid out a detailed plan of succession by now.

But the city's administration has not, choosing instead to leave City Council and city residents in the dark about Mr. Santiago's successor.

In the absence of an official announcement, the usual rumors are flying around. They have Mr. Santiago staying on as police director, in some sort of acting capacity or through an announcement that the director has decided to move into the city.

Either situation coming after months of expensive legal battles funded by city taxpayers.

And either of these instances would be another case of Mr. Santiago and his boss, Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, again ignoring city law and acting as if it does not apply to them or their favored associates.

But luckily for city residents, neither of these possibilities have any significant likelihood of occurring. Even in an acting capacity, Mr. Santiago would have to maintain a bona fide domicile in Trenton.

Him simply moving into some house or apartment within the city would not be enough, because the law requires his wife and children to make the move as well.

And in either of those cases, an increasingly disillusioned and angry City Council would have confirm Mr. Santiago's reappointment, and many members of that body have made if quite clear that the Santiago era of policing is over for Trenton.

Mr. Shill gets some airtime

2008-09-06T02:21:00.008-04:00

The Trentonian continued to devote precious newspaper space to a bogus political fight within the New Jersey capital's Latino population in the second of two articles on Saturday. The articles could be construed as political influence seeping its way into what should be objective city news reporting.

The readership of the paper has been subjected to stories that have civic inactivist Juan Martinez and others attacking current Councilman-at-large Manny Segura in a political dispute.

The latest edition had Mr. Martinez questioning Councilman Sergura's progress on immigration, the actions of Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, and the city's poorly performing schools. Unfortunately for Mr. Martinez, these all happen to be issues that are either mostly or completely out of the hands of Councilman Segura.

Those talking points emerged from the primary focus of the smear articles, which is the Hispanic Day Parade. That city event has received attention because it happens to be led by most of the same people - including Councilman Segura - who organize the city's Puerto Rican Parade.

But it appears the real purpose of the piece is for use as a basis for an attack on Mr. Segura from pro-Mayor Palmer forces such as Mr. Martinez. The funny thing is Mr. Martinez used to be an outspoken critic of the current city administration. That all ended when he was handed a $62,000 per year job in the city school district.

Once that gift came down the chute, Mr. Martinez has began n singing Mayor Palmer's praises. And it looks like that gig has come to include verbally assaulting a councilman who used to be in the mayor's pocket.

That previous condition of Mr. Segura's, in being partially at fault for City Council's submissive position, is serious. Mr. Segura was part of a rubber-stamping City Council that did little to question Mayor Palmer's initiatives or provide the type of dissent necessary for a properly functioning democracy.

But Mr. Segura has lately turned such tendencies around. He has consistently questioned the actions and motives of Mayor Palmer and his officials and provided a strong legislative presence, for all Trentonians.

Mr. Martinez has done the opposite. Judging from his behavior, it appears a city job and a city pension has totally reversed Mr. Martinez's earlier positions, to the point where he is now being used as a vocalization of Palmer administration anger towards a councilman now standing up for his constituents.

Shame on you, Mr. Martinez.

Council hikes water rates

2008-09-05T15:17:00.003-04:00

City Council’s Thursday vote to increase water bills for Trenton residents and for customers living in Ewing, Hamilton, Hopewell, and Lawrence demonstrates just how badly the city government of Trenton is functioning.

A plethora of officials from Trenton’s suburban neighbors showed up at last night’s meeting. They first explained how they had been kept in the dark about this latest rate hike and last December’s vote to sell off Trenton Water Works infrastructure in their towns, and then implored City Council members to table the rate ordinance in favor of an in-depth discussion of the increases.

A divided City Council offered apologies to the suburban officials and the general public, and then voted 5 to 2 to pass an ordinance increasing water bills for all water customers by 40 percent.

“We have deliberated on this matter, however, this is the Trenton Water Works,” said Council President Paul Pintella, prior to initiating the roll-call vote that hands cash-strapped residents in Trenton and the suburbs dramatically increased water bills.

Interestingly enough, ordinance sponsor Councilman Milford Bethea actually voted against the measure. Perhaps he had a change of heart after thinking of his constituents, and listening to the passionate pleas of city residents, suburban residents, and suburban officials.

But five members of council – Jim Coston, Annette Lartigue, Gino Melone, Paul Pintella, and Cordelia Staton – voted in support of the measure, ensuring its passage.

Councilman Coston based his affirmative vote on testimony from administration officials who said that federal and state government had mandated the city undertake nearly $100 million in improvements on the water utility, without providing any funding. The work had gone ahead and the debt service needed to support those costs required the water rate hike, wrote Mr. Coston, which necessitated the increase and secured Mr. Coston’s vote.

In a normally functioning municipal government, such a sequence of events is the acceptable method of governing. Administration officials and department employees with knowledge of their departments testify to a body of legislators, which then bases deliberations and an eventual vote on the matter.

The problem with that sequence, as far as Trenton’s municipal government is concerned, is that officials from Mayor Douglas H. Palmer’s administration consistently spin information, bend it, warp it, and spread outright lies concerning municipal matters.

When damaging information becomes the subject of legislative requests, those requests are traditionally met with stonewalling, delaying actions, and other forms of obfuscation befitting of the Richard M. Nixon administration.

With that in mind, voting in support of this water rate increase on the basis of the testimony of administration officials who have long compromised their trustworthiness seems to be a nearly unsupportable action. Support could only have been based upon in-depth research, budget documents, or other nearly things impervious to the spin so frequently here in Trenton.

In this particular matter there seems to be plenty of data, or even simple commonsense, which paints the increase as unnecessary, accept as a move to simply add on to the bottom line of the Trenton Water Works, and the City of Trenton itself.

Over the past few years the water utility has generated millions of dollars in surplus, evident by the nearly $10 million that was transferred from the utility budget into the city’s general fund in a manner that continues to be questioned. A water utility generating such a massive surplus would seem to have little reason to required a water rate increase.

The water increase is needed because of around $100 million worth of mandatory improvements being made to the utility, according to testimony from Thursday’s meeting. But a 40 percent increase will generate somewhere in the neighborhood of an additional $10 to $12 million in revenue – an amount that could support, even with a poor credit rating garnering a 7 percent interest rate, somewhere around $250 to $350 million in bonds.

So the increase and associated revenue spike could likely support much more than the total cost of these improvements. The rate hike supporters have also apparently forgotten about the revenue that is already being generated by the water utility, which is apparently of such a magnitude that it has consistently generated millions of dollars in surplus in recent years.

A 40 percent rate hike is unnecessary, as experts like Mr. Howard Woods and others have pointed out in Board of Public Utilities testimony recently.

All of this information is publicly accessible and easily understood. Despite that, last night City Council members relied on information provided by openly dishonest administration officials, took it on face value, and voted accordingly.

A government like this fails to advance the interests of city residents. Change is needed.

Trenton media notes

2008-09-04T00:40:00.005-04:00

There was a report in a local newspaper Wednesday that provided readers with an interesting and instructive, yet incomplete view into the world of economic development, Trenton, and the current city administration.

It was a Trentonian piece by reporter and columnist L.A. Parker, who wrote about an older couple from Trenton living in the West Ward near the old Magic Marker brownfield site.

Sometime last year, following a multi-million dollar cleanup of the heavily polluted property, Mayor Douglas H. Palmer apparently promised the two longtime city residents - James and Louise Rollings - that one of the streets built on the site would bear their names, as a tribute to the longtime residents.

But a full year later, the property remains fallow, devoid of any streets or the 45 homes city officials have repeatedly touted at public meetings in recent times.

"There is no point in talking because they will tell us something, get our hopes up and then nothing. We're tired. Disappointed. We just want to know if the project is still in the works. They should tell us if it's not," said Mr. Rolling, according to The Trentonian.

Those comments, paired with earlier details provided in Mr. Parker's story, seem to scream out to the reader "who is at fault here?"

Mr. Parker, one of Mayor Palmer's most subservient supporters, failed to tie up that little missing piece in the story, even though the mere mention that Mayor Palmer promised something that goes on as undelivered seems to provide enough implication.

What's also missing from this story is the long line of similar empty promises made by Mayor Palmer and his other officials, who are quick to make promises and tout projects that more often than not never see the light of day.

Even that could have been conveyed in a somewhat objective fashion, with a simple list of projects, Trenton-sponsored or not, which Mayor Palmer has talked up yet have never come to fruition: Champale, Magic Marker, Full Spectrum, Manex, Performa...

Perhaps someone should have told the poor people up in the West Ward about this before they signed on to the notion they would one day have a street named after them.

Two cents on Clean Elections, Davis, and the Arizona decision

2008-09-03T14:38:00.005-04:00

Reports have Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, D-Camden, saying that New Jersey’s Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Project Act will have to be put on hold in light of an Arizona federal court decision.

That seems like a pretty rash decision.

As background to those statements, this preliminary ruling in Arizona federal court held that matching fund provisions, which hand publicly-financed candidates extra money when a self-funded opponent exceeds a certain amount of expenditures, are unconstitutional.

Judge Roslyn Silver said they infringe upon the free speech rights of candidates to spend as much money as they want on their own election. She could now use the court's power to prevent publicly-funded candidates in Arizona from receiving matching funds, or hold further hearings on the issue.

The closely-followed case comes after a Supreme Court decision earlier this year, Davis v. FEC. In that case the court found a piece of federal financing law called the “Millionaire’s Amendment”, which appears similar to matching fund provisions in the Arizona law or rescue money provisions in New Jersey Clean Election law, to also be in violation of free speech rights, a group of rights that includes spending funds on one’s own election, according to U.S. courts.

From that basis, the new Supreme Court looked at the constitutionality of the so-called “Millionaire’s Amendment”, which comes into play and relieves publicly-financed candidates of normal campaign fund restrictions in the event their self-funded opponent spends a certain amount money.

The court found the “Millionaire’s Amendment" infringes upon free speech, by burdening self-funded candidates and their ability to spend as much of their own money as they please with concerns about advantages such action would provide to their publicly-funded opponents because of the “Millionaire’s Amendment”.

Days after the Aug. 29 decision in Arizona, Mr. Roberts issued statements calling for putting the state’s Clean Election plan on hold.

"Putting the program on hiatus next year will give Congress and the courts more time to sort out the many issues that have been raised and the ability to give states clear guidelines to follow,” said Mr. Roberts, according to PolitickerNJ.com. "It is disappointing that an activist court half a continent away has thrown such a huge obstacle in the way of a good government ethics reform that was making real headway in changing politics in New Jersey for the better.”

At first Mr. Roberts’ statements seemed plausible, given the damage that constitutional challenges from privately financed opponents in the heat of important New Jersey races could cause, should the program continue on as if nothing happened at the Supreme Court or in Arizona. But some cursory research seems to show that the two decisions might not spell as much doom for Clean Elections as many seem to believe.

It seems that nowhere has Arizona’s matching funds provision been compared, in-depth, with portions of the New Jersey law, and some observers that followed the Supreme Court decision on Davis have drawn the conclusion that the federal “Millionaire’s Amendment” and the rescue provisions in New Jersey’s law may have significant differences.

Paul S. Ryan, an associate legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, wrote a paper entitled “The Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated,” in which he points out that:

“Missing from this commentary, however, has been a thoughtful discussion of the differences between the Millionaire’s Amendment struck down in Davis and public financing program trigger provisions, which were not analyzed by the Court in Davis.

“Differences between the two should lead courts to conclude in the future as they have in the past that public financing program trigger provisions are not unconstitutional. Any anxiety on the part of policy makers regarding the impact of the Davis decision on public financing programs is, at the very least premature, if not entirely unwarranted.”

One big difference, as pointed out by Mr. Ryan, is that the Supreme Court decision in Davis did not examine an important difference between the federal system and the state public-financing schemes, where candidates accepting public financing also accept many financial constraints that self-financed candidates do not face during the campaign.

As Mr. Ryan said:

“Comparing a system in which candidates start under the same rules (e.g., the
Millionaire’s Amendment system) to a system in which candidates start under different rules (e.g., a public financing system) is comparing apples to oranges. The Supreme Court in Davis gave no consideration whatsoever to the latter scenario—the issue simply was not before the Court.”

Although Mr. Ryan’s evaluation came prior to the Arizona decision, that decision is not settled at all, and the judge there has not even held hearings and taken any real action on the subject.

The arguments presented by Mr. Ryan and others that demonstrate serious differences between the federal law thrown out by the current Supreme Court and the rescue money in New Jersey law may emerge there. It could result in a vindication of the public financing system, which so effectively removes the corrupting power of large private donations and special interests from entering the world of public interest.

So, Mr. Roberts and others should consider holding their horses.

Leave the police work to the police officers

2008-09-02T12:36:00.007-04:00

It's a good bet that when asked, few people would say that they would prefer to have someone lacking experience in police work in charge of their local police force.

It would be an even better bet that most people would say that they believe the person leading a law enforcement organization ought to be familiar with what the members of that organization are tasked with – namely, law enforcement.

They would also probably agree that the importance of having experience in police work is compounded when the department in question is a large department working in an urban area with public safety problems, which also happens to be the state capital.

Yes, the city we’re talking about here is Trenton, New Jersey, and once again Trenton’s government is operating in a manner contrary to simple logic and commonsense.

City ordinances detailing the police director position, created following a controversial 1999 referendum, currently do not require that the director have any experience in police work, law enforcement management, or police administration.

They only require that the person leading Trenton’s 300 officer-plus police department have “at least five years experience in a responsible capacity in public administration.”

The direct cause for this anomaly is that at some point after the switch to a director-led department, administration officials came to the conclusion that they needed to change the director’s experience requirements to this more ambiguous form. They successfully lobbied City Council to pass the ordinance revision making it law, sometime in 2003 or 2004.

At first, the purpose of this is unclear. After some thought, bearing in mind the modus operandi of the City of Trenton, it appears that the reason for such a change could be that the administration foresaw a time when they would move to install someone with no police experience, at the helm of the city’s police department.

That could be related to how Trenton's city police force has been a contentious force, especially for the current mayor. Relationships between the top police brass and the Palmer administration have historically been of a strained nature.

That was clearly evident when Mayor Palmer, a five-term executive, told Esquire in 2007 that his greatest accomplishment, of all things, was “Changing the police department through a referendum. You take on the police - and I got rid of the fire chief, too - and they're bonded to kick your butt.”

Consequently, Mayor Douglas Palmer has sought to rein in and control the department, to the possible detriment of the city. He did this not only through the institution of a politically appointed police director, but also through the selection of candidates for the position whom he thought would help him control the department politically, although that did not always work out.

So it appears that now that current Police Director Joseph Santiago has been ousted for violating the city’s residency ordinance, those ordinance revisions regarding experience could come into play. They would potentially allow the administration to make a push to get a political supporter to lead the department while lacking any police experience.

Doing so would once again compromise the city’s public safety efforts, in a similar way to how Mr. Santiago’s leadership has resulted in less cops on the streets, politically-charged management decisions, Capt. Paul “Sleepy” Messina and his shenanigans, and skyrocketing overtime.

Luckily for city residents and anyone who enters Trenton, City Council can move forward to revise this ordinance and require actual police experience as a prerequisite for employment as the city’s “top cop”.

Doing so would also help prevent further detrimental and unneeded politicization of a department and a city that has now suffered for nearly six years under the current regime, and could be set to suffer for longer with the appointment of an inexperienced political appointee at the head of the department.

Coston: get rid of police ranges

2008-09-01T16:26:00.004-04:00

A practice that has been abused by Trenton's outgoing police director, Joseph Santiago, could be headed to the scrap heap. That's because one of Trenton City Council's "Gang of Four" has announced his intention to reduce or eliminate the usage of staffing ranges in the Trenton Police Department.

For people outside of Trenton, this staffing range power is an example of how wayward municipal officials can purposefully politicize a police department, to the detriment of the department and the citizens it serves.

Some sitting on City Council actually allowed this to happen through the passage of a 2004 ordinance providing the ranges. City Council basiclly handed Mr. Santiago a Palmer administration-sponsored tool to retard the professional promotion of unfavored officers, while simultaneously allowing buffoons like those grabbing recent headlines to advance into the department's higher ranks.

Prior to the 2004 law the Trenton Police Department had set numbers of each rank - including the now-eliminated deputy chiefs, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, on down to patrolmen.

But earlier in 2004, Mr. Santiago moved to eliminate the deputy chief position and demote the three men holding the rank to captain. When he did so, a Mercer County Superior Court judge ruled that such a move required an ordinance amendment. Trenton City Council dutifully passed such an ordinance, as it worked in its then-submissive role as an ineffective check on the city's executive branch.

Included in that ordinance was language that provided Mr. Santiago with a useful tool, in staffing ranges that could be manipulated on a whim to get a helpful but unqualified foot soldier into a higher rank, or more importantly, to keep a qualified officer in the lower ranks.

But just as City Council provided the ranges to the administration and its civilian-appointed Police Director, council can still take it away. Doing so would be an important step in reining in the power of administration officials to unnecessarily politicize a large urban police department.

It would also reclaim some of the respect that City Council lost when its members allowed it to be used as a rubber stamp.